[OT LAX] Cornell lacrosse vs. Princeton

[Redscore]

I saw this link on Laxpower.  I apologize if the link doesn't click through correctly.  Please cut and paste if you have to because this is a must read.  What an amazing bunch of guys.  They make you incredibly proud to be Red fans.
www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=80845

[Tub(a)]

[Q]Section A Banshee Wrote:

 [Q2]Dpperk29 Wrote:

 The lax game today was awsome. I have been mildly interested in Lax for the last few years, but today I realized that it is the next best thing to Hockey. Which then brings the question... what are we going to do when Lax season ends? no hockey, no lax...[/Q]
Make fun of baseball fans.[/q]

We have a winner! ::woot::

[cth95]

All I can say is "Wow".  Thank you for posting that insightful and inspirational article.  I do not know much about lacrosse and have only followed Cornell because it is my alma mater.  Now I will follow and root for them for much deeper reasons.

[Jordan 04]

[Q]Section A Banshee Wrote:

 [Q2]Dpperk29 Wrote:

 The lax game today was awsome. I have been mildly interested in Lax for the last few years, but today I realized that it is the next best thing to Hockey. Which then brings the question... what are we going to do when Lax season ends? no hockey, no lax...[/Q]
Make fun of baseball fans.[/q]

You know, those crazy people whose league actually exists right now.  ::screwy::

[jtwcornell91]

[Q]billhoward Wrote:
That would really tick off the Johnny Red schools who think they invented and own the sport. [/q]

Presumably you mean Johnnie Reb i.e., Southern.

[Hillel Hoffmann]

Is this really happening?

I remember a game against Princeton back in 1991. The Cornell lacrosse program was clearly beginning to decline, but they entered the game 8-3. The Tigers had been knocking on the door for a few years, finishing in the top half of the Ivy League in consecutive seasons for the first time in a bazillion years. It was Bill Tierney's fifth year -- he was playing with his own guys.

Princeton crushed Cornell 12-2 at Schoellkopf in a game that was much more of a blowout than suggested by the score. I still consider it the most horrifying home lacrosse game I've ever seen. The Tigers dominated time of possession. They had more juice, more skills, more discipline, more depth and a lot more desire. And all of Princeton's players were so young: Morrow, Bacigalupo, Moe. No fair! You had this feeling that the stars were shifting to form new constellations. Put on your quetzal feathers, wake up the kids and bring them to the temple steps for some ritual bloodletting: There's a new king up there on the pyramid.

Fast forward to this Saturday. There's Cornell dominating time of possession. Cornell with more juice, more skills, more discipline, more depth and a lot more desire. And there's Cornell with the best recruiting class they've had in a long, long time waiting in the wings and there's--

[Sound of needle pulled across vinyl tracks]

Oops. I forgot. Princeton's last two recruiting classes were even better. And half our best players are seniors.

OK, whatever. But is this season not like a dream? Or at least like 1987 or something.
[Q]peterg Wrote: when I saw PU in their TV game against Syracuse, they were very sloppy with the ball (both teams were). [/q]
Good call, Peter. You were so right. Was that really Princeton?

This Cornell team is so good and so deserving. I hope people will turn out in the playoffs to make up for the awful attendance during the regular season. (Saturday's game was the first home game with a crowd of more than 500 people.)

Ben's list of playoff hopefuls was pretty solid, although it's premature to predict seeding. I guess it's worth thinking about teams that Cornell might meet. One thing has changed: Cornell should no longer fear teams with great FO men. Cornell's riding is so scary good that it really doesn't matter much. Even if Cornell gets a favorable bracket, there are two teams out there in the "north" subset that scare the bijinkies outta me: Massachusetts and Albany.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

Actually what we do around here is count the days till NFL training camp opens.  ::rolleyes::

Baseball?  What's that?

[ben03]

Inside Lacrosse Media Poll
April 25, 2005

1. Johns Hopkins (10-0) 400 points (16 first-place votes)
2. Duke (13-1)          384
3. Virginia (9-2)       359
4. Navy (9-3)           347
5. Cornell (8-2)        337
6. Georgetown (8-3)     311
7. Syracuse (7-4)       306 
8. Massachusetts (9-2)  300
9. Maryland (6-5)       259
10. Army (10-3)         257
11. Dartmouth (7-3)     233
12. Towson (9-3)        225
13. Bucknell (8-4)      204
14. Denver (8-4)        179
15. Albany (8-4)        170
16. Notre Dame (6-4)    132
17. Fairfield (9-3)     130
18. Stony Brook (9-3)   109
19. Delaware (9-4)       90
20. Brown (5-4)          89 


Others receiving votes: Penn State 68, Yale 68, Hofstra 66, North Carolina 28,
Hobart, 27, Villanova 12, Harvard 5, UMBC 3, Bellarmine 1, Princeton 1. 
Moving in: Stony Brook, Delaware
Dropping out: Hofstra (#18), Yale (#14)

[Al DeFlorio]

Poll drawn from a number of "regulars" on the LaxPower forum--with individual comments on the ranked teams.  These guys all follow the game closely, and I find their thoughts interesting (although one thinks Saturday's game was played at Princeton).

http://www.laxpower.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6798

[KeithK]

Just a random question from someone who doesn't know the lax world.  Is there a particular reason why colege lacrosse still has independants (4, including Johns Hopkins and Syracuse) while everyone seems to be affiliated in other sports.  In hockey all of the Indys joined conferences in the 90s (or was it the 80s?).  I suppose the "star power" of Johns Hopkins and Syracuse might help them stay independant, but it's still interesting to me.

(I guess this was more of a comment/observation than a question...)

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

 Just a random question from someone who doesn't know the lax world.  Is there a particular reason why colege lacrosse still has independants (4, including Johns Hopkins and Syracuse) while everyone seems to be affiliated in other sports.[/q]
Flexibility in scheduling, perhaps.  Hopkins and Syracuse both play an aggressive schedule of top teams, and this would be harder to do if they were constrained by a league's scheduling requirements (see our many discussions about college hockey scheduling constraints).

Hopkins does play all four ACC lacrosse teams, so I suppose that would be a logical fit, but, remember, they are a Division III school in all other sports.  And, the ACC has a post-season tournament which could mean two more games against the same schools faced in the regular season.

[peterg]

[Q]Hillel Hoffmann Wrote:

Oops. I forgot. Princeton's last two recruiting classes were even better. And half our best players are seniors.[/q]

I know that the word has been that Princeton has great sophomore and freshman classes and that the junior and senior classes were "poor recruiting years".  I know that Cornell is a more experienced, senior dominated team.  I would, however, have thought that all those great sophomores and freshmen for Princeton would have been able to at least maintain possession of the ball when they did get it or at least put up a semblance of competition.  I would have thought that by game ten certainly the sophomores would be showing their world class quality.  Maybe, just maybe, they really aren't as good as people have said they are.  

In any event, for 2005 the King is dead.  Long live the (Big Red) King!

[Hillel Hoffmann]

[Q]peterg Wrote: I know that the word has been that Princeton has great sophomore and freshman classes and that the junior and senior classes were "poor recruiting years"... [/q]
Although Princeton's current freshman and sophomore classes are superb, the class that really scares me is their incoming class (next year's freshmen). But even if you rule them out and just focus on Princeton's current underclassmen, I think it's fair to say that the Tigers' frosh and sophs are light years ahead of Cornell's current underclassmen.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

The hockey conferences have all been formed just for hockey and don't really have any affiliation with existing conferences (now that the ECACHL is not really with the ECAC).

In lax, several of the conferences are existing conferences.  Therefore, it's hard for an independent, especially a D-III playing up, to get into a conference if they're not a member for other sports.

Not to mention that two of those four have traditionally been good enough to qualify at large without the inconvenience of a tournament.

[ben03]

USILA Geico/STX Coaches Poll: Divison I (April 25)

No. Name Record    (1st)  Points/Previous

1 Johns Hopkins 10-0(10)    200 1
2 Duke 13-1                  190 2
3 Virginia 9-2               172 4
4 Cornell 8-2                164 6
5 Navy 9-3                   163 5
6 Georgetown 8-3             150 3
7 Syracuse 7-4               137 T7
8 Massachusetts 9-2          133 9
9 Army 10-3                  119 T7
10 Maryland 6-5              108 10
11 Dartmouth 7-3             106 11
12 Towson 9-3                 82 14
13 Albany 8-4                 76 13
14 Bucknell 8-4               64 12
15 Denver 8-4                 59 19
16 Fairfield 9-3              57 15
17 Stony Brook 9-3            26 NR
18 Penn State 7-5             25 NR
19 Delaware 9-4               23 NR
20 Brown 5-5                  14 18

Others receiving votes (in order): Hofstra 12, Yale 9, North Carolina 6, Notre Dame 4