2012 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[Wolverine1997]

Notre Dame up to #2 in the coaches poll!!! And receiving 25% of the first place votes.

GET ON MA LEVEL

I figured ND would be a Top-3 after dragging duke through the mud like they did.

Rankings aren't really a big deal in many sports other than football though. NCAA Tournament seeds and getting auto-bids by winning the Conference Tournament is what is really important. Not trying to take away from ND's success though. Hell of a feat to accomplish, doing what they did to duke. Right now I would be excited if Michigan was just receiving votes in the rankings.

Do Conference Regular-Season Champions get auto-bids or is it just tournament champions?

 

[IrishLax]

I figured ND would be a Top-3 after dragging duke through the mud like they did.

Rankings aren't really a big deal in many sports other than football though. NCAA Tournament seeds and getting auto-bids by winning the Conference Tournament is what is really important. Not trying to take away from ND's success though. Hell of a feat to accomplish, doing what they did to duke. Right now I would be excited if Michigan was just receiving votes in the rankings.

Do Conference Regular-Season Champions get auto-bids or is it just tournament champions?

Depends, if the conference doesn;t have a tournament it goes to the regular season champ but every conference that does have a tournament gives the nod to the tournament champ. After you get done with your AQs, at-large teams are picked based on a large combination of factors including RPI; quality wins against RPI top 5, RPI top 10 and RPI top 20; SOS; etc.

Here is a link to the selection criteria. It's the most fair criteria in all of sports because you aren't allowed to go 15-0 against crappy competition and grab a #1 seed... you have to have a strong SOS and strong RPI wins. It focuses on who you beat and doesn't punish too harshly for a "good loss."

 

[IrishLax]

ND also just picked up a stud 2014 midfielder from my area, too. Brendan Collins... also is a starting MLB and RB for Georgetown Prep... one hell of an athlete. Supposedly we beat out Hopkins and UNC for his services.

 

[IrishLax]

Hey Wolverine, there is an interview with your coach on this podcast. Haven't listened yet, but thought I would pass it along.

Also an interview with John Kemp... the latest in a line of dominant ND goalies.

ESPNU Lacrosse Podcast: Quint Talks With Notre Dame Goalie John Kemp, Michigan Coach John Paul and More | InsideLacrosse.com

 

[IrishLax]

Shocking game going on right now with Navy leading UNC 7-5 heading into the 4th. This is the same Navy team ND demolished to the tune of 17 goals in fall ball and who gave up 13 goals to Jacksonville.

I think UNC comes back... but wow, the ACC is REALLY overrated this year.

 

[IrishLax]

UNC scores 4 unanswered in the 4th to win 9-8. Bucknell and Villanova heading into OT in a must-win game for Bucknell. People expected a lot from the Bison this year and they're currently siitting at 0-2... 0-3 about dooms their season barring they win their conference.

EDIT: And Villanova wins 13-12 in OT. The Wildcats can really score this year... but their defense is atrocious.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Any games on TV? ESPN3?

I'm in Denver, and Michigan's game starts in an hour here, so I have some time. Right now air force and robert morris are playing.

 

[IrishLax]

Any games on TV? ESPN3?

I'm in Denver, and Michigan's game starts in an hour here, so I have some time. Right now air force and robert morris are playing.

Did you travel for the game or do you live out that way? I see it says you live in Ann Arbor, that still accurate?

 

[IrishLax]

Also, Hopkins vs. Siena is on ESPNU at 3 and there are some other games streaming right now. No really good action though for the rest of the day.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Did you travel for the game or do you live out that way? I see it says you live in Ann Arbor, that still accurate?

I made the trip out here to Denver for the weekend. Kids are on their winter break, so I figure we'd go and watch "Team One" as they're known by Coach Paul, and support them in their first conference games.

They have a game against air force tomorrow as well.

 

[IrishLax]

I made the trip out here to Denver for the weekend. Kids are on their winter break, so I figure we'd go and watch "Team One" as they're known by Coach Paul, and support them in their first conference games.

They have a game against air force tomorrow as well.

Very cool! You guys can beat Air Force, that'll be a fun game to watch. They're about the talent level of Detroit and maybe a bit below that.

Good luck against Denver... I would not want to be the team playing them after that loss to Ohio State...

 

[Wolverine1997]

Very cool! You guys can beat Air Force, that'll be a fun game to watch. They're about the talent level of Detroit and maybe a bit below that.

Good luck against Denver... I would not want to be the team playing them after that loss to Ohio State...

Yeah I'm pretty worried about the game today. air force certainly has an offense, they're down 15-14 against robert morris FWIW.

However the air force defense doesn't seem to be too strong letting in 15 goals. So tomorrow will be interesting and hopefully Michigan can pull it off in a shootout. Trevor Yealy is a great offensive weapon for Michigan so it will be interesting.

ohio might have a legitimate team. From what I've read on Twitter, they're only down 4-2 in the 3rd to Top-10 UMass.

 

[Wolverine1997]

17-14 robert morris now. This is like a video game.

 

[IrishLax]

Yeah I'm pretty worried about the game today. air force certainly has an offense, they're down 15-14 against robert morris FWIW.

However the air force defense doesn't seem to be too strong letting in 15 goals. So tomorrow will be interesting and hopefully Michigan can pull it off in a shootout. Trevor Yealy is a great offensive weapon for Michigan so it will be interesting.

ohio might have a legitimate team. From what I've read on Twitter, they're only down 4-2 in the 3rd to Top-10 UMass.

Nah, Schuss is a baller but outside of that they've got nothing. The Tundo transfer killed them... that would've been one heck of an athletic two-headed monster. They can try their stall ball all they want to stay in games... but as evidenced by their 9-3 loss to UMASS... you're not going to win without some offense.

As for Air Force, they came up to South Bend in the fall for a fall ball scrimmage... they just seriously lack athleticism defensively. I (obviously) didn't watch the Robert Morris game today, but I'm sure you saw the same thing. We dropped 17 on them running vanilla offense with an even rotation of reserve players. If you can win faceoffs and be patient, you'll be able to create scoring opportunities. I think it'll come down to your defense getting some stops to stay competitive and fight for the W.

 

[Wolverine1997]

I think Michigan will come out hungry tomorrow and confident knowing that they can score on air force.

Michigan was blown out today unfortunately, 17-5.

Michigan was 7-26 on faceoffs. Ground balls were 43-23 in favor of denver.

Here is the kicker that was the key factor of the loss today. Shots on goal were 43-13 denver. Literally felt like Michigan only crossed midfield once every 15 minutes. I thought Michigan would score more than 5 so I was unpleasantly surprised with that.

Hopefully a better result tomorrow.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Man today was a weird game. When Coach JP said that the defense will be a rough spot this year, he wasn't joking.

First off, I wanna start this post praising the denver fans. The denver people were nothing but courteous and helpful during our stay. denver's win yesterday was bill tierney's 300th career win, so their fans were pretty happy.

I talked with a lot of denver fans yesterday and today and many of them were saying they are glad the ECAC finally has 8 teams and can have a real conference tournament. Many were saying how they hope Michigan kicks ohio's *** and wins the rest of their games this season. This one older gentlemen we sat by said he is worried that Michigan Lacrosse is going to become a national power someday and dominate the conference. He called the program "a sleeping giant waiting to be unleashed" and he hopes we go 6-1 in the conference every year. There were a decent amount of denver fans at today's game and they were cheering for Michigan, rooting against their instate rivals in air force.

Onto today's game, it was very weird. Michigan started the game off on a 3-0 lead. air force responded immediately on the faceoff following Michigan's third goal and they took the ball down the field and scored. AFA went on to score NINE answered goals, and take 9-3 lead. Ultimately, the run by air force killed any hopes of a win for Michigan as they lost 15-6.

Disappointing. Proud that the boys didn't give up when air force went on their large run. They ended air force's run and scored two straight before giving up more.

I think Michigan has a great chance next weekend to win their first game. Michigan plays jacknsonville on the road Friday, March 2nd. Then on Sunday they'll play mercer in a neutral site game at jacksonville.

Better luck next week. Sadly I won't be able to make the games (as much as I would love to, especially being in florida weather LOL).

 

[AvesEvo]

Nice post 1997.

 

[IrishLax]

Our season is basically ****ed now. It was going to be hard to run this stretch of 5 straight games against ranked opponents without a loss, but this one was not one we should've lost. We're likely looking at a 3-4 loss season now since we still have to play Denver, Syracuse, Villanova and then Syracuse/Villanova again in the BE tournament... couple with tough games against teams like Drexel.

Wolverine, you wouldn't by any chance happen to have film from the Michigan vs. Penn State game would you?

 

[Wolverine1997]

Our season is basically ****ed now. It was going to be hard to run this stretch of 5 straight games against ranked opponents without a loss, but this one was not one we should've lost. We're likely looking at a 3-4 loss season now since we still have to play Denver, Syracuse, Villanova and then Syracuse/Villanova again in the BE tournament... couple with tough games against teams like Drexel.

Wolverine, you wouldn't by any chance happen to have film from the Michigan vs. Penn State game would you?

Damn I just saw read the recap of that game. Tough way to lose.

I don't game film but I found a short highlight reel of when Michigan played penn state. That game was a 16-9 loss, and ended Michigan's shot at the Creators Trophy.

Penn State Opens New Lacrosse Complex with Win Over Michigan - YouTube

 

[IrishLax]

Damn I just saw read the recap of that game. Tough way to lose.

I don't game film but I found a short highlight reel of when Michigan played penn state. That game was a 16-9 loss, and ended Michigan's shot at the Creators Trophy.

Penn State Opens New Lacrosse Complex with Win Over Michigan - YouTube

Thanks, knew it was a longshot, but I wanted to see how Michigan got to 9. Still scratching my head. I don't know if it was just the bad game conditions or a poor gameplan or what but we didn't get a single "slam dunk" look at the goal today and that's shocking to me with how they gave up 14 to UNC and 9 to Michigan. I mean even if we got to ~6 I'd be like "oh well... poor performance but they had a hot goalie" but 3 goals? That's f*cking insane.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Michigan will play their first-ever, live broadcasted game in 25 minutes.

Michigan is on the road at jacksonville, game is on LaxxTvLaxx.TV - Changing The Way You Follow Lacrosse

Michigan will also play mercer on Sunday at Noon. It will be a neutral site game played at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville. Best shot IMO for Michigan to get their first ever win.

Right now we have our big HDTV in my basement hooked up to a computer and is serving as the monitor for the games so we can watch the games on the TV.

And yes, I am very geeked that I finally get to watch LIVE Michigan Lacrosse in my house.

Here's to many more in the future, and maybe some great matchups with ND.

 

[IrishLax]

I'll be rooting for you guys against Mercer... they were the worst in the NCAA last season... if your defense shows up at all, I expect a Wolverine win.

Huuuuuuuge game for us tomorrow against Drexel. They are an above average team and played UVa to a 1 goal game... if their goalie gets hot we could be in serious trouble.

 

[IrishLax]

Good game between Hopkins and Princeton on ESPNU. Hopkins looking like a solid ball-control style team this year... could go far in May if they get better at finishing.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Son of a bitch.....

Michigan tied the game up at 8 with under 20 seconds left, but lost in OT to jacksonville. This loss hurts right now, but I know over time I'll realize that Michigan was a goal shy in OT of beating a somewhat decent D1 team.


The more I think about it now, this game encourages me. I think Michigan will get their first win on Sunday.

 

[Wolverine1997]

It sounded like there was a large number of Michigan fans at the game. The LaxxTv guys kept talking about how Michigan travels well.

If you wanna watch on Sunday, which I pray is Michigan's first win, it will be on LaxxTv as well. The gametime has been moved back to 10AM EST due to request by Dave Brandon.

 

[IrishLax]

Son of a bitch.....

Michigan tied the game up at 8 with under 20 seconds left, but lost in OT to jacksonville. This loss hurts right now, but I know over time I'll realize that Michigan was a goal shy in OT of beating a somewhat decent D1 team.


The more I think about it now, this game encourages me. I think Michigan will get their first win on Sunday.

Ah man that's rough... Jacksonville is pretty legit too. We scrimmaged them a couple weeks ago and they aren't "talented" per se but they're a very solid all-around team. They totally dismantled Navy the other day too (I know you saw that game) so this would've for sure been a quality win.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Right now ohio trails penn state 1-0, if penn state wins today they will win the inaugural Creators Trophy.

Michigan lost to penn state already so they are out of the running for the trophy.

If ohio wins today, they would have to beat Michigan at Battle in The Big House I to secure the trophy.

If all teams have a 1-1 record against each other, the trophy will not be presented.

 

[IrishLax]

Some good games going on right now.....

PSU vs. OSU is close but lethargic from what I've heard. Oh well. It's a big game for both teams so I'll check back for the final result.

Villanova is down 4 to a very average Delaware team. This would be a HUGE loss for them.

Duke is getting absolutely smoked by Maryland.

Drexel and ND are in a dog fight. ND the difference in the game so far is a penalty by a ND frosh attack that lead to a Drexel goal. I expect the final score to be something along the lines of 7-6... ND does not play well against teams with good goalies.

 

[IrishLax]

I should also point out that Duke is getting smoked because for whatever reason (maybe an unreported injury?) they've turned to inexperienced Kyle Turri in goal instead of Wigrizer who had a fantastic game to start the season. Turri can't save a beach ball right now.

 

[IrishLax]

And one final note before I run out to lunch... our offense for this upcomming year was going to be largely reliant on Nick Beattie's experience and ability to both shoot accurately and pass from any location on the field. He was the only player on attack that was both a finisher and facilitator. Now we are running an inexperienced true frosh out there (Doyle) in place of a senior captain... it's screwing everything up. The spacing, attention to detail, flow... everything.

So unless Sean Rogers actually steps up or we get more creativity out of our midfield.... this season is totally f*cked. Might not even make playoffs.