Lacrosse 2015 NCAAs

[ugarte]

Well, Cornell lax made Deadspin.

This is today's game, this is the whole season. http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/fat-guy-lacrosse-goalie-buzzer-beater-goal-1703337056/+bubbaprog

[Jim Hyla]

Well, Cornell lax made Deadspin.

This is today's game, this is the whole season. http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/fat-guy-lacrosse-goalie-buzzer-beater-goal-1703337056/+bubbaprog

True and disgusting ::barf::

[CU77]

To say that "this is the whole season" is nonsense. It is also a gratuitous, needless, and embarrassing (to you) insult to the players.

This year's Cornell men's lacrosse team was co-champ of the Ivies and a top-8 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Yes, they lost a first-round NCAA tournament game. So did Virginia (national champs in 2011, 2006, 2003, ...) by a worse score than Cornell lost by. Virginia's goalie had zero saves against 13 goals in the first half.

Good teams can lose, sometimes badly. Are you (or were you) on a Cornell varsity team that had anywhere close to the accomplishments of this year's lax team?? I didn't think so.

[ugarte]

To say that "this is the whole season" is nonsense. It is also a gratuitous, needless, and embarrassing (to you) insult to the players.

This year's Cornell men's lacrosse team was co-champ of the Ivies and a top-8 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Yes, they lost a first-round NCAA tournament game. So did Virginia (national champs in 2011, 2006, 2003, ...) by a worse score than Cornell lost by. Virginia's goalie had zero saves against 13 goals in the first half.

Good teams can lose, sometimes badly. Are you (or were you) on a Cornell varsity team that had anywhere close to the accomplishments of this year's lax team?? I didn't think so.

Oh shut up.

[Rosey]

Are you (or were you) on a Cornell varsity team that had anywhere close to the accomplishments of this year's lax team?? I didn't think so.

This is an instance of the dumbest class of fallacies in sports fandom.

[Tcl123]

Are you (or were you) on a Cornell varsity team that had anywhere close to the accomplishments of this year's lax team?? I didn't think so.

This is an instance of the dumbest class of fallacies in sports fandom.

I was on the championship intramural softball team my senior year. Does that count?

[billhoward]

Are you (or were you) on a Cornell varsity team that had anywhere close to the accomplishments of this year's lax team?? I didn't think so.

This is an instance of the dumbest class of fallacies in sports fandom.

I was on the championship intramural softball team my senior year. Does that count?

Was your GPA and good works (more than walking a drunk back to campus) enough to get you nominated for Lowes Senior Class Award?

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Are you (or were you) on a Cornell varsity team that had anywhere close to the accomplishments of this year's lax team?? I didn't think so.

This is an instance of the dumbest class of fallacies in sports fandom.

I was on the championship intramural softball team my senior year. Does that count?

Was your GPA and good works (more than walking a drunk back to campus) enough to get you nominated for Lowes Senior Class Award?

Or were you responsible for a documented miracle?

[billhoward]

Denver chokes up a 4-goal lead late in the 4th, Notre Dame ties at 10 with about :10 to play. Denver wins OT faceoff, loses ball, ND brings ball into attack box and gets it stick-checked away, Denver clears as far as midfield and loses ball but ND called for procedural problem, Denver gets into box, time out, time in, score, 11-10 win. Shades of the 2009 final except the team that gave up the lead eventually won. Stands did not look overly full and only the lower deck appeared open.

After ND goes down, announcers note there'll be a B1G Ten final regardless of who wins in the second game, Hopkins or Maryland. Sort of like the Soviet Union saying the 1960 Olympic women's 4x100 clean-and-jerk was an all-USSR podium after they held Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine and Uzbekistan post WW-II.

[billhoward]

Longish piece in Saturday NY Times about attendance peaking circa 2007 then slipping each year in final, NCAA concedes mistakes were made such as jacking up ticket prices. "Any publicity is good if they spell your name right."

NYT: As Lacrosse Rises, Its Final Four Falls Fast

[Chris '03]

Longish piece in Saturday NY Times about attendance peaking circa 2007 then slipping each year in final, NCAA concedes mistakes were made such as jacking up ticket prices. "Any publicity is good if they spell your name right."

NYT: As Lacrosse Rises, Its Final Four Falls Fast

Once Syracuse stopped being an automatic attendee, SU fans stopped making plans to attend every year on the reasonable expectation they'd see their team there.

[jtwcornell91]

NYT: As Lacrosse Rises, Its Final Four Falls Fast

So that's what happened to Phil "Joey" Buttafuoco...

[billhoward]

Denver cruises to its first NCAA lax title and Bill Tierney's seventh. So we don't like Tierney because he's said to be somewhat abrupt with people who cross him, or that's just his nature. It's still pretty amazing what he's done at two different schools. Sort of, ah, Harkness-like.

Maryland remains the championship-winning lax team with the longest drought since hoisting the trophy, last in 1975, and 0x7 since including three fails this decade. Cornell last won in 1977 and is 0x3 since. Assuming you believe 2009 happened.

[billhoward]

Attendance reported:

Code Select Expand


Saturday    29,123    D1 semifinals, announced
Sunday      19,559    D2, D3 finals, announced
Monday      24,215    D1 final, announced
Total       72,897    

No offense, NCAA, but 20,000 people were in attendance Sunday for D2 / D3? I know a lot of Limestone / LeMoyne fans left after the first game (D2), but still. Lincoln Financial Field holds 69,1976. Nobody was (allowed?) in the end zone seats, there was virtually no one in the upper half, and even between the 30-yard lines, there were clumps of seats opens between groups of spectators. Below, photo at start of the second game, Tufts-Lynchburg. At this level of attendance, the championship game could be played on a lot of college campuses: Maryland (54,000), Rutgers (54,000), maybe even Princeton (30,000) in the corridor between Washington and New York.

However many turned out for D2/D3, it was easy to park (and under a shaded canopy), plenty of space for tailgating, easy to get through security, and it was pretty much open seating. I went with a group from Lynchburg, our son's school, their first lax title game. Everyone was excited. An alum is said to have underwritten the free barbecue (racks of ribs, chicken, chicken wings, burgers, pulled pork, brisket) and beer bash. They were excited because they hadn't yet learned the many ways your dreams get crushed, like when you go up 4-0 then get ouscored 10-2, or you lose 75% of your faceoffs, or D3's leading single-season goal scorer ever (107 G this year) shoots 2x17.

If Cornell makes a regional next year, Cornell might consider the deal Lynchburg had for students still around, and townies: thirty bucks for a bus there and back, and the game ticket (nominally $25) and that barbecue. Dying to hear about the Cornell lax Class of 2019 and if they're going to help Cornell get into and past the first round in 2016. Lot of sticks to replace.

[edit add] Reported attendance at the two regional quarterfinal sites was:
13,076  Denver (DU, Ohio State, Albany, Notre Dame)
10,235  Annapolis (UNC, Syracuse, Hopkins, Maryland). You can almost walk from Hopkins and Maryland to the Annapolis site.

[Al DeFlorio]

Cornell last won in 1977 and is 0x3 since. Assuming you believe 2009 happened.

Think we lost championship games in 1978, 1987, 1988, and...if I think about it real hard...2009.

And I think Maryland is now 0 for 8 since 1975.