ESPNU to televise MLL Draft live

[Sonny]

ESPNU to televise MLL Draft live
May 30, 2007

ESPNU, the 24-hour college sports network, will televise the 7th Annual MLL Collegiate Draft live tomorrow from 8:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. This will be the third consecutive year ESPNU has nationally televised this event. The MLL Draft will be held at Stony Brook University.

This season, ESPNU televised 21 regular-season lacrosse games, including 19 men’s and two women’s games. In addition, the ESPN networks recently televised all 15 games from the NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship. ESPNU provided exclusive coverage of all eight First Round games (up from four last year) and Quarterfinal action (May 12 – 20); ESPN2 televised the National Semifinals (May 26), while ESPN presented the National Championship earlier this week on Monday.

In 2007, ESPN2 will televise 11 MLL games, including five live telecasts, highlighted by the MLL All-Star Game (July 8 at 12:30 p.m.) and the MLL Championship (August 26 at 1 p.m.). ESPN2’s 2007 MLL coverage began last Friday, May 25, with a primetime telecast at 7 p.m. -- Boston Cannons at Long Island Lizards.

[Karl Lynch]

New Jersey Pride GM Trey Reeder just made a trade.

Trey played at ASU.

[Brent Burns]

Just found out that Chicago got its first pick- some guy by the name of Hehm, middie, from Penn State.

Rochester Rattlers got Alex Smith.

[PigPen]

Denver drafted Schwartzman-no more Alex? we'll maybe not if Jesse keeps hitting the twinkies. Good Luck Alex

[StrykerFSU]

2007 Collegiate Draft Order Round 1

Round 1
1) Chicago - Pat Heim (M) Penn State
2) Boston (from Washington) - Kip Turner (G) Virginia
3) Rochester - Alex Smith (FO/M) Delaware
4) Denver (from Long Island) - Drew Westervelt (A) UMBC
5) Chicago (from New Jersey from Philadelphia from New Jersey) - Bill Looney (M) Navy
6) Los Angeles - Greg Downing (M) Fairfield
7) Rochester (from San Francisco) - Greg Rommel (M) Syracuse
Boston - David Mitchell (A) Cornell
9) Boston (from Denver) - Ray Megill (D) Maryland
10) Long Island (from Denver from Philadelphia) - Matt McMonagle (G) Cornell

http://majorleaguelacrosse.com/events/collegiatedraft/

Some odd selections but I guess there is more to it in the MLL than just selecting the best available player or even drafting for need. Teams also have to take into account where draftee plans on living. It also seems that the MLL decided not to allow teams to draft players this year and retain their rights for next year or we would have seen the Duke seniors get drafted. Can a Duke player change his mind about returning to school later this year and then sign with a team as an undrafted free agent?

[Sonny]

Round 1
1) Chicago - Pat Heim (M) Penn State
2) Boston (from Washington) - Kip Turner (G) Virginia
3) Rochester - Alex Smith (FO/M) Delaware
4) Denver (from Long Island) - Drew Westervelt (A) UMBC
5) Chicago (from New Jersey from Philadelphia from New Jersey) - Bill Looney (M) Navy
6) Los Angeles - Greg Downing (M) Fairfield
7) Rochester (from San Francisco) - Greg Rommel (M) Syracuse
Boston - David Mitchell (A) Cornell
9) Boston (from Denver) - Ray Megill (D) Maryland
10) Long Island (from Denver from Philadelphia) - Matt McMonagle (G) Cornell

Round 2
11) Chicago - Jordan Hall (M) Delaware
12) Los Angeles (from Washington) - Mitch Belisle (D) Cornell
13) Rochester - Andrew Spack (M) Loyola
14) Denver (from Long Island) - Zachary Jungers (D) Princeton
15) Chicago (from New Jersey) - Steve Whittenberg (D) Maryland
16) San Francisco (from Los Angeles) - Colin Hulme (D) Colgate
17) Los Angeles (from San Francisco) - Alex Buckley (M) Brown
18) San Francisco (from Boston) - Jake Byrne (A) Johns Hopkins
19) Rochester (from Denver) - Matt Dasinger (M) Salisbury
20) Chicago (from Philadelphia) - Dan Kallaugher (FO/M) Loyola

Round 3
21) Boston (from Washington from Chicago) - Drew Thompson (M) Virginia
22) Washington - Frank Resetarits (A) Albany
23) Rochester - Brian Clayton (M) Cornell
24) Chicago (from Long Island) - Steve Panarelli (D) Syracuse
25) New Jersey (from Chicago from New Jersey) - Chris Colliniates (FO/M) Villanova
26) Washington (from Los Angeles) - Ricky Smith (D) Virginia
27) Philadelphia (from San Francisco) - Peter Trombino (A) Princeton
28) Chicago (from Boston) - Dan Deckelbaum (M) Delaware
29) Denver - Scott Sowanick (M) Princeton
30) Philadelphia - Ian Dingman (A) Navy

Round 4
31) Long Island (from Chicago) - Adam Crystal (D) Drexel
32) Washington - John Henry Flood (FO/M) Harvard
33) Rochester - Joseph Thon (D) Mercyhurst
34) Long Island - Nick Bonacci (A) Dartmouth
35) New Jersey - Ryan Hotaling (A) Nazareth
36) Los Angeles - Julian Watts (M) Hofstra
37) San Francisco - Chris Heier (D) Salisbury
38) Boston - Brett Garber (M) UMass
39) Denver - Jesse Schwartzman (G) Johns Hopkins
40) Philadelphia - Mike Graham (D) Loyola

Round 5
41) Long Island (from Chicago) - Brian Hubschmann (A) Notre Dame
42) Washington - Luis Gonzalez (M) Salisbury
43) Rochester - Chad Amidon (M) Nazareth
44) Washington (from Long Island) - Eric Pittard (A) Cornell
45) Chicago (from New Jersey) - Harry Alford (G) Maryland
46) Los Angeles - Jim Borell (M) Maryland
47) San Francisco - Andrew Recchione (M) UMass
48) Boston - Dan Whipple (D) UMass
49) Denver - Peter Hein (M) Vermont
50) Philadelphia - Mike Fillipone (M) Drexel

[Sonny]

PAT HEIM TAKEN WITH TOP PICK IN COLLEGIATE DRAFT

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Penn State University midfielder Pat Heim has been selected with the number one overall pick in the 2007 Major League Lacrosse (MLL) Collegiate Draft by the Chicago Machine at the league’s annual draft at Stony Book University on Thursday evening.

A first team All-ECAC selection, Heim scored 14 goals with four assists for the Nittany Lions this season and was named as the team’s George Pittenger Award winner, which goes to the team’s most outstanding senior. Selected to play in the USILA North-South All-Star Game last week, Heim ended his career with 58 goals and 27 assists.

“I am very excited to be selected with the first overall pick,” Heim said. “To be able to play in the MLL has been a dream for me and I look forward to getting a chance to play for the Chicago Machine.”

Chicago, which has lost all 13 games in its brief two-year history, will look to break that streak when the Machine host the defending Western Conference champion Denver Outlaws at TOYOTA Park on Saturday night.

With the second overall selection, the Boston Cannons selected Virginia goalkeeper Kip Turner before picking Cornell attackman David Mitchell and University of Maryland defenseman Ray Megill with the eighth and ninth overall picks, respectively. The Rochester Rattlers selected University of Delaware midfielder/face-off specialist Alex Smith with the third overall selection while Denver followed by selecting UMBC attackman Drew Westervelt.

Making their second pick of the opening round, the Machine tabbed Navy midfielder Billy Looney before the Los Angeles Riptide used the sixth overall selection to select Fairfield University midfielder Greg Downing. Syracuse midfielder Greg Rommel was selected by the Rattlers with their second pick of the first round and after Boston made back-to-back selections, the Long Island Lizards ended the first round by taking Cornell goalkeeper Matt McMonagle.

Of the 50 picks in the Collegiate Draft, there were 10 players selected from teams who played in this past weekend’s NCAA semi-finals and championship game, including five players from Cornell University. Johns Hopkins, which defeated Duke by a 12-11 margin in the championship game, had attackman Jake Byrne selected in the second round by the San Francisco Dragons while goalkeeper Jesse Schwartzman was picked by Denver in the fourth round. Led by Smith, the University of Delaware had three players drafted on Thursday night.

Drexel University midfielder Mike Fillippone was selected by the defending MLL champion Philadelphia Barrage with the final pick of the night.

After the draft concluded, there were a pair of trades which involved drafted players. The Pride sent attackman Ryan Hotaling, who was their fourth round selection, and attackman Liam Banks to the San Francisco Dragons in exchange for midfielder Joe Yevoli and the Dragons' second round Collegiate Draft pick next season.

Meanwhile, the Long Island Lizards dealt midfielder Ryan Moran and their second round selection in next year's Collegiate Draft to the Washington Bayhawks in exchange for attackman Frank Resetarits, who was the Bayhawks' first draft pick in the third round. Moran returns to the Bayhawks where he played two seasons before going to Long Island.

The MLL season continues this weekend with all ten teams in action on Saturday, June 2. The Bayhawks will look for their third straight win when they host New Jersey while Long Island travels to San Francisco. The defending MLL champion Philadelphia Barrage play their first home game of the season as they host Rochester while Chicago will attempt to earn the first win in franchise history when the Machine hosts the Denver Outlaws at TOYOTA Park. In addition, the Boston Cannons will host the Los Angeles Riptide at Harvard Stadium.

[Sonny]

New Jersey Pride GM Trey Reeder just made a trade.

Trey played at ASU.

Wow. How did he get that job? Sounds like an interesting story.

[StrykerFSU]

I love the Resetarits pick for Washington. With Mark Millon retiring that gives them an attack that includes Matt Ward, Conor Gill, Tom Maracheck, and Resetarits...not too shabby.

[byualum]

I love the Resetarits pick for Washington. With Mark Millon retiring that gives them an attack that includes Matt Ward, Conor Gill, Tom Maracheck, and Resetarits...not too shabby.

Resetarits would have been a sure-fire 1st-round pick, but he and Merrick Thompson decided not to attend the Warrior "combine", so the league said they could not be drafted until the 3rd round. Resetarits fell into Washington's lap.

[StrykerFSU]

Now Resetarits is off to Long Island for Ryan Moran and a second rounder next year. The Bayhawks also selected Pittard from Cornell so the attack is still a beast.

[StrykerFSU]

From General Discussion:

Haven't seen Penn state play or even heard of Heim, but based solely on numbers and accolades, how does a guy that gets Honorable Mention AA and is only 4th on his team in points ( 18 ) get the 1st overall pick? not to bash the guy, i'm sure he is a very solid player and will do well in MLL, its just hard to believe that there weren't others that Chicago was interested in.

From what I have read, Heim was very impressive in the Warrior game the preceded the draft. There is an informative running blog of the draft at http://www.insidelacrosse.com/page.cfm?pagerid=2&news=fdetail&storyid=166062 It appears that the MLL is different enough from NCAA that GMs won't neccessarily take a college superstar over a more meat and potatoes role player.

[WyoPoke]

Was it just me or were some of the conversations with draftees incredibly awkward. Girls I hit on at bars before I got married think that small talk was horribly lacking.

[A.J. Stevens]

Heim was also number 1 in Strength/Agility/Speed testing at the draft. He scored four goals (3 unassisted) for us last night showing he deserved the number 1 pick.

[nine]

Looks like you found a diamond in the rough.

I'm excited for the MLL this season. It will be great to see new teams in action besides the same ol' boston, LI, and bayhawks