2026 Men's Lacrosse

[CU77]

Virginia fired their coach Lars Tiffany (two national championships in his ten years there) on Monday.    Rumor mill has four coaches interviewing, none named Buczek.

[chimpfood]

Virginia fired their coach Lars Tiffany (two national championships in his ten years there) on Monday.    Rumor mill has four coaches interviewing, none named Buczek.

I think we're safe as long as an AD doesn't monumentally fuck up a contract situation in the future. Coach wants to be here

[djk26]

Virginia fired their coach Lars Tiffany (two national championships in his ten years there) on Monday.    Rumor mill has four coaches interviewing, none named Buczek.

Does anyone have a handle on the rumors (I know that's a contradiction in terms) that the players (one player in particular) forced him out?  Or a link to a summary of such rumors?  I don't want to venture into the swamp that is FanLax Forum for this one. 

On another note, Princeton all the way this weekend, right?  No, I don't love it either but there's no way this Cornell lacrosse fan will root for Syracuse or Duke, and Notre Dame has won it all twice recently.  Plus back to back years of having an Ivy League team win it all would be good for the league.

[mike1960]

Virginia fired their coach Lars Tiffany (two national championships in his ten years there) on Monday.    Rumor mill has four coaches interviewing, none named Buczek.

Does anyone have a handle on the rumors (I know that's a contradiction in terms) that the players (one player in particular) forced him out?  Or a link to a summary of such rumors?  I don't want to venture into the swamp that is FanLax Forum for this one. 

On another note, Princeton all the way this weekend, right?  No, I don't love it either but there's no way this Cornell lacrosse fan will root for Syracuse or Duke, and Notre Dame has won it all twice recently.  Plus back to back years of having an Ivy League team win it all would be good for the league.

Too bad about Tiffany. He is a great coach. He'll find a good gig elsewhere if he wants.

I have given up on lacrosse for this year after our losses. I'm still angry at how we played against Princeton and then Hopkins. There is just no excuse for how poorly we played.

[Swampy]

Virginia fired their coach Lars Tiffany (two national championships in his ten years there) on Monday.    Rumor mill has four coaches interviewing, none named Buczek.

Does anyone have a handle on the rumors (I know that's a contradiction in terms) that the players (one player in particular) forced him out?  Or a link to a summary of such rumors?  I don't want to venture into the swamp that is FanLax Forum for this one. 

On another note, Princeton all the way this weekend, right?  No, I don't love it either but there's no way this Cornell lacrosse fan will root for Syracuse or Duke, and Notre Dame has won it all twice recently.  Plus back to back years of having an Ivy League team win it all would be good for the league.

Too bad about Tiffany. He is a great coach. He'll find a good gig elsewhere if he wants.

I have given up on lacrosse for this year after our losses. I'm still angry at how we played against Princeton and then Hopkins. There is just no excuse for how poorly we played.

How we played was so out of character that I have to presume some unknown factors (injuries?) were at work.

But I'll agree insofar as I think we need to modify our recruiting strategy with regard to a few things.

• I know star-rankings can be misleading, and we've done well with our coaches finding hidden talents. Nonetheless, we're getting far fewer 5 stars than some of our peers & main competitors (e.g. Pton, Scuse), and in some contexts the things that stand out to make a player get 5-star attention become important factors against certain defensive and offensive strategies, and the lack of 5-star depth can make a team vulnerable to injuries to key players. Even if we have some great under-the-radar players, top recruits need to be available to fill in.
• Size matters. Lacrosse is a great sport in part because smaller players can be superstars. (Think Jeff Teat, Ryan Goldstein, Rob Pannell. But often you need a Connor Buczek or Max Seibald who can bull & speed their way into scoring position. Our recruiting, training, and internal balance needs to put more emphasis on having several skilled, bigger players to complement the skilled, smaller, quick players. 
• Along with better recruiting of standout talent and paying more attention to size, should come more diverse offensive and defensive strategies. Of course, teams practice certain things, which then become their style. But in several games this year better fundamentals (namely, passing, catching, & ground balls) would have prevented turnovers. Hopefully, in future years having an indoor facility will allow more time for early season practices (including captains' practices) to rid the team of such unnecessary flaws.
  

[rss77]

From listening to the Dixie & Fly Inside Lacrosse podcast some of the older UVA lacrosse alums did not like Tiffany. 

[Ken711]

NCAA Semi-Final Games: The top seeds won today, Princeton beat Duke 14-7, and Notre Dame scored the last six goals beat Syracuse 15-7.

[mike1960]

Virginia fired their coach Lars Tiffany (two national championships in his ten years there) on Monday.    Rumor mill has four coaches interviewing, none named Buczek.

Does anyone have a handle on the rumors (I know that's a contradiction in terms) that the players (one player in particular) forced him out?  Or a link to a summary of such rumors?  I don't want to venture into the swamp that is FanLax Forum for this one. 

On another note, Princeton all the way this weekend, right?  No, I don't love it either but there's no way this Cornell lacrosse fan will root for Syracuse or Duke, and Notre Dame has won it all twice recently.  Plus back to back years of having an Ivy League team win it all would be good for the league.

Too bad about Tiffany. He is a great coach. He'll find a good gig elsewhere if he wants.

I have given up on lacrosse for this year after our losses. I'm still angry at how we played against Princeton and then Hopkins. There is just no excuse for how poorly we played.

How we played was so out of character that I have to presume some unknown factors (injuries?) were at work.

But I'll agree insofar as I think we need to modify our recruiting strategy with regard to a few things.

• I know star-rankings can be misleading, and we've done well with our coaches finding hidden talents. Nonetheless, we're getting far fewer 5 stars than some of our peers & main competitors (e.g. Pton, Scuse), and in some contexts the things that stand out to make a player get 5-star attention become important factors against certain defensive and offensive strategies, and the lack of 5-star depth can make a team vulnerable to injuries to key players. Even if we have some great under-the-radar players, top recruits need to be available to fill in.
• Size matters. Lacrosse is a great sport in part because smaller players can be superstars. (Think Jeff Teat, Ryan Goldstein, Rob Pannell. But often you need a Connor Buczek or Max Seibald who can bull & speed their way into scoring position. Our recruiting, training, and internal balance needs to put more emphasis on having several skilled, bigger players to complement the skilled, smaller, quick players. 
• Along with better recruiting of standout talent and paying more attention to size, should come more diverse offensive and defensive strategies. Of course, teams practice certain things, which then become their style. But in several games this year better fundamentals (namely, passing, catching, & ground balls) would have prevented turnovers. Hopefully, in future years having an indoor facility will allow more time for early season practices (including captains' practices) to rid the team of such unnecessary flaws.
  

We had the players this year to compete with anyone in this field. I don't mind losing to Princeton if we competed well. They are an excellent team. But they ran us out of our own gym the night before the big tournament. We were going nowhere after that.

[BearLover]

With Princeton and Notre Dame in the final, it should be noted how badly these programs have been outrecruiting Cornell in recent years (and especially the incoming 2026 high school class). UNC, Virginia, Duke, Hopkins, Maryland, and Harvard are also clearly outrecruiting Cornell at this point.

[BearLover]

It is widely known that Cornell got screwed by some horrible officiating in the OT of their game against Hopkins. Still, the team was so bad in that game that it makes one wonder what the hell happened.

Overall, I'd say this year's team met my expectations, but didn't exceed them. I thought Goldstein, Firth, and Cascadden would carry the load offensively, Dooley and Staub would carry the load defensively, and across the other positions enough talent would emerge which had been stuck behind all the fifth years who graduated last season. Well, that sort of happened, in that the returning players mentioned had good years, but there wasn't much to write home about elsewhere on the team. Moreover, the incoming recruiting class is very bad (20th in the country). So it is tough to see where the help is going to come from, particularly on defense now that Staub and Dooley are graduating.

Connor Buczek being a great coach is commonly cited as the reason Cornell will compete for the NCAA tournament and NCAA titles every season. And while I do think he is a great coach, his recruiting classes have not been great lately. Recruiting is one of the biggest aspects of college coaching, and if he can't recruit well then it doesn't matter how good he is at motivating players or Xs and Os. This isn't college hockey where the best players leave after a couple of seasons. When you start with a bunch of 5-star recruits, the developmental ceiling is simply much higher than when you start with a bunch of lower star recruits, and the Princetons and Notre Dames of the world are reaping the rewards.

All that is to say, I'm still overall bullish on Cornell lacrosse, but the program clearly needs to start recruiting better.

[CU77]

At least 90% of recruiting has to do with factors that the coach has no direct control over: academics, campus culture, weather, facilities, likelihood of a championship,  etc. There's not some magic knob that a coach can turn to improve recruiting.

[BearLover]

At least 90% of recruiting has to do with factors that the coach has no direct control over: academics, campus culture, weather, facilities, likelihood of a championship,  etc. There's not some magic knob that a coach can turn to improve recruiting.

I agree. Though, a lot of those attributes should work in our favor. Not facilities, but maybe the new indoor facility will help. Also, we have rich alumni who will hopefully fund further improvements. We should definitely not have the 20th best recruiting class in the country.

[jeff '84]

Notre Dame led Princeton 3-0 five minutes into the game. It is now 11-3 Princeton at halftime. WOW they are good.

[jjanow99]

Notre Dame led Princeton 3-0 five minutes into the game. It is now 11-3 Princeton at halftime. WOW they are good.
[/

Notre Dame led Princeton 3-0 five minutes into the game. It is now 11-3 Princeton at halftime. WOW they are good.

Maybe don't feel so bad about that ILT championship game now.

[BearLover]

Notre Dame led Princeton 3-0 five minutes into the game. It is now 11-3 Princeton at halftime. WOW they are good.
[/

Notre Dame led Princeton 3-0 five minutes into the game. It is now 11-3 Princeton at halftime. WOW they are good.

Maybe don't feel so bad about that ILT championship game now.

I'm more worried about how we're supposed to stay competitive in recruiting with a program that has far better facilities and far more money. They've been lapping us in recruiting.