Lax on TV: logos, scores obscure the game

Maybe a few more of the lacrosse studs should upon graduation go run ESPN or CSTV rather than head to Wall Street. Then there'd be more voices of reason getting the scoreboard graphic off the top left of the screen where it obscures the goaltender when the attacking team is going right to left across your screen.

I suppose we should be thankful for any Cornell lacrosse on TV. I suppose it's too much to ask for to hope for an HD feed any time soon. Lacrosse, like hockey and other small ball sports, reall benefits from the extra resolution. Imagine in five, ten years when we have a 4000-line display?

BTW when the stock footage ran at the top of the ESPN show, did I miss seeing the Big Red, or was it mostly other schools?

billhoward
BTW when the stock footage ran at the top of the ESPN show, did I miss seeing the Big Red, or was it mostly other schools?

I recall two Cornell clips--one against Princeton and the other was so quick I didn't catch the opponent. Likely also Princeton, as the weekly lacrosse show on ESPNU had a number of clips from that game--many of them showing Hewit making amazing saves on point-blank Cornell shots.

Separate topic: If you look at the first-round matchups, there is a clear geographic alignment. About the only change that would have made it even cleaner would have been to match UMBC with Hopkins and Penn with Princeton, rather than the other way around. They either didn't want a Penn-Princeton rematch or felt that UMBC was clearly stronger than Penn and that, since either way there would be relatively short drives, Hopkins deserved the weaker opponent. Similarly, they could have swapped UMass to Syracuse and Harvard to Cornell, but again would have set up rematches, and I think UMass would be perceived as the tougher opponent--so should go against the lower seed.

Lastly, I think had we beaten Syracuse we would have been seeded ahead of them and perhaps Hopkins, and maybe even ahead of Hofstra. That loss really hurt--or perhaps it would be more accurate to say not getting that quality win really hurt.

Al DeFlorio

billhoward
BTW when the stock footage ran at the top of the ESPN show, did I miss seeing the Big Red, or was it mostly other schools?

I recall two Cornell clips--one against Princeton and the other was so quick I didn't catch the opponent. Likely also Princeton, as the weekly lacrosse show on ESPNU had a number of clips from that game--many of them showing Hewit making amazing saves on point-blank Cornell shots.

Separate topic: If you look at the first-round matchups, there is a clear geographic alignment. About the only change that would have made it even cleaner would have been to match UMBC with Hopkins and Penn with Princeton, rather than the other way around. They either didn't want a Penn-Princeton rematch or felt that UMBC was clearly stronger than Penn and that, since either way there would be relatively short drives, Hopkins deserved the weaker opponent. Similarly, they could have swapped UMass to Syracuse and Harvard to Cornell, but again would have set up rematches, and I think UMass would be perceived as the tougher opponent--so should go against the lower seed. Lastly, I think had we beaten Syracuse we would have been seeded ahead of them and perhaps Hopkins, and maybe even ahead of Hofstra. That loss really hurt--or perhaps it would be more accurate to say not getting that quality win really hurt.

Agreed, we should have beaten Syracuse. Penn is the flukier loss, but Syracuse we should have taken down. Lord knows where we'd be if we hadn't taken out Princeton, too.

It's easy to argue any side of the coin, and here's one (or two) you have to give to the seeding committee:

1. Making it a North regional and a South regional is good for the fans. They can go see the games, usually no more than a 2-3 hour drive from home or from campus.

2. Making it a North regional and a South regional means that even if the Johnny Reb chauvinists, the spiritual descendants of the polling committee that screwed over Cornell in the late 1960s and in 1970, believe their brand of lacrosse is better, purer, and higher quality than the Indian / Canadian / barely-defrosted-turf brand the Yankees play, they're making sure that two North teams advance to the final four.

Trivia question: How many times have New England teams been in the final four in the tournament's 35 years? Yale made it circa 1990 and UMass has been there. I'd love to see UMass in the FF ... just not this year. The farther a FF time hails from Baltimore, the more dispiriting it must be to old time lacrosse purists.

billhoward
[2. Making it a North regional and a South regional means that even if the Johnny Reb chauvinists, the spiritual descendants of the polling committee that screwed over Cornell in the late 1960s and in 1970, believe their brand of lacrosse is better, purer, and higher quality than the Indian / Canadian / barely-defrosted-turf brand the Yankees play, they're making sure that two North teams advance to the final four.

It's not quite so "North" regional and "South" regional. Hopkins and Syracuse are slotted to play at Stony Brook if both advance, and I'd be very surprised if both don't. And Princeton will face Maryland at Towson if they get by UMBC--which is likely. If seedings hold, there will be two north-vs.-south quarterfinal matchups (Princeton-Maryland and Syracuse-Hopkins) and I think the "north" teams have a good shot at winning both. Only one "north" team is assured a final four slot: the survivor of Hofstra/Providence vs. Cornell/UMass.

billhoward
Trivia question: How many times have New England teams been in the final four in the tournament's 35 years? Yale made it circa 1990 and UMass has been there.

Yale in 1990 and Brown in 1994.

Lacrosse is still an exclusive club at the top. Only seven teams have won it all since the tournament began in 1971: Hopkins, Syracuse, Princeton, Virginia, UNC, Cornell, and Maryland--and the last two haven't done it since 1977 and 1975, respectively.