2012 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[clashmore_mike]

My guide says Wednesday at 3:30 pm for replay.

 

[IrishLax]

My guide says Wednesday at 3:30 pm for replay.

Thanks, I'll set the record.

And Penn State pulls way from Towson, which is good for us. Meanwhile, Denver and Loyola just got underway. First good scoring chance of the game Denver hits a pipe.

Annnnnnnnnnd now Denver down 2-0 early as they continue to shoot poorly. SMDH.

 

[Wolverine1997]

What a great showing by Michigan today. They always play tough and never give up, it almost gave them a win today. They came up short, 12-9. It truly was a Battle at The Big House.

Today was the largest crowd to ever see a Michigan Lacrosse game: 4,458. Kind of bitter sweet that the home schedule is over. Season feels like it flew by. Michigan gets rutgers next weekend on the road.

 

[IrishLax]

Denver losing to Loyola dropped us all the way down from t-4th in RPI and .001 out of #3... to #7 in the RPI. #7 to #3 are all separated by a mere .005 points.... I'm not sure if a win tomorrow against Georgetown will raise or lower our RPI.

 

[Wolverine1997]

ECAC Scores:

Michigan comes up short in Battle at The Big House, 12-9 against ohio
hobart wins a shootout, 14-13 at bellarmine
#17 fairfield knocks off a pesky air force team on the road 12-10
#4 loyola beats #10 denver, 12-9 on the road, to clinch at least a share of the ECAC Championship.

loyola can claim the outright title with a win at hobart next weekend.

 

[IrishLax]

What a great showing by Michigan today. They always play tough and never give up, it almost gave them a win today. They came up short, 12-9. It truly was a Battle at The Big House.

Today was the largest crowd to ever see a Michigan Lacrosse game: 4,458. Kind of bitter sweet that the home schedule is over. Season feels like it flew by. Michigan gets rutgers next weekend on the road.

Your team was not horrible. I've seen worse (offensively) in DI. A lot worse, actually. And your goalie has a very bright future.

You need a new defensive coach and you need to recruit some new longpoles/SSDMs. This isn't club lacrosse.... you can't take a year and a half to recover to the backside in DI. And you can't just let DI players take free shots from a 45 degree angle and 8 yards out... just all-around bad fundamentals.

All things considered though, you're closer to "competing" than I judged by your record and game results. You really just need a true defensive guru and a couple more talented players and you'll be winning multiple games. I like your offensive system. It's simple and effective. With a Canadian finisher or two on the inside you'd have probably won today. There were 2 or 3 really good interior looks that went unfinished.

Still at least 2 years away from truly competing for a playoff spot.... but not too shabby. Showed tremendous effort from start to finish. Completely out worked OSU all day long.

 

[Downinthebend]

Thanks for making this thread, because of it I watched the Duke game, then went to the Denver and Providence games. The next home game is Wednesday at 2:00pm correct?

Also, can you explain how the NCAA playoffs work? And why is Notre Dame so.. bad at offense?

 

[IrishLax]

Thanks for making this thread, because of it I watched the Duke game, then went to the Denver and Providence games. The next home game is Wednesday at 2:00pm correct?

Next home game is actually against Syracuse on Saturday 4/28 at 5 PM. Both that game and our next game against Villanova will be on ESPNU.

 

[IrishLax]

Georgetown taking it to us right now 3-1. They're employing stall ball + zone defense to incredible effectiveness. We've also missed some wide open looks.

 

[IrishLax]

4-1. Horrrrrrible defense so far and we're not winning faceoffs. I totally knew this was going to be a trap game.

 

[Downinthebend]

Ugh, 5-1. Is this televised at all? or on ESPN3?

 

[IrishLax]

Ugh, 5-1. Is this televised at all? or on ESPN3?

Nah, I'm there in person though. This is painful. Think first half of the South Florida football game. We're just dysfunctional in every phase of the game so far. Poor execution on offense, not winning faceoffs, not making saves, not playing good 1v1 defense.

I totally saw this coming after how Georgetown went down to St. John's last weekend. We're going to need a miracle to come back in this game.

 

[IrishLax]

5-1 at halftime. We've hit a couple posts and missed a couple wide open shots. Don't think we can come back, but anything is possible if our D tightens up.

 

[IrishLax]

ND clawing back..... 5-3 right now and we should have a lot more. Georgetown's goalie has made some spectacular saves and we've failed to capitalize on some reallllllly good chances.

 

[Downinthebend]

Would you call this a miracle? 4-5 Georgetown.

5-5 all.

 

[IrishLax]

Bobby Smith making a ****ing play!!! Turnover by Georgetown with 8 seconds left in the quarter and goes coast-to-coast with his longpole, dodges a defender, and buries a shot low. Big time play.

Georgetown 5 ND 4 heading into the 4th. Defense has tightened up considerably. Need the offense to continue possessing the ball... we had had an incredible number of scoring chances to only have 4 goals.

 

[IrishLax]

Would you call this a miracle? 4-5 Georgetown.

5-5 all.

Really good finish by Pfeifer to tie it up. Georgetown went back to their zone (which I'm not sure why they ever leave) and he buried a shot with very little angle. We're outplaying Georgetown by an incredible margin right now and hopefully we can come all the way back for the win.

 

[Downinthebend]

ND 6, Georgetown 5.
ND 7, Georgetown 5. 11 minutes left.

 

[peoriairish]

CBSSports.com GameTracker - Men's Lacrosse

Here's a link if anyone wants to follow online.

 

[IrishLax]

Ballgame 9-7. Irish scored 8 second half goals and led 9-6 with a minute to play.

Suck it, Jesuits.

 

[Downinthebend]

I think something might be wrong with that link, it still shows 8:22 for like the last 10 minutes.

 

[peoriairish]

I think something might be wrong with that link, it still shows 8:22 for like the last 10 minutes.

Yeah, it was working for about 10 minutes, and now it's stuck at the 8:22 for me too. Maybe the update guy had to go drop the Browns off at the Super Bowl.

 

[IrishLax]

Really ridiculously impressive comeback. It's funny to me that people give Coach Kelly so much crap.... if you saw some of Corrigan's.... "conversations".... with players during the first half they make Kelly look like ****ing Mr. Rogers.

It's called coaching. And unless you're a mentally soft prima donna it works. We don't have any mentally soft prima donnas on our lacrosse team. I wish I could've listened in on what I'm sure was an "impassioned" halftime speech. The result? We came out focused and fired up in the second half and used an 8-1 run over the next 29 minutes to put away the game. On a hot day, in a sold-out stadium of one of your biggest rivals.

The best part was listenning to Georgetown fans talk smack for the entire first half/halftime about us being overrated, "being exposed in a big game," etc. and then watching us thoroughly whup them in the second half. Oh the misery. It must be what my face looked like when Dayne Crist fumbles the ball on the 1 yard line going in for the tying score. I'll leave you with this final interaction I had after the game:

Me: "Well, you guys certainly played hard. I really thought you were going to pull off the upset."
Georgetown Fan: "You got lucky that we didn't pull away more in the first half. If your goalie didn't make a bunch of lucky saves we would've blown you out."
Me: "Tell me, does it make it worse that our 1st All-American goalie went to Georgetown Prep? Is it more infuriating or depressing that your program is so ****** that you can't even keep players from your own prep school from heading 10 hours west to Indiana to play lacrosse?"
Georgetown Fan: "Whatever." *gets up to leave*
Me: "We've also got Pat Cotter, Jake Brems,..."
Georgetown Fan: "**** you."

Wish he had let me keep listing players....

 

[peoriairish]

Really ridiculously impressive comeback. It's funny to me that people give Coach Kelly so much crap.... if you saw some of Corrigan's.... "conversations".... with players during the first half they make Kelly look like ****ing Mr. Rogers.

It's called coaching. And unless you're a mentally soft prima donna it works. We don't have any mentally soft prima donnas on our lacrosse team. I wish I could've listened in on what I'm sure was an "impassioned" halftime speech. The result? We came out focused and fired up in the second half and used an 8-1 run over the next 29 minutes to put away the game. On a hot day, in a sold-out stadium of one of your biggest rivals.

Seriously. My hockey coach in high school was a lot like BK. It caused some kids to quit, but it made the rest of us better. I mean he would literally break stick in the locker room between periods. Fvcking crazy dude, but great coach. Glad to know the ND lax coach isn't afraid of public perception and coaches with passion and ferver. Love the intensity.

 

[IrishLax]

ND settles in a 3-way-tie for the #4 spot in the RPI. Notre Dame, Maryland, and UMASS are all tied at .628 in the RPI.

Virginia is at .631 in the RPI. Hopkins and Loyola are miles ahead at #2 and #1 respectively. Duke is at .626 in the RPI.

A Duke win over Maryland and a UNC win over Virginia will likely move us to the #3 spot (assuming we beat Villanova).

 

[Downinthebend]

Why is RPI important? What impact does it have on the playoffs? How many slots are the playoffs? Is it neutral games or home field?

 

[IrishLax]

Why is RPI important? What impact does it have on the playoffs? How many slots are the playoffs? Is it neutral games or home field?

RPI and wins against top RPI teams are the single most important criteria to making the NCAA tournament and seeding in the NCAA tournament. Check out this link: MD1 NCAA Tournament Selection Criteria

So RPI not only matters for us, but we really want to see Duke be a top 5 RPI team and we want to see Ohio State (#20) hold on to their spot and Drexel (#21) and St. Johns (#23) move inside. It's likely that, since St. Johns and Drexel play each other to end the season, one of them will move inside.... but we might be able to get both in if Drexel can beat Towson. Ohio State has crucial games against Air Force and Fairfield and likely needs to win both to stay inside the top 20.

Also, Mark Dixon (who along with Quint Kessenich is basically the most respect lacrosse media guru) just put it out there on twitter that ND has his #1 vote for this week. He cited a stronger SOS than Loyola, UMASS and Cornell and better big wins than UMASS and Cornell/equal big wins to Loyola. Unless we get totally screwed by ACC/Ivy/Hopkins homers we should be no lower than #4 in the new polls tomorrow.

I, personally, think Loyola deserves the #1 spot... and they will for 100% sure deserve it if they can beat Hopkins. UMASS is a total joke. They play the easiest schedule I've seen in recent memory.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Your team was not horrible. I've seen worse (offensively) in DI. A lot worse, actually. And your goalie has a very bright future.

You need a new defensive coach and you need to recruit some new longpoles/SSDMs. This isn't club lacrosse.... you can't take a year and a half to recover to the backside in DI. And you can't just let DI players take free shots from a 45 degree angle and 8 yards out... just all-around bad fundamentals.

All things considered though, you're closer to "competing" than I judged by your record and game results. You really just need a true defensive guru and a couple more talented players and you'll be winning multiple games. I like your offensive system. It's simple and effective. With a Canadian finisher or two on the inside you'd have probably won today. There were 2 or 3 really good interior looks that went unfinished.

Still at least 2 years away from truly competing for a playoff spot.... but not too shabby. Showed tremendous effort from start to finish. Completely out worked OSU all day long.

I had a feeling that people would eventually realize that Michigan isn't that far from being a competitor in terms of making the tournament, winning games etc.

They do need to tighten up on defense. I saw it many times this season how they leave that shot wide open for the man to take on the goaltender right outside the net. It's frustrating. But I see progress. Defense was going to be a sure weak spot this season. JP said it before the first exhibition was played in Feb. It's gonna be very interesting once they get their recruits in.

A year ago they were playing in front of a little over 500 in the lonely, enclosed confines of Oosterbaan Fieldhouse. A year later, they were playing in front of a crowd of 4,000+. Great story.

I can feel the program growing. I had to educate a good amount of the fans around me about certain rules in lacrosse, since a good percentage of them saw the first game and wanted to check out the sport. They left saying it was exciting, they never thought it would be so intense and physical, Michigan has a pretty good team. I had to keep letting people though who were new to the game, to not focus on Michigan's record this year. Nobody expected Michigan to win many games, if any since it's their first year. And that it's a great thing to see them be in games and never quitting.

The fanbase is starting to get it's roots and start to grow. The student section and the band came up with chants and used the goal chant from hockey. It really makes people feel like they're special because they're building something too- the culture and beginning of the fanbase.

There were ohio fans there, a good amount. They were respectful from what I saw. None of them I was around or walked by were running their mouths. Just cheering their team. Of course there was some ribbing like me yelling "where's your tattoos?" when their team ran out to the field and stuff like that. Gonna be quite a difference I think when Michigan goes down to the horseshoe and plays ohio in their little showdown in the shoe game.

Michigan could have as many as 4 wins right now. They had a good shot at winning the first game against detroit, lost a heartbreaker on the road against jacksonville in OT and were truly battling ohio yesterday. But hey, I'm glad they broke through and got that important first win against mercer.

You gotta win your first, before you win your 100th.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Also I am hearing rumblings that Battle at The Big House II will either be against penn state or notre dame.

I think it's more likely to be penn state though since they're a rival and the two play for a trophy.

Next year is gonna be fun. Michigan gets to compete as an ECAC member and will have a chance every year to make the NCAA Tournament because the ECAC Tournament is going to be an 8-teamer next year.

 

[Downinthebend]

For someone that doesn't really understand lacrosse that much (me) can you explain a little bit about what ND is trying to do on offense, on defense, and what to look for at a given time?