NCAA Final Four

[Highheat]

On the point of Danowski: i thought that in the Cornell game he might have been the best player on the field- an unbelieveable shot and fantastic vision. However, against Johns Hopkins i felt he let his team down. Not only did he repeatedly take poor outside shots, and push to the cage when his team needed a position, and go single-handedly into double and triple teams, but he also missed 2 or 3 passes straight up, including a couple in the fourth quarter (one on man-up i believe), that lost possession for Duke. He just did not look as good as he should have.

One other thing i noticed, especially from watching the DIII game between Salisbury and Cortland St. and then the DI final. In the DIII game both teams pushed transition much harder against each other, taking advantage of players sub-ing on defense and getting several odd-man rushes at the cage. However, in the DI game, both teams seemed to concede possessions to each other, frequently settling the ball down even when they had transition looks coming down the field. Granted- the transition window was a bit smaller in the DI games, but with the kinds of offensive weapons that each team had, it was pretty interesting.

[onpoint]

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...

Disagree with you here. Fox Sports RM did it a couple times last year with the Outlaws and I thought it was one of the coolest angles I've seen. It doesn't work in the transition game, but for settled 6 v 6, it's gives a pretty good view of the action. If there were ever an outdoor lax video game, this is the angle I would want it to be.

[StrykerFSU]

In the DIII game both teams pushed transition much harder against each other, taking advantage of players sub-ing on defense and getting several odd-man rushes at the cage. However, in the DI game, both teams seemed to concede possessions to each other, frequently settling the ball down even when they had transition looks coming down the field.

Could be explained by the week off that the DIII teams had between their semi's and the final versus the 45 hours or so that Duke and JHU had to recover.

[Laxbum]

I made the trip up and had a blast all weekend. I thought Schwartzman deserved the MVP. He had a few huge saves in the last 5 minutes of the game which saved the game for them. Danowski was off his game, but people have to remember that he started the rally in the second half when he drove through 2 or 3 defenseman and drew a penalty on the crease which led to 2 quick goals (i think). He was just trying to make things happen. A subpar game for him, but remember he only got a few touches in the first half cause Hopkins dominated possession.

The Duke/Cornell game reminded me of the virginia/Hop semifinal game two years ago in Philly. Both really exciting games towards the end.

D3 game was fun to watch.
D2 game was horrific to watch. Almost walked out. The game winning goal was scored on a pass to the crease that slipped through with one second left.

Overrall, a great weekend of lacrosse. Wish they were keeping it in Baltimore next year cause Foxboro is going to be a pain

[DG]

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

That's what it sounded like in the post-game interview, but I wanted to make sure...Thanks.

[Highheat]

In the DIII game both teams pushed transition much harder against each other, taking advantage of players sub-ing on defense and getting several odd-man rushes at the cage. However, in the DI game, both teams seemed to concede possessions to each other, frequently settling the ball down even when they had transition looks coming down the field.

Could be explained by the week off that the DIII teams had between their semi's and the final versus the 45 hours or so that Duke and JHU had to recover.

Ya, but they did this in the semifinals as well. It was interesting to me primarily because i watched Salisbury get soo many goals pushing transition, even if it wasn't a clear mismatch for them.

[Champ]

Did they anyone get the HD broadcast of these games? Neither the Semi's on ESPN2 nor the Final on ESPN were in HD.

I tuned in today at lunch time to find the national spelling bee in HD, with a camera flying around on cables above the audience. That makes me mad.

[DwinsChamps]

I saw the HD version of the D1 championship. It was quite nice, as you can imagine.

What I didn't like was the fact that I couldn't Tivo the HD version, so I had to sacrifice the broadcast quality of HD in order to record the game. Not sure where the technical difficulty lies.

[Champ]

I saw the HD version of the D1 championship. It was quite nice, as you can imagine.

What I didn't like was the fact that I couldn't Tivo the HD version, so I had to sacrifice the broadcast quality of HD in order to record the game. Not sure where the technical difficulty lies.

You don't have the HD Tivo? All of them sold up until recently could not record HD.

They just simply didn't broadcast the HD stuff here for whatever reason. We were tuned in on the HD channel, and everything but the game was in HD. The halftime stuff in the studio was in HD.

[StrykerFSU]

Our broadcast was in HD but it wasn't the widescreen...it had the two panels saying "ESPNHD" going down the sides. However, you could tell the difference in quality between that and the regular ESPN.

[Champ]

Our broadcast was in HD but it wasn't the widescreen...it had the two panels saying "ESPNHD" going down the sides. However, you could tell the difference in quality between that and the regular ESPN.

This is what I am describing. However I don't believe it was HD, I just think you were getting a digital signal (which looks much better than analog on LCD/Plasma/DLP TV's - but it's still not HD). If you watch that back to back with a actual sporting event in HD the difference is obvious immediately. Also look at the transition from the game to the halftime show at the studio.

[Sonny]

The game wasn't broadcast in HD. I got nothing but a normal SD program on my ESPN HD channel.

[StrykerFSU]

What a bummer...wasn't it advertised to be in HD?

I must have gotten fooled by the analog/digital difference that Champ pointed out...that or my judgment was impaired by the sweet nectar known as Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale.