Bummer

[Alaska Darin]

For the First Time in 23 Tries, SU Won't be in the Final Four

 

One of the greatest sport's streaks in history draws to a close...

[stuckincincy]

Wow! - 22 years in the final four. I can't help thinking of Rick Dudley whenever I catch a Lacrosse match on tv.

[duey]

For the First Time in 23 Tries, SU Won't be in the Final Four

 

One of the greatest sport's streaks in history draws to a close...

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Yeah...except for the fact that it's a streak that only about 128 people in the entire country were aware of. At least the Big Red are still in it.

 

Lacrosse is one of the least appreciated and understood around. I know the indoor variety is fairly popular in some locals, but outdoor lacrosse is a thing of beauty.

[BRH]

Gonna be an odd lax postseason. No Princeton in the tourney, no SU in the Final Four. Maybe it just means everyone else is getting better and the talent is no longer as concentrated as it was for so long.

 

Over 27 years beginning in 1978, Division I had only five schools win the national title (Syracuse 9, Princeton and Hopkins 6 each, Carolina 4 and Virginia 2). Hopkins could extend that streak this year but the field is much more wide open now.

 

For my money an even better accomplishment than SU's 22 straight final fours was Princeton's string of dominance from 1992 to 2001 -- six national championships in ten years -- without giving out a single athletic scholarship and while abiding by admissions standards that were *ahem* slightly more restrictive than Syracuse's. Bill Tierney took an absolute doormat of a program, recruited from strong bases he'd built on Long Island (played at Manhasset), upstate (played at Cortland, coached at RIT) and in Maryland (was an assistant at Hopkins), and made it a national power within four years.

[OBXBILLSFAN]

I'm a big SU guy, and have been to 3 LAX Final Fours, the last one in 2004 at Ravens Stadium, and have seen the Orange win 2 of their 9 National Championships.

 

Note to Duey: There were a lot more than 128 people for last year's finals in Baltimore. Try about 35,000.

[BRH]

Note to Duey: There were a lot more than 128 people for last year's finals in Baltimore. Try about 35,000.

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I think his point, while hyperbolic, is still well-taken. Of those 35,000, how many do you think didn't live in Maryland, Long Island or upstate New York? Maybe 128. There's a reason they play the FF in Baltimore or College Park every year except a few (Franklin Field one year, Rutgers another).

 

Actually, though, the game has grown a LOT in the last 10 years. There are pockets of lacrosse enthusiasm in Denver, the Bay Area, Indiana and Ohio, and other places where no one knew what the hell a lacrosse stick was before.

[OBXBILLSFAN]

I went to Rutgers 2 years in a row, and they drew about 18-20K. Again, while I realize that the State University of New Jersey is close to the traditional hotbeds of lacrosse, college LAX is gaining in popularity as more colleges and high schools are developing programs, and TV exposure is increasing.

[duey]

I think his point, while hyperbolic, is still well-taken.  Of those 35,000, how many do you think didn't live in Maryland, Long Island or upstate New York?  Maybe 128.    There's a reason they play the FF in Baltimore or College Park every year except a few (Franklin Field one year, Rutgers another).

 

Actually, though, the game has grown a LOT in the last 10 years.  There are pockets of lacrosse enthusiasm in Denver, the Bay Area, Indiana and Ohio, and other places where no one knew what the hell a lacrosse stick was before.

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Yep...that was my point. Obviously, lax has its roots here in the NE, thus its regional appeal.

[brihs2005]

I'm a big SU guy, and have been to 3 LAX Final Fours, the last one in 2004 at Ravens Stadium, and have seen the Orange win 2 of their 9 National Championships.

 

Note to Duey: There were a lot more than 128 people for last year's finals in Baltimore. Try about 35,000.

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Last year's finals were incredible. One of the most enjoyable sporting events i have watched in the past year.

[brihs2005]

There is a tremendous amount of parity in college Lax today. A western NY native is responsible for helping to bring Lax out of the North East and into the midwest. Jon Hind, the assistant AD at Butler University did an incredible job building that program. Because of guys like him, other schools have created programs such as Bellarmine, etc. A lot of WNY area kids are playing in the collegiate ranks currently. OP is a factory and Irondequoit (spelling?) Has produced plenty of solid players as well. So not only be a fan of Syracuse, be a fan of the WNY kids who are all over the country playing collegiately. I would wager a guess that of the amount of kids that are playing D1 sports out of WNY is greater in Lax than any other sport.

[Alaska Darin]

Lacrosse is becoming more and more poplular across the U.S. It is really taking off on the West Coast.

 

Santa Cruz Article

[Arkady Renko]

Cornell is still in it...

[Nanker]

Gonna be an odd lax postseason.  No Princeton in the tourney, no SU in the Final Four.  Maybe it just means everyone else is getting better and the talent is no longer as concentrated as it was for so long.

 

Over 27 years beginning in 1978, Division I had only five schools win the national title (Syracuse 9, Princeton and Hopkins 6 each, Carolina 4 and Virginia 2).  Hopkins could extend that streak this year but the field is much more wide open now.

 

For my money an even better accomplishment than SU's 22 straight final fours was Princeton's string of dominance from 1992 to 2001 -- six national championships in ten years -- without giving out a single athletic scholarship and while abiding by admissions standards that were *ahem* slightly more restrictive than Syracuse's.    Bill Tierney took an absolute doormat of a program, recruited from strong bases he'd built on Long Island (played at Manhasset), upstate (played at Cortland, coached at RIT) and in Maryland (was an assistant at Hopkins), and made it a national power within four years.

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You're right about Tierney. That was some ride. I saw a lot of those games and he fielded some amazing teams. Till he won his 4th he was looked down on by the old guard JH and SU as illegitimate and lucky. LAX is a great game.

[BuffOrange]

Lacrosse is becoming more and more poplular across the U.S.  It is really taking off on the West Coast.

 

Santa Cruz Article

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it’s the fastest-growing sport in America, according to lacrosse.org

 

Oh, well that changes everything.

[Max Fischer]

Another great streak -- Hobart won the Div III Championship 12 years in a row.

 

1980-91

 

At the time, many Div III schools were as talented as Div I schools.

 

Hobart beat the great Gates brothers era team in 1986.

[Lori]

(Alaska Darin @ May 16 2005, 10:47 AM)

Lacrosse is becoming more and more poplular across the U.S.  It is really taking off on the West Coast.

 

Santa Cruz Article

*

it’s the fastest-growing sport in America, according to lacrosse.org

Oh, well that changes everything.

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lacrosse.org was just repeating what a blurb on the cover of the April 25th Sports Illustrated said...

SI.com - Get On The Stick

[BRH]

You're right about Tierney. That was some ride. I saw a lot of those games and he fielded some amazing teams. Till he won his 4th he was looked down on by the old guard JH and SU as illegitimate and lucky. LAX is a great game.

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Boy, isn't that the truth (your whole post).

 

I remember quite fondly that first national title (I was a senior who had taken a year off, and Andy Moe, who scored the winning goal in OT, and I were freshman classmates and took Spanish together.). At the time I was also an intern in the Sports Information Office, and I spent a lot of time that winter putting together an expanded media guide for the team. Prior to that year the "media guide" was a four-page program; I went through sixty years of stats, box scores and game reports and compiled a complete record book for the guide.

 

Anyway, Andy was on the 1987-88 squad that went 2-13, when Tierney, who was in his first year, weeded out a lot of deadweight -- including a fellow club member of mine from Yorktown Heights who quit the team because "the coach was a d#ck." Hey, that's true, he is. But he's a winning d#ck.

 

Anyway, that final four in 1992 consisted of Syracuse, Hopkins, Carolina, and Princeton. The first three had won the previous 14 consecutive national titles and Princeton wasn't taken seriously at ALL. In fact, Maryland coach Dick Edell made a complete ass of himself at the start of the tournament when he bitched about having to play Princeton in New Jersey in the first round. I recall he said something like how the state of Maryland had a half dozen teams better than Princeton and it was a disgrace that the mighty Turtle had to leave the state to play a game against this upstart whippersnapper of a team. The Tigers won that game in overtime and it was glorious.

 

(Even better was how Princeton kicked the absolute stojan out of the Terps in two consecutive finals later in the '90s, scoring 19 goals both times. The backstory there is that after Hopkins ran up the score against Princeton in 1988 with something like 23 goals, Tierney vowed that if he was ever on the other side of that situation, he'd never humiliate an opponent by scoring 20 in a rout. As a result, the Tigers over the years would reach 19 in the third quarter many times and play keepaway for the rest of the game -- that happened both years in the title games against Maryland, even though Edell had given Tierney every reason to hold a grudge.)

 

Then the Tigers shocked Carolina in the semifinal and still nobody gave them a chance to beat Syracuse. But Scott Bacigalupo had a great game in goal and they won the game 10-9 in OT at Franklin Field.

 

All of a sudden Tierney became a hot property and within the next few years was offered the head job at both Virginia and his dream school, Hopkins. It must have been a terrible shock to the Jays, especially, when Tierney turned them down. And now he's in the college lacrosse Hall of Fame.

[pkwwjd]

hehee, Maryland.

 

My alma mater (Grove City College, DIII club program) went into Maryland a couple of years ago and beat them in their own invitational tourney. I was part of the original GCC LAX team back in the early 90s, but we always lost 24-2 ...

 

It was good to hear they beat a real DI team.

[OBXBILLSFAN]

hehee, Maryland.

 

My alma mater (Grove City College, DIII club program) went into Maryland a couple of years ago and beat them in their own invitational tourney.  I was part of the original GCC LAX team back in the early 90s, but we always lost 24-2 ...

 

It was good to hear they beat a real DI team.

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You mean your club team beat Maryland's club team, right?

[pkwwjd]

You mean your club team beat Maryland's club team, right?

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I didn't know that Maryland had a separate club team -- besides intramural games. My understanding was that it was their school team. Could be wrong though.