2021 Lax Season

[dslyank]

UA gets the shaft again by covid and the AmEast. Hartford game Saturday canceled due to covid; but I wonder if it has more to do with their rumored drop to DIII??????? So if UA wins today @ vmont, the only way we can host the tournament is if UMBC loses to last place NJIT at home---NOT going to happen. No matter what brook & vmont do against each other Saturday; UA will come one win short of the crown, even though they will have only 2 loses.

Scott was incensed that the AmEast made the Hartford cancel announcement before today's key game, giving a not needed added distraction for his team. He wanted the league to wait until Thursday; but IMHO the cancel rumor was already out there, might as well make it official and deal. But IMHO this late in the season, the league should have declared the canceled game a forfeit , especially because it has so many ramifications at this juncture. {and because IMHO there is more than covid behind Hartford's cancel.} In the TU article, Scott played diplomat about the cancel/reasons and only was "upset" with the timing.

@72 my memory is getting a little vague; but I recall a similar incident years ago when UA lax lost out on a host opportunity due to some sort of similar late season incident? Maybe I'm wrong but I think it had something to due with the year we had to go to Denver, but should have hosted??????

Edited April 28, 2021 by dslyank

[UAalum72]

3 hours ago, dslyank said:

@72 my memory is getting a little vague; but I recall a similar incident years ago when UA lax lost out on a host opportunity due to some sort of similar late season incident? Maybe I'm wrong but I think it had something to due with the year we had to go to Denver, but should have hosted??????

The only "incident" in 2013 was that we lost to $iena in April, when one of the Thompsons missed the game for a childbirth or something.

[UAalum72]

On 4/26/2021 at 11:56 AM, HOF2013 said:

Sorry I still don't agree that Big 10 and ACC should have that many teams in the tournament.   BTW Rutgers is playing really well.... 

I'm sure they're using the same metric as the basketball tournament; if a power conference team has a  .500 record they're in, other schools suck it.

Or we could go back to 1970, when only one team per conference got in, and a lot more schools can  decide to be independent.

[UAFAN]

Hopefully after a win over Vermont, Marr and Benson will raise hell with the conference and Hartford if this costs us the regular season championship and ability to host.  This is pure BS, Hartford should forfeit or show up with 12 guys and play. UA has done everything right. 

[BestDaneSinceHamlet]

1 hour ago, UAFAN said:

Hopefully after a win over Vermont, Marr and Benson will raise hell with the conference and Hartford if this costs us the regular season championship and ability to host.  This is pure BS, Hartford should forfeit or show up with 12 guys and play. UA has done everything right. 

What did i miss? Did they stop the season?

 

[UAalum72]

Hartford has covid issues

[HOF2013]

17 minutes ago, UAalum72 said:

Hartford has covid issues

More COVID BS.   

[HOF2013]

Jacob has had 5 bad pass turnovers??

[cwdickens]

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/2021-conference-tournament-central-men-s-di-dates-matchups-and-tv-info/57809?utm_source=Inside+Lacrosse+Fastbreak+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3905f29237-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_06_06_12_34_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_92eedbe203-3905f29237-56809640

[cwdickens]

With the winners of the quarterfinals now headed Hartford.....my only thought: What is the future of the America East Men's Lacrosse?  The current dominance of the ACC plus Maryland seems unshakable.  Further, the other question are: Can the Ivy Conference recover from very limited play?  Can the America East ever compete for the top 100 players going forward?  Does UAlbany need to look more to Canada for offense?....The pandemic has definitely effected 2021.....will those effects continue in 2022?

[jimbo]

7 hours ago, cwdickens said:

With the winners of the quarterfinals now headed Hartford.....my only thought: What is the future of the America East Men's Lacrosse?  The current dominance of the ACC plus Maryland seems unshakable.  Further, the other question are: Can the Ivy Conference recover from very limited play?  Can the America East ever compete for the top 100 players going forward?  Does UAlbany need to look more to Canada for offense?....The pandemic has definitely effected 2021.....will those effects continue in 2022?

Who knows? My take on UA lax in a nutshell: early success at D1 before the sport took off to new heights and the big boys gobbled up the best players. The Thompson revival created a buzz and attracted some good support players. But not a good FO.....electric offense, so so defense and Stone Age FO. Then the 2018 aberration where the stars aligned and we made the quarters. And even then, Yale pounded the team. Slowly, the team has worked its way back to the pack. Not a single top 100 to an AE team if you believe IL rankings. Georgetown gets a bunch of top recruits...and they got embarrassed by Virginia. It’s starting to look like the lax version of Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and everyone else in football. The top Ivies will still crack the top from time to time, but when you have a handful of teams stocked with most of the top players...the result is what we see. UA couldn’t crack the Cats in three tries and Maryland made them look ordinary. And honestly, if you’re a top lacrosse player, would you want to play for a program that has a legitimate shot at competing for a national championship every year or one that got close enough to sniff it once in 20 years? On top of it all, most of these top lax schools are top academic schools with prestigious degrees. Duke, UVA, JHU, Georgetown, the Ivies....tough to compete. Sorry if I sound fatalistic, but it’s what I see. 

[dslyank]

Right now there is a definitive line separating top ten from 11-30. Before COVID & before some pretty drastic ncaa lax rules changes this line which existed for years started to blurr. With lax exploding @ the high school level & more better players becoming available IMHO the line will again to blurr. But only if the ncaa takes steps to help schools reach parity or minimally NOT GET IN THE WAY of parity by protecting the “old guard” as they have done for years

[jimbo]

13 minutes ago, dslyank said:

Right now there is a definitive line separating top ten from 11-30. Before COVID & before some pretty drastic ncaa lax rules changes this line which existed for years started to blurr. With lax exploding @ the high school level & more better players becoming available IMHO the line will again to blurr. But only if the ncaa takes steps to help schools reach parity or minimally NOT GET IN THE WAY of parity by protecting the “old guard” as they have done for years

What's the "old guard" protections you mention? I know they pulled some stuff to get Denver going and they definitely favor the big schools at tourney time. I'm a relative newbie when it comes to LAX so I genuinely do not know. 

[cwdickens]

15 minutes ago, dslyank said:

Right now there is a definitive line separating top ten from 11-30. Before COVID & before some pretty drastic ncaa lax rules changes this line which existed for years started to blurr. With lax exploding @ the high school level & more better players becoming available IMHO the line will again to blurr. But only if the ncaa takes steps to help schools reach parity or minimally NOT GET IN THE WAY of parity by protecting the “old guard” as they have done for years

Nicely said..... just a couple of other observations .... the Transfer Portal will continue to make things going hard on the mid-level tier conference as good to excellent players with a NCAA approved exemption (ex. medical) early in their career will graduated and play their final year of eligibility for a big time school in the ACC or BIG10....Further, excellent newer players (FR/SO) who are hurt early in a season are more likely to be red-shirted....why...to extend their careers...there were a number of players in the 24 to 25 age range that this past weekend and will play next weekend....a couple of years makes a difference....PARITY .... the NCAA does not care about parity.... NCAA is all about the money...the other thing... the old guard has the money

[Jammaster]

5 hours ago, jimbo said:

Who knows? My take on UA lax in a nutshell: early success at D1 before the sport took off to new heights and the big boys gobbled up the best players. The Thompson revival created a buzz and attracted some good support players. But not a good FO.....electric offense, so so defense and Stone Age FO. Then the 2018 aberration where the stars aligned and we made the quarters. And even then, Yale pounded the team. Slowly, the team has worked its way back to the pack. Not a single top 100 to an AE team if you believe IL rankings. Georgetown gets a bunch of top recruits...and they got embarrassed by Virginia. It’s starting to look like the lax version of Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson and everyone else in football. The top Ivies will still crack the top from time to time, but when you have a handful of teams stocked with most of the top players...the result is what we see. UA couldn’t crack the Cats in three tries and Maryland made them look ordinary. And honestly, if you’re a top lacrosse player, would you want to play for a program that has a legitimate shot at competing for a national championship every year or one that got close enough to sniff it once in 20 years? On top of it all, most of these top lax schools are top academic schools with prestigious degrees. Duke, UVA, JHU, Georgetown, the Ivies....tough to compete. Sorry if I sound fatalistic, but it’s what I see. 

Unfortunately, this sounds right to me. And considering the professional leagues pay so low, it'll be harder and harder to imagine that top recruits would choose to have Albany on their resume over Virginia, Georgetown, UNC, etc.