MLAX: Back to the Final Four!

[msdukie]

Well, I'm properly chided, Sage, and I'm sure there are many people who might agree with you as to my irrelevance. Of course I was just guessing about whether it is intentional that no one has used Matt Danowski's number. But lacrosse uses a lot of numbers. Since the 2006-07 season, 40 is the only number between 0 and 44 (above 44, number use gets a little spottier) that has gone four straight seasons without being used.
I'm thinking there is at least a chance that this isn't an accident, though it could be an informal sign of respect from the players rather than a team policy.

On the other hand, it could, of course, be an accident, and has nothing to do, as you point out, with whether the number might be retired. The only other number between 0 and 44 that has gone even three straight seasons out of use, 15, was last used by Goalie Rob Schroeder, not a likely candidate for number retirement.

Every Duke lacrosse jersey that Nike has made and sold at retail since 2007 has had the number 40. Duke's refusal to retire any non-basketball jersey number is flat out assinine and needs to be remedied.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

Interesting article in today's NY Times about the potential use of a shot clock. I am in favor, though I agree that it needs to be very well thought out to make sure there are no unintended consequences and it is executed flawlessly. The Times does a pretty good job of covering lacrosse, and I'm always happy to see as many articles as possible there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/sp...tml?ref=sports

[Jderf]

Interesting article in today's NY Times about the potential use of a shot clock. I am in favor, though I agree that it needs to be very well thought out to make sure there are no unintended consequences and it is executed flawlessly. The Times does a pretty good job of covering lacrosse, and I'm always happy to see as many articles as possible there.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/sp...tml?ref=sports

Interesting article, for the perspective on both lacrosse and basketball. This quote got me wondering:

“The last two minutes of our game are different from all the rest — what other sport does that?” said Matt Palumb, a collegiate referee and former Syracuse goalie.

How about basketball? It is played for 39 minutes, stopping at the final minute for the sake of a free-throw shooting contest. It is basically an unofficial version of a hockey shootout. Technically speaking, shouldn't they be calling intentional fouls every time? They certainly would be during any other minute of the game.

[MCFinARL]

Interesting article, for the perspective on both lacrosse and basketball. This quote got me wondering:



How about basketball? It is played for 39 minutes, stopping at the final minute for the sake of a free-throw shooting contest. It is basically an unofficial version of a hockey shootout. Technically speaking, shouldn't they be calling intentional fouls every time? They certainly would be during any other minute of the game.

Well, yes, although the difference is that in lacrosse the actual rules are different in the last two minutes, not just the way they are enforced. As to whether they should be calling intentional fouls, you make a good point, although isn't "intentional" determined by whether there is a plausible play for the ball? If that's right, then as long as a player is aiming at the ball, he could foul without an "intentional" call, even if it's obvious to everyone that he intended to foul. Even so, I think you are right that fouls are often called differently at the end of games.

That's also not the only difference at the end of basketball games--the other is how the clock is handled. At the end of every half, and definitely at the end of the game, suddenly everyone is very scrupulous about checking to make sure the right amount of time has run off (or not run off) the clock, when similar situations early in a half often go by without anyone seeming to care whether 3 or 4 seconds have run off that shouldn't have. As much as I sympathize with teams who are disadvantaged by clock errors, fussing over the clock is another reason it's often painful to watch the last minute or so of basketball games, which can seemingly stretch for ten or fifteen minutes (often more with commercial breaks).

[burnspbesq]

Duke-Cuse at the top of the hour on ESPN. LGD!

[ThePublisher]

Killing syracuse early. Welcome to the acc! All the way turned up!

[burnspbesq]

Terri has two of Duke's three goals, both on inverts. Cuse two turnovers and a shot right at Wiggy.

Time out Syracuse.

[loran16]

Scored 3 quick goals, then really seemed to go into a real defensive shell afterwards.

[loran16]

Just have let them back in the game after a 5-1 lead.

[Acymetric]

Wow, what a shot by the kid from Syracuse.

[loran16]

Very disappointing how the team in both quarters ran out of gas after hot starts.

[loran16]

Gotta keep it up and not let our feet off the gas like we did in the first two quarters.

[loran16]

Nice domination of that quarter after the quick equalizer. Domination of faceoffs is making it near impossible for Cuse to catch up.

Still won't feel comfortable unless we score 2-3 more goals in 4Q though.

[burnspbesq]

Rotanz and Turri both delivering.

[burnspbesq]

17 for 24. And it's Fowler and DeLuca doing it. CJ working the wing.

Haven't seen Dailey at all today. Injured?

[loran16]

17 for 24. And it's Fowler and DeLuca doing it. CJ working the wing.

Haven't seen Dailey at all today. Injured?

Costabile's been a force on ground balls from that position of course. But yeah, faceoffs have more or less been the reason we're "dominating" this game. Hope we can continue that.

[loran16]

Well done boys.

[msdukie]

The new uniforms looked sweet too.

[MCFinARL]

Rotanz and Turri both delivering.

Yup. Very happy to see how well both played today. Think the seniors--these two plus Costabile and Manley--will need to be the big difference makers going forward.

[Native]

Shades of our 2010 title run, in which we exorcised the Johns Hopkins demon by beating them in the first round. We were 2-6 all-time against Syracuse and 0-3 in the NCAA tournament coming into today's game. Great confidence boost for the team in beating an always-tough Syracuse squad.

MOTM goes to Wiggy IMO — solid in cage all day, made a few great plays on clears and picked off a few passes. Got great production from our midfield especially from Turri and Rotanz — need to keep up this production going forward. I was pleasantly surprised to see our dominance at the X; if Fowler and DeLuca can keep winning draws with CJ on the wing grabbing GBs we can definitely make a deep run this year.

We'll play the winner of UMass/Colgate at PPL Park in Philadelphia next weekend. UMass currently leads by 1 in the fourth quarter — they're undefeated but have a terrible strength of schedule. Colgate is more battle-hardened but didn't receive a seed in the bracket this year.

Go Devils!