LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Academics come 2nd? My son's experience saw his team's GPA rise and the kids had wonderful experience. His coach had little time for average academics.

Guess it depends on the program, but I think for most it’s hard to juggle, especially if they want to graduate in 4 years.

Any thoughts on the Inside Lacrosse preseason NEC rankings?

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ings/55821

Looks pretty accurate to me. I think St. Josephs could surprise some people, and I think Merrimack will be a harder win than most expect.

IL's Preseason NEC Rankings
WEST
1 Robert Morris
2 Mount St. Mary's
3 Saint Joseph's
4 LIU
5 NJIT

EAST
1 Hobart
2 Bryant
3 Sacred Heart
4 Merrimack*
5 Wagner
*Not eligible for NEC postseason

IL's Preseason All-Conference Team
A Eric Holden, Hobart
A Marc O’Rourke, Bryant
ACharlie Bertrand, Merrimack
M Logan Liljeberg, Sacred Heart
M Justin Scott, Hobart
M Luke Frankeny, Mount St. Mary’s
FO Zach Cole, Saint Joseph’s
SSDM Will Johansen, Robert Morris
LSM Zach Coffey, Bryant
D Michael Christiansen, Hobart
D Bryan McIntosh, Mount St. Mary’s
D Jack Horan, Bryant
G Dylan Furnback, Mount St. Mary’s

RoMo is #1 and their only All-Conference is SSDM Will Johansen?...

bauer4429 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:03 pm Guess it depends on the program, but I think for most it’s hard to juggle, especially if they want to graduate in 4 years.

FWIW Service Academy athletes take (6) demanding courses each semester, daily military training plus their D1 sport time commitment and must graduate in 4 years.

When has a conference player of the year come from a team not in the top 2 in standings? I don’t mind giving Merrimack recognition but it seems specious at best to think a team that’ll be 4/5 in half of a conference and no better than 7/10 will have their guy selected conference DPOY. Also not sure MSM won’t take a step back. Think St Joes is likely to go toe to toe w RoMo on that side. Know SHU has a couple of notable transfers but they lost a lot to graduation. Bryant is hard to say, they played Bart tough last year but there may have been circumstances around that and they had a down year. For Hobart, we’ve got a couple of good poles and would expect two offensive players on the year end team not sure Scott is the second one though with Jason Knox (A, 36,5 as FR), Ryan Archer (A/M, 19,24 as Soph) and Derrek Madonna (M, 23,9 as FR) also likely to have strong 2020 seasons.

Still think the top three are probably RoMo, Bart, SJU and a few teams fighting for the fourth spot.

Seems like there are a bunch of scrimmages today. Would love to hear any updates/opinions on any of them if you are at them.

Academics DO NOT come second at Hobart. Team GPA is expected to be higher than the average, and players and staff put in tremendous effort to make that happen. I think Raymond was 4.0 at Hopkins, so he doesn't accept excuses.

Kudos to Hobart!! Our son did not play within this league but had multiple occasions where game travel involved missing 2 full days of coursework. They also would cancel practice not to exceed to weekly hour limit, but require athletes to be in weight room and would check to see that they went. My hat goes off to programs that support academics and push athletes to succeed in the classroom - that is what matters most.

bam1972 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 2:35 pm Seems like there are a bunch of scrimmages today. Would love to hear any updates/opinions on any of them if you are at them.

I heard that LIU Post played Rutgers tough, lost by 5 and that Sacred Heart crushed NJIT in crummy weather

skillzthatkillz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:46 pm

bam1972 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2020 2:35 pm Seems like there are a bunch of scrimmages today. Would love to hear any updates/opinions on any of them if you are at them.

I heard that LIU Post played Rutgers tough, lost by 5 and that Sacred Heart crushed NJIT in crummy weather

Rutgers played a scrimmage 2 days before there first game?

Rutgers game was last Saturday

So
Charlie Bertrand is pretty dammm good

Yes, but Merrimack lost to Holy Cross today . . . welcome to D1, might not be so easy a transition. And the Holy Cross goalie only saved 33%.

They lost by 1... against a team that is in the mix to make the Patriot League Playoffs (at least based upon last year)

Might want to credit Mack’s shooting instead of crapping on HC goalie..

Regardless, lots of lax still to play.

Would have been a nice first win for Merrimack. But not a bad showing for their first D1 game. Its alway hard to say how good a win is or not on Feb 1. Will see in a month or two.

Saw Marist play LIU today. Marist won most of the faceoffs and possessed the ball alot. Marist won the first half 7-4 I think and then the second half 9-3. Or something like that. With that said, the first half could have been much worse if it wasn't for LIU's goalie. He played really well. I thought Marist had a lot of quick offensive players with good shots. LIU defense did not play bad. Especially considering they were on the field alot!.

LIU looked like they had 1 or 2 attackman that were pretty good. A parent said one of them was a freshman. But they also had too many turnovers and bad shot selection. Midfield was interesting. Looked like numbers 10, 6, and 9 got most of the play. second line they played 4 people. 12, 54, 23, and 16. Looked like their best midfielders are 6, 23, 54, and 10. The others I would assume will be fighting for the 5th and 6th spots. By the way, a parent told me that these numbers were not many of the players actual numbers for some reason.

I think Marist will do well this year. Good faceoff and offense with a solid d.

I watched that game again.
I’ve mentioned NEC front row often, I’ve watched many of their games over the past I’d say three years where the broadcast has improved, no replays, but I stream so it doesn’t much matter.

This was a good game, not too sloppy for early season, came down to the last minute.

Which Team Was Underrated in Preseason?
The Face-Off Yearbook looks at every men's DI team, ranked 1-75. Clearly, several teams will exceed expectations, and we don't always agree on who is ranked where. Here are teams that we think are currently underrated.

...

Josh Davey (@joshdavey5)
Mount St. Mary’s (38)
The Mountaineers return a ton of talent after going 5-1 in the NEC in 2019. Senior Attackmen Brenden McCarthy and Brendan Doyle will take big steps forward. With some veterans now on the defensive side of the ball, I could see the Mount surprising some teams early with the first two games against Delaware and Towson.

...

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... son-/55953

Go Sacred Heart