Cornell 2022

[WestVillCornell]

Any players that have been sidelined for the firsts part of the season expected to come back? Aren’t there a few Canadians on offense (think midfielders) that haven’t played this year?

[another fan]

Dalton and Graham were not dressed for the Yale game. Do not know what their injury/return status is, or the likelihood of playing time when they return

[CU77]

My copy of "We showed Baltimore" arrived today! Looking forward to reading it.

[laxfan1313]

.

[DMac]

My copy of "We showed Baltimore" arrived today! Looking forward to reading it.

Got a sneaking suspicion you're going to like that book a lot, 77, just has to be loaded with some super good stuff.
Hadn't heard anything about this book, enjoy. For sure you'll give your fellow lacrosse fans your review, no?

[FannOLax]

My copy of "We showed Baltimore" arrived today! Looking forward to reading it.

Cornell University Press!

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/bo ... baltimore/

"In We Showed Baltimore, Christian Swezey tells the dramatic story of how a brash coach from Long Island and a group of players unlike any in the sport helped unseat lacrosse's establishment.

From 1976 to 1978, the Cornell men's lacrosse team went on a tear. Winning two national championships and posting an overall record of 42–1, the Big Red, coached by Richie Moran, were the class of the NCAA game. Swezey tells the story of the rise of this dominant lacrosse program and reveals how Cornell's success coincided with and sometimes fueled radical changes in what was once a minor prep school game centered in the Baltimore suburbs.

Led on the field by the likes of Mike French and Eamon McEneaney, in the mid-1970s Cornell was an offensive powerhouse. Moran coached the players to be in fast, constant movement. That technique, paired with the advent of synthetic stick heads and the introduction of artificial turf fields, made the Cornell offensive game swift and lethal. It is no surprise that the first NCAA championship game covered by ABC Television was Cornell vs. Maryland in 1976. The 16–13 Cornell win, in overtime, was exactly the exciting game that Moran encouraged and that newcomers to the sport wanted to see.

Swezey recounts Cornell's dramatic games against traditional powers such as Maryland, Navy, and Johns Hopkins, and gets into the strategy and psychology that Moran brought to the team. We Showed Baltimore describes how the game of lacrosse was changing—its style of play, equipment, demographics, and geography. Pulling from interviews with more than ninety former coaches and players from Cornell and its rivals, We Showed Baltimore paints a vivid picture of lacrosse in the 1970s and how Moran and the Big Red helped create the game of today."

[faircornell]

I'd love a "review" as well. The Cornell Press article quoted sort of ignores the Native American community, Canada, and the greater Northeast USA where the game was also played extensively for a very long time.

I really enjoyed Richie's book. I'll probably buy this one as well. However, any previews would be greatly appreciated.

[laxjuris]

I ordered my copy of the book last night and will post a review after I’ve read it.

[joewillie78]

Ahh, my glory days at Cornell. As a student, from LI , who's team in HS played Eamons team, and then got to go to the same college as him and watch him perform his magic for 3 years at Cornell, were some of my fondest memories as a student.
I still to this day consider him to be the best lacrosse player I have ever witnessed play the game. His infamous signature move coming from X and then performing his incredible jump shot were a joy to watch.
However, the one negative, if you will, is we became spoiled and expected to win every game and when we lost the 78 championship game, we had no idea how to react as we just never lost. I hope they have pictures of Schoellkopf and the students so I can see all those crazies I used to go with to the games.
GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

[DMac]

Am bettin' you'll be in the, jw, just not in green.

[joewillie78]

Am bettin' you'll be in the, jw, just not in green.

Lol, nah, probably had my Eric Clapton shirt on and a huge brew in one hand and a Schoellkopf hot dog in the other.
GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

[laxfan1313]

Cornell's game notes for Penn: https://cornellbigred.com/documents/202 ... enotes.pdf

[b1w7o9y7h]

Led on the field by the likes of Mike French and Eamon McEneaney, in the mid-1970s Cornell was an offensive powerhouse. Moran coached the players to be in fast, constant movement. That technique, paired with the advent of synthetic stick heads and the introduction of artificial turf fields, made the Cornell offensive game swift and lethal. It is no surprise that the first NCAA championship game covered by ABC Television was Cornell vs. Maryland in 1976. The 16–13 Cornell win, in overtime, was exactly the exciting game that Moran encouraged and that newcomers to the sport wanted to see.

I'll definitely be picking up a copy. Still have vivid memories of dad (Dartmouth lax guy) driving us down to Ithaca from Syracuse regularly to watch the platinum standard on display at Schoelkopf. Literally watched a who's who of transformative All-American's on display. No need to rattle them off, as my typing fingers might hurt after I'm finally done. RIP the Wild Irish Rose. Still get choked up thinking about him. Respect to those who played and coached the game so superbly at Cornell. That greatness resonates with this guy. Stepping on the field to play against Cornell in Ithaca in Spring 1982 was a bit surreal!

[Mr. Webber]

Oops, I just posted about Swezey's new book in a separate thread. Sorry about that. It seemed to be of too much interest to non-Cornellians to post it here in Our Own Private Tompkinsco.

[semsox]

Have to say, I don't feel great about the game this weekend. Penn doesn't want to start Ivy play 0-2, and this thread has been pretty honest about the needed areas for improvement of the team. Curious to see how they come out and play.

[RedIvy]

The FO weakness is still odd for me, while we were dominated here against Yale we were competitive against other very good FOGO’s. So I’m not sure if Yale was a matchup issue or if Petrakis is just having more difficulty adjusting to the new rules. We have seen him be successful, unlike in the 2018/19 seasons when we had no answer for anyone except a long stick.

The clearing weakness as others have pointed out can be worked on.

We clearly need to play a full 60 minutes of good lacrosse. We have seen a few quarters which have been dreadful. We won’t win if we have one of those this Saturday.

Home field and the concern of a very good team starting 0-2 in league play are intangibles that I believe tilt this game in favor of Penn.

Having said that I am hopeful that we get a slight edge this weekend on FO (I don’t think this is a big strength for Penn either), we play a full 60 minutes, Adler does his thing, Irelan sees the ball and our offense moves the ball and shots well.

[VeryRustyRed]

RedIvy - I certainly concur that Saturday will not be easy - a real challenge.
-Penn will be the toughest opponent Cornell has faced all year
-Penn is coming off of a heartbreaking 1 goal loss to (probably) the second or third best team in the country...on the road.
-The game will be played on Penn's home field.

-Face-offs will be very interesting to watch. I'm absolutely sure that FO & wing play were points of particular focus in practice this week.
-It will be interesting to see the defensive match-ups as well. With all of the talk/focus on Handley, he's been far from Penn's leading goal scorer, and in fact on the quiet side (relative to expectations) until last week's track meet vs. Princeton. My guess is that Jacobs will be matched on Handley - whose game is certainly not finesse or speed (he's a power guy who leverages his size). Perhaps Adler on Gergar (though I've never seen him play), who has almost twice as many goals as Handley YTD. Look for Doria on Penn's off ball crease guy.

[joewillie78]

This will be a brutal test for the Big Red, but as we all have been pointing out some of the Reds perceived weaknesses, we also have to realize that Penn also has shown at times, some weaknesses. Instead of focusing on our weaknesses, I prefer to focus on some of our incredible strengths, like #1 in the country on clearing % against. Their groundball numbers are awesome and they do great on caused turnovers. They defend really well and Adler is a true shutdown defender, and Bartolottot is a top SSDM.
One thing I do know, this team will give 100% and fight until the final whistle. If it's not enough, so be it, but the way this team fights and plays, makes it a very easy team to root for.
Good luck to both teams in what should be another great IVY matchup.
GOBIGRED
Joewillie78

[laxfan1313]

RedIvy - I certainly concur that Saturday will not be easy - a real challenge.
-Penn will be the toughest opponent Cornell has faced all year
-Penn is coming off of a heartbreaking 1 goal loss to (probably) the second or third best team in the country...on the road.
-The game will be played on Penn's home field.

-Face-offs will be very interesting to watch. I'm absolutely sure that FO & wing play were points of particular focus in practice this week.
-It will be interesting to see the defensive match-ups as well. With all of the talk/focus on Handley, he's been far from Penn's leading goal scorer, and in fact on the quiet side (relative to expectations) until last week's track meet vs. Princeton. My guess is that Jacobs will be matched on Handley - whose game is certainly not finesse or speed (he's a power guy who leverages his size). Perhaps Adler on Gergar (though I've never seen him play), who has almost twice as many goals as Handley YTD. Look for Doria on Penn's off ball crease guy.

I'm guessing Gavin Adler will cover Gergar (18-3). Dom Doria is taller & heavier than Ian Jacobs and might be assigned to Handley (10-13) with Ian Jacobs covering Cam Rubin (10-4). Re Handley, a great player, but his stats against Princeton (3-8) are an outlier. The remainder of the season for him: against Georgetown (1-2), against Duke (1-3), against Penn State (3-1), against Villanove (2-1), so his usual is about 3-4 points. Don't overlook Cam Rubin who went 7-2 against Princeton. Gergar had an 8 goal game, too. This game poses the question opponents had to answer vs Penn State during the Grant Ament years - do you shut off the feeder or the scorers. Gergar appears to be the scorer. Jordan Stevens will know how to play it.

Some things to be optimistic about: Penn's faceoff % is 42.3. They are being out-groundballed by 6/game (37.4 to 31.4). They are allowing a clear % of 84.1 while achieving 83.5% themselves. Opponents have caused 8.4 turnovers/game while Penn is at 5.2/game. They are being out shot 48 to 34.8 per game. They are dead even in goals/game achieved and allowed at 12. Their goalie is at 51.1 save %. I don't see Cornell winning a 20 goal shoot out like Penn-Princeton. The Big Red's defense ought to be able to keep Penn in the low teens. Cornell will get its share of possessions given Penn's 42.3% face off %. Valuing possession of the ball, running the offense and shooting accurately should give the Big Red a good chance for victory. One thing to note: Penn has forced 13 shot clock violations. Based upon opponent clear %, they must be effectively defending and forcing long possessions. Cornell's stat sheet doesn't have this stat. Long possessions would lower the score to Cornell's advantage. The Big Red has no doubt worked on faceoffs & clears this week. They will be ready. Predicted weather: 49 degrees, wind from the West 6 mph, 0% change of precipitation. Wind isn't much of a factor in Franklin Field. GO BIG RED!

[Gobigred]

Inside Lacrosse podcast features Connor Buczek. His interview starts about 15 minutes in.

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... czek/59212