Seeded 7th -- Facing Loyola

[Swampy]

It looked to me like we had a change in strategy after the half against Princeton and I suspect the same thing happened last year against SU. It looks we had a big lead and tried to slow down the tempo of the game to use the clock. That worked last year against Princeton but that was a very different team.

From my perspective you just can't do that against high quality teams especially teams as dangerous as SU eventually they will find a weakness and strip the ball. Relentless scoring pressure coupled with solid D is the only way to win against first ranked teams.

I was really impressed with the ground ball game against the Tigers.

I also didn't like how easily Princeton seemed to beat us one-on-one. For the winning goal it seemed predictable that McBride would try to beat his man, and he did. Everyone else on Princeton seemed to clear out, but the defender (who?) neither had help nor was able to handle McBride by himself. (We used to run the same play on a youth lacrosse team I coached. The play wasn't rocket science.)

[Al DeFlorio]

Arggh.  ESPNU kicks off Saturday's round of NCAA lacrosse games at 10am with a re-run of last year's championship game.

[Towerroad]

Arggh.  ESPNU kicks off Saturday's round of NCAA lacrosse games at 10am with a re-run of last year's championship game.

Maybe it will end differently this time. Like waking up from a bad dream....

[ugarte]

This is the general lax tournament thread, right? Cool.

I am disappointed that 7-7 Hopkins made the tournament but I still want them to beat Duke.

[Rita]

This is the general lax tournament thread, right? Cool.

I am disappointed that 7-7 Hopkins made the tournament but I still want them to beat Duke.

For lax do you have to have at least a 0.500 record to be considered regardless of your SOS?  

Who did JHU knock out? I imagine that team must be fuming and looking to schedule games only against the ACC and Syracuse next year.

[Al DeFlorio]

This is the general lax tournament thread, right? Cool.

I am disappointed that 7-7 Hopkins made the tournament but I still want them to beat Duke.

For lax do you have to have at least a 0.500 record to be considered regardless of your SOS?  

Who did JHU knock out? I imagine that team must be fuming and looking to schedule games only against the ACC and Syracuse next year.

Yes, .500 to be considered.  

Apparently the last team in was Hofstra, not Hopkins, or maybe even Notre Dame, who drew #6 Princeton while Hopkins and Hofstra got #5 and #3, respectively..  First team out was Georgetown: 9th in RPI, 14th in strength of schedule, 13th in quality wins.  7-6 Notre Dame is the most controversial selection:  18th in RPI, 13th in strength of schedule, 24th in quality wins.  The Irish did beat Duke at Duke.

[ben03]

This is the general lax tournament thread, right? Cool.

I am disappointed that 7-7 Hopkins made the tournament but I still want them to beat Duke.

For lax do you have to have at least a 0.500 record to be considered regardless of your SOS?  

Who did JHU knock out? I imagine that team must be fuming and looking to schedule games only against the ACC and Syracuse next year.

Yes, .500 to be considered.  

Apparently the last team in was Hofstra, not Hopkins, or maybe even Notre Dame, who drew #6 Princeton while Hopkins and Hofstra got #5 and #3, respectively..  First team out was Georgetown: 9th in RPI, 14th in strength of schedule, 13th in quality wins.  7-6 Notre Dame is the most controversial selection:  18th in RPI, 13th in strength of schedule, 24th in quality wins.  The Irish did beat Duke at Duke.

Notre Dame was definitely the spoiler at the expense of G'town. It happens almost yearly that the selection committee loves teams who play hard schedules and don't win those games, JHU was (2-6) v. ranked teams. Win's over Duke, Loyola and Denver were huge for the Irish. Many will argue a .500 JHU squad is better than a 9-5 G'town team ... guess we'll never know.

[billhoward]

That errant Pannell-to-Hurley pass with 30 seconds left in OT might shorten our season by one game. (That and other things such as not maintaining a multi-goal lead, again, but the pass near the Princeton goal was our last blown chance to win.) If that flipped Princeton and Cornell's placements (and if the high seeds all win on the first weekend) then we wind up with an extremely difficult quarterfinal game vs. #2 Syracuse instead of a tough but possibly winnable game vs. #3 Maryland. Virgninia-Syracuse seem to be a cut above the rest this year so you want to avoid them as long as possible. Even if this isn't our year to win it all - hey, is there ever going to be one? let's hope - it would have been nice at having a shot at getting to Baltimore and the final four. Still, this hasn't been a terrible season giving how many people we lost.

[Al DeFlorio]

That errant Pannell-to-Hurley pass with 30 seconds left in OT might shorten our season by one game. (That and other things such as not maintaining a multi-goal lead, again, but the pass near the Princeton goal was our last blown chance to win.) If that flipped Princeton and Cornell's placements (and if the high seeds all win on the first weekend) then we wind up with an extremely difficult quarterfinal game vs. #2 Syracuse instead of a tough but possibly winnable game vs. #3 Maryland.

Bill, I don't think it would have changed the match-ups had Cornell beaten Princeton.  Princeton went from RPI #6 to #5 by winning, giving Syracuse more quality win points which gave the committee the leeway to move them to the second seed above Maryland, even though Maryland had higher RPI and much higher strength of schedule (1 vs. Syracuse's 7).  So, if Cornell had won, Maryland would have been the #2 seed and Syracuse #3, and we still would be slotted to play the Orange at Stony Brook--assuming both teams win this weekend.  The committee would have wanted Syracuse and Cornell at Stony Brook--again, assuming both win--so they'd have found a way to match us up with Syracuse, and the RPI/SOS/quality wins gods arranged things such that whoever won the Cornell-Princeton, the match-ups could legitimately be arranged Princeton-Maryland and Cornell-Syracuse.

[ben03]

That errant Pannell-to-Hurley pass with 30 seconds left in OT might shorten our season by one game. (That and other things such as not maintaining a multi-goal lead, again, but the pass near the Princeton goal was our last blown chance to win.) If that flipped Princeton and Cornell's placements (and if the high seeds all win on the first weekend) then we wind up with an extremely difficult quarterfinal game vs. #2 Syracuse instead of a tough but possibly winnable game vs. #3 Maryland.

Bill, I don't think it would have changed the match-ups had Cornell beaten Princeton.  Princeton went from RPI #6 to #5 by winning, giving Syracuse more quality win points which gave the committee the leeway to move them to the second seed above Maryland, even though Maryland had higher RPI and much higher strength of schedule (1 vs. Syracuse's 7).  So, if Cornell had won, Maryland would have been the #2 seed and Syracuse #3, and we still would be slotted to play the Orange at Stony Brook--assuming both teams win this weekend.  The committee would have wanted Syracuse and Cornell at Stony Brook--again, assuming both win--so they'd have found a way to match us up with Syracuse, and the RPI/SOS/quality wins gods arranged things such that whoever won the Cornell-Princeton, the match-ups could legitimately be arranged Princeton-Maryland and Cornell-Syracuse.

this is the key ... Al you hit the nail on the head

[Jim Hyla]

A couple of articles from the Syracuse Post-Standard. The first on Canadians in NCAA. Cornell connection about halfway through.

The second on Cornell's need to win at the X.

Finally an unrelated Alec Baldwin on Letterman discussion about why his mother won't leave CNY, because of Wegmans.

[Josh '99]

After 3:  Duke 16, Hopkins 4.

But yeah, Hopkins deserved to make the tournament.  :-|

[Jacob '06]

Well they actually defend the "Pannell play" so he dishes it off and gets an assist instead. Up 2-0 about 6mins in.

[Jacob '06]

4-2 Cornell at the end of one

[Al DeFlorio]

8-2 halftime