Notre Dame Lacrosse Open thread

[Bridgegroom]

One game at time. Good offensive flow/output although too many turnovers down the stretch. Defense still needs some work. That was a weak Duke team (relatively speaking) and we made them look better than they are. If we can win over 50% at the FO X, this is a team who can beat the remaining teams left on their schedule by 6 goals per game. Let's finish strong and make the NCAAs in the top 8. If they do that, given they played MD as tough as anyone this year, they will get a bump at years end by the selection committee. If you stabilize the FO X performance, let this offense flow and get the D back to ND standards, the Irish can beat any team in the country.

 

[laughingirish90]

Not dead yet!

yeah we are still in it which is good but they wouldn't be on the bubble when it comes to making the tournament if they had played this well earlier in the season. i can see them making a run in the tournament if they make it with the way they are playing right now

 

[IrishLax]

ND lacrosse destroying Marquette 8-2 right now early second quarter. This is probably the third or fourth best team in the country right now and very well may not make the playoffs.

 

[stpeteirish]

trying to watch on Marquette's Youtube cannel. Didn't have to buy a subscription to watch but good lord the quality is bad. Appears to only have one camera with the cameraman trying to move back and forth along the sideline. Can't see what the hell is going on but at least there is audio.

Oh yeah, 12-5 at the half

 

[IrishLax]

trying to watch on Marquette's Youtube cannel. Didn't have to buy a subscription to watch but good lord the quality is bad. Appears to only have one camera with the cameraman trying to move back and forth along the sideline. Can't see what the hell is going on but at least there is audio.

Oh yeah, 12-5 at the half

The ground level view is trash but can't hate on a free stream. The announcer is actually pretty good at his job?

 

[stpeteirish]

Yeah the announcer was pretty good, obviously a Marquette guy but very complementary of ND. easy win for the Irish, I don't think we'll have any trouble getting a bid if we win out and the three remaining games look like wins to me. Two at home and Syracuse away who we just annihilated should be 3-0 now that we are playing well.

Jake Taylor 5 more today what a difference in our offense since he got in the lineup.

 

[Bridgegroom]

Yeah the announcer was pretty good, obviously a Marquette guy but very complementary of ND. easy win for the Irish, I don't think we'll have any trouble getting a bid if we win out and the three remaining games look like wins to me. Two at home and Syracuse away who we just annihilated should be 3-0 now that we are playing well.

Jake Taylor 5 more today what a difference in our offense since he got in the lineup.

Looking forward to seeing if the Irish can maintain the FO and scoring momentum going into the home stretch. Would like Arden and the keeper to get the D fully back on course. Let's make the playoffs and shock the world....

 

[IrishLax]

Looking ahead, I think ND needs to win out. RPI of 13 when they would've had an RPI of 9 if Syracuse hadn't shit the bed against Albany and choked against Cornell. Just really bad ACC out-of-conference play, and it looks like only ~2 teams will get in maybe three if Duke upsets UVA.

ND wins out, they should end up with an RPI around 8 and should be a lock. Drop one, and I think they will end up with an RPI around 10-14 without enough top 5 or top 10 wins to get in.

Ivy is going to likely get 4 and I think Big Ten will get 3.

 

[Bridgegroom]

Great win last night but let's not get too excited. UNC has had subpar midfield production this year as evidenced by the roster shake up yesterday. Our SSDMs are still not playing at a level which will consistently stymie a first line midfield from a top ten team. UNC cannibalized their attack to staff their middies so it made our close Ds jobs easier. Offense played with pace and put the ball in the back of the net after a slow start.

One game at a time. Syracuse is like a wounded animal: very dangerous. Duke is in their perennial peak in May stage. If we get by Syracuse, Duke scares the heck out of me. I like our keeper and close D better than theirs but I'm not sure our rope unit can hold off their middies. Keep our fingers crossed and hope we pull a Lazarus like recovery.

 

[stpeteirish]

Syracuse/Virginia tomorrow and Duke/ UNC next Sat will be telling. Syracuse has been pretty bad, a four game losing streak. So if they're a "wounded animal" their wounds are making them impotent.

Duke has been impressive lately. But we just beat them in Durham. We've improved even more than they have.
Jake Taylor has been a tranformational insertion in our lineup. He's scored 18 goals in the four games since they started playing him.

 

[IrishLax]

ND needs to win both of the next two games to get in. Syracuse losing to a bunch of bad schools is absolutely tanking ND’s RPI and is a shame.

 

[IrishLax]

Bracketology seems to suggest that ND is currently the “last team in” and if they win out + no conference tournament upsets they will get in safely.

Right now there are a staggering FIVE Ivy League teams projected in — Princeton, Brown, Penn, Cornell, Yale. Every single one of those teams except maybe Princeton is objectively worse than ND… but RPI is a joke this year.

 

[irishrb]

ND needs to win both of the next two games to get in. Syracuse losing to a bunch of bad schools is absolutely tanking ND’s RPI and is a shame.

Bracketology seems to suggest that ND is currently the “last team in” and if they win out + no conference tournament upsets they will get in safely.

Right now there are a staggering FIVE Ivy League teams projected in — Princeton, Brown, Penn, Cornell, Yale. Every single one of those teams except maybe Princeton is objectively worse than ND… but RPI is a joke this year.

Yes, it is. That's actually insane, and quite unfortunate. I can't imagine the intensity of the ND/Duke game if it comes down to a play in game for those two.

 

[stpeteirish]

Good news is odds are that’s who’ll we’ll play if we get in …one of the ivy’s if not two

 

[Bridgegroom]

Ivy League is overrated this year. Watch come tournament time. All of them will fold like a cheap tent. MD, Duke, ND, and UVA if they can bracket wise. Maybe Georgetown will sneak in there instead of one of the ACC schools. That's it. Rutgers and OSU are pretenders, So is the entire Ivy League. BU is the only team in the Patriot League in the ballpark and they will lose to one of the final four teams in the quarters.

 

[Bridgegroom]

Nice offensive game. Still think the rope unit needs a lot of work to beat a top 5 team. Next week will be the litmus test vs Duke, who are on their perennial May arc. I'm betting the Irish win the game convincingly if their FOGO and keeper keep playing the way they are....

 

[stpeteirish]

Ivy League is overrated this year. Watch come tournament time. All of them will fold like a cheap tent. MD, Duke, ND, and UVA if they can bracket wise. Maybe Georgetown will sneak in there instead of one of the ACC schools. That's it. Rutgers and OSU are pretenders, So is the entire Ivy League. BU is the only team in the Patriot League in the ballpark and they will lose to one of the final four teams in the quarters.

Commentators on todays games suggested four of the eight first round host teams from the Ivy.

 

[IrishLax]

Commentators on todays games suggested four of the eight first round host teams from the Ivy.

Yeah, and the most overrated of the bunch is Penn by a country mile. ND probably beats them by 4+ goals. They won a bunch of close games against bad teams.

Princeton is actually good, Cornell and Yale are OK. Brown is on a weird upswing. But Harvard and Penn are both bad teams. It's likely that the Ivy League gets at least 4 teams in and ND would be head-to-head with Brown even if ND beats Duke.

 

[stpeteirish]

We’re sixth in the media poll and twelfth? in the RPI. The ESPN crew seemed to think the RPI will determine the at large bids and only the winner of ND/Duke will get in.

I’m having a hard time understanding how you can be that well thought of by the media and not get in. But those guys are better informed than I for sure.
Doesn’t the media pick the at large teams?

 

[IrishLax]

It's important to remember that there are only 8 at-large spots out of 18 total slots because of the way play-in games are structured. The ACC not having an AQ de facto takes away one more tourney spot for a "good" team.

I don't think it really matters who wins in Penn vs Brown, but I think you root for Penn. Regardless, I think the 4 Ivy League teams that made their tournament + Princeton all get in.

That leave 4 total at-large spots. One of those is for Rutgers, and one is for UVA. That means there are two more spots for Notre Dame, Harvard, Duke, Ohio State assuming everyone holds serve in their conference tournaments. Notre Dame takes care of Duke if they beat them head-to-head a second time. Ohio State is likely to lose to Rutgers which probably won't hurt them much, Harvard is already done.

It's like to be a Harvard vs ND discussion and I think ND gets in on the back of not wanting SIX Ivy league teams in the tournament when eyeball test says that they are simply not good.

 

[IrishLax]

We’re sixth in the media poll and twelfth? in the RPI. The ESPN crew seemed to think the RPI will determine the at large bids and only the winner of ND/Duke will get in.

I’m having a hard time understanding how you can be that well thought of by the media and not get in. But those guys are better informed than I for sure.
Doesn’t the media pick the at large teams?

The seeding criteria is all based on RPI and wins over highly rated RPI schools. It's totally effed up and has been for years but no one has done anything about it because all "systems" (whether NET for basketball or anything else) have major flaws. They need to go to a purely subjective committee a la football or they need to expand the field to 24. I'm not holding my breath for either. But there are too many AQs now and RPI doesn't work when there isn't enough cross-pollination between leagues -- ND played zero Ivy League schools, Duke played one, Virginia played zero, UNC played one, Syracuse played one.

ND, Duke, and UVA would all be favored over every single Ivy League school if they played them today. Only two (maybe only one!) of those schools will get in, while 5-6 Ivy League schools will.

 

[stpeteirish]

I guess we need to start playing some of the Ivy's even if it means home and home. And add some more games overall. Wins over small time teams have to be better than no wins. Has to be some that'll come to ND each year for a small check.

 

[irishrb]

It's important to remember that there are only 8 at-large spots out of 18 total slots because of the way play-in games are structured. The ACC not having an AQ de facto takes away one more tourney spot for a "good" team.

I don't think it really matters who wins in Penn vs Brown, but I think you root for Penn. Regardless, I think the 4 Ivy League teams that made their tournament + Princeton all get in.

That leave 4 total at-large spots. One of those is for Rutgers, and one is for UVA. That means there are two more spots for Notre Dame, Harvard, Duke, Ohio State assuming everyone holds serve in their conference tournaments. Notre Dame takes care of Duke if they beat them head-to-head a second time. Ohio State is likely to lose to Rutgers which probably won't hurt them much, Harvard is already done.

It's like to be a Harvard vs ND discussion and I think ND gets in on the back of not wanting SIX Ivy league teams in the tournament when eyeball test says that they are simply not good.

Ya, it's definitely crazy this year. IMO, ND absolutely gets in if they beat Duke. It should bump their RPI over Harvard to make an easy decision for them. Duke always seems to beat ND when it actually matters though so I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Bridgegroom]

I agree with playing a couple of the perennially strong Ivies just to keep the RPI more accurate. Insert two of the Midwestern team games on Wednesdays and replace the weekend slots with two Ivies, one home and one away. Maryland and OSU should remain on the schedule unless Rutgers can perform more consistently. Maybe a Loyola College and Georgetown every other year just to spice things up. Regarding this season, its simple, beat Duke and get in. If that happens and the team faces a top ranked Ivy in the first round, I'm convinced the Irish will win. Just better athletes across the board.

 

[IrishLax]

Big game coming up soon on ESPN2. ND vs Duke, winner is likely in the playoffs and loser is almost certainly out.

 

[IrishTusker]

Hopefully we can turn it around here. Duke owns ND in big games. (Although it seems like most teams do.)

 

[irishrb]

I freakin' hate Duke. ND just can't beat them when it matters. Defense looks lost and typical ND FOGO just can't get it done.

 

[IrishLax]

14-14, 6 minutes to go…..

 

[irishrb]

I freakin' hate Duke. ND just can't beat them when it matters. Defense looks lost and typical ND FOGO just can't get it done.

I'll eat it....FOGO absolutely just won the game for the Irish!! Let's GO!

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Justice.