Lax: The 2021 Season

[chrishoke]

Yeah, that's my take as well. Loyola is a really good team, well capable of beating Duke, but I'm happy to avoid Denver and Ierlan...as for Tierney, yeah, he made a major fuss about the penalty where his defenseman clobbered a guy over the head. Hope he had a nice trip home.

The Loyola goalie really used his head on that last second shot. - literally! It bounced right off his helmet,

[Rich]

I don’t know how Loyola turned the ball over, but I also don’t understand how Denver did not score on a totally undefended shot on goal.

I tried to embed the video at the frantic last 30 seconds, but it wouldn't let me. If you don't want to watch all the highlights, go to the 18 minute mark of this video.

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I am keeping an eye on the weather and considering taking CNC Son #1 to the Hofstra regional to cheer on my home state Rutgers Scarlet Knights vs. the Tar Heels on Saturday. It should be an incredible double header with the Georgetown-UVA game - only sorry that Duke will be in South Bend.

[Billy Dat]

I tried to embed the video at the frantic last 30 seconds, but it wouldn't let me. If you don't want to watch all the highlights, go to the 18 minute mark of this video

After a long day I was falling asleep and couldn't finish the 4th quarter despite how good of a game it was. Interesting that after Denver had so much success shooting low on the Loyola goalie, at the moment of truth the kid shot high and hit the goalie in the head. Crushing.

[budwom]

The Loyola goalie really used his head on that last second shot. - literally! It bounced right off his helmet,

yeah, it was something of an inadvertent save, he just held his ground, and he happens to be very large. It sure looked like Loyola was toast during the last few minutes.

[duke2x]

https://goduke.com/sports/mens-lacrosse/schedule

Per Goduke, the Loyola game is Sunday at noon on the U.

[jimsumner]

Yeah, that's my take as well. Loyola is a really good team, well capable of beating Duke, but I'm happy to avoid Denver and Ierlan...as for Tierney, yeah, he made a major fuss about the penalty where his defenseman clobbered a guy over the head. Hope he had a nice trip home.

Hopefully, the Chicago branch of the franchise won't loan Sister Jean to the Maryland branch. She's dangerous.

[budwom]

Hopefully, the Chicago branch of the franchise won't loan Sister Jean to the Maryland branch. She's dangerous.

Nuns hate lacrosse, I have that on good authority. Trying to avoid a nun/stick joke here...

[burnspbesq]

Nuns hate lacrosse, I have that on good authority. Trying to avoid a nun/stick joke here...

Maybe in Vermont, but in NJ Oak Knoll is a powerhouse in girls’ lax, and Immaculate Heart and St. Rose aren’t far behind.

The Catholic schools that are major feeders to the Duke men’s program—Delbarton, St. Anthony’s, Chaminade, Loyola Blakefield—are run by priests and/or brothers.

[DST Fan]

High Point did keep UNC to a 2 goal game earlier this year.

As much as we've been hoping for the light bulb to turn on since the Syracuse game, it hasn't. We are good enough to beat the next 3 teams in front of us, but every game is going to be an adventure. Here's to beating Loyola by more than 1 goal.

I thought the first round games may have indicated that the gap between the ACC and the rest of college lacrosse is not as great as many of us thought. UVA and ND both had tight, 2-goal games. UVA was losing to Bryant by 2 late in the third quarter and ND and Drexel were tied with not more than a minute left in the game. Many analysts have pointed out that there has been substantial growth in youth and club lacrosse the past couple of decades, but not much change in the number of D-1 men's programs. My impression is that the SoCon, in particular, has benefited from that phenomenon.

In any event, I am optimistic about the Loyola game on Sunday. The forecast is for temperatures in the mid-80's and we will see whether the third midfield unit was just a one-game experiment.

Quint Kessenich posted a fairly detailed quarterfinal preview today at Inside Lacrosse.

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/artic...ff-round/57942

[budwom]

^ I agree...probably good that we have little reason to be cocky. I'm impressed and surprised that with all the talent out there in D-1 lacrosse now (there's just a ton) the tournament has still only 16 teams.

We'll see how the ACC does in Round Two...as long as Duke wins, I don't much care what the other league schools do (preferably lose)...though Merlin-ND is pretty much a meteor/space junk game for me.

[MCFinARL]

^ I agree...probably good that we have little reason to be cocky. I'm impressed and surprised that with all the talent out there in D-1 lacrosse now (there's just a ton) the tournament has still only 16 teams.

We'll see how the ACC does in Round Two...as long as Duke wins, I don't much care what the other league schools do (preferably lose)...though Merlin-ND is pretty much a meteor/space junk game for me.

A lot of talent, but not a lot of teams--only 74 men's division 1 programs currently. By comparison, there are 205 men's D1 soccer programs.

[DoubleBlue]

A lot of talent, but not a lot of teams--only 74 men's division 1 programs currently. By comparison, there are 205 men's D1 soccer programs.

According to this quickie analysis, Lacrosse has a fairly low supply of former High School participants to fill the D1 programs. The highest competition is wrestling, followed by basketball.
These are just the men's programs with the exception of softball. I didn't include less popular sports such as track, swimming and golf.

Attachment 13193

The data is from these sources, using the latest year listed, typically 2019:
https://www.statista.com/search/?q=h...s+participants
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php...ion+I+programs

[burnspbesq]

A lot of talent, but not a lot of teams--only 74 men's division 1 programs currently. By comparison, there are 205 men's D1 soccer programs.

High schools are turning out more D1-caliber athletes than there are slots on D1 rosters. The result is that the gap between the lower tiers of D1 and the top of D3–NESCAC, the Liberty League, and the ODAC—is probably smaller in men’s lax than any other sport. Tufts beating Dartmouth was no fluke, and the likes of RIT and Salisbury could compete in the MAAC or SoCon.

High Point’s second-leading scorer this year was a transfer from D3 Lynchburg.

[JasonEvans]

The Duke Women's Lax team got a special visitor to give them some words of advice and encouragement. I suspect all of you will recognize him: https://twitter.com/DukeWLAX/status/1395140687084019715

[roywhite]

The Duke Women's Lax team got a special visitor to give them some words of advice and encouragement. I suspect all of you will recognize him: https://twitter.com/DukeWLAX/status/1395140687084019715

Ha..how cool is that?

Thanks for posting.

[budwom]

High schools are turning out more D1-caliber athletes than there are slots on D1 rosters. The result is that the gap between the lower tiers of D1 and the top of D3–NESCAC, the Liberty League, and the ODAC—is probably smaller in men’s lax than any other sport. Tufts beating Dartmouth was no fluke, and the likes of RIT and Salisbury could compete in the MAAC or SoCon.

High Point’s second-leading scorer this year was a transfer from D3 Lynchburg.

yeah, who ever would have guessed that places like Jacksonville and Utah would be fielding teams...as you say, there is a LOT of high school talent these days, despite the numbers looking relatively low vs sports like basketball...

[OZZIE4DUKE]

The Duke Women's Lax team got a special visitor to give them some words of advice and encouragement. I suspect all of you will recognize him: https://twitter.com/DukeWLAX/status/1395140687084019715

Ha..how cool is that?

Thanks for posting.

It's very cool! And I hope it gives our women whatever extra inspiration or confidence they need to win on Saturday and beyond! LGD GTHc!

[TywinBlue]

That was very cool !

It perfectly shows our beloved Coach K is all about everything Duke and not just in his silo thinking only about his program.

Let's celebrate and enjoy this special man while we still can !

[DST Fan]

Inside Lacrosse posted a lengthy article today detailing Wilson Stephenson's recovery from his injury in the 2019 quarterfinals.

In addition to providing a nice profile of Wilson, I found this part of the article interesting:

“He is, along with Giles-Harris, our greatest communicator. What Wilson allows us to do is he allows Giles-Harris to cover the dodger, where when Wilson wasn’t in there Giles-Harris had to be...the communication part of our defense is more important than the on-ball defense,” Caputo explained. “Giles-Harris had sacrificed a little bit of his greatest attribute, which is his athleticism and his ability to disrupt the ball carrier for the betterment of the team. And now Wilson has gotten back, it allows Giles-Harris to cover the Matt Moores, Chris Grays, and Aidan Olmsteads of the world.”

I have seen some commentary on a lacrosse message board the past month about JT having a down year and his stats falling off. The explanation makes sense.


https://www.insidelacrosse.com/artic...ney-back/57956