Cornell - Penn State lax 5/24/25 NCAA semis

[chimpfood]

Congrats to all the seniors who graduated during the game yesterday. I am glad they didn't miss out on that experience only to lose.

They got a shout out right at the beginning of Kotlikoff's speech.

I was looking for that online and I didn't see it in the University President's speech--but then I realized there was a SECOND commencement ceremony and he mentioned it in his SECOND speech.  Anyone know why there were two Commencement ceremonies? Crowding?

Families and students wouldn't all fit if there was just one

[Weder]

Congrats to all the seniors who graduated during the game yesterday. I am glad they didn't miss out on that experience only to lose.

They got a shout out right at the beginning of Kotlikoff's speech.

I was looking for that online and I didn't see it in the University President's speech--but then I realized there was a SECOND commencement ceremony and he mentioned it in his SECOND speech.  Anyone know why there were two Commencement ceremonies? Crowding?

Families and students wouldn't all fit if there was just one

They've decided to keep it at two ceremonies since they first did it during the early years of Covid. This way they don't need to limit grads to a certain number of guests in the stadium and deal with ticketing, etc.

[BearLover]

Some scattered thoughts:
—I almost commented before the game yesterday that I was cautiously optimistic about the game in large part because Jayson Singer has done a great job this year locking down the other team's best scorer. In Penn State's case a lot of their scoring was coming from Traynor, and I liked Cornell's defense against an offense based around one top scorer.
—I saw Box and Bozzi both getting semi-regular shifts yesterday. Maybe half of the D-middie shifts? I presume they are mostly back to full health now.
—There is ridiculous injury speculation about CJ on the Fanlax forum. I've seen it all—one guy says it's an injured shoulder, another says broken hand, another says he can't push off his right leg. One guy says to pay close attention to which hand CJ used to hold his gear, intimating that him favoring one arm indicated an injury—I checked, no signs of him favoring one arm over the other. A different poster, with three lifetime posts, says he's heard from "SEVERAL" sources CJ has had a broken hand for weeks. So this random dude claims to have inside information and yet CJ shows up for weeks with no bandage or anything on either hand? Yet a different poster says CJ limped to the sideline, and limped on the sideline, after his runout to kill clock late in the game, without stopping to question why CJ would be tasked with the runout in the first place if his he did in fact have a lower body injury, or why he was back on the field running normally on the very next play. I'm curious, if Kirst buries one of his multiple point blank chances, are people still suggesting he's injured? Are people also suggesting Syracuse's Joey Spallina (0G1A yesterday) is injured? Kirst may not be 100% but the speculation is absurd.
—The 2009 national championship game was spring of my freshman year. If Cornell wins tomorrow it would be the single greatest moment of my Cornell sports fandom but (*takes bong rip*) it is now out of our hands, we must let the universe run its course and be proud of what this team has accomplished no matter what happens. Unless Buczek leaves for another program, I am hopeful we will eventually make it to the promised land, whether tomorrow or another day.

[Al DeFlorio]

Some scattered thoughts:
—I almost commented before the game yesterday that I was cautiously optimistic about the game in large part because Jayson Singer has done a great job this year locking down the other team's best scorer. In Penn State's case a lot of their scoring was coming from Traynor, and I liked Cornell's defense against an offense based around one top scorer.
—I saw Box and Bozzi both getting semi-regular shifts yesterday. Maybe half of the D-middie shifts? I presume they are mostly back to full health now.
—There is ridiculous injury speculation about CJ on the Fanlax forum. I've seen it all—one guy says it's an injured shoulder, another says broken hand, another says he can't push off his right leg. One guy says to pay close attention to which hand CJ used to hold his gear, intimating that him favoring one arm indicated an injury—I checked, no signs of him favoring one arm over the other. A different poster, with three lifetime posts, says he's heard from "SEVERAL" sources CJ has had a broken hand for weeks. So this random dude claims to have inside information and yet CJ shows up for weeks with no bandage or anything on either hand? Yet a different poster says CJ limped to the sideline, and limped on the sideline, after his runout to kill clock late in the game, without stopping to question why CJ would be tasked with the runout in the first place if his he did in fact have a lower body injury, or why he was back on the field running normally on the very next play. I'm curious, if Kirst buries one of his multiple point blank chances, are people still suggesting he's injured? Are people also suggesting Syracuse's Joey Spallina (0G1A yesterday) is injured? Kirst may not be 100% but the speculation is absurd.
—The 2009 national championship game was spring of my freshman year. If Cornell wins tomorrow it would be the single greatest moment of my Cornell sports fandom but (*takes bong rip*) it is now out of our hands, we must let the universe run its course and be proud of what this team has accomplished no matter what happens. Unless Buczek leaves for another program, I am hopeful we will eventually make it to the promised land, whether tomorrow or another day.

Right!

[ER]

The fact that people would speculate that he's injured only because he didn't get a single point yet played the entire game, just goes to show you how good he is. Most players don't score points every game and no one assumes they are injured.

[LGR14]

The fact that people would speculate that he's injured only because he didn't get a single point yet played the entire game, just goes to show you how good he is. Most players don't score points every game and no one assumes they are injured.

The production isn't as concerning to me because the last two teams also largely held him in check during the regular season.


The bigger issue is that he's not moving the way he normally does.  If you watch him in the Ivy League Tournament, you'll see him in constant motion, with lots of cutting, going behind the net, etc.  He really only had a couple cuts against PSU, and it got to the point that PSU felt comfortable locking off Firth at one point and going 5 on 5.  His accuracy has also been way below his usual standard.

That said, he did pick up 10 ground balls against Richmond.  You just hope it's not something getting progressively worse, especially given this short turnaround.

[BearLover]

The fact that people would speculate that he's injured only because he didn't get a single point yet played the entire game, just goes to show you how good he is. Most players don't score points every game and no one assumes they are injured.

The production isn't as concerning to me because the last two teams also largely held him in check during the regular season.


The bigger issue is that he's not moving the way he normally does.  If you watch him in the Ivy League Tournament, you'll see him in constant motion, with lots of cutting, going behind the net, etc.  He really only had a couple cuts against PSU, and it got to the point that PSU felt comfortable locking off Firth at one point and going 5 on 5.  His accuracy has also been way below his usual standard.

That said, he did pick up 10 ground balls against Richmond.  You just hope it's not something getting progressively worse, especially given this short turnaround.

I'm not a lacrosse expert or a medical expert, but CJ had 6 goals against Albany, then 2 goals, 2 assists and 10 GB against Richmond. So until yesterday there was no downturn in production at all. Yesterday, to my eye he was doubled (sometimes even tripled) almost anytime he had the ball for more than a few seconds. He got rid of it quickly almost every time he had the ball, but I couldn't tell if that was because of the double team or because he was physically limited in some way. I'll have to check the tape to see if the defense adjusted by trying to lock down Firth late, but to my eye they were still doubling CJ very late into the game. He did get better looks as the game went on. Was he cutting and dodging less? Maybe, but in the moment I thought that was because the defense was hounding him. The most visibly wrong aspect of his game was how off his shooting was. But again, the defense was on top of him.

[LGR14]

The fact that people would speculate that he's injured only because he didn't get a single point yet played the entire game, just goes to show you how good he is. Most players don't score points every game and no one assumes they are injured.

The production isn't as concerning to me because the last two teams also largely held him in check during the regular season.


The bigger issue is that he's not moving the way he normally does.  If you watch him in the Ivy League Tournament, you'll see him in constant motion, with lots of cutting, going behind the net, etc.  He really only had a couple cuts against PSU, and it got to the point that PSU felt comfortable locking off Firth at one point and going 5 on 5.  His accuracy has also been way below his usual standard.

That said, he did pick up 10 ground balls against Richmond.  You just hope it's not something getting progressively worse, especially given this short turnaround.

I'm not a lacrosse expert or a medical expert, but CJ had 6 goals against Albany, then 2 goals, 2 assists and 10 GB against Richmond. So until yesterday there was no downturn in production at all. Yesterday, to my eye he was doubled (sometimes even tripled) almost anytime he had the ball for more than a few seconds. He got rid of it quickly almost every time he had the ball, but I couldn't tell if that was because of the double team or because he was physically limited in some way. I'll have to check the tape to see if the defense adjusted by trying to lock down Firth late, but to my eye they were still doubling CJ very late into the game. He did get better looks as the game went on. Was he cutting and dodging less? Maybe, but in the moment I thought that was because the defense was hounding him. The most visibly wrong aspect of his game was how off his shooting was. But again, the defense was on top of him.

I think the prevailing sentiment is that, if anything happened, it happened after the Albany game.  He went 2+2 in the Richmond game but it took a long time to get there and it was his worst shooting performance of the season, maybe ever.  Lots of comments about how it looked like he was running in sand (although that was true of a couple guys).  Again, could just be that the Richmond defender had his number a bit given the similar regular season performance.

Either way, hope he guts it out for one more great performance today!