The Terps, on the other hand, have the 32nd rated opp-adjusted faceoff unit in MLAX. The Catamounts will likely struggle to stay with Maryland on a per-possession basis, but if Burke can give them a big possession edge, anything can happen.

In helping the Terps to the B1G title, Jared Bernhardt cemented his status as a Tewaaraton finalist. In the game against Michigan, his skill set was on full display. Interestingly though, in the finals against JHU, he was limited to just 5 shots, which was his lowest total of the year and the offense overall was held to their lowest efficiency since their 2nd game of the year.

Will be curious to see if Vermont or ND have similar success in the first few rounds.

The match-up with Georgetown looms in the 1st round, and it seems like the chances of a Cuse upset hinge on whether Phaup can be convinced that he’s actually going against Petey LaSalla instead of James Reilly. The Cuse offense is good enough to score against Georgetown, but the Cuse defense is vulnerable. Best way to mitigate that risk is win faceoffs.

Alexander’s game against Zach Cole actually bumped the Bulldog above the Hawks’ star FOGO in the faceoff Elo ratings. Now they get a chance at ACC squad in the Cavaliers.

Against RoMo, Hiltz showed why people are excited. 15 shots was his largest workload of the season, but he maintained the efficiency nicely, ending up with a 47% shooting day. If you ignore Brown, Georgetown is the best opponent-adjusted defense in the country, so he and his teammates have their work cut out for them.

But when you compare 2021 to 2020, when he won 75.6% of his faceoffs, it’s hard not to wonder what might have been. Was it the new rules? Weirdness because of COVID? With the lost to Bryant fresh in their minds, there may not be a team more looking forward to fall practice than St. Joe’s.

The 69% win rate, coveted by most FOGOs, was the first time in 7 games that they were sub 70%. Lehigh has been the best possession team in the nation this year, having had a full +10.2 possession advantage per game. Rutgers, on the other hand, had 22 fewer possessions than their opponents overall.

Possession for possession, Rutgers was the more efficient team this season. It’s rare that faceoffs turn an efficiency gap into a win, but if you had to ID a 1st round game where that could happen, it would be this one.

For his part, James Reilly’s Big East tournament was not statistically impressive. He won 19 of 46 faceoffs against the 6th and 28th rated faceoff units in the country. But if you isolate the Villanova game, it was his 2nd highest EGA performance of the season, helped along by a season-high 3 shots and a goal.

The Drexel game was no-doubt not how they wanted to end the year, but perhaps the 2 prior games will be something for McIntosh to build off of.

And they will need everything they can get from Bailey Savio if they are going to counter the 2-headed monster in Denver’s Stathakis and Ierlan pair. The game he had against Navy might just be the blueprint. The 21 faceoff wins were a season high. Of course, Navy is the 41st rated faceoff unit in the country. Denver is … higher than that.