Lacrosse May 2012

[billhoward]

Maryland forgets to bring their A or B game, can't score in the final three quarters, Loyola rolls 9-3 to the NCAA title. Some years, 9 goals in Gillette is enough to win . It felt as if the field this year wasn't as strong going into the title game and the Terps were unworthy finalists, but Loyola looked sharp. Nice that an ECAC team wins a national championship. Nice that an unranked team made it as far as Maryland did. And Maryland remains one team (1975) that has waited even longer than Cornell since its last NCAA lax title.

[Josh '99]

Loyola up 6-3 on Maryland after 3 quarters.  This is only their second trip to the title game after losing 21-9 to Syracuse in 1990 (which SU had to vacate because Paul Gait was ineligible).

9-3 Loyola, final.  First ever championship for the Greyhounds, always nice to see.

[kingpin248]

Loyola up 6-3 on Maryland after 3 quarters.  This is only their second trip to the title game after losing 21-9 to Syracuse in 1990 (which SU had to vacate because Paul Gait was ineligible).

9-3 Loyola, final.  First ever championship for the Greyhounds, always nice to see.

A few other superlatives, both positive and negative:
Eric Lusby, who injured his knee in the 2010 first round game at Schoellkopf, scored four goals to take the record for most goals in a single tournament (17).
Loyola is the first #1 seed to win since 2006. Maryland sets the record for fewest goals by a team in a championship game (previously 4 by Syracuse, 1985).
Announced attendance today was 30,816 - lowest since the championship went into NFL stadiums in 2003.

[billhoward]

Attendance at the NCAA lacrosse final four weekend was the lowest in a decade, which has the NCAA worried that more fans should be seeing this wonderful pageant in person. They're considering downsizing to smaller stadiums or moving the finals weekend back into June. See http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/05/28/championship-weekend-attendance-lowest-2002-change-could-be-coming.

This year's championship weekend attendance of 79,595 (31,774 Saturday, 17,005 Sunday and 30,816 Monday) was the lowest for the Final Four since 2002, the last time the event wasn't held in an NFL stadium. And at nearly 20,000 fans off last year's total and more than 40,000 from the high of 123,225 (52,004 for the Semifinals) who watched in Baltimore in 2007, the downward trend — weekend attendance increased every year from 2003-2007 and has decreased every year since — is definitely alarming ... Lacrosse fans were talking about the potential of selling out an NFL venue five years ago, and now it's a more likely possibility that the event moves to a smaller stadium after Philadelphia (2013) and Baltimore (2014) host the next two Final Fours.

The story is a little tough to follow, either the prose itself or the thoughts of those quoted, such as our own ex-ECAC commissioner Phil Buttafuoco (now Executive Director of Lacrosse at Gillete Stadium), "People are starting to make a lot of decisions that are affecting this event. We need to collectively evaluate how we can get the event back on track to where we all want it to be, and identify where we can make those improvements and make a commitment to do it."

Maybe the NCAA is overthinking this: The 2012 finalists were from Maryland, North Carolina and Indiana, 300-plus miles away, and Loyola is a dinky school. It's hard for 4,000 undergrads to fill Gillette Stadium. If the final had been UMass-Cornell ...

[Al DeFlorio]

Maybe the NCAA is overthinking this: The 2012 finalists were from Maryland, North Carolina and Indiana, 300-plus miles away, and Loyola is a dinky school. It's hard for 4,000 undergrads to fill Gillette Stadium. If the final had been UMass-Cornell ...

Attendance wasn't much better last year in Baltimore (36,000 vs. 31,000 for the championship game), where one of the teams playing on Monday was the state's flagship campus, located a short drive down the interstate from the stadium, having nearly 40,000 students, and with hundreds of thousands of alums within easy driving distance.  It was 92 degrees in Baltimore yesterday, with a heat index close to 100.  Anyone for a cold frosty?

[billhoward]

Al, I thought I made a logical argument (Gillette located too far from the final four teams) that would have worked other than the facts you cited (attendance already slipping last year when the finalists were local). Perhaps the NCAA is starting to worry about sticker shock from ticket prices which are about $100 (?) for semifinals and finals together. They need the money to keep producing those "Go Pro in Something Other Than Sports" spots and research ways to show athletes have higher GPAs than similar non-jocks, although I don't think those stats extend to the final four teams in basketball. The Kentucky projected graduation rate among starters the last two years is what, zero?

They'll probably conlude it's the running blog by the student papers that kills attendance.

[billhoward]

Peter Baum, the Colgate junior, won the Tewaaraton Trophy Thursday. http://blog.syracuse.com/sports/2012/05/colgates_peter_baum_wins_the_t.html "Baum won from a group of finalists that included Duke's C.J. Costabile, Massachusetts' Will Manny, Loyola's Mike Sawyer and Virginia's Steele Stanwicke, who won the award last year. The women's finalists included [winner Maryland's Katie] Schwarzmann, [Syracuse's Michelle] Tumolo, Florida's Brittany Dashiell, North Carolina's Becky Lynch and Northwestern's Taylor Thornton."

Unlike last year, when Rob Pannell and Steele Stanwick split player of the year awards, this year Baum also won the USILA's Enners Award as the Outstanding  Player of the Year. http://www.usila.org/awards.htmlhttp://www.usila.org/awards.html Does "Outstanding" as a prefix to "Player of the Year" sound redundant? Why not just go all the way and say Totally Outstanding Meta World Peace Player of the Year and see if the USILA can engrave that on a watch.

I didn't realize Baum has one year to go, assuming no freak injuries.

[semsox]

Baum definitely won the award out of circumstance.  If Duke won, pretty sure Constabile would have won it.  Loyola did win, but Sawyer was overshadowed by Lusby in the post-season (had Lusby been the finalist instead of Sawyer, he would have won it).  If UVA didn't win the title last year, Rob almost certainly would have won it.

On the bright side, hopefully Rob will have another shot at it next year.

[billhoward]

Baum definitely won the award out of circumstance.  If Duke won, pretty sure Constabile would have won it.  Loyola did win, but Sawyer was overshadowed by Lusby in the post-season (had Lusby been the finalist instead of Sawyer, he would have won it).  If UVA didn't win the title last year, Rob almost certainly would have won it. On the bright side, hopefully Rob will have another shot at it next year.

Still trying to figure out what makes the Tewaaraton player of the year award the hotter trophy than the USILA's Enners player of the year award.

[scoop85]

Baum definitely won the award out of circumstance.  If Duke won, pretty sure Constabile would have won it.  Loyola did win, but Sawyer was overshadowed by Lusby in the post-season (had Lusby been the finalist instead of Sawyer, he would have won it).  If UVA didn't win the title last year, Rob almost certainly would have won it.

On the bright side, hopefully Rob will have another shot at it next year.

I don't understand why the Tewaaraton folks feel compelled to name five finalists before the final four, especially since post-season outcomes clearly affects the results (i.e., as in 2011).  Although I have no problem with Baum winning the award, it would have been interesting to see how it had shaken out had Lusby been in the running.

[Al DeFlorio]

Baum definitely won the award out of circumstance.  If Duke won, pretty sure Constabile would have won it.  Loyola did win, but Sawyer was overshadowed by Lusby in the post-season (had Lusby been the finalist instead of Sawyer, he would have won it).  If UVA didn't win the title last year, Rob almost certainly would have won it. On the bright side, hopefully Rob will have another shot at it next year.

Still trying to figure out what makes the Tewaaraton player of the year award the hotter trophy than the USILA's Enners player of the year award.

Effective marketing.  It's a shame.  Baum deserved both the Tewaaraton and the Enners, regardless of the NCAA tournament outcome.

[jkahn]

Peter Baum, the Colgate junior, won the Tewaaraton Trophy Thursday.

Colgate came really close to getting both the Hobey Baker and Tewaarton in the same year.

[Al DeFlorio]

Unfortunately the Tewaaraton Foundation website hasnt put a press release up on their website
But a well deserved recognition for coach Moran

http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/05/03/richie-moran-receive-2012-spirit-tewaaraton-award

Nice Inside Lacrosse piece on Richie: http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2012/06/07/beyond-xs-and-os-spirit-tewaaraton-winner-and-legendary-coach-richie-moran

[Weder]

Official announcement of the incoming class: http://cornellbigred.com/news/2012/6/25/MLAX_0625121251.aspx

[Al DeFlorio]

Matt Rewkowski heading to Georgetown: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/georgetown-lacrosse-set-to-name-matt-rewkowski-and-brian-phipps-as-assistant-coaches/2012/08/21/e297086a-ec07-11e1-9ddc-340d5efb1e9c_story.html