Lacrosse April 2012

[Jim Hyla]

From the Post-Standard, an article about CU and title hopes. Yes, this time it's not about wrestling. For those OCC (Onondaga Community College) fans, they just beat number 2 ranked Nassau CC 17-6.:-}

[RichH]

A Lax Power forum user did a little bit of bracketology, and had this to say:

Ivy – Cornell (#9 RPI, #37 SOS, QWs – Denver (15); Syracuse (16)) - Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton. A #9 RPI with their best win being #15 Denver means no seed for the Big Red. In fact, if they aren't careful, their resume is starting to look a good deal like Georgetown's in 2010, when they had the #9 RPI but did not get in.

The obvious caveat is that this is a forum poster, so biases yada yada.

The new Coaches' Poll has us at #3 behind the two unbeaten co-number 1s after Duke beat UVA.

[Al DeFlorio]

A Lax Power forum user did a little bit of bracketology, and had this to say:

Ivy – Cornell (#9 RPI, #37 SOS, QWs – Denver (15); Syracuse (16)) - Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton. A #9 RPI with their best win being #15 Denver means no seed for the Big Red. In fact, if they aren't careful, their resume is starting to look a good deal like Georgetown's in 2010, when they had the #9 RPI but did not get in.

The obvious caveat is that this is a forum poster, so biases yada yada.

The new Coaches' Poll has us at #3 behind the two unbeaten co-number 1s after Duke beat UVA.

Media poll also has Cornell #3.  Neither poll selects or seeds the NCAAs.  The issue is Cornell has no top ten wins.  That laxpower poster has an excellent track record in bracketology.

[RichH]

A Lax Power forum user did a little bit of bracketology, and had this to say:

Ivy – Cornell (#9 RPI, #37 SOS, QWs – Denver (15); Syracuse (16)) - Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton. A #9 RPI with their best win being #15 Denver means no seed for the Big Red. In fact, if they aren't careful, their resume is starting to look a good deal like Georgetown's in 2010, when they had the #9 RPI but did not get in.

The obvious caveat is that this is a forum poster, so biases yada yada.

The new Coaches' Poll has us at #3 behind the two unbeaten co-number 1s after Duke beat UVA.

Media poll also has Cornell #3.  Neither poll selects or seeds the NCAAs.  The issue is Cornell has no top ten wins.  That laxpower poster has an excellent track record in bracketology.

Of course, of course. We also won't remain so high with the pollsters if we fail to win the AQ anyway.  Plus I was assuming the poster is well-regarded as Lax Power wouldn't have brought that content outside the forum otherwise.  As encouraging as that OT loss to UVA was at the time, not pulling that out might cost us at least a seeded spot.  (Not that seeds mattered in the 2011 bloodbath QF round)

[scoop85]

A Lax Power forum user did a little bit of bracketology, and had this to say:

Ivy – Cornell (#9 RPI, #37 SOS, QWs – Denver (15); Syracuse (16)) - Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton. A #9 RPI with their best win being #15 Denver means no seed for the Big Red. In fact, if they aren't careful, their resume is starting to look a good deal like Georgetown's in 2010, when they had the #9 RPI but did not get in.

The obvious caveat is that this is a forum poster, so biases yada yada.

The new Coaches' Poll has us at #3 behind the two unbeaten co-number 1s after Duke beat UVA.

Media poll also has Cornell #3.  Neither poll selects or seeds the NCAAs.  The issue is Cornell has no top ten wins.  That laxpower poster has an excellent track record in bracketology.

Of course, of course. We also won't remain so high with the pollsters if we fail to win the AQ anyway.  Plus I was assuming the poster is well-regarded as Lax Power wouldn't have brought that content outside the forum otherwise.  As encouraging as that OT loss to UVA was at the time, not pulling that out might cost us at least a seeded spot.  (Not that seeds mattered in the 2011 bloodbath QF round)

But unlike the QF, seeded teams do get to play at home.

[Jim Hyla]

A Lax Power forum user did a little bit of bracketology, and had this to say:

Ivy – Cornell (#9 RPI, #37 SOS, QWs – Denver (15); Syracuse (16)) - Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton. A #9 RPI with their best win being #15 Denver means no seed for the Big Red. In fact, if they aren't careful, their resume is starting to look a good deal like Georgetown's in 2010, when they had the #9 RPI but did not get in.

The obvious caveat is that this is a forum poster, so biases yada yada.

The new Coaches' Poll has us at #3 behind the two unbeaten co-number 1s after Duke beat UVA.

Media poll also has Cornell #3.  Neither poll selects or seeds the NCAAs.  The issue is Cornell has no top ten wins.  That laxpower poster has an excellent track record in bracketology.

Of course, of course. We also won't remain so high with the pollsters if we fail to win the AQ anyway.  Plus I was assuming the poster is well-regarded as Lax Power wouldn't have brought that content outside the forum otherwise.  As encouraging as that OT loss to UVA was at the time, not pulling that out might cost us at least a seeded spot.  (Not that seeds mattered in the 2011 bloodbath QF round)

Quite frankly, this is even stupider than with hockey, IMHO. "Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton." Yeah who cares, we've yet to play them. When we do, maybe twice, it won't matter that the higher RPI gets the slot. The winner is likely to get the slot.::doh:: There are so few games in lax that none of this matters until the regular season is over, and even then the Ivy tourney could turn it all upside down.

And this year the polls are almost upside down, yeah I know not completely. But Loyola and UMass on top. You'd not always schedule them for a quality win attempt. Princeton, and to a much lesser extent SU, are probably much better than the polls suggest. But if we beat Princeton, it's almost for sure that will no longer even be a possible quality, top ten, win. So we really have no good chance for that type of win. Just that type of year.

[David Harding]

A Lax Power forum user did a little bit of bracketology, and had this to say:

Ivy – Cornell (#9 RPI, #37 SOS, QWs – Denver (15); Syracuse (16)) - Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton. A #9 RPI with their best win being #15 Denver means no seed for the Big Red. In fact, if they aren't careful, their resume is starting to look a good deal like Georgetown's in 2010, when they had the #9 RPI but did not get in.

The obvious caveat is that this is a forum poster, so biases yada yada.

The new Coaches' Poll has us at #3 behind the two unbeaten co-number 1s after Duke beat UVA.

Media poll also has Cornell #3.  Neither poll selects or seeds the NCAAs.  The issue is Cornell has no top ten wins.  That laxpower poster has an excellent track record in bracketology.

Of course, of course. We also won't remain so high with the pollsters if we fail to win the AQ anyway.  Plus I was assuming the poster is well-regarded as Lax Power wouldn't have brought that content outside the forum otherwise.  As encouraging as that OT loss to UVA was at the time, not pulling that out might cost us at least a seeded spot.  (Not that seeds mattered in the 2011 bloodbath QF round)

Quite frankly, this is even stupider than with hockey, IMHO. "Higher RPI gets the Big Red the AQ slot in this projection over Princeton." Yeah who cares, we've yet to play them. When we do, maybe twice, it won't matter that the higher RPI gets the slot. The winner is likely to get the slot.::doh:: There are so few games in lax that none of this matters until the regular season is over, and even then the Ivy tourney could turn it all upside down.

And this year the polls are almost upside down, yeah I know not completely. But Loyola and UMass on top. You'd not always schedule them for a quality win attempt. Princeton, and to a much lesser extent SU, are probably much better than the polls suggest. But if we beat Princeton, it's almost for sure that will no longer even be a possible quality, top ten, win. So we really have no good chance for that type of win. Just that type of year.

Yeah, just win the games.

[CUontheslopes]

Win and in. Agreed, but to be even talking about possibly not making the tournament when the team has only one loss, in OT to UVA I think is the frustrating part of the conversation. The same is often true for Cornell hockey - if you look, this year we may not have had a ton of wins, but we sure didn't have too many losses either.

The knock for years on NCAA lacrosse seeding is that it's too heavily influenced by "quality losses" as reflected in SOS. What's really hurt Cornell this year more than any other factor is how badly other Ivies have done out of conference. Pair that with some surprising teams ending up in the top 10 and you've got a recipe for disaster. Who would have thought Lehigh was a quality win and Syracuse is not?

From here on out, I'll be rooting for those upstarts to lose and (I cannot believe I'm saying this) for Syracuse to win out.

[peterg]

That Laxpower forum user, who goes by "humb le" on that forum, I believe, has been doing lacrosse "bracketology" for many years and, with respect to the teams that make the tournament, has a very strong track record of predictions.  Though no one but the committee knows the exact basis, in any given year, for picking the field, there are criteria in the rules and humb le has, over the years, been able to refine his analysis so that his predictions are very, very close to the end results if not dead on.  What he and no one else has been able to do is reliably seed the teams.

I, for one, would put a lot of faith in what he says.

[Al DeFlorio]

Win and in. Agreed, but to be even talking about possibly not making the tournament when the team has only one loss, in OT to UVA I think is the frustrating part of the conversation. The same is often true for Cornell hockey - if you look, this year we may not have had a ton of wins, but we sure didn't have too many losses either.

The knock for years on NCAA lacrosse seeding is that it's too heavily influenced by "quality losses" as reflected in SOS. What's really hurt Cornell this year more than any other factor is how badly other Ivies have done out of conference. Pair that with some surprising teams ending up in the top 10 and you've got a recipe for disaster. Who would have thought Lehigh was a quality win and Syracuse is not?

From here on out, I'll be rooting for those upstarts to lose and (I cannot believe I'm saying this) for Syracuse to win out.

Cuse struggling to beat Hobart, 11-9 after three.

[ithacat]

Win and in. Agreed, but to be even talking about possibly not making the tournament when the team has only one loss, in OT to UVA I think is the frustrating part of the conversation. The same is often true for Cornell hockey - if you look, this year we may not have had a ton of wins, but we sure didn't have too many losses either.

The knock for years on NCAA lacrosse seeding is that it's too heavily influenced by "quality losses" as reflected in SOS. What's really hurt Cornell this year more than any other factor is how badly other Ivies have done out of conference. Pair that with some surprising teams ending up in the top 10 and you've got a recipe for disaster. Who would have thought Lehigh was a quality win and Syracuse is not?

From here on out, I'll be rooting for those upstarts to lose and (I cannot believe I'm saying this) for Syracuse to win out.

Cuse struggling to beat Hobart, 11-9 after three.

13-11 SU with 1:30 left.

[Al DeFlorio]

13-12 final, Syracuse

[Josh '99]

13-12 final, Syracuse

It's worth noting that Hobart's Bobby Dattilo is the best faceoff guy in the NCAA (by winning percentage) and, not surprisingly, gave Syracuse a lot of trouble, winning 18 of 28.  Take that out of the equation and Syracuse probably wins the game handily.  Another reason it's too bad it looks like we won't get to play Hobart - facing off against Dattilo would be good experience for Tesoriero before the tournament.  (Denver's guy is almost as good and he gave us fits back in March, winning 13 of 19 including 6 of 7 against Tesoriero.)

[Al DeFlorio]

Brown sticking it to Cornell at the half: 5-3

[Al DeFlorio]

Brown wins it 10-9 with a goal in last five seconds.  Now it all depends on winning the Ivy tournament.