2016 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

IrishLax

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Towson takes down Denver! Wow!

If Notre Dame gets past UNC, they will play either Loyola or Towson.
 

irishrb

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Both of my boys guaranteed me that towson would take denver down before it started. They said they didn't think denver was playing well and that towson was underrated....unbeliavable...They're both talking a lot of crap but that's awesome.
My wife told them not to get too excited because unc already beat ND but they said they aren't worried at all because rematches never end the same way! Let's hope they are correct again! Pretty psyched up right now! I would have never guessed that duke and denver would be knocked out of Notre Dame's side right now!
 

IrishLax

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Notre Dame has the easiest possible path to the championship they could've hoped for. Beat a good (not great) UNC team, then play either Loyola/Towson instead of their yearly kryptonite Duke/Denver.

If we don't get it done against UNC next weekend I'm going to be really upset. This is currently setting up for a collision course between ND and one of the other elite teams from this year Syracuse/Maryland/Brown. Got to take care of UNC.
 

FDNYIrish1

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What a great weekend. Petro and Tierney both out, don't have to look at them on the sidelines acting like fools anymore this year!
I hope last game against UNC was an aberration. Complete meltdown and loss of focus in the 4th. To score that many goals on a defense like the Irish things have to be clicking on all cylinders, and they were that day. I have faith Breschi will not have his team prepared as usual! Things lining up nicely for the Irish. Some real solid teams left that are fun to watch. Hopefully this is the breakthrough year.
 

irishrb

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Totally agree on all accounts. I will say, as my boys and I were fist pumping today, my wife says, "You guys are going to be super disappointed if they don't beat north carolina next week."
Honestly, I will be flat out peaved. I think it's almost good that they ended up losing to them in the season. I think it makes them lock it in that much more so they take care of business!
 

IrishLax

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Wow today is freaking chaos... Syracuse getting blasted by Albany right now...
 

NDgradstudent

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It's like Coach K says...there are lots of good teams on the other side of the bracket, but we only have to play one of them. I don't know enough about some of these teams to say who I would 'want' to play, but I think its mostly about us playing at our best at this point. If we do that, we should win. Hopefully the team wants to beat UNC after the collapse a couple weeks ago. Let's go.
 

IrishLax

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It's like Coach K says...there are lots of good teams on the other side of the bracket, but we only have to play one of them. I don't know enough about some of these teams to say who I would 'want' to play, but I think its mostly about us playing at our best at this point. If we do that, we should win. Hopefully the team wants to beat UNC after the collapse a couple weeks ago. Let's go.

Yeah, Brown/Cuse/Maryland are all extremely talented.

Contrast to Loyola/Towson/UNC and it's not really close. All of the teams left (except maybe Towson and Navy) are good enough to win it all, but this is a ripe opportunity for ND. Just got to handle our business and get to the mountain top. However, knowing Irish sports, we'll find some way to blow it.
 

IrishLax

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Smoke turning to fire and it looks like Starsia is out at UVA. Firing a Hall of Fame coach who has won a title this decade... in a non-revenue sport. I expect them to come after Corrigan.
 

Sherm Sticky

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Super pumped for the game tomorrow. Won't be able to watch as my son has a flag football game. But will turn here for updates.


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NDinL.A.

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Maryland over Syracuse comfortably.

Brown struuuuuugling with Navy but about to put them away.
 

FDNYIrish1

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Cuse looked awful today. Thought Navy played very well. Brown not having their best player certainly helped but at least it was an up and down game. Could not believe that shot with 24 seconds left. Run the clock and roll the ball into the corner. Could have been an epic ending if Navy doesn't turn that over in transition. Looking forward to tomorrow.
 

NDgradstudent

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Sad to see the season end like this. I don't know if our guys just weren't prepared, or didn't want it as much, but it's hard to watch a tremendous team crash and burn.
 

NDgradstudent

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You have to wonder about the coaches after this sort of debacle. How can you play like this against a team you that you play regularly, that you want to beat after losing to a month ago, with an extremely experienced and talented team?

I'm sort of in shock. What a disaster. It's basically the fourth quarter of last month's game on repeat.
 

NDVirginia19

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Absolutely pathetic.... this was really the only team in the foreseeable future that I think can win a championship, and they go out there playing like their hungover. Awful.
 

irishrb

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Really, truly, a gaint let down. Absolutely no excuse to come out and play like that. The defense was stuck in mud, and the offense just couldn't finish. Doss couldn't find the ball and Finley just sucked it up. Notre Dame looked disinterested and I am toally peeved off. From coaches, to players, no excuse.
Beyond disappointed!
 

Sherm Sticky

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Irishlax I would like to know your thoughts on what went wrong in the game, since I wasn't able to watch and got updates on my phone.

Also, this I would assume is a disappointing season. What is the outlook for next year!


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irishrb

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bump...LAX?? Headed to Philly...and not getting to watch the Irish...What the heck happened? Still bummed....
 

IrishLax

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Bump...still waiting to hear your thoughts LAX?

I've avoided posting, because I could write a novel on this missed opportunity. That performance on Sunday was one of the worst games Notre Dame has played in years. It was an infuriating and frustrating clusterfuck on multiple different levels... and it was done by maybe the most talented Notre Dame team ever.

I'll keep it short and sweet... there are the really obvious failures that show up in the stat sheet... Finley going 27% on faceoffs, Perkovic shooting 0 for 14, the first midfield having 5 turnovers and zero goals in even offense, UNC's goalie saving 61% while Doss saved 43%... and then there's the stuff that was obvious watching the game. Horrendous offball defense, Landis repeatedly getting caught out of position when trying to make a play, and bad slides because people were getting routinely beat 1v1.

The bottom line is that this team was/is built to strangle the life out of opponents via unbreakable defense that doesn't make mistakes. Notre Dame played tons of elite offensive teams this year and only twice gave up double digits in regulation... both to UNC, and both losses. This team is supposed to win games 10-8 NOT 16-14 so when your defense starts getting throttled it destroys the whole gameplan.

We obviously came into the game with the plan of "let's not get into a track meet" and that was how the game played out for 14 minutes and 30 seconds. From the point where UNC scored off the faceoff to make it 3-2 onward it was a whole lot of us not possessing the ball and the defense getting tired/frustrated/out of position and making mistakes. UNC's game plan was to possess the ball and use tons of movement to wear down the defense (just like they did in the 4th quarter of the last game where they had their comeback) and it worked. It worked because when ND got the ball on offense they did nothing with it but play tight. UNC played unafraid the entire game whereas ND looked lost/depressed for the entire middle portion of the game. The most telltale moment of the game was the start of the 3rd where Perkovic has an A+ opportunity get saved and then UNC gets a bounce shot to go in from 15 yards on the other end.
 

IrishLax

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<iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/INyK65N_-gQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

irishrb

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Thanks for posting. I agree...SO disappointed in so many ways....Off to Philly for the weekend tomorrow and NO Irish to root for....Ugh still makes me sick, but will still make the most of it.
I think Corrigan overcoached and had the Irish O too tight too....I think they were so focused on trying to play disciplined ball, that they just weren't relaxed and making plays..
Plus, carolina came in knowing they were going to win, and it showed. They looked so much more in the zone as soon as they stepped on the field.
 

NDgradstudent

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27% on faceoffs

I think some of the close games earlier in the season, where the defense was solid but the offense couldn't score as easily (UVA and Marquette in particular) were augmented by problems at the X leading to fewer possessions.

This was not the biggest problem in the UNC game, and we have won games while being destroyed in faceoffs, but this really needs to end. It makes it very hard to come back, allows other teams to go on big runs, etc. A program of this caliber should be able to find someone who can dominate faceoffs. Every other elite program seems to have such a guy.
 

IrishLax

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I think some of the close games earlier in the season, where the defense was solid but the offense couldn't score as easily (UVA and Marquette in particular) were augmented by problems at the X leading to fewer possessions.

This was not the biggest problem in the UNC game, and we have won games while being destroyed in faceoffs, but this really needs to end. It makes it very hard to come back, allows other teams to go on big runs, etc. A program of this caliber should be able to find someone who can dominate faceoffs. Every other elite program seems to have such a guy.

The reason why we don't have an elite faceoff man is that we simply don't recruit the position with enough urgency. I have no idea why. Travisiano was the last one we recruited... he and Finley are both going to be on the roster each year. But most elite programs bring in one guy a year and/or transfers and see who is the most effective.

Duke got their faceoff guy as a transfer. Syracuse got their guy as a transfer. Both are top rated guys. UNC's was the #2 overall player in his class for whatever recruit rankings are worth. Trevor Baptiste for Denver was a late bloomer that got referred to Tierney after already declaring for Arizona State.

So there are lots of ways to get an elite guy, but we do none of them. It's ironic because ND's ascension as a program was largely based off of dominance at the faceoff X.

EDIT: I would be remiss to note though that we have a FOGO coming in next year who might be good. Hard to know until he gets on campus. But he isn't really considered a top 10 guy by experts right now.
 
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IrishLax

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So UNC is lightingn up Loyola even worse than they did ND. Clearly when they're going good they're going GREAT.
 
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