OT - Connecticut Lacrosse

[Adios]

Lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in the country and is really hurting other sports by pulling kids away. I've never played or am even a fan of lacrosse but helped establish a major youth tourney in Tahoe and we went from 60 teams the first year to 92 the second to a complete sellout of 120 teams this year and it sold out 5 months in advance. If we had enough fields I think we could get to 200 teams pretty easily. The sport is absolutely exploding and the demographics are phenomenal. We draw around 4000 people to the are for a minimum of 3 nights at roughly a $225 average daily rate. Count me in as a lacrosse fan!!!

Yale lacrosse is producing investment bankers. Almost all of the seniors, if I recalling correctly, are going into investment banking, even one drafted by MLL. They have jobs lined up.

Got myself a Yale lacrosse sweatshirt. Lacrosse is far better than soccer. Yale was down in their last regular season game vs Harvard in the fourth quarter, 8-4. Yale won, 9-8.

 

[Northbound]

Not D1 in terms of talent...D1 in terms of interest. UConn is large enough and lacrosse is popular enough to have a D1 team. Anyone with a brain knows that club sports aren't even the same sport as D1.

Indeed. Which is why the success of UCONN's club team was an odd insert into the conversation. Who cares it's a club team. There's plenty of "good" college club teams in non traditional lacrosse hotbeds.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Have you had to watch youth baseball? If you find lacrosse boring to watch I suggest stopping by a lower Fairfield county oval on a Saturday. My 6 year old son started playing this spring and I have never been more impressed with a youth program in my life. Every Sat they have 80 first graders doing drills for an hour. No games, no contact..... Simply drills. They do this until the third grade. I admit I know very little about the game but seeing my son and his friends pick up a stick has me hooked. And after a few practices you would be amazed at how good some of these kids are.

I don't watch youth or college baseball either (and professional baseball in very limited quantities). I won't argue that it's played on a very high level around here, but IMO it's just not a very good spectator sport. That doesn't take anything away from it as a fun sport to play and I'm sure it's good when youre invested in it like you are with your son. To me it's very much like soccer in that sense, fun to play but I'm not making time to watch it.

 

[superjohn]

I loved playing Lacrosse but I find it pretty bad to watch, I also find baseball incredibly boring. Outside of NBA playoffs and the tennis majors, spring/summer is where I kind of check out as a sports fan.

 

[CallMeBruce]

UConn's currently has a club lacrosse team that is very good. The thing is their coach has made an intentional choice to not take the program D1. This has been told me to my by multiple players from the team.

The coach doesn't decide if the program is going to be D1. They've been through several coaches since they dropped from D1 to club, and none has had the authority to make the school sponsor varsity lacrosse.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Yale lacrosse is producing investment bankers. Almost all of the seniors, if I recalling correctly, are going into investment banking, even one drafted by MLL. They have jobs lined up.

Got myself a Yale lacrosse sweatshirt. Lacrosse is far better than soccer. Yale was down in their last regular season game vs Harvard in the fourth quarter, 8-4. Yale won, 9-8.

I went to the Yale/Brown game in Providence a couple weeks ago. Those are the best teams either of those schools has had in recent memory. They're #1 and #3 on Laxpower.

 

[Adios]

I loved playing Lacrosse but I find it pretty bad to watch, I also find baseball incredibly boring. Outside of NBA playoffs and the tennis majors, spring/summer is where I kind of check out as a sports fan.

Are you Skip Bayless?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

I went to the Yale/Brown game in Providence a couple weeks ago. Those are the best teams either of those schools has had in recent memory. They're #1 and #3 on Laxpower.

Anyone who calls the sport boring should jump on the Brown bandwagon. Lars lets them play. When you're hanging 20-spots on Princeton, Cornell, and Virginia you've got an offense. Best attack unit in the country bar none, some great poles who get out in transition, and the best goalie in the country starting the break. When people used to call lacrosse the fastest game on two feet they're talking about the way Brown plays now.

As far as making the leap to D1, it wouldn't be too much to expect UConn to at least compete with some of the better programs relatively early on. There are only 70 or so D1 programs so there's a lot of concentrated talent. Witness schools like Michigan and Marquette. They're not going to win a national championship anytime soon, but Michigan doesn't embarrass itself against top flight teams and Marquette ran with Denver last week.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Anyone who calls the sport boring should jump on the Brown bandwagon. Lars lets them play. When you're hanging 20-spots on Princeton, Cornell, and Virginia you've got an offense. Best attack unit in the country bar none, some great poles who get out in transition, and the best goalie in the country starting the break. When people used to call lacrosse the fastest game on two feet they're talking about the way Brown plays now.

As far as making the leap to D1, it wouldn't be too much to expect UConn to at least compete with some of the better programs relatively early on. There are only 70 or so D1 programs so there's a lot of concentrated talent. Witness schools like Michigan and Marquette. They're not going to win a national championship anytime soon, but Michigan doesn't embarrass itself against top flight teams and Marquette ran with Denver last week.

And Michigan and Wisconsin aren't exactly churning out top lacrosse talent, at least relative to CT. If UConn went back to D1 and got a real coach this time (Pressler, plz), I don't think there's any reason they couldn't be every bit as good as a school like Maryland or UNC.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Michigan's got maybe 2 or 3 in-state kids on the roster. The rest are from NY, MD, CT, NJ . . . the usual suspects. A big New England public school could definitely keep enough guys at home to compete. I don't think they would challenge the perennial powers consistently, but they could be a Top 20-ish program pretty quickly.

 

[CallMeBruce]

Michigan's got maybe 2 or 3 in-state kids on the roster. The rest are from NY, MD, CT, NJ . . . the usual suspects. A big New England public school could definitely keep enough guys at home to compete.

That's my point. Michigan and Marquette are able to be competitive despite being in locations that don't produce much talent. UConn would have a much easier time bringing in good players, since there are a ton of great players in CT.

I don't think they would challenge the perennial powers consistently, but they could be a Top 20-ish program pretty quickly.

I think they could, but they'd need to make the right hire.

 

[huskymedic]

They've been through several coaches since they dropped from D1 to club...

Early 80's right ?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

That's my point. Michigan and Marquette are able to be competitive despite being in locations that don't produce much talent. UConn would have a much easier time bringing in good players, since there are a ton of great players in CT.


I think they could, but they'd need to make the right hire.

Sure, Tierney could probably do it. Top flight kids are still going to lean Hopkins, Virginia, Carolina, etc.

 

[BarkingDog]

Yale lacrosse is producing investment bankers. Almost all of the seniors, if I recalling correctly, are going into investment banking, even one drafted by MLL. They have jobs lined up.

Got myself a Yale lacrosse sweatshirt. Lacrosse is far better than soccer. Yale was down in their last regular season game vs Harvard in the fourth quarter, 8-4. Yale won, 9-8.

Butch, I was there Saturday. Yale looked like crap for three quarters on the offensive end, and then just completely turned that game around. An amazing comeback and a great game to watch.
I was also there the week before for another thrilling game, when Yale down one, held Albany on defense, gained possession with 16 seconds, and scored with 2 on the clock. The pace went wild. They had their chance in OT, but the Albany goalie made a great play and then Albany scored on its first possession of OT. I was also there earlier this season for the win over Maryland.
I don't know if Yale has the offense to get to the final four, but it's defense should keep them in every game. They really are scrappy, a fun team to root for.

 

[superjohn]

Are you Skip Bayless?

No. Why did Bayless play lacrosse yet find the game boring to watch?

 

[superjohn]

Anyone who calls the sport boring should jump on the Brown bandwagon. Lars lets them play. When you're hanging 20-spots on Princeton, Cornell, and Virginia you've got an offense. Best attack unit in the country bar none, some great poles who get out in transition, and the best goalie in the country starting the break. When people used to call lacrosse the fastest game on two feet they're talking about the way Brown plays now.

As far as making the leap to D1, it wouldn't be too much to expect UConn to at least compete with some of the better programs relatively early on. There are only 70 or so D1 programs so there's a lot of concentrated talent. Witness schools like Michigan and Marquette. They're not going to win a national championship anytime soon, but Michigan doesn't embarrass itself against top flight teams and Marquette ran with Denver last week.

Did you play high school lacrosse in Connecticut?

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Upstate NY.

 

[superjohn]

Upstate NY.

Nice, played with a great player from West Genesee. Really good lax up there.

 

[Adios]

Butch, I was there Saturday. Yale looked like crap for three quarters on the offensive end, and then just completely turned that game around. An amazing comeback and a great game to watch.
I was also there the week before for another thrilling game, when Yale down one, held Albany on defense, gained possession with 16 seconds, and scored with 2 on the clock. The pace went wild. They had their chance in OT, but the Albany goalie made a great play and then Albany scored on its first possession of OT. I was also there earlier this season for the win over Maryland.
I don't know if Yale has the offense to get to the final four, but it's defense should keep them in every game. They really are scrappy, a fun team to root for.

Academics at Ivy League schools make it difficult for them to attract elite offensive talent in most sport. But defense is obviously a strength at multiple programs.

 

[Northbound]

Nice, played with a great player from West Genesee. Really good lax up there.

Was a bit of a different game in the FCIAC's and Upstate NY. Both really good, but different. But even that has changed a bit over time.

 

[hexlub]

New 2016 Men's D1 Program:
Hampton

Starting Men's D1 Program in 2017:
Cleveland State


Lot's of budget, Title IX considerations at UConn. Would love to see it and I think it would be a 'sleeping giant' in the sport. Just not sure the timing is good.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Academics at Ivy League schools make it difficult for them to attract elite offensive talent in most sport. But defense is obviously a strength at multiple programs.

Brown had far and away the most prolific offense in the country this year, something like 8 all-Americans, and was an untimely injury to the best player in the country away from winning the whole thing.

 

[husky99]

I live in avon and they start these kids in pre k.wild. there is practicing on one of the fields everyday until 8 or 9 for little ones. Boys and girls

 

[uconnell]

And Michigan and Wisconsin aren't exactly churning out top lacrosse talent, at least relative to CT. If UConn went back to D1 and got a real coach this time (Pressler, plz), I don't think there's any reason they couldn't be every bit as good as a school like Maryland or UNC.

I I was going to mention Pressler too. He played for arguably one of the great lax high school coach, at the time, Guy Whitten, who won 20 Ct state championships.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I'm in favor simply so we can be better than Syracuse at yet another sport.