Lax: NCAA 1st round vs. Ohio State (pre-game)

Ohio State is loads of fun. Not as entertaining as Albany 2007, but if you dig fast-paced offense and aggressive defense, then the Buckeyes are the team to watch in this year's tournament. It's a shame that Great Western Lacrosse League teams aren't on TV more. With three GWLL teams in the NCAA tournament and all eight of this weekend's first-round games on ESPNU, at least they'll get a brief moment in the sun.

Brian Delaney's article in today's Ithaca Journal totally nailed it -- Ohio State's 2008 team is going to look mighty familiar to Cornell fans. With a defense that extends to the edges, a hard ride, a dangerous transition game, a high-powered offense with good shooters, a brilliant dodging middie who can shoot on the run with both hands (Kevin Buchanon), and a left-handed Canadian attackman (Joel Dalgarno), they look a lot like last year's Cornell team. They're even having a miserable time at the faceoff X, just like Cornell '07. (They're not a perfect match; unlike Cornell '07, the Bucks don't have an All-Universe goalie and defenseman, nor do they have playoff experience.) If you want to see something scary, watch highlights here of Ohio State opening a can of whupass on North Carolina at Boys' Latin in Baltimore.

Ohio State will score goals against Cornell. Maybe a whole bunch. (Don't take any comfort in Ohio State's 9-2 loss to Notre Dame in the GWLL championship game; the Irish have great defenders, and their goalie Kemp played one of the best games any goalie has played this season, making 18 saves.) It's a good match-up for the Bucks' offense. They have the talent to prey on Cornell's weak links, and their extra-man unit -- one of the very best in the nation at 48 percent -- will burn Cornell if the Big Red's defense reverts to the overzealous play that drew so many flags earlier this season (that's you, Mr. Gradinger).

The answer, of course, is don't let them have the ball. How cool is to have a good, deep face-off unit for a change? After so many years of misery, Cornell is now ranked fourth in the nation in team faceoff winning percentage (61 percent). The depth of the unit permits to throw size/style curveballs (wee quick Glynn and big strong Schmicker, spelled by unorthodox Seibald) and wear down opponents. This unit not only wins possessions -- they score at least a goal a game within seconds of the draw, and they're all capable of playing solid defense when they lose faceoffs.

Ohio State will counter by pushing their defense out to the edges of Cornell's offense and trying to force the issue with Cornell's turnover-prone midfielders. If Cornell's offensive players can stay mentally focused, move off-ball and find the open man, there will be plenty of opportunities to get easy goals. Only one other team, Denver, has tried to be super-aggressive on defense against Cornell this season, and the Big Red dropped 20 on them by working the ball inside. Ohio State has a better goalie, but Schroder won't stand a chance if his defenders take too many risks.

Cornell needs to demoralize Ohio State by coming out fast in the first and third quarters. If they don't -- and if Buchanon and Dalgarno start feeling confident and throwing all kinds of stuff at Myers -- look out.

Can't wait.

Thanks as always for your detailed and entertaining analysis, Hillel - I would've watched the game on TV this Saturday regardless, but I know I'll enjoy and appreciate it more having soaked all this up.

Go Red!

When I hear deny them the ball, I imagine that Tambroni will go to a slow-down game against the fast paced offense. My impression with when we go slow down is that we think too much and start making mistakes. Ref. Duke in the 2006 playoffs and Princeton this year.

This does not make me comfortable.

Jeff Hopkins '82
When I hear deny them the ball, I imagine that Tambroni will go to a slow-down game against the fast paced offense. My impression with when we go slow down is that we think too much and start making mistakes. Ref. Duke in the 2006 playoffs and Princeton this year.

This does not make me comfortable.

Add Navy in the 2004 QF.

duke is up 11-4 in the 4th. looks like theyll be playing in ithaca next sunday

What does "WD>WS"on the back of our warm-up shirts mean?

2-0 OSU early, including a goalie-goal and a man-down goal.

Looks like the team has been caught thinking ahead to Duke in the early going.

This is embarrassing. I don't know how they could be thinking about Duke. Ohio State beat some good teams during the season.

I doubt they're looking ahead, I more think the bad Cornell team showed up (so far) this week, which is no big surprise this year.

Well, whatever the reason,sucks to see us getting steamrolled.

Time for a goalie change?

It would be nice if we could get a save at some point in this game.

I should stop watching. I did that last year against Duke and when I turned the TV on again, we had just tied the score. Boy was it heart breaking to lose that game.

Jacob '06
It would be nice if we could get a save at some point in this game.

.

I'm only slightly more hopeful about Cornell's chances given UMBC's rally last week from 11-2 down.

Of course UMBC had cut it to 11-4 by halftime last week.

I don't think I can remember a worse half for Cornell lacrosse. No O, no D, no clearing,no goaltending, and I'm guessing Cornell's behind on faceoffs, too. Yikes.

Al DeFlorio
I don't think I can remember a worse half for Cornell lacrosse. No O, no D, no clearing,no goaltending, and I'm guessing Cornell's behind on faceoffs, too. Yikes.

Given Al's vast historical knowledge, that is unfortunately saying a lot right there.

So, time to vent. I got a bad feeling when Schroder scored to open the game, and the nausea has only increased. Hard to imagine a worse performance. It looks like we are in quicksand as OSU blows by our D, and we are getting absolutely no open looks on O. The comparative speeds of the two teams is stunning. We are losing the vast majority of ground balls. And the goaltending (can the kid from Ithaca High get his diploma a year early?)

Today's game really brings to mind how remarkable our in-close passing was last year; even though we've had a pretty good season (exceeding many expectations), I have never seen us with anbywhere near the crisp passing from 2007. All half it seemed that our offensive strategy was to simply try to bull our way from behind the net; the few passes made off the slide were innefective. How the heck did we score 20 on Denver and 15 on Hobart (and how did OSU only get 2 against Notre Dame)?

Let's see how they come out the second half.

Gametracker has us up 8-6 in faceoffs at the half and tied in groundballs - the other stats are horrible.

12-2.

12-3.

14-5, time running out (9 mins to go).

15-6, under 3 mins to go.

15-7, in a last bid to make it respectable, 2:01 to go.

15-7 final, Cornell season ends.

The New York Times started a pre-tournament blog by Danny Nathan, but it seems to have only lasted a day.

As sample, from right after the selection show:

Danny Nathan blog
10:05 p.m. — Interview with the Ithaca Journal’s Brian Delaney. I respond with cookie cutter non-controversial answers as our team has been brilliantly trained to do by our fantastic sports information director, Julie Greco. I blatantly lie to Delaney, telling him that I wasn’t thinking about the possibility of playing Duke in the second round, the team that ended our road to the championship in the Final Four last season. Revenge would be sweet, but truth be told, I couldn’t be more focused on playing a dangerous Ohio State team. Our upperclassmen learned a hard lesson in 2006 when we looked past UMass and lost at home in the first round. When playing a high-caliber team like Ohio State, the moment you lose focus is the moment you get upset on your home field.