2013 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[irishrb]

Anyone else having trouble with the video for this game again?

 

[Wolverine1997]

LOL! LOL! #4 Loyola loses to unranked duke.

 

[GoIrish399]

Anyone else having trouble with the video for this game again?

Working fine for me. Irish tied 4-4 at halftime.

 

[NDinL.A.]

Working fine for me. Irish tied 4-4 at halftime.

I'm at the game with my baby girl. Hofstra goalie playing out of his mind. Coach just got a conduct infraction cause he was bitching at the refs after a blown call. Still 4-4...fun game!

 

[GoIrish399]

ND has possession down 1 with 12 seconds left. Could be a great finish!

 

[irishrb]

The video did end up working perfectly....tough loss for the Irish. They just didn't take the bull by the horns when they had a chance to in this game. That last possession sucked.

 

[Downinthebend]

Another cold day in the stadium, Hofstra's goalie played well, and ND had a tough stretch where they had two turnovers and lost a faceoff to give hofstra 3 straight offensive possessions where they scored 2 goals. Nd's last three games were all by 1 goal differentials. I felt like ND's offense didn't get that great of shots and Nd's defense allowed some good opportunities.

 

[IrishLax]

Bummer. Always said this would be a very tough game that we could lose. Hofstra has been playing the best D in the country this year and should've been squarely in the top 10. If we win the next two games we should still be in very good position to grab a #2 or #3 seed.... if we lose to Ohio State or Denver we're probably looking at a #3 through #6 seed depending on what happens with Syracuse. Still have three huge quality wins (especially with Duke downing Loyola). Hard to run through a gauntlet of 6 straight top 10 teams unscathed.

 

[irishrb]

Hard to run through a gauntlet of 6 straight top 10 teams.....My thoughts exactly. My boys were really bummed about this game but that's exactly what I said. That really is a TOUGH stretch to open up the season. You've been saying all along that they were going to lose to Denver next week. Do you still feel that way?

 

[IrishLax]

Hard to run through a gauntlet of 6 straight top 10 teams.....My thoughts exactly. My boys were really bummed about this game but that's exactly what I said. That really is a TOUGH stretch to open up the season. You've been saying all along that they were going to lose to Denver next week. Do you still feel that way?

Might've gotten it out of their system today... but I'll tell you what, this defense isn't nearly as good as the ones we've had in the past (especially at stopping transition) and offense is still quite questionable. Not much creativity from the midfield, inaccurate shooting, etc. But the attack continues to be a strong point, and Denver can be vulnerable there.

It's so incredibly hard to play in altitude in Colorado that I still think we'll struggle to win next weekend... but I'll go out on a limb and predict a victory. Ohio State is also REALLY hitting their stride right now. We get through both of those two games, we should be in line for a top seed.

 

[irishrb]

I think they beat OSU....I definitely worry about Denver though. I predicted a loss today and my boys were all over me. Now they're saying they lost because of me.... I have no feel for Denver right now. The hardest part for us is going to be waiting it out, and not checking the scoreboard to see who won...I found out they are showing the game on ESPNU Sunday night at 11:00. So we'll be racing home from school on Monday to watch it!

 

[Wolverine1997]

Close but no cigar. Michigan lost at hobart 11-7. They were there for 3.5 quarters but just gave up some bad goals in the 4th.

ECAC Scores-

Duke 9 #4 Loyola 8 (Fri.)
Hobart 11 Michigan 7
Bellarmine 11 Air Force 10
#7 Denver 10 #8 Ohio 9
#20 Yale 12 #19 Fairfield 8

Michigan travels to fairfield Thursday night.

 

[IrishLax]

Close but no cigar. Michigan lost at hobart 11-7. They were there for 3.5 quarters but just gave up some bad goals in the 4th.

ECAC Scores-

Duke 9 #4 Loyola 8 (Fri.)
Hobart 11 Michigan 7
Bellarmine 11 Air Force 10
#7 Denver 10 #8 Ohio 9
#20 Yale 12 #19 Fairfield 8

Michigan travels to fairfield Thursday night.

Good showing against Hobart. Still have a good chance to pick up two wins this year.

Tell Brandon to let me coach the St. Joe's and Detroit games and I'll get it done.

Step 1. Play a zone
Step 2. ...
Step 3. Get the W.

 

[arrowryan]

Why does Michigan suck so bad?

 

[NDinL.A.]

Might've gotten it out of their system today... but I'll tell you what, this defense isn't nearly as good as the ones we've had in the past (especially at stopping transition) and offense is still quite questionable. Not much creativity from the midfield, inaccurate shooting, etc. But the attack continues to be a strong point, and Denver can be vulnerable there.

Again, I'm a MAJOR novice, and I got out there late so I missed most of the 1st quarter (my wife had to work today so I took my 17 month-old to the game, and damn it takes a long time to get everything ready!), but I thought a lot of the same. SOme thoughts from a MAJOR novice:

* Was not impressed with the offense today at all, specifically the creativity as you mentioned. No one jumps out at me as someone who can create his own shot by driving past someone and/or juking them, other than my guy #19 who scored a sweet goal in the 2nd half. Not even Cavanaugh did much. Is that just a lacrosse thing, a ND thing, or I have no idea what I'm looking at thing?

* Our goalie is a stud, no doubt, but he let in 2-3 goals from EXTREMELY sharp angles late in the game that surprised me. Were those his bad or just great shots that normal goalies can't save.

* Hofstra's goalie was OUTSTANDING. He made clutch save after clutch save. Wow. Of course, I would have LOVED to see the Irish shoot low b/c this kid wasn't giving anything up high, but still, what an awesome performance.

* The Hofstra bench was SO much more fired up than the Irish bench, throughout the game, and especially late. You could tell how much this game meant to them, while the Irish seemed to sleepwalk through most of it until the end. And they stormed the field at the final whistle, so yeah, it meant the world to them. And I saw them walking to their busses (or maybe their dressing room cause they were still in their gear) and they were still giddy. It felt like so many ND football games where the other teams were so psyched to beat the Irish while we were 'blah' about the game.

* And when ND did show some life late in the game, they were the better team. They won the face-offs, they got to the loose balls, and they played with an urgency that allowed them to score 2 quick goals. Losing might be a blessing though later down the road...you can't keep relying on comebacks all the time and expect to survive every single time.

* You weren't kidding Lax...the ND coach makes BK look tame. He was killing the refs at different intervals all game long and wasn't adverse to giving it to his own players as well, for a lonnnnng time as well. My Lord. ESPN would have a field day with him if lacrosse were a mainstream sport; Skip Bayless' head might finally explode on First Take if that was a topic, and Steven A(sshole) might finally tear a chord in his throat.

Coach let his players have it after the game while Hofstra was celebrating on the field (one of those idiots did a snow angel at midfield on the ND sign...not cool); he got after them for quite awhile. But he gets results so I'm fine with him.

* Still learning the rules. One Irish player got de-cleated NASTY (like a hockey body check) and no call. Somebody told me its legal as long as it's something something something (I forget!). And then on one face-off the ref suddenly blew the whistle before he even dropped the ball and gave possession to the Irish. And what constitutes a foul and what doesn't? Man, from the naked eye the refs were REALLY inconsistent and that's why the Irish coaches were hammering them all game.

* But I'm enjoying the hell out the game. Home games at 12 are perfect cause it's right around my daughter's nap time and so she played on the steps for 15 minutes then slept until the last 3 minutes when the crowd finally got involved, and she was fine with the action. So hopefully we'll be able to see a lot of the games this year, and I can learn the game better.

Go Irish!

 

[irishrb]

Thanks for the information NDinLA. My boys are big Kemp fans but are shouting out, "Come on Kemp!" quite a bit this year. I agree that he seems to be letting more things slide through this year. But like LAX said, Notre Dame's Defense is not playing nearly as good as it usually does and the teams are getting better, open looks against him. Even still, he doesn't seem his self to me either.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Why does Michigan suck so bad?

60% of the roster is made up of club players.

They took the hard way in and jumped straight from club level to NCAA D1. Most teams (marquette, high point) practiced a couple years, got some recruiting classes in and then played.

What I'm looking for is progress and building a culture. There already are some really bright spots with freshmen like GK Gerald Logan who leads the country in saves, attackmen Kyle Jackson and Mike Hernandez.

Michigan's Women's program (beginning in 2013-14) will probably be more successful off the bat than the Men since they will be practicing with recruited, scholarship players. Then again, they'll be in a conference with freaks like northwestern who have won something like 6 out of the last 8 NCAA titles.

 

[IrishLax]

Why does Michigan suck so bad?

Really bad coaching, questionable recruiting. They've landed a couple gems in their recruiting classes but there are also a lot of guys who simply aren't major D1 quality prospects. Especially on defense... I don't even really understand what their staff is looking for in their defensive recruits. I knew they'd be very bad last year, and I was pretty positive they'd be pretty bad this year... but it's also shocking to me the lack of improvement in the team.

The moment they wise up and get a real coach they should instantly improve to a team that is pushing to reach the .500 level... and then they should immediately have an upside around Ohio State's after that (i.e. can challenge for tournament spots and compete with the elite teams in any signular game). But you can't continue to roll out the same team with the same flaws and expect a different result.

 

[IrishLax]

Again, I'm a MAJOR novice, and I got out there late so I missed most of the 1st quarter (my wife had to work today so I took my 17 month-old to the game, and damn it takes a long time to get everything ready!), but I thought a lot of the same. SOme thoughts from a MAJOR novice:

* Was not impressed with the offense today at all, specifically the creativity as you mentioned. No one jumps out at me as someone who can create his own shot by driving past someone and/or juking them, other than my guy #19 who scored a sweet goal in the 2nd half. Not even Cavanaugh did much. Is that just a lacrosse thing, a ND thing, or I have no idea what I'm looking at thing?

* Our goalie is a stud, no doubt, but he let in 2-3 goals from EXTREMELY sharp angles late in the game that surprised me. Were those his bad or just great shots that normal goalies can't save.

It's funny how completely accurate these observations are for a self-proclaimed "novice." The easiest way I can explain Notre Dame's offense is that it used to be predicated on a crease attackman who would be the "finisher." In general, lacrosse offense basically revolves around beating your man and causing someone to come help whereupon you make the pass to the open guy who you expect to bury the shot or score yourself before help gets there (very similar in concept to basketball). In lacrosse nomenclature this is called "drawing a slide"... and basically since Ryan Hoff graduated, ND went to more of a "share the ball offense" instead of one with a crease attackman whose job it is to try to get open in front of the goal and finish. So instead of one guy scoring 50 goals a year of the "slam dunk" variety now its supposed to have everyone be a facilitator and scorer at the same time. In the most general terms, this offense hasn't been effective. However, the defense has been so good that when you only need 7-8 goals to win a game it's not a big deal.

The problem is that there aren't enough people who can beat their man AND pass at an A+ level to beat a team with ball movement AND shoot at a very accurate level on any singular team. There aren't any stars you can count on for consistent offense and to create scoring chances every time they touch the ball. Marlatt, Doyle, and Kavanagh (all frosh/soph) will eventually get there I think... maybe even this season. But right now? There isn't an offensive identity. Too many people still figuring out where they fit and not knowing exactly what they want to do with or without the ball. When we had Hoff... you knew the plan was to get him the ball where he could catch and shoot. With this current arrangement... too much tentativeness. So you end up settling for bad shots, forcing it at the wrong time and creating a turnover, etc. You can see when they team plays with urgency at the end of periods and trailing at the end of the game that they are MUCH better... mainly because of a combination of plays being scripted AND not overthinking when to pull the trigger.

As for defense? All sports are games of innovation. What really put ND on the map was defensive coordinator Gerry Byrne's innovative system/gameplan. The whole system is predicated on having a good goalie and forcing shots that this said great goalie will stop the vast majority of the time. The defense minimizes risk by switching every screen, so teams first tried to attack it by using picks to get their best player on a short stick defender... but this was ineffective because we help (slide) quickly to all dodges so the ball carrier very rarely has an opportunity to score himself. Usually the other team needs to make two very good passes to get a good look. BUT now teams have realized that you have a couple options because "standard" offense just doesn't really get it done.
1. Push the ball in transition and go quickly.
2. Be very patient and because we don't take chances you can have long possessions and wear down the defense.
3. Take bad angle shots high coming around the goal from behind because we typically don't slide to those AND Kemp is small of stature and doesn't take up much of the goal/no goalie can really "read" a blind shot.

All of these have combined to make the defense give up closer to 8 a game instead of 6 a game which is a very big deal... and on top of that, this is by the far the least experienced D we've rolled out in a VERY long time. Miller/O'Hara each only have 1 year of experience and Buglione has none. This can lead to occasional breakdowns which lead to a couple more goals and all of a sudden you find yourself on the wrong end of a 8-7 game where the other team's goalie got hot and you lost a bunch of faceoffs and they had one questionable goal (among many other questionable calls).

 

[OchoShayneO]

Why does Michigan suck so bad?

Apparently they are recruiting off the MSU club team.

Albany beats Canisius by 1? Really guys? if they win 8 with their soft schedule it will be a small miracle.

 

[IrishLax]

ND checks in at #4 in the latest media poll. Denver, this weekend's opponent, checks in at #3. Going to be a very tough game.

Our first six opponents are currently ranked at #17, #19, #8, #9, #3, #12. That's just pure insanity. If we win one of our next two games we're probably a tournament lock... especially if it's over Denver.

Nike Division I Top 20 Poll - 03/11/2013 | InsideLacrosse.com

ND actually #3 in coaches poll... and by a considerable margin: USILA Division I Coaches Poll - 03/11/2013 | InsideLacrosse.com

 

[IrishLax]

Also... for your consumption...

2013 Ratings

Actually proves I'm, frankly, wrong about ND's defense not being "as good as usual." ND's goals-per-possession allowed is still quite elite (#1, <20% of possessions, and better than last year's final mark). John Kemp might not have the save % per usual but ND is still getting stops at the same clip. And against VERY good competition so far.

On offense? We scored at a 29% clip last year on offense... this year, we are scoring at a ~27.5% clip. So marginally worse. And we're facing off at a 50% clip (less once they factor in stats from this past weekend) which is really the story of the stats. Even though we score 2.8 goals per 10 possessions and only give up 2... which should translate into a bunch of 9-6 or 12-8 games... in general, we're losing the possession battle. Hofstra, for instance, had a whopping 7 more offensive possessions than ND this past weekend... and that was really the difference in the game.

Denver scores on a whopping 43% of possessions (on Albany is better at a crazy 45%+... which is frankly unheard of for standard 6-on-6... but Albany also has the single worst defense in the NCAA) but gives up goals at a relatively very high 34% rate. So this game could be one for the ND offense to breakout OR it could be one where we can't stop Denver in the altitude. Something will have to give. Denver is actually facing off and possessing the ball worse than ND... which could give us a real opportunity if we can exploit that. Their normal All-American do-it-all faceoff man Chase Carraro has been sidelined with a PCL injury... but could definitely play against ND this week (which would reallllllllly suck for us).

 

[irishrb]

Very interesting stats there LAX. I still say their D is giving up more open shots than the past.
Hopefully the O looks improved this week. I expect to see a little more patience and ball movement...cough, cough Marlatt.....
Hopefully Chase doesn't play. That sounds like a HUGE deal!

 

[Wolverine1997]

One hell of a ECAC slate this week-

3/14 - Michigan at Fairfield - 7pm
3/16 - #3 Denver vs #4 Notre Dame - 6:30pm/ESPN3
3/16 - #10 Loyola v.s. Air Force (in Denver, CO) - 2pm/ESPN3
3/16 - #12 Ohio at #11 Virginia - 3pm
3/17 - Michigan v.s. Colgate (at Citi Field in Flushing, NY) - 3pm/ESPNU


LU has been in a slump lately, and AFA pulled an upset against a top-10 team this season in Lehigh. If LU loses this one, they're in big trouble in terms of the ECAC Regular Season Championship.

It looks like Denver is the class of the conference this year. The closest team to them is LU.

 

[IrishLax]

Lots of big non-football moves being made today...

FOX Sports Media Group and ECAC Lacrosse Announce Multi-Year TV Deal | InsideLacrosse.com

And...

Notre Dame Expedites Move to ACC; Johns Hopkins Formally Considers Conference Affiliation | InsideLacrosse.com

The big snippet from Hopkins is:

At Hopkins, President Ronald J. Daniels sent an email to the university community on Tuesday morning, saying the shifting landscape of the sport has prompted the university to seek affiliation. No formal invitations have been sent to Hopkins, and the school will set up a committee to discuss the potential move that would end 130 years of conference independence, he said.

"Some traditional foes have recently announced changes in their own affiliations, changes that might limit their flexibility to continue scheduling games with us," Daniels said in the email. "At the same time, growth of the sport at the Division I level has resulted in the formation of more leagues with automatic qualification for the NCAA tournament, potentially limiting postseason opportunities for at-large qualifiers.

Hopkins will likely either be headed to ECAC or Big Ten... but the ACC could step up with interest in adding them as a lacrosse-only member.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Lots of big non-football moves being made today...

FOX Sports Media Group and ECAC Lacrosse Announce Multi-Year TV Deal | InsideLacrosse.com

And...

Notre Dame Expedites Move to ACC; Johns Hopkins Formally Considers Conference Affiliation | InsideLacrosse.com

The big snippet from Hopkins is:


Hopkins will likely either be headed to ECAC or Big Ten... but the ACC could step up with interest in adding them as a lacrosse-only member.

Wow. Either way, Michigan would be in the same league with them. I think the ECAC would be a better choice now. And then maybe once Michigan learns to stand on all fours, pursue a B1G Conference. Maybe even wait for another school to add Lax.

 

[IrishLax]

Duke vs. Carolina facing off in about an hour on ESPNU. Should be an exciting game. My money is on Carolina. Close to a must-win for Duke... if Duke loses they will need AT LEAST a win over UVA + a win in the ACC tournament to make the playoffs.

 

[irishrb]

My older boy checks each week for LAX games and DVR's them. We'll be watching this one tonight. I'll be curious to see if Duke gets some much needed energy after their win last week...

 

[IrishLax]

UNC came out way too cute with a zone and although they played it well precise passing/shooting from Duke diced it up. So now UNC is reeling switching back and forth between man and zone and getting themselves into all kinds of assignment issues. Duke leads 6-3 part way through the second Q.

 

[irishrb]

Duke really is moving the ball well. Not to mention UNC is having a lot of trouble with the face-offs. The guy looks too high to me...He basically isn't giving himself much of a chance.