UPenn Men’s lacrosse

[QuakerSouth]

Penn graduations always on Monday, but it does take place at Franklin Field, and it is quite a production setting it up. Can't be done in one or two days. It's being set up now. So FF is not available for practice/games.

[Pensky Material]

The Quakers, who are the No. 3 seed, will host Richmond in a first-round matchup in Penn Park on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

Great opportunity that doesn’t come around often,

for the SE PA crowd to see a live NCAA tournament game.

Do you know why the game isn't being played at Franklin Field? Is the field at Penn Park standing room only because I can't tell on the Penn site. Not sure why'd they go this route for an NCAA tournament game.

Nothing I’ve been able to find on why not Franklin.
And yeah, looks like SRO assuming they use Ace Adams field.
Parking and access maybe is a bit easier, do the 3 hour street
parking, its much cheaper, on Walnut st, have to walk a bit.

Thanks appreciate the info!

[Pensky Material]

Penn graduations always on Monday, but it does take place at Franklin Field, and it is quite a production setting it up. Can't be done in one or two days. It's being set up now. So FF is not available for practice/games.

Thanks. I thought I saw they had graduation Sunday night but I must read that wrong. I assume there is seating at this other venue but based on the Penn website it didn't look like it.

[The Orfling]

Congrats to Patrick Burkinshow for being named U.S. Lacrosse Magazine player of the week on the strength of his great ILT performance against Brown (20 saves) and Yale (16 saves): https://www.usalaxmagazine.com/college/ ... f-the-week

[10stone5]

Ben Smith has really opened things up for Penn,
they were getting bogged down splitting Handley in at
attack.
Smith at about 3 points a game since coming on midway
through the season.

[Stiffler]

Add in Tynan Walsh, and the offense was really starting to get moving. Sadly, he is out w an ACL. It showed against Richmond. Should have inserted both those guys earlier in the year, but the coaches have been slow to adjust all year.

[PizzaSnake]

Ben Smith has really opened things up for Penn,
they were getting bogged down splitting Handley in at
attack.
Smith at about 3 points a game since coming on midway
through the season.

Agreed. Now, which other “non-starters” can and will be given opportunities? Gergar has been disappointing in the last couple of games in shot selection.

Now is when great coaches (and staff) differentiate themselves from the merely “good” ones. There are a lot of things to tidy up: turnovers — unnecessarily long passes at top of offensive end, ball rotation in offensive set, ground balls (technique, technique, technique), transition from clearing to offensive lineup (really poor decision making passes), lack of easy outlet passes (move your damn feet). These are the things the great teams do that make them dominant and effortless. Make the game “easy” for your teammates, not hard.

In that note, any thoughts on how “coachable” these players are? Can they be told that they need to do things differently, or are they set in their ways (been told they're great so long they can’t hear criticism and respond)?

Penn can’t afford to squander this chance.

[10stone5]

I mean,

they like making great plays, that’s their MO,

they made a great play to get the ball back and Handley
made a great pass to tie it up.

[PizzaSnake]

I mean,

they like making great plays, that’s their MO,

they made a great play to get the ball back and Handley
made a great pass to tie it up.

Ah, reliance on the “home-run” instead of “on-base-percentage”.

Exciting, but tends to fail, eventually.

Is MD dominant because they have “supermen”, or because the team is greater than the sum of their “super” parts?

[ohmilax34]

I mean,

they like making great plays, that’s their MO,

they made a great play to get the ball back and Handley
made a great pass to tie it up.

Ah, reliance on the “home-run” instead of “on-base-percentage”.

Exciting, but tends to fail, eventually.

Is MD dominant because they have “supermen”, or because the team is greater than the sum of their “super” parts?

I haven't seen much of Penn or Maryland this season, but I think I understand why you're using them to demonstrate contrasting methods. Penn throws skip passes. Maryland doesn't. Essentially, that's the contrasting methods you're bringing up it seems. 1) Is there data that one works better than the other? Aren't baseball players being told now to swing for a homerun because the data says that's the play to make? 2) It seems different styles or methods are part of what makes college lacrosse exciting. I would never want a college lacrosse team to change from being smart risk takers to non-risk takers. 3) Didn't UNC beat Maryland in the final in 2016 with a skip pass to an open shot in OT?

It seems each team has worked to become good at the thing they're good at. I think Maryland has more talent on their team than Penn. I expect more MD players to continue playing in the PLL. I expect MD to make it farther in this tournament than Penn. But Penn is in the quarterfinals and they're fun to watch, so I'm going to enjoy it. Btw, I predict Rutgers will beat Penn.

[10stone5]

Assuming this is Sam Handley’s last year at Penn,
not a given,

among the players grading out higher (much higher)
than Handley in the incoming class of 2018
by the “raters”,

Joey Epstein, Quentin Buchman, Chase Scanlon.

[1766]

Handley is a beast. How the Knights play him is probably the biggest storyline of the game. I've only seen Penn twice. Without doing any research, how is your faceoff game?

[10stone5]

Handley is a beast. How the Knights play him is probably the biggest storyline of the game. I've only seen Penn twice. Without doing any research, how is your faceoff game?

You can’t really.
Just limit him, that’s what Georgetown did.
Course, Murphy didn’t stand pat after that game
he changed things up.

[1766]

Handley is a beast. How the Knights play him is probably the biggest storyline of the game. I've only seen Penn twice. Without doing any research, how is your faceoff game?

You can’t really.
Just limit him, that’s what Georgetown did.
Course, Murphy didn’t stand pat after that game
he changed things up.

Handley will get his. From what I have seen, when Penn is at their best is when he's getting other guys involved. I think that will be key. Not allowing him to just run roughshod like Yale did. Yale's D is questionable to say the least though.

One of the best ways to defend him is to win faceoffs, hence my question. Dugenio has now two tournaments in a row played his best when the lights were the brightest. Harvard's faceoff game was very weak though.

[bearlaxfan]

I've seen Handley live for both ILT games this year and several other times on teev, and I think he's maybe a bit too unselfish. Of course Penn's offense is better when everyone is involved, and Handley facilitates that, but he can be so dominant I think if he imposed his will more, or earlier, maybe Penn wouldn't be putting its fans in cardiac danger so often.

[1766]

St. Joes held him to 1 and 1. Did they throw some junk defenses at him or did they play him straight up? They seem to have a solid defense but to limit him like that you'd think unfathomable for them.

Rall is a first team All American. Will Coach Brecht let those two go at it or bring on one of the other bigger guys to counter his size. Good to have options.

I would expect to see him trapped on O whenever possible, and when he is, go at him constantly.

[Laxbuck]

He had an off night shooting v St Joe’s. A lot of whip in his stick. It was raining. Didn’t see any unique scheme to stopping him. Better prevent him from getting a running start out of the box….

[1766]

He had an off night shooting v St Joe’s. A lot of whip in his stick. It was raining. Didn’t see any unique scheme to stopping him. Better prevent him from getting a running start out of the box….

I'd agree with that. Getting in his gloves early. I imagine they will put Rall on him. He's cat quick has suffocated other guys. Should be a great battle to watch. Two First Team All American's going at it.

It's going to be very hot at Hofstra. Rutgers plays a lot of guys. That's going to be an advantage. If Kirst can make saves you have to think the are going to keep Handley on D whenever possible. The SSDM are all very capable offensively, specifically Kamish and Coyne. They are going to make him work in that heat.

[Stiffler]

With check out meetings happening this week for the Quakers, what do you think they need to be Final Four caliber? Murph hasn't been able to breakthrough yet. I am not taking for granted where the program is, as it is now a clear 5-10 ranked program. But the Ivy is getting tougher. Changes to RPI formula's perhaps as well. Penn has to change with it and continue to push to improve. With now 4 key seniors deciding to come back for next Spring, they should be up there at the top again. What else would Quaker fans like to see?

[10stone5]

Two years off from lacrosse,
And Penn was again a definite Final Four candidate.

A lot depends on Sam Handley coming back,
and continued solid recruiting.

Don’t know their recruits, but it looks like the continuing
of bringing in large midfielders this upcoming year.