2016 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[FDNYIrish1]

Are face-offs some highly specialized skill that can't be taught? Is it the sort of thing you recruit for? If so, why don't all the elite teams (including of course ND) have 'elite' guys?

pretty much. Elite FOGOs are tough to find, and the few best ones are dominant. Out here on the island there are guys who make a ton of cash doing private lessons with kids just on facing off. There are a lot of variables that go into that little scrum and some real subtle techniques. I actually train a kid in 9th grade who's going to be going big time because he's a sick FO guy.

 

[IrishLax]

Some sort of crazy perspective... ND played SIX games against top 10 teams this year and went 4-2. The only team that played more was Duke (but in 17 games instead of 12).

ND currently holds the #3 RPI only .0001 points behind Brown, so I think a win over Army would push ND to #2. ND is probably going to get the #2 or #3 seed with a win, while a loss might drop us as far down as #7.

The sort of crazy development is that Marquette seems to have really earned a top 8 seed. It'd be much easier for the committee to seed ND #3 and send Marquette to South Bend as an unseeded team... but in reality, ND probably deserves the #2 and Marquette deserves number 7 or 8. This would be a logistical nightmare for the committee, so I expect both ND and Marquette to get kind of screwed here.

 

[irishrb]

Interesting take. If that happens, they better reward the winner with an easier pod...ie...no cuse or duke in the second round.

What's your take on the army game today?

 

[IrishLax]

Interesting take. If that happens, they better reward the winner with an easier pod...ie...no cuse or duke in the second round.

What's your take on the army game today?

Who knows? Army is a weird team... can be very strong on defense, other times they just turn in terrible overall performances. With the amount of chaos recently I have no idea what to think about today.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Do they take region into account with first round games in the D1 tournament first round? Forgive my absence this year guys, really haven't been paying much attention, been crazy busy. Caught Marquette Denver yesterday, not too impressed with Marquette all around. Think Denver was sleepwalking a bit. As usual, think the ivies are over rated but haven't caught any Maryland. Are they as boring as usual to watch under Tillman?

 

[IrishLax]

Notre Dame cooking early... got to hope that we don't inplode again this week. Army switched to a zone after 4 goals by ND early and it seems to be working decently.

 

[IrishLax]

Notre Dame up 9-2 on Army at half. Absolutely shredding Army's 5th ranked defense.

 

[IrishLax]

Dominant performance, ND ran the score up to 13-3 in the 4th before emptying the bench on senior day.

 

[NDgradstudent]

Win face-offs (or just run even!) and good things happen with this team...I hope it can continue.

 

[IrishLax]

Final RPI has Notre Dame solidly at number two. Guaranteed seed between number one and three, IMO.

 

[irishrb]

Loved seeing a dominating peformance....army definitely helped that as they looked pretty bad. Nice to see some other midfield production too. I actually think Sergio looked pretty bad today...
Garnsey looked like a star today!
Pumped to see the selection show tonight. Here's what I would like to see with the top 8.
1. ND
2. maryland
3. denver
4. yale
5. brown
6. marquette
7. albany
8. loyola

 

[NDVirginia19]

Garnsey is an absolute stud, I feel like he could be a Tewaaraton finalist before he leaves, if not next year

 

[IrishLax]

Also, after sitting the whole year, Pat Heay played today. Wonder if we will ever hear what was holding him out... I also wonder if it would've been smarter to save a year of eligiblity this year.

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

Lax do you have any plans on heading to Philly if ND makes it that far?


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[irishrb]

So what does everyone think about ND's draw?
I don't know much about air force....other than they have won 15 in a row, they won at duke, and they lost at denver by 1. This tells me they can be a dangerous team!
As for the second round, I would rather play the winner of marquette/unc than most likely duke, cuse, or at brown, so I can't complain too much.
I think the odds are pretty good that the Irish head to Philly!

 

[OchoShayneO]

With the parity in this game, every team in the tourney is Dangerous. Having said that I would rather be on ND/Denver side of the bracket than where UMD, Yale, and Brown found themselves. Brown will look to play there next two games at home after they handle JHU. I would rather play the winner of Marquette/UNC than Albany/Cuse Winner. The most dangerous unseeded team might be Navy. After an awful game against Army in the tournament you know they are going to come out with something to prove. Connors has been strong in goal for them all year, Dove is dangerous if he gets rolling at the X, and Matt Rees might be the best LSM in the country, very strong team up the middle.

 

[IrishLax]

Can't complain with the draw. Air Force is clearly the least talented unseeded team (outside of the play-in games), and Marquette as our #6 is worlds better than it being someone like Syracuse or Duke.

Maryland/Syracuse in the quarterfinals could easily have been the national championship game if Cuse was in another pod. Committee did a horrible job with seeding teams 6+, IMO.

Kane... unlikely I go this year, getting married in early June. Don't really have free time for the next month.

 

[NDgradstudent]

UVA may be looking for a new coach soon. Does anybody think Corrigan would leave?

 

[IrishLax]

UVA may be looking for a new coach soon. Does anybody think Corrigan would leave?

Nah, I think he retires here. But if we do win a championship this year, I could see him leaving for UVA and giving the reigns to Byrne.

 

[IrishLax]

Tournament underway! Duke vs Loyola on the U, followed by Marquette/UNC, then Hopkins/Brown, then ND/Air Force.

 

[yankeeND]

Wow, Loyola beat Duke 16-11.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

God I love watching Hopkins get lit up

 

[IrishLax]

God I love watching Hopkins get lit up

Lit up might be an understatement LOL

 

[IrishLax]

ND looks good so far... except Doss. Has let in 3 goals on 3 shots on goal... and has one "save" on a shot that wasn't on cage.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

So how does ND matchup with UNC? If ND plays a good but not great game should they win?

Didn't UNC make a crazy comeback aided by the refs the last time the teams met?


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[IrishLax]

Yeah, ND got pretty robbed last time at UNC. Don't get me wrong, UNC has a lot of talent. But (assuming chalk holds) the Tarheels will be the worst team in the final 8. So it's a game we should win, and you have to beat good teams to win a title.

 

[NDgradstudent]

Winning face-offs leads to winning games for this team…if we can win a sizeable majority of face-offs (as happened today) can we go 50/50 (or 45/55, etc.) against a super-elite guy? We don’t need to do that well to win –we’ve been in tight games against Denver and other teams with elite guys several times while getting killed in face-offs– but it would help a ton. I don’t know if the performance today is a sign of things to come, but I hope so.

We had a bunch of dumb, sloppy turnovers, including the one late in the second quarter that led directly to an AF goal. It looked to me that almost all of these were unforced and instead caused by our poor passing.

Doss improved as the game progressed, and that 4th goal I mentioned at around 2:30 of the second quarter was not on him.

Seeing a bunch of different guys scoring and a bunch of assists –all against AF's highly-ranked defense– is very encouraging. I hope that continues.

Solid crowd at the game, even though it was 40 degrees. Attendance has been really strong throughout the season, and hopefully a good group makes it to Columbus.

 

[Ultimate Penn St. Hater]

Good win. Keep it up! Go Irish!

 

[IrishLax]

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[irishrb]

Thanks for sharing that. He's been my favorite all time player since I started watching Irish lacrosse!
I got a late start on the game, as I was at an LAX tourney all day yesterday, but I was quite impressed with them yesterday.
I thought the long poles were awesome on the wings, the offense was dialed in and very efficient, they showed great depth and loved wathcing Garnsey and Collins really add that extra dimension to the offense.
I also really like the depth that Healy adds to the D.
I feel super excited for this team right now and hope they play as well against carolina to make it to Philly!