NCAA Final Four

[Nick]

Did anyone else notice that Danowski hardly ever rode? Maybe it was more noticeable in person but he plain quit on a lot of plays.

[dtrain34]

Where do you play where the attackman ride for more than 5 or 6 yards? That is why that middie from Duke was so surprised near the end of that Cornell game when he was trying to run it out; he was looking around like, "who are all these people?"

It seemed even more impressive because the Hopkins-Delaware game was so slow, but that Cornell-Duke game was one of the best games I have seen in a while.

And sohotrightnow is right, Rabil was the best player on the field hands down.

[CATLAX MAN]

Did anyone else notice that Danowski hardly ever rode? Maybe it was more noticeable in person but he plain quit on a lot of plays.

He was suffering from leg cramps in the Cornell game and that probably still affected him in the JHU game.

[tmatlacrosse]

I think that the whole deal with Danowski having cramps was a load of bull. He gave up on that play after he was triple teamed because he lost the ball.

I will give him credit though. He was the only Duke attackman who you actually saw ride in any of those games. Not once did you see Qunizani or Greer ride and let alone have a take away in any of the games against UNC, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins. When Danowski did decide to ride he was very effective.

[More Cowbell]

I think that the whole deal with Danowski having cramps was a load of bull. He gave up on that play after he was triple teamed because he lost the ball.

I will give him credit though. He was the only Duke attackman who you actually saw ride in any of those games. Not once did you see Qunizani or Greer ride and let alone have a take away in any of the games against UNC, Cornell, and Johns Hopkins. When Danowski did decide to ride he was very effective.

I dont know about that...quinzani had one huge ride against hopkins i think where he stripped the ball at midfield and fed dano for a goal. didn't see much riding from greer, but i didnt think quinzani was dogging it

[Anderson]

At the risk of being berated by people, was anybody else less than impressed with the goalies this weekend? I mean, there was one time when a Duke midfielder shot it from 15 yards on the run and it beat the Hopkins goalie stick side high. There were a couple of other shots that goalies missed this weekend that had me scratching my head. Granted, all 4 teams, with the obvious exception of Delaware, can shoot the lights out, but it seemed as if goalie play was down this year. I also feel that Rabil should have been voted MVP, not Schwartzman.

I agree completely...There were a lot of goals/shots on both side in the championship game that neither goalie was near. In the last 4 mins of the game when duke hit 2 pipes and had 2 final shots, Schwartzman was behind the 2 shots on the pipes and the final shot by Quinzani (had they been on cage I believe that they all would have gone in). And for Loftus the entire first half he was just off. I know that the D wasn't helping him out a ton but from past years you just kind of expect the goalies to make amazing save after amazing save. Finally Rabil was the best player on the field on monday, but I still think the Tewaaraton will go to Danowski.

[StrykerFSU]

Because I love stats:

SHOTS BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
Johns Hopkins....... 13 14 9 7 - 43
Duke.................... 4 8 12 15 - 39

GROUND BALLS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Tot
Johns Hopkins....... 12 7 6 9 - 34
Duke.................... 8 10 9 8 - 35

FACE-OFFS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Total
Johns Hopkins....... 7-7 5-9 2-5 3-5 - 17-26
Duke.................... 0-7 4-9 3-5 2-5 - 9-26

CLEARS BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Total
Johns Hopkins....... 4-5 4-5 3-3 1-3 - 12-16
Duke.................... 5-7 1-1 5-5 3-4 - 14-17

EXTRA-MAN OPPS 1 2 3 4 Total
Johns Hopkins....... 1-1 2-2 0-0 0-2 - 3-5
Duke.................... 1-1 0-1 1-2 1-3 - 3-7

SAVES BY PERIOD 1 2 3 4 Tot
Johns Hopkins....... 2 4 4 5 - 15
Duke.................... 3 2 3 2 - 10

TURNOVERS BY PRD 1 2 3 4 Tot
Johns Hopkins....... 5 4 3 5 - 17
Duke.................... 4 2 1 3 - 10

Duke actually cleared the ball better than JHU, 83% vs. 75% with two of JHU's failed clears coming in the 4th quarter. I didn't notice a lack of riding by Duke at all (did the always helpful analysis of Quint point this out and I missed it?). I think one of the big flaws of lacrosse on TV is how they cover change of possessions, i.e. rides. They never show a wide enough angle so that you can see how the attack and middies are setting up. You're lucky to get a close up of some attackman jumping up and down in front of the keep and that's if they haven't cut away to some ridiculous replay, but at least I know the goalie gets 4 seconds in the crease now . (I watched way too much lacrosse on TV this year).

The only statistic that shows any variation between the teams was at the face off X. A lot of you guys are giving Loftus heat but I don't think he necessarily deserves it. He was getting shelled without respite for 30 solid minutes (JHU outshot Duke 27-12 in the first half). Now if the Dukies win some faceoffs and get some time of possession then perhaps Loftus and the D can catch their breath. The faceoffs are pretty evenly matched after the first quarter and Duke storms back into the game, especially after the halftime break allows them to get their heads on straight.

Hopkins won this game in the first quarter by winning all 7 faceoffs and putting Duke in too deep of a whole for their tired legs to recover.

[DG]

Does anyone know what coach Danowski was saying to his team after the game? He seemed to be a little intense...

[Zeuslax]

They never show a wide enough angle so that you can see how the attack and middies are setting up.

Amen to that....I would love to see a few quick seconds of 10 v 10 action.

[KnoxVegas]

Lacrosse does not lend itself to the cable cam that we have become used to in football. ESPN looked into it and is still working on doing it next year. The sticking point is in football it sit behind the last RB and then moves forward. The ball movement and the cam proximity to the field is the problem.

As for wide angle shots, it is hard to do so even for football. Just FYI...

[Sonny]

ESPN used a new super wide angle from the corner of the field that was interesting for settled 6 on 6 situations.. It gave a good view of officials wide triangle. Would like to see more of the game filmed from the angle.

[laxfan25]

There was one camera angle they used on occasion - it seemed to be high up from the corner of the field. On the shots from there you were able to get a pretty good view of more action.
One thing to consider in the coverage is that for people familiar with the sport we know instinctively who has the ball. For a more casual viewer, when it is a wide view it can be confusing as to who has the ball.

[Dan Warren]

Does anyone know what coach Danowski was saying to his team after the game? He seemed to be a little intense...

He was yelling at them to not hang there heads and to be proud of what they had done this year. You could hear it pretty good on the HD with surround sound

[Brent Burns]

Does anyone know what coach Danowski was saying to his team after the game? He seemed to be a little intense...

He was yelling at them to not hang there heads and to be proud of what they had done this year. You could hear it pretty good on the HD with surround sound

Looks like Coach Danowski will be back next year.

[Brent Burns]

Because I love stats:

Since you love stats, I thought the link below would be interesting for some of y'all interested/fascinated by Laxpower's analysis of the "Biggest Team Improvement, Declines from '06 to '07":

http://www.laxpower.com/laxnews/news.php?story=7319

Curious questions:

1) Is there a person within the MCLA who usually keeps track of the MCLA tourney attendance stats (from first day to the championship game)?

2) Would it be necessary to just have some fun seeing how much each MCLA team has improved or declined from one year to another? That would be good for some folks in the MCLA who love stats to do that. I assume the info would come from Laxpower; however, we do want to be unique and different from Laxpower anyway.