Cornell v. Towson pre-game

[Rita]

[quote Hillel Hoffmann][quote Al DeFlorio]...and, yes, I know about the 6-5 1988 Cornell team that got to the finals before losing.[/quote]
Thank you, Al. I'm glad someone brought up that team before we opened up another bag of fresh and tasty Righteous Indignation Chips.

Going into the season, was there a veteran college lacrosse fan here who actually thought that the current tournament selection and seeding system wasn't stupid, unfair, redundant, inconsistently applied, lacking transparency and set up to reward independent and Atlantic Coast Conference teams? (Newcomers to following the game closely are forgiven for getting huffy.)

Free red "21" t-shirt to the first person who creates a new thread about the Towson game with at least one unit of analysis, scouting or some such.[/quote]

Okay Hillel, I'll bite. I'm not sure what analysis I can provide, but my "googling" (and procrastination!) skills are quite adequate and I can post a link to the numbers for others to comment on .


I hear that face-offs are one of Cornell's weaknesses. Towson is about 45% on face-offs. For comparison, listed below are the face-off stats for the ACC and Cornell is at 51% for the season. Seems like we have a slight edge in that area.

Okay, I have to go back to my "day job".:-P

FACEOFF PERCENT
## Team                 GP    Won  Lost   Pct
---------------------------------------------
 1.North Carolina...... 14    198   131  .602
 2.Virginia............ 15    190   147  .564
 3.Duke................ 16    176   181  .493
 4.Maryland............ 15    149   174  .461

[Hillel Hoffmann]

Can't think of a better winner. Please send me a private message with your address (or where I can find you at an upcoming tournament game).

[redhair34]

I'm guessing they are well coached (disciplined, low turnovers, lots of assisted goals).  But, nothing really jumps out from their stats.  Balanced scoring, and avg. goaltending.  If the faceoff man (Eckerl) Hillel referred to has healed up, that may be our main concern.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote redhair34]I'm guessing they are well coached (disciplined, low turnovers, lots of assisted goals). [/quote]
Well, Seaman almost pulled off the upset of the century against Syracuse at the Dome in the 1988 semifinals.  Led the Gaits et al until the very end of the game, despite the legendary "Air Gait" goal against them.  I suspect that one game won him the Hopkins coaching job.

Cornell walloped Virginia in the other semi and, had Penn been able to hold on against Syracuse, we might have had a fourth national championship that year.  Syracuse just had too much for us.

[Liz '05]

Looking around the LaxPower forums, I found these tidbits:

Towson's Justin Schneider was hurt in the Delaware-Towson game over the weekend.  His teammate's shot hit him in the back of the neck.  Luckily, it doesn't seem to be serious, and the trip he took to the hospital was precautionary.

Eckerl, the faceoff guy, seems to have not done very well last weekend. [q][q]Did Coach Seaman complain about the face-offs? [/q]

I didn't see Seaman complain. Hard to complain when Smith left Eckerl bent over the X while Smith was 5-10 yards out in front of him. We went to the game just to watch Smith in action, he didn't disappoint. He was awesome![/q]
Smith is Delaware's faceoff specialist, with a season average of .745 (yikes!).  Towson only won a third of the day's faceoffs (7 of 21 total, while the first half was a meager 2 of 12), though I assume that Eckerl wasn't the only one taking them.

First Team CAA players from Towson:
Bobby Griebe (A)
Matthew Mehrer (D)
Goalie Matt Antol and middie Brian Vetter gathered second team honors.  Towson fans are a bit miffed than Engelke didn't get on the list.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote Liz '05]Towson's Justin Schneider was hurt in the Delaware-Towson game over the weekend.  His teammate's shot hit him in the back of the neck.[/quote]
With what?  Sounds like Miami football.**]

[billhoward]

Faceoffs are just one form of possession change, along with:

ground balls
clears/rides
loss of possession penalties
possession after shot
bad passes

I wonder which of those stats is the one a team can do the most about (relative to the norm for all teams).

[Liz '05]

[quote Al DeFlorio][quote Liz '05]Towson's Justin Schneider was hurt in the Delaware-Towson game over the weekend.  His teammate's shot hit him in the back of the neck.[/quote]
With what?  Sounds like Miami football.**][/quote]
Presumably the lacrosse ball, though nothing I saw stated so explicitly :-}

[ebilmes]

I'm sorry, but this irks me.

Unfortunately, your Big Red Sports Pass does not admit you to post season playoff games. This game is an NCAA event and is not included in the regular season schedule for which the BRSP is valid.  We apologize for this inconvenience but hope you decide to attend the game and support your Big Red lacrosse team.  

If they're looking for a good crowd in the middle of finals, charging students $5 isn't the way to go.

[oceanst41]

[quote billhoward]Faceoffs are just one form of possession change, along with:

ground balls
clears/rides
loss of possession penalties
possession after shot
bad passes

I wonder which of those stats is the one a team can do the most about (relative to the norm for all teams).[/quote]

I feel like ground balls, rides and after shot possession are similar in that hustle is a big factor. I know hustle is a hand wavy quality to look at, but I feel like the better conditioned, more prepared team will fight for more ground balls, attack the opponent's clear more, and race after more shots to gain possession.

Then again, not taking dumb penalties and not make bad passes can go a long way to winning a game.

[quote eblimes]If they're looking for a good crowd in the middle of finals, charging students $5 isn't the way to go[/quote]

So I guess charging $3 for students on Slope Day wasn't a good idea either. ::drunk:: Hopefully everyone will show up and support the team anyway.

[billhoward]

What's five more singles on top of $45K? Maybe you can stay home and watch on the Big Red sports pass ... or is that a premium charged event, also?

[redhair34]

[quote ebilmes]I'm sorry, but this irks me.

Unfortunately, your Big Red Sports Pass does not admit you to post season playoff games. This game is an NCAA event and is not included in the regular season schedule for which the BRSP is valid.  We apologize for this inconvenience but hope you decide to attend the game and support your Big Red lacrosse team.  

If they're looking for a good crowd in the middle of finals, charging students $5 isn't the way to go.[/quote]

I'm pretty sure the NCAA gets the vast majority (over 70%) of the ticket gate money.  So they would have to pay the NCAA for every attendee with a BRSP.  This situation is analogous to what happens in the ECAC playoffs. Consequently, student attendance sometimes drops at schools where the students are usually admitted for free.

[Chris '03]

NCAA makes them charge. I think the band has run into this in the past (even at home) when there are more than 25 instrumentalists. It would be a nice gesture though if athletics picked up 1 or 2 dollars of the tab for those with the pass.

I am patiently waiting for my "you can't watch this on all-access" release on Friday at 3pm.

[ugarte]

[quote Chris '03]
I am patiently waiting for my "you can't watch this on all-access" release on Saturday at 2pm.[/quote]FYP.

[BCrespi]

[quote billhoward]What's five more singles on top of $45K? Maybe you can stay home and watch on the Big Red sports pass ... or is that a premium charged event, also?[/quote]

For many, I'd imagine their parents' $45K does not affect their decision on whether to spend $5 on their ticket or another beer (or two, depending on bar of choice).