NCAA Lax Draw

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote billhoward]It is good that three Ivy teams made the tournament.
[/quote]
They may suck, Bill, but Harvard is an Ivy.;-)  Makes four.

[redhair34]

here is a full bracket if folks are looking for one...

http://www.ncaasports.com/lacrosse/mens/brackets/straight16_dyn/2006/DI

[billhoward]

The final four in Philadelphia:

1. Virginia
4. Hopkins
6. Cornell
7. Princeton

... making it a Virginia-Cornell title game.

Does anyone see a first round upset? Other than a minor, not-really upset such as Navy over #8 Georgetown. Notre Dame, Providence, and Denver are cannon fodder. Harvard over Syracuse seems unlikely. Penn over Hopkins? Hard to see.

[Al DeFlorio]

[quote billhoward]Does anyone see a first round upset? Other than a minor, not-really upset such as Navy over #8 Georgetown. Notre Dame, Providence, and Denver are cannon fodder. Harvard over Syracuse seems unlikely. Penn over Hopkins? Hard to see.[/quote]
Hate to say it, but UMass is no "cannon fodder," and I'm expecting a very tough game.  

Virginia's gotta feel like Cornell hockey did drawing Mankato in 2003.  "WTF?"  No intraconference-matchup-avoidance baloney in lacrosse, either.  Just "well, it's easier for Providence to go to Long Island than all the way to Virginia, and Notre Dame's way out in the boonies anyway.  Hard cheese, 'Hoos"

[billhoward]

[quote Al DeFlorio][quote billhoward]Does anyone see a first round upset? Other than a minor, not-really upset such as Navy over #8 Georgetown. Notre Dame, Providence, and Denver are cannon fodder. Harvard over Syracuse seems unlikely. Penn over Hopkins? Hard to see.[/quote]
Hate to say it, but UMass is no "cannon fodder," and I'm expecting a very tough game.  

Virginia's gotta feel like Cornell hockey did drawing Mankato in 2003.  "WTF?"  No intraconference-matchup-avoidance baloney in lacrosse, either.  Just "well, it's easier for Providence to go to Long Island than all the way to Virginia, and Notre Dame's way out in the boonies anyway.  Hard cheese, 'Hoos"[/quote]

I've had respect for UMass teams well back to the Dick Garber era. For all the work he did, he deserved one NCAA title somewhere along the route. I should have added that a UMass upset of Cornell would not be unthinkable. I just didn't want to think about it.

Good point about Virginia not getting the easiest opening round draw, going up against Notre Dame. But: Do you think Cornell was as clearly a favorite to go al the way in 2003 starting with Mankato ... as Virginia is in lacrosse this year? Cornell was probably the statistical favorite in 2003 hockey. I think Virginia is the overwhelming favorite in 2006 lacrosse. So on the one hand you could argue the overwhelming favorite deserves an overwhelming pushover (probably the correct view if you're a Cavalier fan) vs. "they're such heavy favorites, any one of the bottom eight is going to be no problem."

Speaking of Virginia, what a sad story about Ralph Sampson caught up in a legal flap trying to get court appointed counsel to deal with ex wives and child support, and apparently not being all that indigent -- but still in such mixed circumstances that he could even think of trying for free legal aid?

[RichH]

[quote billhoward]
Speaking of Virginia, what a sad story about Ralph Sampson caught up in a legal flap trying to get court appointed counsel to deal with ex wives and child support, and apparently not being all that indigent -- but still in such mixed circumstances that he could even think of trying for free legal aid?[/quote]

Huh?  The rest was great lacrosse discussion, bill.  You just went one paragraph too far for my tired comprehension.

[billhoward]

[quote RichH][quote billhoward]
Speaking of Virginia, what a sad story about Ralph Sampson caught up in a legal flap trying to get court appointed counsel to deal with ex wives and child support, and apparently not being all that indigent -- but still in such mixed circumstances that he could even think of trying for free legal aid?[/quote]

Huh?  The rest was great lacrosse discussion, bill.  You just went one paragraph too far for my tired comprehension.[/quote]

Ralph Sampson, ex-Virginia basketball star (Class of '83), ex-NBA center ... now is down and out and in trouble with a federal grand jury. He had a star-crossed life: Probably the most heavily recruited college hoops player out of HS in the leate 1970s, he won the college player of the year award three times, but his college and pro teams only got the the championship once each (and lost). I think of Virginia being part of the extended Ivy League, along with the likes of Duke and Stanford, and somehow you associate the problems Sampson is having (or says he's having, or a federal grand jury is about to make him begin having) to alumnni of some of the less academically oriented colleges.

The tenuous link was "While we're on the topic of Virginia sports ... "

Another tenuous link: Dom Starsia, Virginia coach, is Brown Class of, what, 1973 or so. Starsia has been effusive in his praise of Richie Moran over the years. So I always wondered, why the heck didn't Starsia just enroll at Cornell?

[Chris \'03]

True to form, athletics writes a terrible release follwing the selection show.

No. 11 UMass completed the season with an 8-2 overall record and finished tied for third in the ECAC with a mark of 3-1.

http://cornellbigred.cstv.com/sports/m-lacros/spec-rel/050706aaa.html

Well the got two things right. Cornell is playing UMass and UMass is #11 in the polls. Too bad they missed those other games UMass played this year. I see 10-4 (5-2) and tied for second in the ECAC.

It's commonplace to see poor writing on the official athletics website and I've accepted that, but when releases contain enormous factual blunders, it's just embarrassing.

[billhoward]

[quote Chris '03]True to form, athletics writes a terrible release follwing the selection show.

No. 11 UMass completed the season with an 8-2 overall record and finished tied for third in the ECAC with a mark of 3-1.

http://cornellbigred.cstv.com/sports/m-lacros/spec-rel/050706aaa.html

Well the got two things right. Cornell is playing UMass and UMass is #11 in the polls. Too bad they missed those other games UMass played this year. I see 10-4 (5-2) and tied for second in the ECAC.

It's commonplace to see poor writing on the official athletics website and I've accepted that, but when releases contain enormous factual blunders, it's just embarrassing.[/quote]

Others who've worked for Cornell sports information can chime in and remind us how hard everyone works for little money (or less) and it's all probably true. But go to Princeton's athletics website to see an alternative level of attention to detail. Some of the stories there are fascinating and worthy of being in the alumni magazine, or a real publication.

Too bad the lax sites are slow with instant analysis - instant as in the night of the seeding, not a day or two later. InsideLacrosse is a Joe Friday report. LaxPower links you to the brackets. LaxSwami.com is still stuck on an April 27 home page and its prediction that Cornell is due to fall back to #12.

[billhoward]

The Baltimore Sun, which considers itself to be the the most lax-conscious paper, managed to cover the tournament selection with nary a word on Cornell. Harvard and Penn got mentioned, Princeton, too.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/lacrosse/bal-sp.ncaamen08may08,0,2436655.story?coll=bal-college-lacrosse

[Hillel Hoffmann]

I was pissed when I first saw Cornell's draw, but it didn't take too long to realize that it ain't that bad.

Yeah, Massachusetts is dangerous. They have two eye-popping talents in Morris (A) and Reid (D) -- seriously, they are just fun to watch. But they have exploitable weaknesses, and they've lost three of their last four road games.

And yeah, the prospect of playing Hofstra on Long Island (if all teams hold serve) kinda sucks. But given the geography of the quarterfinal locations and the logjam of excellent teams, you had to expect a brutal potential quarterfinal opponent. It could be much worse.

Boy, I'd be steamed if I was a Virginia fan. Wow. Virginia gets Notre Dame in the first round -- and then, if the Cavs win, they get the winner of the brutal Georgetown-Navy game in Towson, where they'll be greeted by an big and loud anti-Virginia crowd full of cranky Marylanders and fans of the lower-seeded team.

The selections and seedings seem to prove that the committee considered the tiered effects of losses, as well as results against teams that finished below 15 in the end-of-season RPI. That would help explain why Harvard got in and why Princeton and Hopkins got surprisingly high seeds.

Can't wait for Saturday.

[Hillel Hoffmann]

[quote billhoward] Does anyone see a first round upset? Other than a minor, not-really upset such as Navy over #8 Georgetown. Notre Dame, Providence, and Denver are cannon fodder. Harvard over Syracuse seems unlikely. Penn over Hopkins? Hard to see.[/quote]

Yeah, I think there are two places where there may be an upset lurking in the first round.

I really like Maryland-Baltimore County's chances against Princeton. UMBC is red hot, having won six games in a row. They have a killer offense that might be able to solve Hewit. Sure, you could make a good argument that Princeton is just the kind of team that could fluster UMBC by controlling the pace, but the Retrievers have shown that they can cope with slow-it-down teams (they took Binghamton twice in the last month, including on the road, and Penn only beat UMBC by one when they met at Franklin Field in March). UMBC also has a confident young goalie in Blevins, who stops more than 60 percent of the shots he faces.

I also think Denver has a decent shot against Maryland. Yup. It's certainly unfair to call them "cannon fodder" (I'd rather play Penn than Denver). The knock on Denver has been their lack of success when playing far from home. But I think they've managed to get that monkey off their back by winning their last two non-Mountain-Time games -- they're not psyched out any more. Denver is damn good. They've won seven games in a row.