Cornell-Syracuse Postgame

[Rita]

That was a very tough ending. I guess that is another reason why we are called the "Big Red", huge heartbreak losses that leave your bleeding heart lying in the open.

[Germ]

This makes three straight years of really bad endings in the NCAA tournament for the Big Red. I guess every ending is bad if you don't win it all but the last three have been particularly heartbreaking.

Tambroni will have to deal with this stinger for another 9 months.  I'm confident Pannell, Hurley, and Co. will come back hungry next year.  I know we did it this year after last year's collapse against Ohio State but remember we had 16 seniors this year.

[ugarte]

Was last year heartbreaking? Disappointing, sure, but I don't know about heartbreaking.

[Jacob '06]

During the game I was yelling that they shouldn't use the timeout on that last clear until they got it in the box, but in hindsight it probably would have been a good idea to set up a good plan for the clear. The other time I think they may have used the timeout was the turnover before that when Lang was stuck in the box being the posession guy when he is normally a ssdm. He had to either get the ball to Pannell or they needed to use a timeout so he didn't have it anymore, and his turnover led to the goal before the tying one. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

[Jim Hyla]

[quote Germ]We need more depth at midfield.  Can't do it with only 3-4 guys contributing on a consistent basis.  Cuse had more depth and,in the end, that made a big difference.  They also showed poise when it counted. (ie. they never panicked or lost composure)

Can't even think of blaming Moyer.  Without him 'Cuse would have had more possessions and probably 1-2 more goals.  Tambroni failed to call a TO with 28 seconds to go to set up a play and (more importantly) settle the guys down.  But even if he did Cuse still might have found a way to win.[/quote]Physical fatigue leads to mental errors. The real mistake was the coaches not calling TO when we got possession with 28 seconds to go. Call it and tell them to pass it in defensive zone till 15-20 sec used up. Then flip it down field and you're almost certain to win. Just can't flip it OOB, as you don't want any time to stop.


I hope the coaches take the blame off the players minds.

[Germ]

Yeah but...  As the coach, Tambroni should have been able to see that things were not "settled properly" at both of those moments.  I'm not blaming him though.  He normally is spot on with his timing of the TOs. (ex UVA and Princeton games)

It will just go down as one of the many "strange but true" things that happened during the last 4 minutes of play.

[Jim Hyla]

A few other thoughts:
Moyer is our MVP. Without him our defense is not the same and we could not dominate as we did in the tourney. He will be missed.

I hate sudden death in lacrosse. It's much worse than in hockey. Hockey has a lot of puck possession changes, not so in lacrosse. I'd rather go to the 2 OTs then sudden death. I know that in that option the team that gets the face-off just tries to hold for the last shot, but it's better than this.

[Germ]

Between Hockey and Lax we have two pretty big pills to swallow.  It's almost as if there's a curse on us or something.  Like the "curse of the Bambino" that plagued the Red Sox until 2004.  In fact, this game reminds me of the famous Sox-Mets game 6 of the '86 ws.  (Sox one out away from winning the series, nobody on base, two strikes on the batter, etc, etc)

Let's hope we don't have to go 86 years like they did to break the curse.

[gored]

I am not convinced this is true.  Not long ago Princeton dominated lacrosse and they have no scholarships either.  If Tambroni can build on the reputation he has created, the recruits will come.  We can be elite.  Maybe not as dominant as Syracuse, but then again nobody else is quite Syracuse.

[billhoward]

It was great to be one handhold from the mountaintop and crushing to not scale it completely. This is going to rank as one of the all-time Cornell heartbreakers along with having a 3-goal lead on Wisconsin in the NCAA hockey semis (1973) in the third period and getting tied with 5 seconds in regulation, then losing 6-5 in OT. (The other bracket was weaker so that was sort of the title game. This WAS the title game.) What else is this devastating? OK, Duke two years ago in lacrosse but that was a semifinal and that was one where we were primed to lose until that miracle comeback; here I think we felt as if we could win and it slipped away. Losing the 1987-88 lax title games maybe wasn't so heartbreaking because we really weren't expected to win (maybe more so than this year) or maybe because so much time has passed.

I was thrilled to be there. Saturday it was great to see us do the (according to the experts) impossible against Virginia. Monday it seemed like the dream would be, could be, realized when we went up 9-6. I'd do it again, pay those lofty ticket and bottled water prices, read the stupid $8 ode-to-the-NCAA official program, just to see Cornell play.

It was a small victory to see NYS teams sweep the board: JC title (Onandaga), DIII (Cortland St), DII (CW Post), DI. Except for LeMoyne (of Syracuse) being unable to undo CW Post (LI), it was an all-upstate affair for (men's) lacrosse championships. The Syracuse fans was almost universally friendly before, during, and after the game. It was nice that it was't Duke, Virginia, or Hopkins in the title game. (And the Virginia fans who came back Monday were complimentary.) Much as we love to hate Bill Tierney, I think Princeton belonged in the Final Four in place of probably Duke or maybe Virginia. The season-end poll should be 1 Syracuse, 1A Cornell, 3 Princeton.

I know what Tambroni did wrong in the last 20 seconds of the game (after seeing what we did do didn't work out) and what he should have done once we got possession in OT. I'm a little less certain I know how he got us to 13-3 heading into the title game. Michigan State football coach Duffy Daughterty said, more or less: Any fool can tell the coach what play he should have called come Monday morning. Try picking the right play in25 seconds Saturday afternoon."

One of the things that makes sports great is there's no scripted ending. Every movie, the hero nails the bad guy and gets the girl. Here, it isn't over till it's over.

Seems as if 2010 will be a rebuilding year. But then this wasn't supposed to be a final four year either and then along came Rob Pannell. This year's midfield goes away but two-thirds of the starting attack is back. We lose Matt Moyer but we always lose our best defensement and recover. We lose the goalie but that was a weak spot all season. Except in the last two games. Myers definitely did not lose the game for us and I thought that might well have been the difference in why we would have gone down to Virginia. He becamed a different player after Hofstra.

The mid- to long-term key to Cornell's future is keeping Jeff Tambroni at Cornell. If you can't give scholarships to the players, compensate as best you can by having the best coach.

[Germ]

[quote ugarte]Was last year heartbreaking? Disappointing, sure, but I don't know about heartbreaking.[/quote]

Yep, heartbreaking because any time we get schooled 15-8 at home in the NCAAs to a lower-seeded Great Western team it breaks my heart.

[Germ]

[quote gored]I am not convinced this is true.  Not long ago Princeton dominated lacrosse and they have no scholarships either.  If Tambroni can build on the reputation he has created, the recruits will come.  We can be elite.  Maybe not as dominant as Syracuse, but then again nobody else is quite Syracuse.[/quote]

The recruits HAVE come (Seibald, Glynn, Mcgonagle (sp), Hurley, Pittard, Mitchell, Moyer, Belisle, Pannell, etc) and we ARE elite (depends on how you determine elite I suppose).  But all this won't bring a championship.  Just look at what happened in '07 and now '09.  

We didn't need any other players than those that were on the roster today. (three 1st team AA, one 3rd team AA was as good as any other team) Title game, 3:50 to play, up by 3, and we have the ball. We just didn't get it done.

[ugarte]

A lot of people have mentioned that Tambroni should have called time out to set up the clear but nobody has asked why nobody called time when Moyer got trapped at the midfield line. Would it have been legal for Siebald (for instance) to call time before Syracuse knocked the ball free, giving Cornell a restart with 15 or so seconds remaining?

[Jacob '06]

[quote ugarte]A lot of people have mentioned that Tambroni should have called time out to set up the clear but nobody has asked why nobody called time when Moyer got trapped at the midfield line. Would it have been legal for Siebald (for instance) to call time before Syracuse knocked the ball free, giving Cornell a restart with 15 or so seconds remaining?[/quote]

No, you have to wait until the ball gets past the top line of the restraining box, either in the alley or the box itself.

[srg1]

I have the end of the Duke game from two years ago on my Tivo along with the new Syracuse game.  I now torture myself and flip back and forth between the end of both games.  It is pretty painful.  

Moyer simply made a bad decision not to throw the ball downfield.  I am not fully aware of lacrosse strategy, but why didn't a long stick throw the ball in to Seibald?  Wouldn't that make more sense?  Is that allowed?  

I do believe that Cornell started celebrating their victory too early.  They played with a lack of urgency towards the end of the game.  It was almost as if they didn't want to believe they could actually lose the lead.