ESPN's Coverage of this weekend's NCAA championship

[Steno]

Rabil is hella good even though his swim move that he continually does makes him look like a d bag

ha! coming from UofO, that says something!

I kid, I kid.

[LaxRef]

i dunno the shot might have gone in on time b/c they showed the instant replay and the espn2 clock had just gone to zero when he fired, but they emphasized that it wasn't the official clock. It definitely went in after the horn at least.

It may be a situation where the clock reads 0 when the time is in the 0.9 to 0.0 range, so then you need to go on the horn. I'm guessing the Foxboro scoreboard isn't set up to do tenths of seconds like the NBA clocks since the Celtics no longer play at Foxboro.

The rule actually says no goal if

When the ball passes through the plane of the goal after the game clock
for the period has expired, regardless of whether the official’s whistle or
the game horn may have sounded.

This was a suggestion I submitted at the urging of a colleague, who'd had a game where the clock was clearly expired but there was no horn, and he wanted the goal to count since the sequence was "clock goes to zero, ball enters goal, whistle" and there never was a horn (I don't recall if it was a malfunction or not).

However, we don't define here what "expired" means, and I think a reasonable interpretation is if the clock reads 0 starting at 0.9 seconds and then the horn sounds at 0.0 seconds, the clock actually expires when the horn sounds.

Asking the officials to look at the clock and the goal simultaneously is not reasonable; if you're going to get that picky and don't want to have us rely on the horn, have the outside of the goal light up like an NBA backboard when the clock reaches 0.0.

[bste_lax]

For such a normally well-coached team, JHU has looked very sloppy in the second half.

Of the 4 Final Four teams, Cuse was the team I thought had the smallest chance of winning it all. Shows you how much I know.

[StrykerFSU]

But come on LaxRef, the official 30 yards behind the play can see both the clock and whether the ball goes in the goal before :00. Makes sense to me (sarcasm). I don't mean that as a criticism of the official if he is just doing his job and that's where the responsibilities lie but I think the system is a little flawed. The game is not conducive to correctly determining buzzer beaters. I think they should do away with the tenths of a second on the game clock, the human eye can't detect that short span of time. Let the official at the goal line determine whether the ball breaks the plain before the buzzer.

Oh yeah, Rabil is good but imagine what the Gait's could have done with these sticks. That last goal of his, and Barrow's from Saturday, don't happen with an older stick.

[Steno]

New stick or not, denting the net from way out all day is awesome.

[Timbalaned]

New stick or not, denting the net from way out all day is awesome.

Yeah that one he had that slightly missed cage in the third with about 6 to go was stupid. Took his D guy to the midfield, broke him off and let go a LASER from the top of the box that the goalie still didn't pick up, but missed low cross cage. Guy can shoot hella hard

[GCCLAX3]

That was a pretty dominant performance by the midfielders of 'Cuse. If not for Gvodsen however it would have been a dominant day for the attack as well. He was absolutely nasty in the first half. The 1 on 1 was one of the best saves I've ever seen.

[Vols2]

Glad to see SU win...they dominated, the score probably should have had a wider margin.

[Andy Sharp]

Glad to see SU win...they dominated, the score probably should have had a wider margin.

Brad, did you notice you were the winner of the Bracket Challenge?

[StrykerFSU]

I wasn't trying to take anything away from Rabil, he's good. I just think it's easier to run through 5-6 solid stick on stick checks today than it was back in the Gait's day. I know most of the people on this board were in preschool back then but watch the IL video of the Petro/Gait matchup and you'll see what I mean. Can I get a little support from players born before 1984?

[Vols2]

Glad to see SU win...they dominated, the score probably should have had a wider margin.

Brad, did you notice you were the winner of the Bracket Challenge?

I did...was suprised no one else in the top 10 picked SU.

[Vols2]

oh and Andy: when/where do I pick up the new car that I just won?

[StickSideHigh]

Absolutely the sticks make a difference. Everyone will see when the new stick rules come into affect. Just like today when one of the stick checks happened the ref hit the stick against his hand to dislodge the ball (which made it legal). I am not saying anything is wrong with that, I am a firm believer in taking full advantage of the rules but the sticks definitely play a part in the ability of these players.

[swampthing]

I love the way the refs checked the sticks where when checking to make sure the ball comes out they kind of throw the head forward and if it comes out it passes. Some refs will do that and as long as the ball pops out it's ok, but some refs will slowly tilt the head and if it's a warrior and you've played with it for more than a day then of course the heads going to be pinched enough to stop the ball when you tilt it slowly like that.

[Brent Burns]

Hats off to Syracuse for winning the title; Paul Rabil is a beast with his 6 laser goals. Today's game, IMHO, was an entertaining game for me. Both teams faced uphill battles- 'Cuse from going from a 5-8 season last year to a 16-2 season; JHU down with 5 consecutive losses bounced back and got themselves into the title game.