2013 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[Wolverine1997]

HOLY!......Johns Hopkins to the B1G!


Sources: Johns Hopkins Lacrosse to Announce Joining the Big Ten Monday | InsideLacrosse.com

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

Easy way to keep the Maryland rivalry

 

[IrishLax]

HOLY!......Johns Hopkins to the B1G!


Sources: Johns Hopkins Lacrosse to Announce Joining the Big Ten Monday | InsideLacrosse.com

Tis has been known for awhile... hence Denver, etc. leaving the ECAC.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Tis has been known for awhile... hence Denver, etc. leaving the ECAC.

Wait.....Denver is leaving the ECAC? Damnit. Who can I follow on twitter so I can be informed of these things?

I remember when LU left the ECAC for Patriot I didn't find out until a month later.

 

[IrishLax]

Wait.....Denver is leaving the ECAC? Damnit. Who can I follow on twitter so I can be informed of these things?

I remember when LU left the ECAC for Patriot I didn't find out until a month later.

I mean, not a lot of "breaking" news on twitter. I know a few people still actively playing DI through my little brother who is still in school and keep up sparsely with some media members and admins/coaches from my days in school and blogging/sports writing afterwards... so I tend to hear about stuff early if I'm inclined to ask or someone sends me a text.

Denver's move to Big East was publicly announced... a week ago? 2? At that time it was a stone cold lock that Hopkins was headed to the Big Ten, but it had been strongly implied from everyone in the know that it was going to happen since about a week before Hopkins announced that they were looking at conference affiliation. Only other option was ACC, and ACC wasn't willing to make same concessions as Big Ten and wasn't really interested in adding a lacrosse only member to a conference that is already way too stacked with 5 perennial top 10 teams. Hopkins is/was almost analogous to Notre Dame football in the sense that they have their own TV deal with ESPN that really complicated things too and made Big Ten only logical fit from the onset.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Seems like an odd pairing to me but this conference stuff is way above my comprehension. Loyola seemed like a good fit for the Big East realignment in my uneducated opinion. Not sure how Hopkins fits in to the big 10 scheme. I know it's about money and automatic bids, but school wise with the exception of northwestern they are an oddity in that conference. Denver going to big east is another strange one. Are they a lax only member? Do they have a basketball team? Like I said I really don't understand, I just know it always comes back to money somehow.

 

[IrishLax]

Seems like an odd pairing to me but this conference stuff is way above my comprehension. Loyola seemed like a good fit for the Big East realignment in my uneducated opinion. Not sure how Hopkins fits in to the big 10 scheme. I know it's about money and automatic bids, but school wise with the exception of northwestern they are an oddity in that conference. Denver going to big east is another strange one. Are they a lax only member? Do they have a basketball team? Like I said I really don't understand, I just know it always comes back to money somehow.

Denver is a lacrosse only move to Big East. It was done because ECAC will be dead and they had to go somewhere... outside of Air Force, there is no such thing as a local opponent for Denver. Loyola to Patriot for best geographic fit.

Big Ten wants Hopkins to kick off their lacrosse conference + TV draw + Hopkins with their government grants is A+ tier research institution which is what the B1G is all about. You're right that school size and undergraduate education related Hopkins is a little out of place... but when you're a lacrosse only member I think the "cultural fit" thing isn't really a big deal.

Hopkins missing the tournament this year + Maryland to Big Ten was the perfect storm to get them in the conference. If both don't happen, no way they move.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Official. RIP ECAC.

 

[phork]

Official. RIP ECAC.

Will you ever get out of the red bro? Atleast on MGoBlog I have my points until the point system comes back.. I can bet that it won't take long to get back to negative.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Will you ever get out of the red bro? Atleast on MGoBlog I have my points until the point system comes back.. I can bet that it won't take long to get back to negative.

It was green before I posted "I feel bad for people who bought #5 jerseys" in the Golson thread. Just because, well, there HAS been some things going on with the two past players that wore it..

I thought the mods at MGoBlog were quick to neg/ban.

 

[phork]

It was green before I posted "I feel bad for people who bought #5 jerseys" in the Golson thread. Just because, well, there HAS been some things going on with the two past players that wore it..

I thought the mods at MGoBlog were quick to neg/ban.

That board has a lot of the mouth breathers that we make fun of over here. For as funny as some of those guys are, some of those guys have zero sense of humour.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Thank you Lax for the explanation. You think the increased difficulty of getting an at large bid had any effect to motivate Hop? Like I said, this one sport affiliation stuff just makes little sense other than money. Plus Hop is an oddity with all other sports being division 3. Follow the money as always like you said. My logic behind Loyola to the new big east was the small school with catholic affiliation with a basketball team. I really don't know much about their academics but I assume pretty solid to go Patriot. Hopefully we see continued growth of the game, it's just tough with the BCS football schools and title 9. It seems like the majority of new programs aren't BCS, I hope some of the bigger western schools take the jump. I've heard rumors, but who knows, it takes a pretty good financial commitment to start adding programs. Thanks for the lax talk this season guys, I really enjoyed it.

 

[Wolverine1997]

Welp, Mercer has left the A-Sun so now where do they go?

 

[IrishLax]

So some interesting news and notes over the past couple months...

First and foremost, Nike put on a lacrosse version of The Opening called The Ride. It was really interesting and Notre Dame '14 recruit Alex Hurdle won the SPARQ championship and Top Defenseman award. Women's recruit Nikki Ortega won Top Attacker for the girls... and that's especially impressive because she's a '15 recruit. So that was some cool stuff.

In September, Inside Lacrosse will be putting out their recruiting issue. I took a look at a preview and ND was rated with the #8 class. No #1 style headliners like Kavanagh, but 7 out of 7 HS recruits made the top 100. All three of the post-grad recruits made the top 25 there at #8, #19, and #21. The big bummer is Dalton MacAfee from Massachusetts, whose dad is none other than Notre Dame legend and College Football Hall of Famer Ken MacAfee, was an incredibly elite athlete and player who picked Notre Dame over the likes of Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Virginia, Cornell, and others. Because of the idiocy that are NCAA scholarship limits (where you have to field a 50 player lacrosse team with about a dozen scholarships)... and I'm sure partially because you can't have a well paying pro career in lacrosse... Dalton opted to stay home and play hockey for BU. This isn't a surprise, he made the decision almost a year ago... but I wonder if Jeff Jackson ever offered him a hockey scholarship. This is in the similar vein to losing Sam Hubbard in '14 to Ohio State for football... the silver lining is you won't see him on the lacrosse field, the sad news is that you have great players basically forced into choosing sports other than lacrosse if they want a full scholarship or pro prospects.

Speaking of football legends and their lacrosse playing progeny... see the following post on Jake Seau. This one is getting a little long.

On the women's side, we have the #1 recruit Courtney Fortunato headlines a great class ranked #5 overall in the country. I'm not an expert on the women's game... but everyone says Fortunato is one of the most hyped recruits of all time. Let's hope she has a better run than Clausen.

 

[IrishLax]

Jake Seau, son of legend Junior Seau, actually opted for lacrosse over football. Here's a pretty good article on it from awhile ago... you really have to wonder how much watching his dad suffer from CTE affected the decision. He was getting legitimate interest from big time schools as a mere sophomore but decided lacrosse was what he wanted to focus on... since then, he has seen a meteoric rise from a player with upside to a really good player to now the #11 rated player in his class. When all is said and done, he might be a top 5 player next year.

Jake Seau blazing own trail on lacrosse field

 

[NDinL.A.]

Lax...you should go ahead and start a new thread dude. The past season is over; everything from here on out will be geared toward the new season, so might as well start from scratch again.

JMHO

Thanks for the info; like I said I'm a novice and don't follow the sport outside of this thread, so any new info (even on the women's side lol) is much appreciated.

 

[IrishLax]

Lax...you should go ahead and start a new thread dude. The past season is over; everything from here on out will be geared toward the new season, so might as well start from scratch again.

JMHO

Thanks for the info; like I said I'm a novice and don't follow the sport outside of this thread, so any new info (even on the women's side lol) is much appreciated.

Good idea. I had thought about waiting until it got near the season, but I'll do that when I get a second.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Lax, by any chance do you know if Kavanagh was playing up in Lake Placid this past weekend? Was watching a slick kid with a gold helmet playing for SECTR Spiders but had a game of my own, didn't get a chance to verify it was him. Looked real good out there.

 

[IrishLax]

Lax, by any chance do you know if Kavanagh was playing up in Lake Placid this past weekend? Was watching a slick kid with a gold helmet playing for SECTR Spiders but had a game of my own, didn't get a chance to verify it was him. Looked real good out there.

Sorry, I've got no idea... I didn't go and didn't watch the webcasts. What division were you playing in and for who?

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Sorry, I've got no idea... I didn't go and didn't watch the webcasts. What division were you playing in and for who?

I played in both the 35 and 38 and over divisions. Played for the Harpoon team in the 35, a local disaster team in the 38. Always the best tournament of the year, some amazing teams up there. I actually read on Inside Lacrosse that it was in fact him on that team. Very slick player when seen in person, I was very impressed. That team was loaded with talent, I really enjoy watching these kids when they just play and flow and create in opposition to the rigid college game. Hope the summer finds you all well.

 

[T Town Tommy]

I will admit that I don't watch lacrosse very much - usually the NCAA championships - but when I do it is very entertaining. The skill level of the players is tremendous.

 

[tfy1e9p61]

[????

[????

????,????????,