Tournament Resumes YTD / Selection Show

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[UrbanaOrange]

Thomson played against Harvard, had a massive game.

Yup, I believe Luke missed the Harvard game.

 

[All4SU]

I love the Automatic Qualifier system. Lacrosse is on the cusp of greater attention and the AQ helps spread the sport. But…

- The ACC needs to strong arm another conference team to varsity lacrosse level. This five team setup is BS.

- Need to expand the tourney a little.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

I love the Automatic Qualifier system. Lacrosse is on the cusp of greater attention and the AQ helps spread the sport. But…

- The ACC needs to strong arm another conference team to varsity lacrosse level. This five team setup is BS.

- Need to expand the tourney a little.

NC State dropped LAX in 1982. BC dropped in 2002.

Since Texas is a hotbed of HS LAX, maybe SMU steps up?

If they expand the tournament to 20, you'd have to add two more play-in games.

Ironically, in a 20 team field, Army gets in, but based on RPI the actual Patriot League Champ (Colgate) would be forced into a play-in.

 

[orange79]

What did he say? I agree with you before even hearing

When Carc was trying to make a point, Quint kept interrupting him and being SUPER dismissive of Carc's viewpoint: something to the effect of "I've been doing this for 30 years and..." essentially saying Carc's opinion was bullship.

As Faegan said, if Carc had gone full WWE on him, any reasonable judge would have watched the film, banged his gavel, and said, "Case dismissed."

Go to the 21:10 mark for the setup of the dickiness.

 

[orange79]

What a weekend! Two great games and then a favorable seeding. It could have been much worse for us. If we had lost to Notre Dame, then I don’t think we even make the playoffs!

A few thoughts:
-I really feel badly for Army. We took their spot last year, and Harvard took their spot this year. I understand the RPI reasoning for taking Harvard over them (RPI of 11 over 12), but I just feel badly for them. They had a great season. College lacrosse has grown, so I think it’s time to revamp the playoff system. Either get rid of the Automatic Qualifiers or add more teams to the playoffs. The 12th best team in the country should at least make it to the playoffs. The teams that made it through AQ in weaker conferences are much less deserving

My thoughts going into the Selection Show last night was that Army was definitely out, especially if they were competing with Harvard. They just didn't have the numbers.

As Carc said last night, if you don't have the numbers, and you don't win your conference championship on your home field...

You can bet that Army will be begging SU to play them next year. Begging.

 

[orange79]

When Carc was trying to make a point, Quint kept interrupting him and being SUPER dismissive of Carc's viewpoint: something to the effect of "I've been doing this for 30 years and..." essentially saying Carc's opinion was bullship.

As Faegan said, if Carc had gone full WWE on him, any reasonable judge would have watched the film, banged his gavel, and said, "Case dismissed."

Go to the 21:10 mark for the setup of the of the dickiness.

orangefog - I forgot the link:

 

[FloridaCuse]

My thoughts going into the Selection Show last night was that Army was definitely out, especially if they were competing with Harvard. They just didn't have the numbers.

As Carc said last night, if you don't have the numbers, and you don't win your conference championship on your home field... View attachment 251863


You can bet that Army will be begging SU to play them next year. Begging.

BUT . . . will Army be able to hold up its RPI for the rest of the season?

 

[JeremyCuse]

BUT . . . will Army be able to hold up its RPI for the rest of the season?

Exactly, they beat SU last year and it did them zero good in the end as they ended up in the same exact spot.

 

[Cuse4455]

Alberici's son early in the season on Instagram posted that Syracuse ducked them (avoided them). Now he and his loser dad are sitting on the couch for a 2nd straight year! Maybe don't lose to bum*** Colgate! Go Navy!!

 

[Powellfan]

 

[FasterCuse]

Commencement always runs from 9:30 AM - Noon.

Last year was the first time we hosted since the new roof was installed. Maybe they found out it takes less time to stack up all the chairs on pallets and remove them by forklift if they can keep the large garage doors in the SW corner open all the time (as opposed to using the airlock)?

Sala must be confident in the crew's ability to turn the Dome over in 3 hours.

Just have everyone carry their chair out as they are leaving the building and stack them nicely.

 

[FloridaCuse]

Fascinating stuff. Especially Syracuse has never lost to the same team in the Dome twice in a season. And not in Syracuse since 1918.

 

[HtownOrange]

Good explanation. Of course, they could have just read this board and come to the same conclusions, but who am I to criticize a committee headed by a Rutgers representative.

 

[CrazyPeople]

I feel like this route to the Final 4 is the absolute best case scenario. Harvard, who they were up 7? on early this season should be very winnable. Assuming Princeton moves on, I'm not sure they are playing their BEST lacrosse right now.

We avoid Ohio State who is playing excellent right now, we avoid Richmond who I believe can beat anyone. We avoid Maryland in the quarters.

This seems like the best path in my mind and couldnt have worked out much better.

 

[FloridaCuse]

I feel like this route to the Final 4 is the absolute best case scenario. Harvard, who they were up 7? on early this season should be very winnable. Assuming Princeton moves on, I'm not sure they are playing their BEST lacrosse right now.

We avoid Ohio State who is playing excellent right now, we avoid Richmond who I believe can beat anyone. We avoid Maryland in the quarters.

This seems like the best path in my mind and couldnt have worked out much better.

and we avoid Cornell until the Championship game.

 

[Cuse All-In]

I feel like this route to the Final 4 is the absolute best case scenario. Harvard, who they were up 7? on early this season should be very winnable. Assuming Princeton moves on, I'm not sure they are playing their BEST lacrosse right now.

We avoid Ohio State who is playing excellent right now, we avoid Richmond who I believe can beat anyone. We avoid Maryland in the quarters.

This seems like the best path in my mind and couldnt have worked out much better.

I agree with you. The teams that I would most worry about facing early in the draw are Maryland, Ohio State, Richmond - all strong defensive teams and Cornell - best offense in D1. We don't get any of those in the quarters.

Of course, it depends on which Cuse team shows up - the ACCT team could run the table. I hope they haven't peaked too soon.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Alberici's son early in the season on Instagram posted that Syracuse ducked them (avoided them). Now he and his loser dad are sitting on the couch for a 2nd straight year! Maybe don't lose to bum*** Colgate! Go Navy!!

Colgate isn't a bad team but when your Army at home after already blowign them out earlier in the year, its a game you cannot lose.

Alberici's son is also dead wrong. Cuse and Army had a game scheduled but got bumped by Mens ball. They tried to re-schedule but couldn't get a date that worked for both and Army didnt' want to play a mid week late season game in conference play.

 

[Cuse All-In]

Colgate isn't a bad team but when your Army at home after already blowign them out earlier in the year, its a game you cannot lose.

Alberici's son is also dead wrong. Cuse and Army had a game scheduled but got bumped by Mens ball. They tried to re-schedule but couldn't get a date that worked for both and Army didnt' want to play a mid week late season game in conference play.

Jeremy:

What's your opinion of Cornell's defense? The offense certainly is elite and reminds me of some of the top offenses back in 2019-2021 i.e. Penn State, Cornell itself with Teat, Virginia, Duke etc. The fact that they ran up 20 against Princeton is scary. BUT, defense usually wins championships and I don't know that Cornell's is that good which means they have to have their A game offensively.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Jeremy:

What's your opinion of Cornell's defense? The offense certainly is elite and reminds me of some of the top offenses back in 2019-2021 i.e. Penn State, Cornell itself with Teat, Virginia, Duke etc. The fact that they ran up 20 against Princeton is scary. BUT, defense usually wins championships and I don't know that Cornell's is that good which means they have to have their A game offensively.

Their defense is better than last years for sure, I wouldn't call it great by any stretch but they play very physical, have good SSDM's, solid cover guys including LSM, and haven't had the number of injuries that plagued them last year. I think it's good enough to win a title especially with a healthy Cascadden.

That offense can erase so many mistakes that even in a game the D struggles (Princeton) it doesn't end up mattering.

Now that said that defense can get picked on, if Cascadden runs into a guy he struggles with or the other guy gets on a heater they could be in some trouble. There aren't a lot of teams that I think match up well with them, Maryland is one just because defensively they can cause some problems. Marylands issue is at X and offense, not sure they can keep up.

I think this is really Cornells year, if they don't do it now I am not sure when they will because they lose a lot to graduation including Kirst and Long. On their side of the backet the only two teams I think could really cause a problem would be OSU and ND. I know Penn State is their only loss but that was pretty flukey, I doubt they can replicate it. On our side of the bracket, I'd like to think SU could cause some problems but we'd need to play way better then we did earlier in the year. Maryland defensively I think can match up well but that offense has really struggled at times, I don't know if they can score what it would take even if their D played well.

 

[Powellfan]

I feel like this route to the Final 4 is the absolute best case scenario. Harvard, who they were up 7? on early this season should be very winnable. Assuming Princeton moves on, I'm not sure they are playing their BEST lacrosse right now.

We avoid Ohio State who is playing excellent right now, we avoid Richmond who I believe can beat anyone. We avoid Maryland in the quarters.

This seems like the best path in my mind and couldnt have worked out much better.

When Penn State was announced as the five seed over SU, I admit I was more than a little peeved. I had it in my head that SU would play Colgate (a team that they had already beat convincingly earlier this year) and Ohio State (a team without superstars on offense). But with time, I agree, I think this is a good draw for the Orange.

That first Harvard game, frankly left me more disgusted than any Syracuse lacrosse game in the last however many years. To win that many face-offs and still lose the game just left me dumbfounded. To be able to face-off against the Harvard and right that wrong in the postseason would be incredibly rewarding, and help wash a really bad taste out. It won't be easy, and every home playoff game that takes place during graduation weekend always makes me nervous, but I think SU matches up well with Harvard, despite the earlier loss. They'll be facing a team that is sub 50% in save percentage and face-off percentage.

Princeton makes me nervous, but again, I think it's a team SU matches up with. Weirdly I think they are a lot like SU with a good offense and a tough goalie. SU does have an edge with John Mullen, as their face-off percentage is below 50%. Croddick the goalie makes me nervous as his save percentage is at 58%. But against top teams, outside of Penn State (he had 22 saves against them), he comes down to earth a bit (50% or below against Maryland, Duke, UNC and Cornell). SU is at their best when they can win face-offs and dictate tempo.

Ohio State is not favored in their first round game vs Notre Dame, so maybe we are wrong for not "wanting" that match up, but I think SU does better against the teams that play straight up, and not the slow it down, drag a game out type like the Buckeyes.

Anyways, Harvard first and unlike us I hope the Orange aren't thinking of any other team but the Crimson right now!

 

[upperdeck]

Cornell is down 1-2 Dmen and played without 2 started SSDM as well the last few games. Unclear if they will get any of them back for the playoffs.

Cornell D is a mystery. They have struggled in the first half of several games but played pretty solid late and allowed way fewer goals after the break. even the Princeton game went up 4-0. then got outscored 9-4 to trail at the half. After that gave up 5 in the 3rd and then shut P out while they go on a 10-0 run.

UNC wins faceoffs so they can keep the ball away from Cornell perhaps if they meet

Man down D has struggled, Man up is good but they don't draw many penalties for a team that possesses the ball so much

 

[Cuse All-In]

Their defense is better than last years for sure, I wouldn't call it great by any stretch but they play very physical, have good SSDM's, solid cover guys including LSM, and haven't had the number of injuries that plagued them last year. I think it's good enough to win a title especially with a healthy Cascadden.

That offense can erase so many mistakes that even in a game the D struggles (Princeton) it doesn't end up mattering.

Now that said that defense can get picked on, if Cascadden runs into a guy he struggles with or the other guy gets on a heater they could be in some trouble. There aren't a lot of teams that I think match up well with them, Maryland is one just because defensively they can cause some problems. Marylands issue is at X and offense, not sure they can keep up.

I think this is really Cornells year, if they don't do it now I am not sure when they will because they lose a lot to graduation including Kirst and Long. On their side of the backet the only two teams I think could really cause a problem would be OSU and ND. I know Penn State is their only loss but that was pretty flukey, I doubt they can replicate it. On our side of the bracket, I'd like to think SU could cause some problems but we'd need to play way better then we did earlier in the year. Maryland defensively I think can match up well but that offense has really struggled at times, I don't know if they can score what it would take even if their D played well.

Thanks for the info!

 

[Powellfan]

 

[DomeHolmes]

Would Maryland drop to 4? Their resume is very good, if OSU enters the top 5 RPI, they would have three top 5 wins (though only if PSU stays in). Their SOS is 1. They beat Princeton … I kind of wonder if Cornell wins tomorrow they only drop to the second seed.

Given geography, I wonder if Syracuse is set to play Harvard or BU/Colgate and that’s it. I/E beat Duke and play patriot league winner, lose, host Harvard again. I guess Georgetown is still a bus drive away so I might be wrong.

I think the top seeds will look something like this if Cornell beats Princeton …

1. Cornell
2. Maryland
3. Princeton
4. Ohio State
5. ACC winner
6. Penn State
7. ACC loser

?

You talked me into agreeing with this post when I originally thought Ohio State would leapfrog UMD. You were spot on. Interestingly, despite the tourney seeding, both the coaches and media have Ohio State ahead of Maryland in their polls (and us at #5 in both) but of course RPI is king In lacrosse.