[LAX] Road Trip for Cornell/Duke QF?

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]Hillel Hoffmann Wrote:

 It looks like there will be TV-viewing options in a few important geographic pockets. Here's a preliminary list of outlets scheduled to show the Cornell-Duke game live:

CN8 (Philadelphia area Comcast cable subscribers only)
Comcast SportsNet Mid Atlantic (Baltimore/Washington area Comcast cable subscribers only....NOT New England)
ESPNU (not confirmed for live broadcast yet)
Time Warner Cable Syracuse sports (channel 26 in Ithaca?)

Beware: tentative, unconfirmed, subject to change.

Edited 1 times. Last edit at 05/16/05 07:10PM by Hillel Hoffmann.[/q]
Just pulled this off a LaxPower forum posting.  I believe we're quarterfinal #4

Princeton, New Jersey Quarterfinal No. 3
TBD vs. TBD (live clearances)
Sunday, May 22 â€" Noon ET
CN8
CSN (Comcast Sports Net)
Altitude (Colorado)
Mediacom (Iowa)
Charter-St. Louis
TWC-Memphis
TWC Syracuse
ESPNU

Princeton, New Jersey Quarterfinal No. 4
TBD vs. TBD (live clearances)
Sunday, May 22 â€" 3 PM ET
CN8
CSN (Comcast Sports Net)
Altitude (Colorado)
Mediacom (Iowa)
Charter-St. Louis
TWC-Memphis
TWC Syracuse
Comcast Sportsnet West

Let's hear it again for our buds at Altitude. ::banana::

Edit:  The same posting says the "color" for the two Saturday games at Hopkins will be done by Brian Heyward.  Must be someone else?

[Hillel Hoffmann]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote: Princeton, New Jersey Quarterfinal No. 4
TBD vs. TBD (live clearances)
Sunday, May 22 â€" 3 PM ET
CN8
CSN (Comcast Sports Net)
Altitude (Colorado)
Mediacom (Iowa)
Charter-St. Louis
TWC-Memphis
TWC Syracuse
Comcast Sportsnet West [/q]

The ones that need more clarity are CN8 and Comcast SportsNet. As I understand it, the game's gonna be on CN8 Philadelphia only (not CN8 New England). When it comes to Comcast SportsNet, I think it's likely gonna be CSN Mid Atlantic only (= Balt/Wash), not CSN Philadelphia, CSN Chicago,  or CSN West.

[KenP]

So, we've had one NEA vote regarding the outcome.  Realistically, what are our chances?  Duke is the #2 seed, 2nd best record (15-2), and blew Fairfield out of the water this past weekend.  We've got the 3rd best record (11-2) with a weaker SOS, and had to fight tooth and nail to get past Towson.  And we're playing on grass instead of turf.

Speaking without genuine knowledge (something I excel at), I'd put us in as 3:1 or 5:2 underdogs.  Thoughts?

[ugarte]

[Q]KenP Wrote:

 So, we've had one NEA vote regarding the outcome.  Realistically, what are our chances?  Duke is the #2 seed, 2nd best record (15-2), and blew Fairfield out of the water this past weekend.  We've got the 3rd best record (11-2) with a weaker SOS, and had to fight tooth and nail to get past Towson.  And we're playing on grass instead of turf.

Speaking without genuine knowledge (something I excel at), I'd put us in as 3:1 or 5:2 underdogs.  Thoughts?[/q]I have even less knowledge than you. From what I've seen of schedules and scores, I'd make us a bigger dog than that. I am going in with low expectations and hoping for a stunning upset. I doubt that I am demoralizing anyone in Ithaca.

[Hillel Hoffmann]

[Q]KenP Wrote: Realistically, what are our chances? [/q]
I agree with Ugarte. Duke is wicked good, and they have earned their status as heavy favorites. Their attack will be the best that Cornell has seen all year by a mile. Duke's ability to create inside shots in their settled offense is unreal, mostly due to versatile soph Matt Danowski. If you want to see a scary display of what I just described, take a look at these video clips of Duke's 12-3 dismantling Georgetown on the grass in Washington earlier this year (scroll down to "video highlights"): http://www.e-lacrosse.com/2005/dukegt/1.htm

So how did Maryland beat them 9-5 in the ACC championship? (1) The Terps got a huge game from their mercurial goalie. (2) They were extraordinarily patient on offense, got the most out of every possession, took good shots and controlled the pace -- in other words, they morphed into pre-2005 Princeton. (3) They took advantage of the fact that they were more fit (both teams had played the previous day).

Cornell won't have much of an opportunity to demonstrate number 3. Besides, Tambroni doesn't seem to be giving his second midfield as much PT lately.

McMonagle could pull off number 1. He did it last year against Navy. Why not?

They could pull off number 2, but that doesn't seem to be the strength of this year's team. This is the big mystery. Do you try to take some air out of the ball and reduce touches for Duke's attack? That's not easy to do when your FO game sucks. On the other hand, Duke's FO game sucks too. Or maybe Cornell should have faith in their great shooters and try to go toe-to-toe with Duke? Tough call.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]KenP Wrote:
Speaking without genuine knowledge (something I excel at), I'd put us in as 3:1 or 5:2 underdogs.  Thoughts?[/q]
Any time an unseeded team plays the #2 seed, a win by the unseeded team is gonna be an upset, and that's the situation Cornell's facing Sunday.  

I think this Cornell team is stronger than last year's, and that team played the #2 seed and eventual national runner-up Navy to a one-goal game in the quarterfinals.  Three years ago, with an All-America defenseman playing on one leg, Cornell lost by one to #3 Virginia in the QFs.  Winning is not beyond the realm, but I wouldn't go to Princeton expecting it.

Edit:  For what it's worth, Duke has made the NCAA final four the same number of times as Yale and Brown:  one (1997).

[GJK24]

Cornell has been in the QF game 3 times now in the past 4 years (Virginia, Navy, and Duke), and hasn't been able to get over the hump: kind of like how the hockey team can't get over the hump and make it past the national semis and quarters, or how the baseball team can't beat Harvard in the Ivy League Championship.

It's a staple of Cornell athletics: close, but no cigar.  No reason it will be any different this time.

Because these Cornell teams tend to be very resilient and pesky, I'll give Cornell some respect, and say they'll lose by a goal, 11-10, identical to that loss to UVA.

[ben03]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote:
... Winning is not beyond the realm, but I wouldn't go to Princeton expecting it ...[/q]

I agree 100%. Hands down there is no question who is far superior on paper. My predictions for the game: (a) Coach Pressler and his boys try a run-n-gun battle with a dangerously fast and explosive Big Red midfield/attack we'll see a one or two goal game ala Navy last year. (b) OTOH if Duke is wise and I'm pretty sure they are, they'll play a slower pace with a deliberate offense and the ball in the sticks of their attackmen who will, it pains me to say, dismantle our defense one pass at a time.

Here's hoping for (a) but my money thinks we'll get (b).

option A:
Cornell â€" 11
Duke â€" 12

option B:
Cornell â€" 5
Duke â€" 15

[Robb]

::asshole::

[billhoward]

Info I got from the Princeton ticket office*:


All seats are general admission, all in the lower bowl

There is no re-admission between games (and the e-mailer added a "Sorry" and smiley face in hopes perhaps that would make me feel better)

There is no discount for Princeton alumni (even though the Princeton site has a separate checkbox for alumni it returns the same $15 price).

Children, $10, are defined as 14 and under.


* just before being advised by my wife that, no, I cannot blow off the neighbor's kid's bar mitzvah to make the one hour trek down to Princeton because then our kids are going to want to blow it off, too, and that would leave only her attending. Sheesh, why couldn't they have done the service and party both on Saturday?

[ugarte]

[Q]GJK24 Wrote:

 Cornell has been in the QF game 3 times now in the past 4 years (Virginia, Navy, and Duke), and hasn't been able to get over the hump: kind of like how the hockey team can't get over the hump and make it past the national semis and quarters, or how the baseball team can't beat Harvard in the Ivy League Championship.

It's a staple of Cornell athletics: close, but no cigar.  No reason it will be any different this time.

Because these Cornell teams tend to be very resilient and pesky, I'll give Cornell some respect, and say they'll lose by a goal, 11-10, identical to that loss to UVA.[/q]As the conversation has shifted to whether Cornell can get "over the hump" and win a national championship, I'm happy with the shift.

When Harvard gets past the first round of a national competition, give me a call, GJK.

[Josh '99]

[Q]KenP Wrote:
Duke is the #2 seed, 2nd best record (15-2), and blew Fairfield out of the water this past weekend.  We've got the 3rd best record (11-2) with a weaker SOS, and had to fight tooth and nail to get past Towson.  And we're playing on grass instead of turf.[/q]According to Laxpower, we've actually got a stronger SOS than Duke:

http://www.laxpower.com/update05/binmen/sos01.php

Beats me how much of that owes to the fact that we played Towson last weekend and Duke played Fairfield.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]jmh30 Wrote:
According to Laxpower, we've actually got a stronger SOS than Duke...
[/q]

LaxPower calculates SOS, I believe, using the LaxPower rankings, which are calculated very differently from the RPI-based SOS used by the NCAA.  I'm certainly not saying the latter is better (beating Hopkins and losing to Sacred Heart gets you the same RPI as losing to Hopkins and beating Sacred Heart), just very different.

Duke played a Jekyll and Hyde schedule:  Hopkins (a loss), Maryland (twice: one win, one loss), Virginia, Georgetown, Army (one of our losses), UNC (twice; our other loss), Penn State; but also Butler (lost 19-1 to Princeton), Vermont, Mt. St. Mary's, VMI; plus a few mid-pack teams (Ohio State, Loyola, UMBC).  A 7-2 record against the first seven is not to be sneezed at.

[Al DeFlorio]

[Q]Hillel Hoffmann Wrote:
This is the big mystery. Do you try to take some air out of the ball and reduce touches for Duke's attack?...Or maybe Cornell should have faith in their great shooters and try to go toe-to-toe with Duke? Tough call.
[/q]Try asking Tambroni tomorrow which approach he has in mind. ;-)

http://cornellbigred.collegesports.com/sports/m-lacros/spec-rel/051705aab.html

[Hillel Hoffmann]

[Q]Al DeFlorio Wrote: Princeton, New Jersey Quarterfinal No. 4
Duke vs. Cornell (live clearances)
Sunday, May 22 â€" 3 PM ET
CN8
CSN (Comcast Sports Net)
Altitude (Colorado)
Mediacom (Iowa)
Charter-St. Louis
TWC-Memphis
TWC Syracuse
Comcast Sportsnet West[/q]

Some updates:

It looks like the Cornell-Duke game is now scheduled to be shown live on BOTH versions of CN8: CN8 Mid Atlantic (Philadelphia and surrounding area) and CN8 New England (Boston and surrounding area). I think these channels are cable only -- they are not included in satellite sports add-on packages such as DirecTV's "Sports Pack."

So far only two of the four versions of Comcast SportsNet are scheduled to show the game live: Comcast SportsNet Mid Atlantic (on many cable systems in the Baltimore/Washington area) and Comcast SportsNet West (Sacramento and surrounding area). The game is still not scheduled to be on Comcast SportsNet Chicago or Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. The good news for satellite TV subscribers and people who rely on sports bars with satellite service: CSN Mid Atlantic is part of satellite sports add-on packages such as DirecTV's "Sports Pack" (CSNMA is DTV channel 629, for example).

Also, I have information on a gathering in Atlanta, GA to watch the lacrosse game at a sports bar. If anyone's interested, please PM me.

Semi-related news for Delaware Valley lacrosse fans: Cornell lax legend Mike French, a Philly area resident and co-founder/owner of the Philadelphia Wings, has partnered up with some friends and relatives to open up a lacrosse bar (!) in West Conshohocken, PA. It's called Baggataway something or other. Looks like we'll have a new preferred gathering place in the future.

Of course, any Cornell fan who goes to a sports bar in the Philadelphia area to watch lacrosse over the next few weekends instead of driving to Princeton or South Philly should hand in their badge and gun and report to my office to clean all the erasers.