NCAA Lax Selections

[Josh '99]

#1 Duke vs. Providence
#8 North Carolina vs. Navy

#5 Albany vs. Loyola
#4 Cornell vs. Towson

#6 Georgetown vs. Princeton
#3 Johns Hopkins vs. Notre Dame

#7 Maryland vs. UMBC
#2 Virginia vs. Delaware

[Jacob '06]

Their criteria suck. There is no way Hopkins should have been ahead of us, they had 4 losses.

[Josh '99]

I was going to say the same thing.  Maybe Duke with the two losses, I guess, but UVa with 3 and Hopkins with 4?  I'm sorry, that's dumb.

[redhair34]

What's the scouting report on Towson?  Similar team to the one we faced two years ago?

[Hillel Hoffmann]

You're focusing on the wrong things. It's all about the match-ups. Although Towson is dangerous (more on that later), I'd rather play them than red-hot Delaware (with the best faceoff man in the nation) or Notre Dame. This is not as bad a draw for Cornell as the seeding would imply.

[redhair34]

They don't reseed after any of the rounds, right?  I can't seem to remember from previous seasons.

[Josh '99]

[quote redhair34]What's the scouting report on Towson?  Similar team to the one we faced two years ago?[/quote]I don't know a whole lot about them, but one thing I see from their team stats page that's encouraging:

Code Select Expand

## FACE-OFF PCT.         GP   W   L  Pct.
 ------------------------------------------
 1  Eckerl, Matt          11  91 106  .462
 9  Rosensweig, Mitchell  15  36  44  .450
 23 Brakebill, Clint      13  19  24  .442
 41 Geary, Danny           3   1   4  .200

[redhair34]

[quote Josh '99][quote redhair34]What's the scouting report on Towson?  Similar team to the one we faced two years ago?[/quote]I don't know a whole lot about them, but one thing I see from their team stats page that's encouraging:

Code Select Expand

## FACE-OFF PCT.         GP   W   L  Pct.
 ------------------------------------------
 1  Eckerl, Matt          11  91 106  .462
 9  Rosensweig, Mitchell  15  36  44  .450
 23 Brakebill, Clint      13  19  24  .442
 41 Geary, Danny           3   1   4  .200

[/quote]

Good!  IIRC that wasn't the case two years ago.

[billhoward]

On the bright side:

At least we got home ice. Er, field.
If we advance: Quarterfinals at Princeton (says InsideLacrosse), closer to home.
[edit add:]Added incentive to prove the seeding committee wrong or the criteria bogus.

However: If we advance again (no reseeding, right) -- Semifinals could pit Cornell and Duke. Lot of people may argue this would be the title game.

[Hillel Hoffmann]

Towson's primary faceoff man Eckerl is excellent, but he has been hampered by an injury for much of the season. His numbers are artificially depressed because he missed several midseason games when he could have cleaned up, and when he returned he had to face a gauntlet of superb faceoff men -- including Delaware's Smith (twice in less than a month). If he had faced off against the faceoff specialists on Cornell's schedule, I bet you could add at least 10 percent.

[Jacob '06]

Isn't albany a bad matchup for us? From what I remember they have a very strong offensive midfield, and our weakness is our ssdm.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Also concerning is if slumping Albany can't hold off Loyola, we get to play Loyola with their face-off experts.

Ah, well.  Hopefully I'll see everyone in Annapolis in a couple weeks.

I assume we're in Annapolis from the seeding, right?

[Hillel Hoffmann]

[quote Jacob '06]Isn't albany a bad matchup for us? From what I remember they have a very strong offensive midfield, and our weakness is our ssdm.[/quote]

Both Albany and Loyola present match-up problems.

Albany has a kick-ass midfield, no doubt about it. Jordan Levine was one of the three best midfielders I saw all year (the others being Johns Hopkins' Paul Rabil and Cornell's John Glynn). The Ammann brothers are super too.

Loyola has the great faceoff game -- and it's not just Kallaugher, the grad student and former Yalie.

But look at the teams that Duke, Virginia, and Johns Hopkins might have to play should the top three seeds advance. Cornell's draw could be so much worse.

[Josh '99]

IC makes the DIII tournament and gets a decent matchup; they go to Pennsylvania to play Cabrini, who were 15-2 but against a very weak schedule.

[Hillel Hoffmann]

Answers to some earlier questions:

No, they don't reseed after each round.

No, if Cornell beats Towson they are not playing in Annapolis. They'd advance to play a quarterfinal game in Princeton on Saturday the 19th -- a better location, a familiar venue (site of 2005 quarters), a more favorable surface, you name it.