Tomorrow is a big day, boys and girls. I hope you found your fanciest clip-on bow tie. Yes, the one with the polka dots. That's my favorite.

On Thursday evening, the Tewaaraton Foundation will honor one of five men's finalists as its most outstanding player of the year. (A lovely lady will also take home a similar award on the women's side.) The folks charged with picking a winner this year have a difficult task on their hands: They can't just pick the NCAA tournament's most outstanding player like they have in years past as none of the award's finalists are Eric Lusby. Time to earn those ducats, fancy important people that hold lacrosse legacies in their hands.

I have no clue who's going to take home the giant doorstop at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, but, if I had a vote, I'd probably give it to this season's Enners Award winner -- Peter Baum. But, what do I know? Sitting in front of the air conditioner in my underpants is my favorite summer hobby.

Here's how things shake out on statrankings.com's "Player Statistical Index." Players are ranked by position, so C.J. Costabile kind of sits separate from his four other peers, but the values are adjusted for relative uniformity (in terms of production) across the positions. I'm not sure this is a perfect way to compare players from a statistical perspective -- it is still somewhat flawed as it uses games as opposed to possessions or another measure as its rate -- but it's one of the better metrics for general comparison.

With that as a backdrop, and my eyeballs serving as a compliment, here's how I'd rank the finalists:

• 5th: Mike Sawyer. Incredible talent and one of Loyola's most important players this season. There's just one problem with picking the Carolina native for the Tewaaraton -- his linemate, Eric Lusby, really outshined him down the stretch. This doesn't so much erode what Sawyer did in 2012, it just impacts -- relative to his competitors for the trophy -- how much Loyola relied on him to be ultimately successfully. (Which was a lot, I think it's just somewhat muted compared to these four other guys.)
• 4th: Will Manny. This one stings personally, as Will Manny is Will Manny and Will Manny does Will Manny things. As good as Manny was this season for Massachusetts, he slowed down the stretch a bit and was really surrounded by a lot of talent (Biscardi, Kell, Smith, Fleming) that may have increased his production as much as Manny increased the production around him. For what it's worth, Manny finished the year ranked second nationally in "Total Offensive Value," which is basically points per team offensive possession adjusted for opponents faced.
• 3rd: C.J. Costabile. I'd put Costabile as high as second but clearly no lower than third. When you talk about total lacrosse value, the Duke midfielder should be right toward the top of everybody's list of elite players. The guy was a groundball machine, took draws, and ignited transition. The problem I have with arguments about naming Costabile the Tewaaraton winner is this: If you're going to sell me on all-around game as a touchstone for taking home top honors, you need to convince me that, compared to his positional group and his finalist competitors, that Costabile was superior. I'm not exactly sure that Costabile, outside of his face-off work, was decidedly better than Scott Ratliff this season (and Ratliff was a much stronger defensive player).
• 2nd: Steele Stanwick: Even though Stanwick was playing with one of the most talented offensive units in the country, Virginia doesn't sniff the NCAA tournament quarterfinals this season without him. The guy was a horse all season, carrying the Cavaliers on his back for extended stretches, and actually finished the season ranked first in "Total Offensive Value." I think there's only one guy that was more important to his team (and his team's success) this season other than Stanwick, and that's . . .
• 1st: Peter Baum: Ask yourself a simple question: Where would Colgate have been this season without Baum? I'm not sure that the Raiders are any better than a .500 to .600 team without Baum's impact. He is one of the most explosive players in the country and his value -- in terms of production, leadership, and value in simply stepping on the field -- really is unmatched. The Tewaaraton Trophy doesn't always follow the lead of the Enners Award, but in this case, it should.

So, that's what I think. Who are you knuckleheads thinking should win this thing on Thursday?

The final poll is out -- Media-- and Loyola is the media's year-end darling. This seems especially important as media members need to confirm that the Greyhounds won the national championship on Memorial Monday and that is not considered a fact until it is duly recorded in aggregated voting format. The fate of the American democracy rests on this happening, people.

I'm not sure what any of this means at this point in the year. Polls kind of give people an expectation of what's going to happen in the coming days; without games on the docket, simply looking back at the year that was and slotting teams into positions seems a little odd. This seems like a time to break apart what happened during the 2012 season and look ahead to 2013, not confirm what already happened this past spring. May the coaches poll is on to something (they don't compile a year-end tally).

Anyway, here's this week's poll aggregation featuring teams situated in any set of rankings' top ten. Some brief thoughts follow after the jump.

LAXPOWER: These are the LaxPower ratings. These ratings are based on solid math, similar to Jeff Sagarin's rankings. Importantly, they consider margin of victory.

RPI: This is stupid person math. I include these rankings only because the NCAA is full of stupid people and they still use this stupid person math as a major piece of their stupid tournament selection criteria. I've included these rankings this week because I am, apparently, as stupid as everyone and everything else.

EFFICIENCY: This is just a ranking of a team's efficiency margin, as adjusted for strength of schedule. These are similar to Ken Pomeroy's rankings, but slightly different. (Pomeroy uses win expectation as the basis of his ratings. We each, however, use the same foundation (efficiency).)

PYTH.: This is a Pythagorean win expectation. You can see more at Tempo Free Lax.

AVG.: Average of the "math" rankings.

MEDIA: This is the media poll, juding humans simply to sell ink and paper. This polls is from May 29, 2012. The coaches poll does not contribute a postseason tally, so it has been eliminated this week.

AVG.: This is the average the Earth-human poll.

DIFF.: The difference between the "math" polls and the human poll. A negative value means that "math" is rating a team higher than the things that are carbon-based; the inverse means that the things made out of 75% water are rating a team higher than the things not made out of any water.

AVG.: Average of the math and human polls. This is how the table is ordered.

More after the jump.

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This is obviously your favorite site, but other people actually write important stuff sometimes. Now is that sometimes.

Terps Offense Dries Up in Another Title Game Loss
After his team produced the lowest goal-scoring output in Division I championship game history, Maryland coach John Tillman walked into the post-game press conference exhausted.

Eric Lusby goes on record attack
Loyola lacrosse coach Charlie Toomey was a two-time All-America goalie, who backstopped the Greyhounds to their only prior appearance in the NCAA Division 1 championship game in 1990.

Top Five: Reasons Loyola beat Maryland in the NCAA men's lacrosse final
In its 9-3 loss in the NCAA lacrosse championship game, Maryland scored a title-game record low three goals. What were the differences for Loyola?

Title a 1st for Loyola
All season, Loyola of Maryland heard the doubters. The Greyhounds were unranked to start the season, and even after they had ascended to No. 1 in the nation, they still were perceived as underdogs when matching up against the traditional powerhouse programs in NCAA men’s lacrosse.

Loyola wins NCAA lacrosse title, respect
The Loyola Greyhounds reached this weekend’s Final Four for the first time in 14 years, and when they got to Foxborough, they knew that completing their mission by dominating the Maryland Terrapins in a 9-3 win in the championship game and bringing Loyola its first title in school history was the only way to snatch the respect they had been denied from the start.

Congratulations to Loyola University Maryland for winning the men's lacrosse championship
Loyola University owns Charles Street bragging rights in lacrosse this year.

Amherst's Josh Hawkins on top of men's lacrosse world, as big part of Loyola's Division I championship team
The former Amherst and Deerfield Academy standout scored a huge goal in Saturday's semifinal win over Notre Dame.

Today's beats: The Lumineers, man:

It didn't take a genius to realize that there was strong potential that Gillette Stadium wasn't going to draw all that well this past weekend for the NCAA lacrosse championships. In fact, I'm a first-rate knucklehead and even I knew that Foxborough, Massachusetts, was going to need Chamber of Commerce weather combined with magical unicorn races to fill seats from Saturday through Monday. And only one of those things kind of came in.

79,959 people came through Camp Kraft this weekend, marking the lowest Championship Weekend crowd since 2002 when Rutgers hosted the event. The downward attendance trend is becoming stark:

• 2007: Total attendance -- 123,225 (M&T Bank Stadium)
• 2008: Total attendance -- 121,511 (Gillette Stadium)
• 2009: Total attendance -- 102,601 (Gillette Stadium)
• 2010: Total attendance -- 102,219 (M&T Bank Stadium)
• 2011: Total attendance -- 98,786 (M&T Bank Stadium)
• 2012: Total attendance -- 79,959 (Gillette Stadium)

John Jiloty of Inside Lacrosse put on his trench coat and a fedora with a slip of paper with the word "PRESS" slipped into the band and started asking some questions about why everyone is mumbling "To hell with it!" and staying home over Memorial Day Weekend. The folks he talked to -- big wigs with, I guess, cigars in their mouths -- are putting all kinds of options on the table to try and figure out the declining number of butts in seats:

“People are starting to make a lot of decisions that are affecting this event,” Buttafuoco said. “We need to collectively evaluate how we can get the event back on track to where we all want it to be, and identify where we can make those improvements and make a commitment to do it.”

Among the potential changes that Jarnecke said have been discussed, the most dramatic may be moving the Final Four a week later into June and playing the Quarterfinals on Memorial Day weekend. He said the idea of stretching out the weekend so the NCAA DI Final is a week later than the Semifinals hasn’t been addressed; in the early-June championship weekend scenario, he predicted it would be the same format as the current event.

* * * * *

Rising ticket prices have come up a lot from fans when asked about lower Final Four attendance, and the economic downturn that has come since those crowd records were set in 2007 hasn’t made things easier. Championship Monday tickets started at $35 face value this year, with three-day packages starting at $70; that all-session price was double what it was in 2006 in Philadelphia (and there was even a group ticket deal for $25). Jarnecke said they released single-game tickets earlier this year in an effort to boost lagging ticket sales.

“We’re going to look at that hard in the coming months to better understand the thresholds that people are willing to pay for a ticket,” Jarnecke said. “I don’t think we’re horribly off; I just believe there’s an opportunity to further segment the market and attract different folks.”

Other factors at play this year were the lack of any DI team within 300 miles of Foxboro (Jarnecke said their research shows that a three-hour drive is about the limit for the majority of fans), the absence of traditional big draws like Syracuse and Johns Hopkins and the location outside the traditional mid-Atlantic hotbeds.

There isn't a silver bullet that solves this attendance trend and it's nice to see that the folks in charge of the event realize that in their desire to consider every possible option available. (Except the non-Memorial Day Weekend one. That one is crazy pants.) I think, though, that there is one issue lurking in the background that event organizers may have a serious problem attempting to address.

Continue reading this post »

Controversy! (Well, kind of.)

With Loyola's carpet bombing of Maryland yesterday at Gillette Stadium, the world became a different place. There are now nine schools that have won a national title at the Division I level and, most importantly, College Crosse is ready to crown its first bracket challenge victor. It's like a totally different world now, man. Things will never be the same.

When all was said and done, the top-six positions on the final scoreboard were populated with seven mild geniuses that picked Loyola to take home top honors on Memorial Monday. In fact, they were the only folks in the 42-person challenge that picked the number-one seed to commit damage to personal property at the end of the year, which is a little shocking and disturbing. In the end, with 48 out of 64 total possible points, "Paddy Mac" is getting a bachelor of arts in "Intelligence" from the University of College Crosse. Congratulations to him or her! (Internet superspy aliases: Get one!)

The runner-up position -- and the last money spot -- wasn't as cut and dry as determining the winner. Both "NunesMagician" and "S. Soboleski" finished with 46 points. However, only "NunesMagician" made a tiebreaking pick based on total goals. So, in the interest of not perverting justice because justice is blind and abusing the physically handicapped is just plain wrong, "NunesMagician" will take home second prize honors because he was a little better at reading instructions. (Default! Default! Default!)

For the full scoreboard, just point your Internet clicking device at this fancy highlighted text.

Now, for what everyone has been waiting for -- fabulous prizes!

• First Prize: First prize will receive:
  • (1) NCAA lacrosse championship DVD of their choice, subject to availability.
  • (1) Very special t-shirt of my choosing.
• Second Prize: Second prize will receive:
  • (1) Very special t-shirt of my choosing.

I will be in touch with the winners to get some information from you. To all you other losers (including myself): Way to go, assbags. (Seriously, though: Thanks to everyone that played along during the tournament.)

This is obviously your favorite site, but other people actually write important stuff sometimes. Now is that sometimes.

SECOND BEST
There’s little doubt the Terrapins men’s lacrosse team has its shortcomings. It’s not especially dynamic, it struggles with consistency and it often gets beat on faceoffs.

For Toomey, a special day
There isn’t much that Charley Toomey loves more than Loyola (Md.). He went to school there, coaches there, he lives for the Greyhounds. On Monday, that lifelong faith was rewarded. Recap Highlights Photos Brackets: Interactive Printable Store: Champ gear

Loyola's Lusby stays hot with four goals
Hard to believe that Eric Lusby actually was struggling with his shot before the NCAA Tournament began. How quickly things turned around for the Loyola (Md.) attack.

Loyola lacrosse championship wins over fans
Loyola and University of Maryland lacrosse fans watched the national championship game within a bar stool of each other at Mother's in Federal Hill, and had only one thing in common.

Loyola Tops Maryland for First Lacrosse Title
With a 9-3 victory over the Terrapins, top-seeded Loyola Greyhounds joined the elite of men’s college lacrosse, a sport long dominated by a small circle of programs.

Toomey, Tillman Finish Bittersweet Afternoon
When they met at the end of the handshake line after Loyola's convincing, 9-3 win in the NCAA national championship game on Monday, Charley Toomey and John Tillman gave each other a long embrace. Each one shared mixed emotions about how the game played out – Toomey happy for his Loyola players but disappointed for his friend and Tillman having the exact opposite feelings for his Maryland team.

NCAA Championship: Why Loyola Won
The Loyola Greyhounds won the first national championship in program history (and a DII men's soccer championship in the ’70s was the school's only other title) beating Maryland 9-3 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. Here's how they did it.

Today's beats: Brass Bonanza, because why the hell not?

With its 9-3 victory over Maryland today, Loyola joined a pretty exclusive club: The 'Hounds can now count itself as one of only nine schools that have hoisted the NCAA Division I championship trophy. I don't know whether Loyola's victory is confirmation that parity has finally come to the nation's top division of college lacrosse, but it's proof that old money can't simply rely on its connections to dance with the lady in bronze and walnut on a yearly basis.

It was a complete effort from the Greyhounds today, riding a voracious defense and getting timely offense out of a unit that showed its depth and ability all afternoon. Eric Lusby, the attack that has been Loyola's lumberjack throughout Championship play, finished the day with four points (all on goals), finding time to break the all-time NCAA Tournament record for goals scored (17). He is a human missile and should expect a call from the military to determine whether he can be appropriately weaponized.

Going into the game, it felt as if major factors in the game were going to be how well each team shared the bean and limited their opponent from involving the entirety of the offense, as well as whether each team would be able to generate and limit turnovers. As things played out in Foxborough, Massachusetts, that came into clearer focus. The Greyhounds absolutely decimated the Maryland defense on the day, running past Terrapin defenders with ease and exploiting a mishmash slow and non-existent slides from Kevin Warne's unit. At the other end of the field, the 'Hounds suffocated the Terps' offense to the extent that Maryland went scoreless over the final 40:40 of play. Joe Fletcher, Dylan Grimm, Reid Acton, Scott Ratliff, and Josh Hawkins crushed the souls of Joe Cummings and Company, Ltd. all afternoon and completely shut down one of the most efficient offensive teams in the country.

While Loyola absolutely earned the victory at Gillette Stadium, Maryland did itself no favors on the day. The Terps committed 13 turnovers, eight of which were credited to the Greyhounds as caused events, losing offensive opportunities left and right. On the day, Maryland actually owned the overall possession margin, earning three more offensive possession than the 'Hounds. When combined with an abysmal shooting performance -- the Terps only shot 10.34 percent, due in heavy degree to how well Loyola locked off the Terps' biggest human deathrays -- Maryland just couldn't help itself out in generating any momentum. In short, every factor of importance went against the Terrapins on the day -- some voluntarily and others caused by Loyola -- and the result bears that out.

Congratulations to Charley Toomey and his charges. A job well done and a more than deserving champion.

KEY STATISTICS

Pace: 45 total possessions.
Possession Margin: +3 (Maryland)
Unadjusted Loyola Defensive Efficiency: 12.50
Maryland Shooting Percentage: 10.34%
Turnovers per Offensive Possesion: Maryland -- 54.17%; Loyola -- 42.86%
Unadjusted Maryland Defensive Efficiency: 42.86
Face-Offs: Maryland -- 12; Loyola -- 3

This is it, boys and girls. 99.8 percent of the college lacrosse season is complete, which is exciting and makes me love these United States of America.

It's been a crazy ride this season, what with all the cockamamie nonsense that dominated a solid 60 or so days of the regular and postseason. I really can't remember a year in which all hell was breaking loose every single gameday, leaving conceptual understanding in the dust and replacing it with a sticker that just read, "Bonkers!" Despite all that, though, Loyola -- which participated in but generally avoided the calamity of Division I in 2012 -- is chasing down its first championship ever while Maryland -- long a blue blood without the cash reserves of its peer group -- looks to get its first since 1975.

These are the good times, people.

Here are a couple of things to keep an eye on today:

• Turnovers: Which team will create them and which team will avoid them? There's a tension here and whichever team can generate and limit these circumstances may create the momentum necessary to take home a national title.
• Which team will win in personnel imbalance scenarios (if they occur)? Maryland has a bit of a situtional issue, playing in lots of man-down scenarios; each team, independent of how often they play in personnel imbalance scenarios, clicks very well with the extra attacker. Preferential scoring opportunities against staunch defenses are always important factors in determining a winner, and there aren't too many scoring situations that are as preferential as extra-man opportunities.
• Which team will share the ball the best? When Maryland and Loyola's offenses are at their best they're generally sharing the ball and spreading the wealth. Neither of these defenses yield too many of these opportunities, so whichever team can pick their spots the best may make the scoreboard blink the most.

Anyway, here's how the game shakes out on the Fun Factor scale:

This is your open thread for the game. Rock and roll is evil. Remember: If you haven't yet, give a "like" to College Crosse over on Facebook and make sure to give a follow to College Crosse on Twitter.

HELPFUL RESOURCES
Game Overview
Points of Interest

The NCAA tweeted that picture up there yesterday during the Dowling-Limestone Division II final. Those kids are doing the Lord's work, supporting their club by risking skin poisoning to which their parent's medical insurance may or may not cover. Other than making me wonder how and why the mohawk still exists in a contemporary society that punishes anarchy with swift and violent law enforcement "justice," it did revive some memories from 13 years ago.

1999 was a fun year, man. Back then there wasn't any Twitter or Facebook or Google+. (I don't even think there's a Google+ in 2012, if you want the truth.) To get news as soon as it broke and experience things in real-time, you kind of, you know, had to actually go to events and stuff. That year, Syracuse had made what was a pretty impressive run to Championship Weekend, going on a revenge tour that saw the Orange -- under newly-minted head coach John Desko -- knock off Princeton at Brown, drop undefeated Loyola at Princeton, and face-off against Georgetown in the national semifinals (a rematch that would see Syracuse attempt to avenge a regular season defeat at the hands of the Hoyas). Some friends and I had been following the Orange around the northeast during the run and decided to take the trip down to College Park for the Final Four.

Much like today up at Gillette Stadium and last year at M&T Bank Stadium, it was a scorcher on Semifinal Saturday. I'm a New Englander to the bone; approximately four seconds in the sun is enough exposure to my skin to cause it to wish that it wasn't attached to the rest of my body. I had decided, for reasons unknown to me now but probably made sense when I was 18 and had the logic skills of a concrete block, to paint my body to look like an Orange lacrosse jersey. It was a terrible mistake.

As it was so hot that day, I took great care to not have any of the orange, blue, and white paint touch each other, fearing that any sweating would cause the colors to run and make me look like a real rube. The result was little patches of visible skin peeking through the delicate work of art. After about an hour or so in the sun, the paint baked to my skin, making it almost impossible to move. As a true believer in the Orange Empire, though, I stuck it out through Syracuse's 13-9 drubbing of Georgetown.

When we got back to where we were staying, however, I wasn't so much feeling the pain of baked paint sticking to my skin as much as it felt like my skin no longer wanted to exist. After taking a shower and removing all the nonsense on my chest, reality came into full focus: Due to the little gaps of skin between paint colors, I had gotten a "'Cuse" sunburn across my chest --

Be safe out there today, boys and girls. And, for God's sake, make sure that you bring some sunscreen or wear a shirt or something.

Blowing it out again today. You're welcome.

Walton's Ratliff in NCAA lax final
Less than 15 years ago, lacrosse in Georgia was not a high school varsity sport, played at a novice level on untended fields and coached by expatriates from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic seeking to spread their beloved game.

Fallen Heroes with Lacrosse Ties to Be Honored at Game Today
The NCAA and the Kraft family will honor two fallen heroes on Memorial Day (May 28) prior to the 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Championship Game at Gillette Stadium.

Loyola, Maryland paths cross in lacrosse final
Jimmy Carter was president, "The Deer Hunter" dominated the Academy Awards, the Knacks’ "My Sharona" and Rod Stewart’s "Do ya think I’m sexy?" ruled the air waves and some station called ESPN began broadcasting sports to the masses.

Maryland's 'mosh pit' is a dangerous place
Maryland midfielder Drew Snider scored four times in Saturday's NCAA tournament semifinals, and on each occasion he found himself swarmed with teammates. Just a few yards away, an even larger celebration unfolded every time on the Terrapins' sideline.

Maryland-Loyola: The un-championship
Loyola entered the season unranked. Maryland entered the postseason unseeded.

Loyola's Charley Toomey has no regrets about clock-killing strategy
Greyhounds coach indicates he would call for same if team is nursing late lead vs. Maryland in Monday's final.

Marylands Tillman, Loyolas Toomey set for lacrosse final
Josh Hawkins wound up at Loyola of Maryland through one of those friend-of-a-friend situations.

Loyola Returns to Lacrosse Title Game, Facing Maryland
More than a decade after Loyola Coach Charley Toomey took a $17,000 salary to join the team as an assistant, the top-seeded Greyhounds will play Maryland for the national championship.

Lacrosse stick maker STX invests in new ideas
STX, lacrosse stick maker, invests in research and development to grow along with sport.

Tactical Breakdown: Maryland vs. Loyola
If Saturday’s games are any indication of Monday’s matchup, the team with the early lead will hoist the NCAA championship trophy. Both Loyola and Maryland worked their way to early leads and battled to keep them in their semi-final triumphs.

NCAA Championship Breakdown
This is outside the typical range of content featured on these pages, but Tempo Free Lax has to be put to good use somehow, right? A quick look at both teams in this afternoon’s NCAA Final.

Today's beats: Today is all about those that have sacrificed in their service to this country. We, of course, thank all those men and women that have honor the flag with their commitment and pride. And now, here's the Black Keys (that transition stunk).

It's the 2012 NCAA lacrosse Final Four! Take out the nice napkins and make sure that your kid doesn't have crap all over his face. College Crosse has this all under control, so feel safe, friends. If you missed anything -- and you really shouldn't because you're only hurting yourself if you do -- click this fancy highlighted text to get all caught up.

I'm not going to beat the hell out of team profiles ahead of Memorial Monday. These teams are what they are, and if you saw the Semifinal Saturday profiles (and games), there hasn't been significant statistical profile changes from then to now. It's not like we're looking at teams from what they did in March compared to what they might do in May, so I'm not too worried about missing a few beats just to generate some extra pageviews.

So, you're welcome for that.

Rather, I'm going to do a one-shot, three-point rundown of some stuff that sticks out for the title game. Your continued patronage of College Crosse is, of course, appreciated.

Loyola Greyhounds: One-Seed
For a complete, mind-bending picture of the Greyhounds, point your clicking thing at this text for a downloadable .pdf report.

Maryland Terrapins: Unseeded
For a complete, mind-bending picture of the Terps, point your clicking thing at this text for a downloadable .pdf report.

Here are three pieces of incredibly important information about Maryland-Loyola from my brain to your eyes via your Internet computing machine:

• A somewhat overlooked aspect of both Loyola and Maryland's defenses this season has been each team's ability to generate turnovers. The Greyhounds have caused a lot of these turnovers through the ride this season while the Terrapins have kind of generated these circumstances in the defensive end proper. In a game where both teams are going to need to operate efficiently in defensive postures, killing opposing offensive opportunities before they can attack surging goalies is likely a strategy point on each side. On Monday, though, I'm not sure how much either the 'Hounds or Terps are going to get out of their takeaway games: Both opposing offenses value the ball as well as any team in the country (both teams rank in the top-three nationally in turnovers per offensive possession). Additionally, with Maryland's ability to clear -- the Terrapins do so at a clip that puts them in the top-ten in the country -- I'm not sure exactly how much Loyola is going to get out of their ride. Scott Ratliff and Jesse Bernhardt are gifted takeaway artists, but they're going to have their work cut out for them in the championship. If a team can snap the tension in these two metrics, it may factor significantly into the outcome of the game.
• Opponents have relied fairly heavily on Maryland playing in man-down situations to score this season; Loyola's opposition has also required the personnel imbalance to generate tallies against the Greyhounds' defense as well, but not as drastically as the Terrapins' opponents. Neither Maryland or Loyola have played in the man-up a lot per offensive possession this year, but Monday could be drastically impacted by each team's performance in uneven situations: (A) Loyola clicks on its man-up at about a 45 percent clip and if Maryland plays in a bunch of man-down scenarios (only 10 teams have played with less than six defenders on a defensive possession basis more than the Terrapins) it could really impact the momentum of play; and (B) While the 'Hounds have avoided man-down situations in the overall in 2012, some uncharacteristically boneheaded play from Loyola could spell doom as Maryland converts on about 42 percent of their extra-man opportunities. This fact favors Loyola in the overall, due almost exclusively to the fact that the 'Hounds have had more disciplined play throughout the season, but it's the opportunities in these circumstances that are of greater importance.
• When I talk to people about statistics, I always hammer home two points: (1) Don't look at any of these metrics in a vacuum, as they all impact each other; and (2) Don't rest on the statistics alone -- they need to be considered in light of what you're seeing on the field. With that said, if you want to know how well either team is operating both defensively and offensively, a major factor on Monday is going to be how well Maryland and Loyola share the bean. Assist rate (both offensive and defensive) is a major metric for consideration. If a team is sharing the ball, they're likely generating open, hands-free looks from preferential shooting locations. This is a major driver for shooting percentage and impacts efficiency to a high degree. The 'Hounds and Terps are among the nation's finest in both generating and limiting assisted scoring opportunities and rely somewhat heavily on each to drive their offensive and defensive efficiency. Whichever team can utilize the offense as a whole and exploit defensive lapses may ultimately drive the final result.

It's the 2012 NCAA lacrosse Final Four! Take out the nice napkins and make sure that your kid doesn't have crap all over his face. College Crosse has this all under control, so feel safe, friends. If you missed anything -- and you really shouldn't because you're only hurting yourself if you do -- click this fancy highlighted text to get all caught up.

Here it comes, boys and girls. Memorial Monday is just hours away and Maryland and Loyola are going to settle things -- once and for all (kind of) -- at 1:00 P.M. on ESPN. It's a duel just past noon, pitting what has been one of the most balanced and successful teams all season against a school that is putting it all together at the right time of the season and leaving catastrophe in its wake. It may not be the title game that a lot of people expected, but it has the feel of what could be a nasty land war with all kinds of collateral damage (including a two hour hit to your social life).

CHAMPIONSHIP: (UNSEEDED) MARYLAND AT (1) LOYOLA

You really couldn't ask for a squarer matchup for a national title, even if there are significant differences in how each team wants to go about their business. These are two value-based offenses that will attempt to make their bones against two undervalued and efficient defenses. Jack Runkel and Niko Amato will factor large into the result of Monday's contest, and with each goalie finding their stride, this may just be a title game for the ages.

A truncated game profile will follow, but for now, here's how each team stacks up in some legacy metrics:

More deadly information after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

Blowing it out again today. You're welcome.

Terps ready to answer question, 'why not us?'
Terps ready to answer question, 'why not us?'

Notre Dame men's lacrosse: Defense on, shooting off for Irish in semis
Loyola of Maryland took a much slower route to the NCAA lacrosse championship game than the Greyhounds are accustomed to.

Terrapins and Greyhounds to Meet in All-Maryland Title Game
Maryland beat Duke and will face top-seeded Loyola, which knocked out Notre Dame, for the N.C.A.A. lacrosse championship on Monday.

Lacrosse Names Just Keep Getting Sillier And Sillier
Currently, the NCAA has these rosters (click to enlarge) set to play when Notre Dame and Loyola Maryland square off this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. Can you spot the mistake? Ok, fine we'll tell you because lax names are ambiguous to begin with.

Maryland-Loyola will be 7th intra-state NCAA lacrosse final
Maryland-Loyola will be the seventh NCAA lacrosse championship game pitting schools from the same state. The first four involved Maryland. The last two have pitted Syracuse and Cornell.

Maryland manhandles Duke to reach NCAA lacrosse championship game
Duke coach John Danowski couldn't explain it. Truth be told, his counterpart at Maryland, John Tillman, couldn't either.

ESPN coverage of NCAA lacrosse grows with the game
As the 2012 NCAA Lacrosse Championship Tournament reaches its apex this weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., the country’s top-contending teams will vie for this year’s trophy in their respective division of play in front of thousands in attendance and millions on television.

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Maryland, the flagship university of a state that actually had its legislature declare lacrosse as one of its two official sports, is off to Memorial Monday to chase its first NCAA title since 1975. I wasn't even born in 1975, so I'm assuming that the last time that the Terrapins were the kings of college lacrosse people were still riding dinosaurs to work.

The Terps were a menace all day, riding a powerfully efficient offense and a lot of suspect defensive lapses from Duke to put away the Blue Devils, 16-10. Three Maryland players -- Joe Cummings, Drew Snider, and Kevin Cooper -- registered at least four points at the end of the day, which is both a testament to how well the Terrapins shared the load and also how much trouble Duke had at identifying and limiting offensive opportunities from their ACC rivals. It was an offensive clinic from Maryland at Gillette Stadium -- even with some tempo, which makes my heart sing -- and Duke (both in the cage and with their field players) never responded with an answer.

(Unless the answer they were looking for was "Overcommit and watch the pretty ball fly through the restraining box." If so, then the Blue Devils got exactly what they wanted.)

Outside of the Terps offensive smoke show, Niko Amato stood strong for extended stretches throughout the day. The redshirt sophomore finished the day with eight saves and, really, did a lot of Maryland's heavy lifting in the back. To help stymie an offensive team like Duke bodes well for a Maryland team that has been looking for increased consistency in the keeper, although he will be strongly tested on Memorial Monday. Of course, playing behind Goran Murray, Jesse Bernhardt, and Mike Ehrhardt tends to help.

With the win, the Terrapins will meet Loyola on Monday for the national championship. It's the first time that Championship Weekend has featured an all-Maryland final since 1979, which should make your mind explode. ESPN has the broadcast from Gillette Stadium starting at 1:00 P.M. You don't need to R.S.V.P., but it'd be nice if you did.

KEY STATISTICS

Pace: 67 total possessions.
Possession Margin: +3 (Maryland)
Unadjusted Notre Dame Offensive Efficiency: 47.51
Maryland Shooting Percentage: 55.17%
Maryland Shots per Offensive Possession: 0.83
Duke EMO Conversion Rate: 0.17% (1/6)
Maryland Man-Down Situations per Defensive Possession: 18.75%
Turnovers per Offensive Possession: Maryland -- 42.86%; Duke -- 37.50%

Game time!

With only 61 teams in Division I and the elite tending to want to hang out with each other at least once during the regular season, avoiding rematches in the NCAA lacrosse tournament is kind of a difficult thing to accomplish. This evening, Duke and Maryland will square off in a rematch of a rematch, a rubber game in which the Terrapins and Blue Devils will settle a 1-1 deadlock between the schools on the year. The result of this game may cause the universe to swallow itself from within, leaving nothing but a Memorial Day Weekend hamburger floating in the vacuum that was existence.

It's an ACC showdown in Foxborough, Massachusetts -- Don't you want in on this, Boston College? -- and ESPN2 and ESPN3 will show you the graphic and disturbing video. And, in case you didn't know, Duke head coach John Danowski would probably rather have this game played somewhere near Port Jefferson, New York.

Here are a couple of things to keep an eye on today:

• Everyone on the planet knows that Maryland is going to try and push the pace of this game into ground. The issue, though, is this: If Duke starts to dominate the possession game, will the Terrapins be forced to press if they fall behind? Pragmatism is Maryland's calling card, and if the Blue Devils want to avoid playing long defensive possessions, disruption through sharp offensive efficiency generated through extra offensive possessions may be the best means to that end.
• There is a strong possibility that a lot of this game eventually gets decided on which team's special situation units perform the strongest. Both Maryland and Duke are prone to playing in man-down situations; whichever set of personnel imbalance units can survive and thrive may control how this game shakes out.
• I once at three whole lobsters for dinner. I weigh 165 pounds. See you on Coney Island on the Fourth of July.

Anyway, here's how the game shakes out on the Fun Factor scale:

This is your open thread for the game. Rock and roll is evil. Remember: If you haven't yet, give a "like" to College Crosse over on Facebook and make sure to give a follow to College Crosse on Twitter.

HELPFUL RESOURCES
Pretty Pictures!
Maryland Profile
Duke Profile
Game Overview

Notre Dame isn't going to win many lacrosse games when it shoots 18 percent, has the opposing goalie stop 15 shots, goes through two 20-plus minute scoreless streaks, and allows Loyola's Eric Lusby to become a destruction machine with spikes and a big heavy ball that is used to knock over dirty buildings. In fact, Notre Dame is 0-1 all-time when this happens. It's clearly a definitive trend toward failure.

The Greyhounds, despite losing 13 of 14 draws and playing at an eight possession deficit, dispatched the Irish at Gillette Stadium today, 7-5. With the win, Loyola is off to its first national championship appearance since 1990 when the Greyhounds lost to a Syracuse squad that many consider the greatest collegiate team ever assembled.

Loyola was hot right from the start with Lusby, who finished the day with five goals and an assist, factoring into the Greyhounds' first four tallies. The Irish never seemed to recover fully from the 4-1 first quarter deficit, trailing 5-3 at the half and playing in three-goal holes twice in the second half. John Kemp, named on Friday as the nation's most outstanding goalie, had a hot-and-cold day, stopping 13 shots and missing a few cans of corn at various points of play.

Notre Dame's uncharacteristically suspect defensive performance wasn't due exclusively to Kemp's uneven day between the pipes, however. The Greyhounds exploited poor recoveries and slides from the Irish on the afternoon and deftly dodged through one of the most staunch defensive outfits in the country. This is the second time this season that some isolated brain freezes from the Notre Dame defense burned the Irish this season -- the other coming in the Big East semifinals when St. John's dropped the Irish -- and it came at the worst time possible.

And, of course, Notre Dame had no clue how to attack Loyola's undervalued defense.

Outside of Lusby's lumberjack, man-work effort for the 'Hounds today, goalie Jack Runkel turned in the best performance of his career, stopping 15 shots and stifling what had been a surging Notre Dame offense. Joe Fletcher chipped in massively in Loyola's defensive effort, scooping up seven groundballs and causing three turnovers.

Loyola will meet the winner of Duke-Maryland on Monday at 1:00 P.M. ESPN has the television broadcast, which is delicious like macaroni and cheese.

KEY STATISTICS

Pace: 56 total possessions.
Possession Margin: +8 (Notre Dame)
Unadjusted Notre Dame Offensive Efficiency: 15.63
Faceoffs: 13 -- Notre Dame; 1 -- Loyola
Unadjusted Loyola Offensive Efficiency: 29.17

Here we go, knuckleheads. The 2012 NCAA lacrosse Final Four has its face-off in just a few minutes and I couldn't be any happier. The three-pack of games this weekend has all kinds of competitive matchups and compelling story lines, not the least of which is the NCAA denying me a press credential. So, we can all watch this together, from our couches and recliners, with Arnold Palmers in hand and a smoker in the backyard slowly turning delicious meat into even more delicious meat.

I love America.

Notre Dame and Loyola kick things off this weekend at 2:30 P.M. ESPN2 and ESPN3 have the broadcast. The network is pulling out all the stops for this thing, so enjoy the incredible future of television (which is neither incredible nor taking place in the future)!

Here are a couple of things to keep an eye on today:

• Notre Dame's defense is a death machine of death, but Loyola is rolling with some of the strongest offensive guns in the country in Justin Ward, Davis Butts, Mike Sawyer, and Eric Lusby. There's a lot of tension there, and if the Greyhounds are able to control the possession margin battle on the day, Loyola may have just enough hammers to break the Irish's brick.
• The 'Hounds aren't much of a slouch defensively -- Jack Runkel is a bit of an issue for Loyola between the pipes, though -- but Notre Dame's offense has slowly started to find its way during the postseason. If the Irish's defense is able to keep Loyola's offense at or below eight tallies (which is going to be difficult), Notre Dame may have enough offense to keep pace and pull out, yet again, another victory.
• Neither team has ever won a national title, which means absolutely nothing today. I just wanted to show everyone that I read each team's game notes. Congratulations, Hoya Suxa!

Anyway, here's how the game shakes out on the Fun Factor scale:

This is your open thread for the game. Watch out for those staties, people. Remember: If you haven't yet, give a "like" to College Crosse over on Facebook and make sure to give a follow to College Crosse on Twitter.

HELPFUL RESOURCES
Pretty Pictures!
Notre Dame Profile
Loyola Profile
Game Overview

Blowing it out for today. You're welcome.

Unease in Lacrosse Amid Race for Earlier Commitments
The race for earlier and earlier commitments — the same rush that is well known in college men’s basketball and football — has spread to men’s lacrosse.

Davis Butts: Rebel with a cause
Loyola midfielder Davis Butts has always been a Rebel at heart. The Walpole High product virtually grew up a long stick away from Gillette Stadium.

Duke has unique perspective on other semifinalists
No. 3 seed Blue Devils have dropped regular-season meetings to No. 1 seed Loyola, No. 4 seed Notre Dame and Maryland.

For little Loyola, lacrosse is a big deal
At Loyola University Maryland, there is no big-time football program. The men’s basketball team competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. These are assets in Charley Toomey’s favor.

NCAA lacrosse: For Notre Dame’s John Kemp, it’s a family affair
Notre Dame goalie John Kemp followed his brothers from Georgetown Prep to NCAA lacrosse.

NCAA lacrosse title could come down to play of midfield
The road to the final four has led Loyola, Maryland, Duke and Notre Dame to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. But their midfields could drive them to a coveted national title.

NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships: Div. 1 at a glance
On one hand, the four teams taking the field tomorrow at Gillette Stadium perhaps are further proof that parity finally has arrived in Division 1 men’s lacrosse. For the first time since 1975 — coincidentally, when Maryland last won it all — the semifinals will not include Syracuse, Johns Hopkins or Virginia, and the remaining field has only one championship in that same time span (Duke in 2010).

More after the jump.

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The USILA announed the winners of its major Division I awards today and Peter Baum -- The "Atomic Baum" (sorry) -- took home the big prize: The Lt. Raymond J. Enners Award. While the USILA's naming of Baum as its player of year theroetically bodes well for the Raider to win the Tewaaraton Trophy in just under a week, that's not necessarily the case. Since the introduction of the Tewaaraton in 2001, in only six seasons -- 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009 -- has the Enners Award winner mirrored the eventually Tewaaraton honoree.

Baum is the first player in Colgate history to win the Enners Award and is one of just three gentlemen -- Doug Shanahan (Hofstra) in 2001 and Kevin Crowley (Stony Brook) in 2010 -- to play for a program that has never been to the NCAA lacrosse Final Four and have a player of the year honoree. That kind of tells you how much the USILA valued Baum's efforts in 2012.

The rest of the award recipients from the USILA are as follows:

• Lt. Col. Jack Turnbull Award: Steele Stanwick (Virginia). This is the first time that Stanwick has taken home the award for being the nation's top attack, losing in 2010 and 2011 to Cornell's Rob Pannell and in 2009 to Duke's Ned Crotty. It is the third time that a Virginia player has been honored with the award, having Michael Watson (1996) and Roddy Marino (1986) take home previous honors.
• Lt. Donald McLaughlin, Jr. Award: C.J. Costabile (Duke). Costabile's victory is only the third time in Duke's history that a Blue Devil has earned the honor of being named the nation's most outstanding midfielder. Kevin Cassese (2002) and Jim Gonnella (1997) are the program's previous honorees for the trophy. Costabile's choice as the nation's top midfielder follows Joel White's earning of the honor in 2010, showing a trend for do-it-all performers that make their money through the substitution box and everywhere else.
• William C. Schmeisser Award: Tucker Durkin (Johns Hopkins). Durkin, the cornerstone for the Blue Jays' defense all season, is the 16th player in Johns Hopkins' history to earn the honor of being named the nation's top defenseman. He is the first Blue Jay to win the award since 2009 when Michael Evans took home top honors.
• Ensign C. Markland Kelly, Jr. Award: John Kemp (Notre Dame). Kemp's designation as the nation's top goalie is not a surprise to anyone with eyeballs and a brain that hasn't leaked out of their nose. He is both the second Irish and second Kemp to win the award, following his brother Joey's victory in 2008.

Congratulations to the victors! May your reign being powerful and without coup!