College lacrosse teams are finalizing and releasing their 2023 schedules and I couldn't be more excited about how Syracuse's 2023 schedule looks and sets this young team up to have a little bit of success.

Syracuse's schedule last season was a disaster in terms of flow. They opened with an easy one against Holy Cross before playing #1 Maryland, #2 Virginia and #13 Army West Point. A terrible way to start the season. This year, they start with 3 winnable games against Vermont, Albany and Holy Cross before playing Maryland, North Carolina, Duke and Hopkins. Then they get 3 more winnable games against Hofstra, St. Bonaventure and Hobart before finishing the regular season with another gauntlet with Notre Dame, Princeton, Caroina (again), Virginia and Duke (again).

Still a tough schedule, but they do a better job of breaking it up into segments that will allow for the team to improve and get some flow before going into the more brutal games.

Cornell's schedule is similar to Syracuse in the sense that they play a series of very winnable games leading into the meat of their schedule. The Big Red open with Albany, Lehigh and Hobart prior to playing Ohio State, Penn State, Yale and Penn. Then the have Dartmouth, Harvard and Marquette before finishing their season in a brutal fashion with Army, Brown and Princeton.

But like Syracuse, Cornell is putting their guys in a position where they have a chance to do some team building and get some momentum heading into the toughest stretches.

Penn's schedule? I'm not a big fan. Last year it worked out for them overall, but they open with Georgetown and Duke which continues a tradition of playing a couple of killers to start their season out. It used to be Maryland and then Duke, usually followed up by in-state rival Penn State. Last season, and again this season, it's Georgetown, Duke and then Penn State before playing Saint Josephs and Villanova.

So in reality, Penn has no "gimme" games before they get into their Ivy schedule with Princeton, Cornell, Yale, Brown and Harvard all coming back to back to back.

Only bright spot is they get to close with Dartmouth and Albany, two teams Penn should beat.

And I close this episode with Denver. I see them finishing up about the same as last year. Denver's issue is that their non-conference schedule is so weak, they have no choice but to pick up a win against one of the 4 or 5 killers they play. The Pio's non-conference slate includes killers like Duke, Carolina, Yale, Ohio State and Georgetown. If they want any shot at making the tournament, they'll have to beat at least 2 or 3 of those teams while also making sure to NOT drop any of the other non-conference games against teams like Utah, Air Force and Towson. If the Pio's lose even a single game that they "shouldn't", it will make it very tough to make the NCAA tournament without winning the Big East tournament. I see no at large team coming out of the Big East.

View the blog post...
https://www.laxfactor.com/2022/12/syracuse-lacrosse-2023-schedule-also-cornell-penn-denver-schedules-laxfactor-podcast-223/

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Owen Hiltz Profile (Syracuse), Offensive Set Question & More (LaxFactor Podcast #121)