2012 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[IrishLax]

Denver and Penn State losing today in big matchups is going to really kill our seeding long term. It also kills our (soon to be formerly) #2 strength of schedule which I'm sure will begin to drop. Penn State drops to 3-4 with their 4 losses coming against #4 UMASS by a goal, #13 UNC, #9 Denver and #10 Lehigh. That's a murderous schedule if I've ever seen one.

Big trap game @ Ohio State tomorrow. I cannot emphasize this enough. Ohio State is a team that defends well in the midfield and wins faceoffs/controls possession. They really did a number through 3+ quarters against Virginia and beat Denver to start the year. If we don't come out scoring we could easily lose this one coming off of short rest... a victory tomorrow means we probably get to 8-1 before closing the season with tough games against ranked Georgetown, Villanova, and Syracuse.

 

[returnofthemack]

Will the game be televised?

 

[micks60]

2-2 after the first for ND OSU. ND has no possession at all. Keeps turning the ball over.

 

[micks60]

ND is two men down. Refs give OSU a timeout with possession. ND coach just went a BK on the refs.
But coaches should yell and turn red

 

[micks60]

3-2 ND at the half

 

[IrishLax]

Thanks micks. Game is not televised nor is there a blog on IL. Sad.

OSU is the kind of team that hangs around in games because they play "possession" and win a lot of faceoffs. If you aren't careful you can give up some stupid goals to them and lose the game. Why I said this is the epitome of a trap game for us.

Can you give us a breakdown on how OSU/ND got their goals?

 

[micks60]

Sorry did not see ur last message. ND won 8-7. Played very well in the third and struggled to hang on in the fourth.

 

[IrishLax]

Sorry did not see ur last message. ND won 8-7. Played very well in the third and struggled to hang on in the fourth.

Sounds like last year's game. Carried a 3 goal lead into the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter and then gave of 3 inexplicable goals after dominating their offense all game. We scored fluke goal as time was near expiring to win it.

All in all.... we went 5-1 against an incredibly tough opening slate of teams (SOS was #2 before Denver lost to Cornell... not sure what it is now) after losing our offensive captain in the first quarter of our first game. We've put ourselves in a great position to close the season strong and earn a seed.

Pretty darn pleased all things considered.

 

[IrishLax]

By the way that is 10 straight victories over Ohio State for the Irish.

HOW BOUT THEM APPLE, URBAN!?!?!?!

.....

What's that? Wrong sport? Oh.....

 

[returnofthemack]

Was this game characteristic of how the team has been playing? There was a large disparity of shots in OSU's favor, and before Ossello started taking faceoffs, they were killing us in that department.

 

[micks60]

Huge shot disparity because ND could not hold onto the ball to save their life. Third quarter they dominated, but besides that they looked unfocussed. They made the play when needed.
Btw OSU goalie had an amazing save when they "pulled" him.

 

[returnofthemack]

Thanks. I haven't gotten a chance to watch the team before this game, and this one wasn't televised. I was surprised because during my years there, I don't think I ever saw a discrepancy like that in shots taken and faceoffs won. Whatever, OSU's a good team and a win's a win.

 

[IrishLax]

Was this game characteristic of how the team has been playing? There was a large disparity of shots in OSU's favor, and before Ossello started taking faceoffs, they were killing us in that department.

I've got no idea because I haven't even seen a box score much less game film or highlights. O'Connor has been struggling the past two games but Osselo has played great at the faceoff X when he's gotten his chances.

Coming into this game you knew OSU was going to play "possesion" ball with lots of possession shots if they got the opportunity. With the game being close im guessing Ohio State had that opportunity.

 

[returnofthemack]

Yeah, I can't remember who was taking faceoffs before Ossello, but OSU won every single one until he (Ossello) came in.

 

[micks60]

I've got no idea because I haven't even seen a box score much less game film or highlights. O'Connor has been struggling the past two games but Osselo has played great at the faceoff X when he's gotten his chances.

Coming into this game you knew OSU was going to play "possesion" ball with lots of possession shots if they got the opportunity. With the game being close im guessing Ohio State had that opportunity.

They did play possession the first half. Second half was very wide open. ND stopped turning it over

 

[IrishLax]

Yeah, I can't remember who was taking faceoffs before Ossello, but OSU won every single one until he (Ossello) came in.

It's Liam O'Connor. The thing is... O'Connor is very good at winning the ball to himself and then going straight to goal. This is great because it can lead to some easy buckets (and he did score one today). But without a varied repertoire of faceoff moves you become predictable and then you just get eaten alive by counters from any faceoff guy who is coached well.

I think our faceoff situation will be OK going forward as long as Ossello gets half the draws like Sipperly did last year. It should be noted that Ohio State's guy is pretty darn good at what he does. Not great, but very good.

 

[Wolverine1997]

ohio has lost 5 straight games. Way to do nothing with a huge win over denver. The sad part is, they are second place in the conference.

#5 loyola won 11-6 against #18 georgetown and is now 5-0.

 

[phork]

By the way that is 10 straight victories over Ohio State for the Irish.

HOW BOUT THEM APPLE, URBAN!?!?!?!

.....

What's that? Wrong sport? Oh.....

Since Urban doesn't coach LAX, I don't think he gives a hoot bro.

 

[IrishLax]

Since Urban doesn't coach LAX, I don't think he gives a hoot bro.

That was the whole point of the post, smart guy.

/facepalm

 

[IrishLax]

Some statistical updates:

Even after facing the country's #1 offense in Denver, Notre Dame still has the #1 defense in the country in both raw scoring and defensive efficiency. If you adjust for OT time played (which the do for goalies), we are even better. John Kemp leads the country in GAA and save percentage by a wide margin.

On offense, Notre Dame currently ranks 59th of 61 teams... only ahead of Saint Joseph's and Manhattan.

There is a great slate of games tomorrow including #1 UVa vs. #2 Johns Hopkins on TV. I personally like Johns Hopkins to win this one as Virginia has been a bit suspect against good competition this year... however, the game is also in Charlottesville and Virginia is very hard to beat at home.

Other really interesting games are Maryland vs. UNC in a must-win for the Tarheels, Georgetown vs. Duke in a must-win for both teams, and then Syracuse vs. Villanova on Sunday in a game that will tell a lot about whether either team is a serious contender.

ND takes on Rutgers on Sunday in what will be our first game against an opponent that wasn't ranked or receiving votes when we played them. Hopefully that leads to our offense taking a step forward.

 

[IrishLax]

Please tell me someone else here just watched that Maryland vs. UNC game? That fight and ending was truly epic.

#1 Virginia vs. #2 Hopkins on TV now.

 

[peoriairish]

Please tell me someone else here just watched that Maryland vs. UNC game? That fight and ending was truly epic.

#1 Virginia vs. #2 Hopkins on TV now.

Damn. Meant to catch this game. I'm a huge UVA fan. How did the OT go?

 

[IrishLax]

Damn. Meant to catch this game. I'm a huge UVA fan. How did the OT go?

Hopkins made an incredible mental error coming out of a timeout at the end of the 4th (too many men on the field) giving UVa the ball and a man up when Hopkins was holding for the last shot. UVA decided to hold the ball and not press the man up to take possession into OT. They then immediately turned it over on an errant pass and gave it to hopkins and then later got a call for too many men on the field and hopkins ended up scoring the game winner.

Never should've gone to OT to begin with... Virginia had the ball with 2 minutes left and a 1 goal lead and a 1 minute man up and managed to turn the ball over on a stupid pass and then give up the bame tying goal at the other end. It's crazy to me how bad the situational lacrosse coaching is in the ACC.

 

[Wolverine1997]

denver was in a dogfight earlier against air force but eventually pulled away and won 11-8.

Michigan came out on fire up 3-1 but eventually let the opponent go on a huge run. Michigan lost to mount st. mary's 14-6 today. They fought until the very end though so it was encouraging.

Next game is on the road a week from today at harvard. After that, a home game against delaware and Battle in The Big House I against ohio.

 

[Wolverine1997]

ohio currently leads bellarmine 8-2 at the start of the 2nd half and #5 loyola leads UMBC 7-4 in the 2nd.

 

[IrishLax]

Notre Dame vs. Rutgers faces off in an hour and will be broadcast on UND.com.... will be a good game to see if our team can take a true step forward.

 

[IrishLax]

ND in control early up 5 - 1 at the end of the 1st quarter. 5 goals from 5 different midfielders.

We are doing a great job of pushing transition and running out of turnovers we cause and also playing simple aggressive lacrosse on the settled offensive end.

 

[IrishLax]

Bad second quarter. Crappy goaltending by Kemp and bad transition defense leads to 4 goals for Rutgers. ND 7 Rutgers 5 at halftime. Absolutely ridiculous to give up 5 goals to Rutgers in a half... SMH.

John Kemp only has 2 saves on 7 shots on goal and some of the shots were pretty crappy.

 

[IrishLax]

ND up 9 to 8 heading into the 4th after holding a 6-1 lead at one point. Just a horrible, horrible day from Kemp and our SSDMs aren't playing well either.

I think Denver gave a good blueprint on how to attack our defense. Possess the ball and work motion around the offensive end to confuse who the slides are.

 

[IrishLax]

ND uses a 2 goal run to take an 11-8 run... has a good opportunity to make it 12-8 and misses.... and then a ridiculous blown call gives Rutgers a man up. Huge defensive stand needed here.