2015 Pride Mens Lacrosse

[HofstraHockey]

Don't try hijacking this with football stuff.

Back to lacrosse, I think that most agree that the recruiting and the players isn't completely the issue. They have plenty of good ones out there who just need someone pushing them the right way.

[Jojogunne]

Some good post-game comments from the coach and players:

http://www.gohofstra.com/news/2015/2/24 ... 52527.aspx

Next game, we face our second alum/head coach of the season in Georgetown's Kevin Warne, assisted by former Hofstra offensive coordinator Matt Rewkowski.

[LaxPhan]

Coach ST is right, there is a good lacrosse team in that locker room. To me, it's about improving each week and getting ready for CAA play. I think Gtown is a great match up for the Pride and both teams will be ready. We need to see fewer penalties and more coordination on defense, maybe even throw some zone in there. Clearing game is getting better. Clarke needs to continue playing well and the new attackmen need to play smart, mistake free lacrosse. Sounds easy right?

[Flying Dutchmen]

Back to lacrosse, I think that most agree that the recruiting and the players isn't completely the issue. They have plenty of good ones out there who just need someone pushing them the right way.

Tierney's pretty good, I mean Hofstra is not an elite Lax school like we want to believe, but we've remained competitive.

Tierney is just the king of the one-goal loss. This is Tierney's 9th season at the helm, we've had 25 one goal losses in his tenure, just 16 one goal wins, five since 2011. We routinely lose close games, and they've kept us out of the NCAA Tournament more often than not. Last year, we would have been in the NCAAT if we would have pulled out one more win. We would have gotten a home game in 2011 if we could have beaten Delaware.

Maybe if we were .500 in the one goal games, our fortunes as a program would be considerably different. Either way, onto Georgetown who will be very hungry for a win at 0-2. Good early test for the team.

[HofstraHockey]

And if my aunt had..... nevermind.

You can't blame losing that many close games on just bad luck.

[stuball888]

Under Dino we attained a #2 ranking but never made the final four. However we were 6-0 vs Duke under his tenure and consistantly beat NC and other top lax schools. Has the landscape changed, of course. More BCS schools will be adding Lax. There are rumors that in the near future Louisville. West Virginia and yes even UConn could be adding mens lax.obviously they will also add womens lax. Hofstra needs to step up recruiting if they want to keep up.

[Flying Dutchmen]

And if my aunt had..... nevermind.

You can't blame losing that many close games on just bad luck.

I agree, and that's my point, but is it really the coaching holding the program back, or is the program overachieving and we do not even realize.

We're sitting right in the middle of the best lacrosse hotbed in the world, but our program's never made the final four. Tierney's also taking us to the NCAA's at a similar rate to Danowski, who never won more than a game in the tournament. I was emphasizing the one goal losses because if we had a few more our way, we would think Tierney has done a better job than Danowski. But, being close remains the program's perpetual problem.

It's going to become much harder to compete at the top level of D-1 with all the football schools creating programs that are backed by huge TV profits, and that are, lets face it , schools that L.I. students love attending.

Considering that, we've done well and remained competitive with the top tier of Division 1. I would like to see us beef up the schedule a bit with some ACC teams, but it hasn't been a horrible run for Tierney otherwise, gotta deliver with an NCAAT bid this year.

[Polito]

Some valid thoughts, I appreciate them

Is it the staff? You tell me - most lax guys on here keep proclaiming HU has very good talent and the recruiting is quite fine - well, if you have good players and you can't produce...year after year after year etc etc...well pretty simply conclusion to me - either you guys are full of it regarding the talent, or the use and development of them is weak - it's one or the other

And you're preaching to the choir on better opponents - you won't see it bud - you know why? Because this staff has proven they cannot win against the true quality programs like the previous staff did - so they've padded the schedule with absolute doormats in lax - DOORMATS that this program has no biz playing - but if they don't, their record sucks - sorry but that is WEAK

Funny thing to me is they prob figured an easy W against startup Marquette and proceeded to get embarrassed by losing not once but TWICE - to a STARTUP - coached by a former ASSISTANT - in a place that's like bringing hockey players to Ecuador

I guess I'm just not good with excuses - so far, HU seems to be

My concern, and yours if you love the program, is that they are on a downward trend - and it IS going to get tougher no question - and quite frankly its up to the coaching staff to elevate the program to stay relevant - I don't see that - I see the opposite happening

I think they're at a crossroads this yr - if they cant make the ncaa this yr this program is in big trouble and major danger of disappearing from any relevance in the sport - and it will be very difficult for anyone to recover the program - and that to me is very scary - that's why I want change. It's way past due.

[HofstraHockey]

It's going to become much harder to compete at the top level of D-1 with all the football schools creating programs that are backed by huge TV profits, and that are, lets face it , schools that L.I. students love attending.

Which is why you NEED to establish things (again) before it gets too far out of control. Johns Hopkins is not a big money football school. But they clearly made the lacrosse thing work for them, and nobody will ever take that away ,no matter how big the sport gets. That was the opportunity Hofstra had and missed on, and I guess still could try to get to happen. It's happening in hockey right now (Arizona St. is adding DI hockey), and lacrosse is next. We can be the Union College (who won the NCAA DI hockey championship despite playing under DIII scholarship regulations) and make our mark before that chance disappears.

[HUSID80]

What would you add to the program that is doesn't already have. Best facilities and locker-room, check, full allotment of scholarships and coaches, check, top academic institution with a great lacrosse tradition, check. Fact is, more and bigger schools are getting into the game and challenging us in our own backyard for players...it is getting tougher to compete...deny it all you want but take a look at the schools and conferences that added lacrosse since Danowski left...Denver????? They weren't even on the map for lacrosse, The Big East, the Big Ten, I can go on.

[HofstraHockey]

I agree, but only to a point. Take a look at this http://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/

How is it that Michigan Tech and Minnesota State And Quinnipiac are in the top 10 while schools like Michigan State, Ohio State, and UConn are nowhere to be found? These two sports are very similar in their design, where smaller schools have traditionally been more successful than some of the bigger ones, with the exception of some Big 10 schools obviously having long standing traditions in the sport. You can say that they're recruiting in our backyard, but you would think that Minnesota would take every good player before Minnesota State and Duluth had a chance, but clearly it's about a lot more than that.

So what's the difference? It's not locker rooms or location or academics or anything like that, otherwise Minnesota would blow them out of the water. Whatever that difference is, that's what Hofstra needs to do.

[Flying Dutchmen]

It's going to become much harder to compete at the top level of D-1 with all the football schools creating programs that are backed by huge TV profits, and that are, lets face it , schools that L.I. students love attending.

Which is why you NEED to establish things (again) before it gets too far out of control. Johns Hopkins is not a big money football school. But they clearly made the lacrosse thing work for them, and nobody will ever take that away ,no matter how big the sport gets. That was the opportunity Hofstra had and missed on, and I guess still could try to get to happen. It's happening in hockey right now (Arizona St. is adding DI hockey), and lacrosse is next. We can be the Union College (who won the NCAA DI hockey championship despite playing under DIII scholarship regulations) and make our mark before that chance disappears.

Ok sure, but what's the problem, is it really the coaching? Hofstra will never get their fair share of high-level LI recruits because these players always go to top high schools and usually have solid enough academics to get into most ACC/Pat League level schools. That's not a Tierney issue, it's a Hofstra issue. The recruiting is so obviously the issue, but I just cannot wrap my mind around the coaching being the problem, because the level of recruit has been nearly identical for 15 years.

I'm mostly just playing devil's advocate here, but I distinctly remember back in '03-'06, when many of the same people here were complaining about Danowski, and how if we get a different HC, we will get over the top. 10 years later Danowski has three titles at Duke and we're having the exact same conversation, with Hofstra being in nearly the exact same spot they were for most of the Danowski era. You can say it's worse, but we were top 15 most of last season, top 10 in just 2012, grabbing two at-large bids with Tierney, etc. We play the ACC less because there are simply more teams in D-1, more conference games for the ACC, Hopkins, Cuse (who were traditionally independents). Our schedule is filled with Ivy, Big East, and Big Ten, the ACC will get back on our scheduling rotation.

People are trying to revise our past, we were never an elite program. Sure we all believe there is some untapped potential, we wouldn't support the team otherwise, but come on, just be realistic and hope this team can make the NCAAT this year, and make some noise.

[HofstraHockey]

The right coach can get the kids that are good enough to go anywhere. Yeah, these kids are from top high schools. Are they THAT desperate to leave Long Island? Don't tell me they're all soooo concerned about their academics.

In terms of "needing to recruit from Long Island", Notre Dame has a grand total of 7 kids on their roster from LI. Duke? 9. Hopkins? 7. It's not like they're coming to LI and taking all of the players that are here and half of their roster is LI kids. So maybe it is our recruiting. Start looking outside of the bubble as the rest of the country starts to catch up with the talent. If guys on LI don't want to stay, go get the guys from out of town then.

[stuball888]

How about upstate Westchester, Rockland and even Connecticut. Virginia and Maryland should also be fertile ground along with Pennsylvania. No overnight trips as they are all cars rides. Also lets remember Dino took over a program in shambles. He left Seth a program in good shape. Some of the teams and conference dinos teams were in were no eligible for auto bids to the NCAA tourney took the at Large from the ACC teams which didnt have an auto bid with only 4 teams. also then it was only a 12 team tournament early in Dinos career.

[Jojogunne]

The NCAA seriously needs to consider expanding the post-season tournament to 20 or 24 teams in the next three to five years. Lax purists want to maintain the current number of playoff berths (now up to 18), but times have changed. How long before Michigan makes the playoffs? And what if the SEC decides to add lacrosse?

See the following article for more details:

http://laxmagazine.com/college_men/DI/2 ... ng_in_2014

With Syracuse now in the ACC, and JHU and Maryland in the Big 10, it's hard to see CAA, the AE, the Patriot League -- even the Ivies -- claiming more than one at-large berth this year and beyond.

[EvanJ]

How many schools play Division I Men's Lacrosse?

[HofstraHockey]

68

[EvanJ]

68

So 18 playoff teams is 26.5%, which is higher than the 19.4% for Men's Basketball.

[Jojogunne]

68

So 18 playoff teams is 26.5%, which is higher than the 19.4% for Men's Basketball.

Yes, but why should MBB be the standard for playoff fields?

In lacrosse, there's a concentration of games among teams in the ACC that you don't have in MBB. The five ACC teams (Duke, ND, Syracuse, UNC, UVA) play each other twice during the regular season, and four of those teams play again in the ACC playoffs. Because the ACC teams are all highly ranked, their RPIs are out of this world, and they all make the tournament (last year MD was still in the conference, so six ACC teams made the field). There go half the at-large bids. Conference winners qualify automatically (two are eliminated in the play-in round), so the runners-up in other conferences have to battle for the remaining five or six at-large bids.

This year, if the Big 10 teams do well, three could make the playoffs (JMU and MD for sure). The Big East and Ivy League could each get two. What does that leave for everyone else? Not much.

The schedule for an expanded tournament would have to change, too. Right now, everything culminates on Memorial Day weekend. Either the Final Four would have to move to the first weekend in June (unlikely) or the playoffs would have to begin a week earlier, which would probably mean more midweek games (I don't think anyone would want to start the season even earlier in February). No easy decisions.

[ProudofPride]

Currently down 0-3 in the first quarter. Hofstra's announcers after the third goal "You kind of have to put that one on Chris Selva".
We have no offense or defense to start.