2014 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[NDinL.A.]

Looks like it is youth day today. Lots of youth teams out here…this place is jumping. Even some people are tailgating; hopefully the team will put on a good show today.

 

[IrishLax]

Looks like it is youth day today. Lots of youth teams out here…this place is jumping today. Even some people are tailgating; hopefully the team will put on a good show today.

Army is a really tough team. All four of their losses by one goal, one of the best defenses around. Playing for seeding here which might be kind of irrelevant because of all the parity, so the team should play loose.

Lyle Thompson just tied the NCAA points record with an assist to Myles who did all the hard work with a sick behind the back goal. Albany is incredibly fun to watch.

 

[IrishLax]

Army has one guy that can play offense. He's one the best overall players in the country. And you're letting him get shots off? Come on scouting report...

 

[IrishLax]

Kavanagh with a deep pocket leads to Army man up leads to man up leads to deflected pass going in the goal and then a 20 yard shot goes in. Not our day.

 

[IrishLax]

7-7 at half. Offense playing awesome, defense needs to tighten up. Army got a LOT of breaks in that half, but at the same time we had a horrible gameplan for defending Glasener... need to slide upfield early at him because he dodges like a midfielder with a cannon of a shot.

 

[IrishLax]

Game is ridiculous. Offense continues to play amazing while our defense gets Swiss cheesed. Their entire offense consists of outside shots from one guy or force feeding the crease and they somehow have 11 goals.

 

[IrishLax]

Make that 12 goals. Don't see how we pull out this game, they are getting every break imaginable.

 

[IrishLax]

13. They're just running straight isolation on a short stick behind the goal. If we slide, force feed the crease. If we don't, take a blind no angle shot. Everything is going in.

 

[IrishLax]

Army leads 14-13 heading into the 4th. If you told me ND would have 13 goals by the end of the 3rd quarter I would've thought we'd have at MINIMUM a 5 goal lead.

I don't know if a team has scored 14 by the end of the 3rd on us ever. Definitely not in recent history...

 

[IrishLax]

17 all on a bad call giving Army the ball and then yet another unreal goal by the Black Knights. 1:30 to play.

 

[IrishLax]

Huge coaching error by ND not taking a timeout there with the ball and last possession. Now a turnover gives the ball to unstoppable Army with 45 seconds to play all tied up.

 

[IrishLax]

Another bad call for Army gives them the ball on offense with 8 seconds to play. Unreal withholding call there... had a great chance to ice the game, now Army will almost surely get one more good look.

 

[IrishLax]

100% chance they're setting up set shot for Glasener with option to feed crease when he's doubled.

 

[IrishLax]

Ball game! ND drops 18 on the second best defense in the country and survives 18-17. ND will definitely host a first round game.

 

[IrishLax]

Some exciting lacrosse this past week... 3 games versus top teams, 3 dramatic one goal wins.

Around the league Loyola beat Hopkins meaning your top 3 seeds are almost surely Syracuse, Duke, and Loyola. ND has a very strong case for the #4 or #5 seed where they'd likely play Penn, Maryland, or Virginia as their opposite seeded team.

 

[irishrb]

C-R-A-Z-Y! I Could Not Believe Corrigan didn't call a timeout when they had the ball with under a minute left. Everything did seem to go Army's way in that game....and I thought Army played with more emotion....BUT ND survived.
Hopefully they can keep their vibe up on offense as we enter the tourney! They BETTER get a 6 seed or higher. Personally, I think they deserve a 5. Rooting for Harvard tomorrow to jump Penn.

 

[irishrb]

IF Penn wins tomorrow, you don't think they will be seeded ahead of the Irish?
I DO NOT want to play another ACC team first round....NOOOOOO

 

[IrishLax]

IF Penn wins tomorrow, you don't think they will be seeded ahead of the Irish?
I DO NOT want to play another ACC team first round....NOOOOOO

I think if Penn wins they get a #4 or #5 and we'd get the other one... have to wait and see what Cornell's and Harvard's final RPIs are to figure where they factor in as quality wins. I'm guessing right now that Cornell is in line to drop out of the #5 spot to #6.

If Penn loses, I think they're looking at a #5-#8 seed. Hard to see Hopkins getting seeded above of Penn/UVA/Maryland right now. And I don't think Denver has the SOS required for a seed. And I think UNC is dropping a bit back of the pack, much like Cornell.

The lowest I could see ND getting seeded... objectively looking at their current SOS and RPI and quality wins... would be #7 behind Penn, Maryland, and maybe a Cornell/Hopkins. I can't see how'd we'd get seeded below UNC or UVA with our head to head wins over them. Sadly, a #7 seed would mean a difficult first round matchup + likely Duke in second round.

 

[IrishLax]

Update: yeah, we just jumped Cornell into the #5 spot in the RPI. Unless some magic happens in remaining games, we should hold onto that spot which means Penn (and Syracuse and Virginia) no longer get to treat Cornell as a top 5 opponent.

RPI as currently constructed...
Syracuse
Duke
Penn
Loyola
Notre Dame

Cornell
Virginia
Denver
Maryland
UNC

Hopkins
Drexel
Hofstra
...

What will be interesting to watch is if the winner of Hofstra/Drexel jumps UNC into the #10 spot. That could shake things up. Harvard/Yale seem far enough back that they're locked into the teens. Penn State being at #18 helps ND... doubtful they tumble 3 spots all the way out of the top 20.

 

[IrishLax]

Richmond, in their first year as a program, just earned a tourney birth winning their conference championship.

In other news, Michigan just posted their 3rd straight horrible season. They have a combined record of 7-37 as a program. #GOBLUE

 

[irishrb]

Thanks LAX, you rock. Whatever happens, ND DESERVES any benefit of any doubt with any seeding. They just won most likely the best conference ever and finished the year on a great note.

 

[Redbar]

Watched the rebroadcast of the Army game this morning, really exciting game, the go ahead score in the final minute was awesome, we survived against a really game opponent that was playing with a lot of passion.

 

[IrishLax]

Selection show starting on ESPNU. #PrayForPenn

 

[irishrb]

6....BOOO They deserved a 5!

 

[IrishLax]

Wow wtf... selection committee gave zero shits about SOS or number of quality wins. Penn gets a #4 seed and Denver a #5. How is Denver seeded above us!?!? We have better RPI, SOS, and quality wins.

 

[IrishLax]

So close to an amazing #5 seed. Such a shame. Unreal.

 

[irishrb]

Ya, 5 would have been a great place to be....and I agree Denver at 5 sucks! It looks like they are putting more judgements into the seeding now?

 

[IrishLax]

Lol Denver got UNC!!!!!!!!

 

[IrishLax]

Wow both Penn and Denver gonna get stomped. Seriously. Hahaha perfect sweet justice. Got the two most dangerous unseeded teams.

 

[irishrb]

Ya, maybe that was their way to get no ACC matches in the first round?