NCAA Lacrosse Tournament

Lacrosse blogger Christian Swezey was online Friday, May 16 at 1 p.m. ET to discuss area teams and preview this weekend's NCAA quarterfinal in Annapolis where Virginia, Maryland, Navy and Johns Hopkins will play to advance to the Final Four.

A transcript follows.

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Christian Swezey: In many of Hemingway's short stories and novels, rain is used as a cleansing, a way for characters to start fresh. And certainly Navy, Johns Hopkins, Maryland and Virginia have previous sins for which they hope today's rain will wash away and let them emerge in the sunlight of tomorrow's quarterfinals in Annapolis ready to advance to Foxborough.

Or something like that.

Anyway, let's talk lacrosse!

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Bethesda, Md.: Christian, thanks for the great lax coverage. My question is this: is lacrosse like some other sports (say, football) in that it's tough to beat a team twice in the same season? I'm thinking specifically of JHU-Navy tomorrow. What does Navy take away from their first meeting that helps them do better tomorrow? How does JHU stay on top?

Christian Swezey: The football/lacrosse cliche that it's hard to beat a team twice, or three times, in the same season has its roots in some truth.

Mainly, it's hard to beat a team twice/three times because of game plans. The losing team gets to re-evaluate its game plan for the second game.

Consider Maryland-UVa. In the first meeting, UVa used a shortstick defender on Maryland's Travis Reed, and Reed had three goals and two assists. In the second game in the ACC tournament, Virginia used a longstick on Reed, and he was pretty much kept in check.

But you asked specifically about Hop-Navy. For me, the main matchup is Navy attackman Tim Paul (#14) against defenseman Michael Evans of Hopkins (33).

In the first game, Paul had two goals, but Evans was not defending him either time. Evans won the head-to-head matchup last time, and needs to do so again tomorrow. See what Navy does to try and get Paul free. In the first game, they were able to do so on a fastbreak, when Evans had to stop the ball and Paul got free for a goal.

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The B-More: Christian, what say you about this year's DII tourney? Does Mike Pressler have the firepower to get past LeMoyne?

Christian Swezey: For those who don't know, Mike Pressler is the coach at Bryant College in Rhode Island. He has a very good team, one that will go Division I in a couple years and already has a conference lined up.

Faceoff man Andrew Hennessey in particular is impressive. He is winning nearly 72 percent, a number I haven't seen since Chris Cercy of Syracuse a few years ago. I never will forget the game against Gtown when the Hoyas faceoff man won two of the first three against Cercy.

He came off the field following the third faceoff yelling, "All day!" (As in he was going to win that matchup all day.) He literally did not win another faceoff for like 50 minutes. Cercy won 22 of 25 that day and cuse won easily. So never underestimate a good faceoff man.

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Bowie, MD: Not only are there some terrific NCAA games in Annapolis this weekend, but there is a major youth LAX tournament being held Saturday in Bowie, Md. The Southern Maryland Youth Lacrosse Association (SMYLA) is having its annual tourney featuring three levels of play (U11, U13, and U15) from 16 different clubs in Montgomery, Prince Georges, Calvert, and St. Mary's counties. For anyone who believes the future of youth lacrosse is threatened by some Maryland counties not offering school-sanctioned varsity programs, come see what local boys and girls clubs can pull together and you'll be duly impressed by the level of skill and the intensity of competition!

Christian Swezey: Good luck tomorrow with the tournament. Going the route from club lacrosse to Division I isn't impossible.

Chris Gunkel graduated from Walter Johnson in the late-1980s and played on the Loyola team that made the title game in 1990. He played club lacrosse in high school (Montgomery County didn't have varsity lacrosse then). Also, Navy's Graham Gill played club lacrosse in New Jersey a few years back. He wound up being an excellent midfielder in college and in the pros.

And I also somehow recall a goalie from a club team in PG County who played at Maryland about 15 years ago named Melvin Stephens. I seem to recall that he went to E Roosevelt...

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Baltimore: Hey Christian! Feet-to-the-fire time: who have you got getting to the Final Four?

Christian Swezey: Hey, I think everyone knows I had Xavier, Georgetown, Notre Dame and Memphis going to the Final Four. Not very good picks I realize. But you gotta get over it!?!

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Montgomery County, Md.: Chris,

Why isn't The Post covering more high school lacrosse? Particularly now that it's tournament season. The only coverage is for the private schools. Last night Gaithersburg held their own for a half against a powerful Urbana team, but I've got to go to the Frederick paper to read that?

Christian Swezey: This is a question I will pose to our high school editor, Dan Uthman. I know we covered the Wootton-B-CC game the other night, and Jeff Nelson has been hitting some of the public schools in Va.

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Arlington, Va.: General Lax Question:

What do you think about either changing the faceoff rule after a goal, or just adding a shot clock. Wouldn't a shot clock highlight the sports strong points and athleticism?

Christian Swezey: Hey Arlington!

The faceoff was done away with on the college level in 1979 or 1980. Was it successful? Apparently not--faceoffs were back the following year. Faceoffs make the game unique and frankly, while they aren't perfect, I really like them.

The biggest problem with faceoffs is alleged cheating that goes on with illegal sticks, etc. The best proposal I heard about that is to make illegal stick penalties much more stringent--like the person with an illegal stick has to sit out the rest of the game at least.

For a shot clock, I'm not in favor. NCAA director of referees Warren Kimber has always said that if the game is officiated correctly, there is no need for a shot clock (i.e. stall warnings). Also, what constitutes a shot? Eddie Timanus of USA Today has long advocated a rule by which teams can only enter the offensive box twice, following the second time they have to keep it in. That rule is probably more tenable than a shot clock.

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Richmond, Va.: Any suggestions for Richie Meade to help avoid the slow start that killed Navy in the first Hopkins game? Can Visgauss go 50-50 at the X? And will Phelan start again?

Christian Swezey: Phelan will start tomorrow. He looked incredible against UNC, he made several saves on point-blank shots. He even made a couple foot saves. Phelan played at one of the highest levels of HS lacrosse--at Loyola Blakefield in the MIAA--so he's seen good shooters.

And I think Navy will avoid the slow start tomorrow. It is playing with a lot of confidence right now. Navy also looks like it has a lot more energy? They had zero legs in losses to Hop and Army. Now that school is over, they seem much more rested and energetic. It will not be easy for Hop tomorrow.

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Easton, Pa.: Hey Christian,

As a Annapolis native living nearly four hours northeast, I appreciate your blog. I played lacrosse throughout my childhood and followed it on the collegiate level, and boy has the landscape changed in the past couple decades. I can't get used to the idea of schools like Bucknell and Colgate being able to stay with Navy.

Anyway, my dad is a Princeton graduate so in addition to Navy and UMD, I've had Tiger sympathies. I've been disappointed by Princeton's descent lately. Do you think that with so many other schools now taking lacrosse very seriously, Princeton's glory days are just a memory, or do you see the Tigers rebounding?

Christian Swezey: The word on Princeton is all over the place. Geoff Shannon at Inside Lacrosse says Princeton has an incredible freshman class coming in. It includes a kid who turned down a chance to play football at Florida. (really.)

Yet Princeton's loss to Dartmouth I think opened some peoples' eyes.

Princeton isn't getting the great Baltimore HS players anymore, for instance. And with John Tillman doing some amazing recruiting at Harvard, and Brown goalie Jordan Burke coming back next year (assuming he doesn't get hurt playing club hockey) the Ivy isn't even guaranteed to be a Cornell-Princeton race anymore.

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Philadelphia: I would expect the Navy-Hopkins game to be the most competitive, do any of the underdogs have a shot?

Christian Swezey: In terms of underdogs...Former UVa all-American Dave Curry has always said that lacrosse is not an "upset" sport. I think it's because of the talent dispersal--the top teams get a lot of talent, the mid-level teams can't catch up. How many times has a kid gone to Princeton, say, and sat the bench for four years rather than going somewhere where he would play right away.

But to answer your question, I think it's going to be hard for the underdogs this weekend.

Notre Dame would have had the best shot against a Syracuse team that isn't as good or as focused as this one is. Or if their football playing attackman Will Yeatman were playing, which I don't think he is.

Navy playing at home, with nothing to lose, is the best bet. When Navy had nothing to lose in the second half against Gtown it looked incredible.

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Philadelphia: Can anybody beat Duke? I know the lost to Georgetown early in the season, but I'm not sure any of the remaining teams can do it.

Christian Swezey: Syracuse has the best chance. People talk about Duke's five fifth-year seniors. Well, Syracuse has four (three starters). Syracuse also has an excellent faceoff man, Danny Brennan.

And it has such an attitude. I got lost inside Hofstra Stadium covering the quarterfinals there in 1998 and wound up outside the SU team's locker room before it took the field to face UVa. I heard then-coach Roy Simmons's pregame speech and I got chills. It was incredible. SU has such a mental edge. If its Duke-SU in the final, it would be one heck of a game.

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Alexandria, Va.: How come the Hoyas got hosed in the selection process?

Christian Swezey: Technically, the Hoyas didn't get crushed by the selection process. The way the process was administered, leaving Gtown out of the playoffs was correct.

One of the things I have tried to bring up on the blog is whether the selection criteria need to be changed.

I think the way it stands now, the selection committee rewards teams that play hard schedules more than it rewards teams that win big games.

Also, it's quite uneven for some conferences to have tournaments and others not to have them. Should lacrosse follow the basketball morel or football model? Without conference tournaments, Gtown probably would have been fine. But it didn't get a chance to boost its RPI by playing an extra game (or by winning the tournament and getting an AQ).

Ultimately, though, I am surprised at the number of Gtown fans who have told me that a team that can't beat Penn State and Loyola didn't deserve to be in the tournament.

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San Francisco: I would like you to comment on the geography of the sport. It seems as though top quality can finally be found across the Appalachians.

Notre Dame and Ohio State look pretty darn good, and then there's folks such as Denver. (There's even a pro team out here in the Bay Area.)

Does this dispersion of talent dilute the product on the field, or does it tap new markets of future lacrosse players? Does the NCAA have a development/expansion strategy for men's lacrosse?

Christian Swezey: Hey San Francisco--

The NCAA is considering going to four four-team 'pods' for the first round of the NCAA tournament, possibly by 2010. One of those pods almost certainly would be held somewhere like Denver or Chicago. (Though a lack of a lacrosse-friendly facility in Chicago would hurt that city's arguments.)

So the NCAA clearly is aware of places like Denver. John Williams, the director of NCAA championships, said that Denver "swears up and down" that it could fill a final four at the Broncos' stadium.

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Cville: Is part of the reason that Princeton has been down because people don't want to watch boring lacrosse. UVA, Duke and the 'Cuse all have uptempo games and are more fun to watch. Princeton (outside of the Ivy League education) isn't as "sexy" a program.

Christian Swezey: That's not a bad guess Cville. Certainly an argument could be made for there not being room for two such programs, and Hopkins seems to have taken the Princeton model for success and run with it.

Can it be that simplistic? Maybe. Coach Scott Marr believes Albany's rise in D1 is because it plays an up-tempo, "fun" style of lacrosse.

But I would think the overriding factor in this isn't having fun, it's winning. And right now Princeton isn't winning. So maybe the margin of error at a place like that is so small that not winning for a couple years will propagate(sp) itself.

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Arlington, Va.: Christian, you are chatting head-to-head with Carolyn Hax.

To save myself from switching back and forth between chats, give me something I can tell my girlfriend to persuade her to let me go to Naptown tomorrow afternoon for the games.

Christian Swezey: Wait, Carolyn Hax chat is on now! I need to ask her a question about how to get a girl to return my calls. Pretend you're me and ask that, and then come back with an answer and I'll have an excuse for you. Deal?

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Herndon, Va.: How well would Salisbury do in Division I? Do they look like the DIII winner or can Gettysburg give 'em a game?

Christian Swezey: Gettysburg will give them a game. It was very close in the regular season. I think Gburg was ahead for a while.

And I really wish the NCAA would reconsider the rule by which D3 teams can't play D1 teams. Maybe once a year get a game that matches the D1 winner and D3 winner, like the old day of champions game on Long Island.

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Christian Swezey: Allright gang, that's all I have time for today. If you're going to the games tomorrow in Annapolis, have a great time! Catch our preview on the games in the paper tomorrow and check out the blog for analysis.

Also, thank you for the questions today...

CS

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