Who's gonna take it all this year, A & B.

[reLAX10]

I don't know if the transfers were there in the fall, but Lindenwood was definitly a solid team who played a very good game with Illinois I believe Illinois won 6-5 or 7-6, I do not know who else they played in the fall, but they were a good team that was well coached. Should contend for the GRLC title this season with Missouri and Illinois.

Hopefully the GRLC can make a decent showing at nationals this year, I feel like the talent is improving throughout the league.

[cjwilhelmi]

Just wondering if Lindenwood fits anywhere in there, Ive heard about a couple D1 transfers theyve got that are supposed to make an impact. I guess we will see how good they look after there first game.

May take more than a couple games to really see what they can do. They dont play a Div A team until Feb 25th.

reLAX - I know that Justin Combs didn't play in the fall... I'll let Lulions (is that Cribbin by the way?) handle the LU questions from now on, sorry man.

Was the game with Illinois at the SMS tournament?

[Ravaging Beast]

My six for the final four are Michigan, Arizona, FSU, BYU, UCSB, and CSU. I don't see Sonoma getting that far this year without Gomez. However, I did hear that they picked up Wiley from LMU which could help them.

[reLAX10]

Ya the game was at the SMS tourney, our team was split into a 17 man A and 16 Man B team at that tourney, so the team we played them with were missing some guys who would normally play, and we had some injuries and it was a shorter game. I would only assume they were missing people that weekend as well. From what I saw they had some solid players, adding to it will only help. THe only full games we played with our full squad this fall was a 9-3 win over missouri at illinois and a 1 or 2 goal win over ISU at ISU, so it'll be interesting to see how the GRLC shapes up this season and how all the teams come together, but hopefully someone will make noise this year at nationals. It should happen fairly soon as fast as lacrosse is growing in the midwest at the high school and even younger levels.


Brady

[WyoPoke]

I think we might know who is going to Blaine after the first month of the season. Lately, a lot of basketball and wrestling coaches have been telling me, "I really don't care how many games we're winning and losing right now as long as I see an improvement and we're winning in late February."

Well, that's what happens when you play a lot of meaningless games. That's not the case in lax. The top teams don't shy away from each other and a couple of losses could keep you from making the dance. We'll know early who is real and who isn't.

Teams that get hyped up as much as FSU are rarely ever as good as expected.

[AlumniLax]

I think we might know who is going to Blaine after the first month of the season. Lately, a lot of basketball and wrestling coaches have been telling me, "I really don't care how many games we're winning and losing right now as long as I see an improvement and we're winning in late February."

Well, that's what happens when you play a lot of meaningless games. That's not the case in lax. The top teams don't shy away from each other and a couple of losses could keep you from making the dance. We'll know early who is real and who isn't.

Teams that get hyped up as much as FSU are rarely ever as good as expected.

Uhhh.... CSU, BYU, UCSB... hyped every year. i'm not saying that's a bad thing though.

[OAKS]

Class is all and well and I am all for it, but it doesn't mean they are ready to make it to the championship. I can't see GT getting to the finals this year...

Thanks for all the kind words fellas. As nice as it would be to see my guys in the semis, it is going to take a lot to make it there as they are still not very deep, but they do have the coaching, discipline and ability to beat the better teams occasionally. Although I think we're doing better than running 5 midfielders like we were at the tourney last year, I doubt we're up to the "four lines of middies that can play and would probably be starting on most teams" to quote UCSB's Nick Schooler about the gauchos. Give them a good day, and tech can beat teams outside of the top 3 or 4 (and possibly higher if they keep it low-scoring).

As for my predictions for the semis, I'm gonna say UCSB, CSU, Michigan, and as for the fourth - if other teams aren't able to get into their heads and they are more disciplined on a few fronts this year, FSU, otherwise you'll see something like their first round game last year and BYU will be the 4th

[MinesGoallie45]

Division B

I think that Montana State or Ft. Lewis will take it this year.....

Havent heard of Montana State? Bet you will soon....

[monkeylax]

I am not an expert on Div. B, but I will go out on a limb and take UT-Arlington as my darkhorse runners for the whole enchilada!

[WyoPoke]

You've got a point about BYU, CSU, UCSB and Sonoma getting hyped. However, they've proven they deserve the hype. They back it up year after year. What's FSU done to become everyone's darling?

[AlumniLax]

You've got a point about BYU, CSU, UCSB and Sonoma getting hyped. However, they've proven they deserve the hype. They back it up year after year. What's FSU done to become everyone's darling?

What have they done? Their attack and middie lines are sick... They put up some ungodly amount of points in the tournament last year. The thing is Im not sure if their deep enough. Also, not sure about the defense.

[Timbalaned]

Don't know much about what else goes on nation wide with the B division, but watch out for Puget Sound

[LaxC21]

I think that AlumniLax hit on this biggest factor in the tournament and that is depth. A team has to have depth to compete in the tournament with BYU, CSU and UCSB. I'm not sure who is going to be the fourth team this year. Of course there is SSU, but what will they be like with out Gomez? Then you have Michigan, but then it always seems Michigan can't break loose in the tournament. It'll be interesting and it would be nice to see a another team break out. Noboday has mentioned Colorado...what do they look like this year?

[Bluevelvet]

You've got a point about BYU, CSU, UCSB and Sonoma getting hyped. However, they've proven they deserve the hype. They back it up year after year. What's FSU done to become everyone's darling?

What have they done? Their attack and middie lines are sick... They put up some ungodly amount of points in the tournament last year. The thing is Im not sure if their deep enough. Also, not sure about the defense.

They also gave up an ungodly amount of points in St. Louis (over 15 goals per game), and lost in the first round.

[byualum]

Uhhh.... CSU, BYU, UCSB... hyped every year. i'm not saying that's a bad thing though.

Isn't there a difference between "hype" and a "proven track record"?