Ivy League

[check sticks]

Dartmouth @ UMass Lowell — Undefeated Big Green gets first taste of defeat 14-8

What an a$$

[middleAgedBear]

Providence 13-12 over Brown in OT.

Frustrating loss. So many fundamental lapses that ultimately blew the game. Brown is better than that. Or should be at this point with the players they’ve got.

[MDlaxfan76]

Dartmouth @ UMass Lowell — Undefeated Big Green gets first taste of defeat 14-8

What an a$$

Ahhh, CS, I was worried too, though I thought at worst it would be close.

But we were physically dominant, played fast and aggressive, stuck the ball in the back of the net and had very strong goaltending.

[Can Opener]

Dartmouth @ UMass Lowell — Undefeated Big Green gets first taste of defeat 14-8

What an a$$

Thanks for the kind words, CS. I think you are saying that I am “money” which I recall from the movie Swingers is a nice compliment. Swingers, BTW, was directed by Brown alum Doug Liman. I am a big fan of Dartmouth and in particular of their outstanding sophomore goalie. He is currently one of the top 10 keepers in the country statistically and making a strong case for first team all ivy, now that his HS teammate Reed Junkin has graduated from Penn. Hoping they win every game except the one against Brown.

[laxfan1313]

Don't feel singled out, ICG, 1313 doesn't like predicting exact scores.
The game is all about stats, gotta have those stats, ya know.
Further, any time 1313 shows up this is the kind of friendly banter he brings with him.
Better off completely ignored.

The genius of The Orange weighs in. Stats are facts. Predicting scores is conjecture. How did Can Opener do? Let's see:
Yale- UMass: prediction: Yale empties the bench and wins 17-8. Actual: UMass wins 13-10. Princeton-JHU: prediction: Sowers 7 points, Princeton wins 14-11. ACTUAL: Sowers 9 points, Princeton wins 18-11. Penn-PSU: prediction: PSU 11-9. Actual: PSU 18-17 ot; Harvard-Albany: Prediction: Tehoka 6 points, Albany wins 9-7 actual: Tehoka 8 points, Albany wins 15-14. Brown-Providence: prediction: Brown 12-9; actual: Providence wins 13-12. Dartmouth-UMass Lowell: Prediction: UMass Lowell wins 14-8. Actual: Dartmouth wins 14-5. Thank goodness this genius is picking Cornell to lose. As I said before, LOL.

[RumorMill]

Glad I didn’t throw out predictions today, as I would have called an Ivy sweep! And will stick with Ivy tomorrow.

Cornell 15 over OSU 12

Hopefully a wake up call for Yale, and also renews my faith in UMass!

GBG!

[FannOLax]

Well, today should quiet the chatter of a 4-bid Ivy League for a bit. Penn gave Penn State all they could handle, but tough losses by Penn, Yale (ouch) and Harvard.

ETA: Princeton looking solid, though.

Yes, this weekend was a reality check, especially for Yale. That being said, the three Ivies that won this weekend all remain undefeated. It was a pleasure to watch Teat lead Cornell to a win; a certain Syracuse fan like to say "face-offs don't win games" and the Big Red showed how to win while being dominated at face-off.

Fri March 6:
Penn hosts Villanova

Sat March 7:
Princeton hosts Rutgers
Yale v Michigan being played in California
Harvard hosts Fairfield
Dartmouth at Vermont

Sun March 8:
Cornell v Penn State being played in North Carolina
Brown hosts UVa
Penn at St. Joseph's

[laxfan1313]

Don't feel singled out, ICG, 1313 doesn't like predicting exact scores.
The game is all about stats, gotta have those stats, ya know.
Further, any time 1313 shows up this is the kind of friendly banter he brings with him.
Better off completely ignored.

The genius of The Orange weighs in. Stats are facts. Predicting scores is conjecture. How did Can Opener do? Let's see:
Yale- UMass: prediction: Yale empties the bench and wins 17-8. Actual: UMass wins 13-10. Princeton-JHU: prediction: Sowers 7 points, Princeton wins 14-11. ACTUAL: Sowers 9 points, Princeton wins 18-11. Penn-PSU: prediction: PSU 11-9. Actual: PSU 18-17 ot; Harvard-Albany: Prediction: Tehoka 6 points, Albany wins 9-7 actual: Tehoka 8 points, Albany wins 15-14. Brown-Providence: prediction: Brown 12-9; actual: Providence wins 13-12. Dartmouth-UMass Lowell: Prediction: UMass Lowell wins 14-8. Actual: Dartmouth wins 14-5. Thank goodness this genius is picking Cornell to lose. As I said before, LOL.

Can opener missed the Cornell victory over Ohio State. That make him/her 3-4 in winners-losers and 0/7 on scores. LOL.

[PizzaSnake]

Don't feel singled out, ICG, 1313 doesn't like predicting exact scores.
The game is all about stats, gotta have those stats, ya know.
Further, any time 1313 shows up this is the kind of friendly banter he brings with him.
Better off completely ignored.

The genius of The Orange weighs in. Stats are facts. Predicting scores is conjecture. How did Can Opener do? Let's see:
Yale- UMass: prediction: Yale empties the bench and wins 17-8. Actual: UMass wins 13-10. Princeton-JHU: prediction: Sowers 7 points, Princeton wins 14-11. ACTUAL: Sowers 9 points, Princeton wins 18-11. Penn-PSU: prediction: PSU 11-9. Actual: PSU 18-17 ot; Harvard-Albany: Prediction: Tehoka 6 points, Albany wins 9-7 actual: Tehoka 8 points, Albany wins 15-14. Brown-Providence: prediction: Brown 12-9; actual: Providence wins 13-12. Dartmouth-UMass Lowell: Prediction: UMass Lowell wins 14-8. Actual: Dartmouth wins 14-5. Thank goodness this genius is picking Cornell to lose. As I said before, LOL.

Can opener missed the Cornell victory over Ohio State. That make him/her 3-4 in winners-losers and 0/7 on scores. LOL.

The good news is that you’re first in my book for...

[DALaxDad]

UVA at Brown.

[RumorMill]

Don't feel singled out, ICG, 1313 doesn't like predicting exact scores.
The game is all about stats, gotta have those stats, ya know.
Further, any time 1313 shows up this is the kind of friendly banter he brings with him.
Better off completely ignored.

The genius of The Orange weighs in. Stats are facts. Predicting scores is conjecture. How did Can Opener do? Let's see:
Yale- UMass: prediction: Yale empties the bench and wins 17-8. Actual: UMass wins 13-10. Princeton-JHU: prediction: Sowers 7 points, Princeton wins 14-11. ACTUAL: Sowers 9 points, Princeton wins 18-11. Penn-PSU: prediction: PSU 11-9. Actual: PSU 18-17 ot; Harvard-Albany: Prediction: Tehoka 6 points, Albany wins 9-7 actual: Tehoka 8 points, Albany wins 15-14. Brown-Providence: prediction: Brown 12-9; actual: Providence wins 13-12. Dartmouth-UMass Lowell: Prediction: UMass Lowell wins 14-8. Actual: Dartmouth wins 14-5. Thank goodness this genius is picking Cornell to lose. As I said before, LOL.

Can opener missed the Cornell victory over Ohio State. That make him/her 3-4 in winners-losers and 0/7 on scores. LOL.

I (for one) enjoy the prognostication!

My Sunday evening quarterback on CO's picks.

Yale/Umass: Who actually picked UMass to win this game? Will be very interested to see in the "NCAA Pick The Winners Pool" thread... Not me!

Princeton/JHU: Good call. Sowers is an animal. Exact Score prediction gives you 0.5/7... if we're going to be exact, let's be exact!

UPenn/PSU: I called UPenn, so good call on PSU. Only criticism, with the firepower on the field should have gone higher than 11-9. Awesome game to watch, unfortunate finish for UPenn.

Harvard/Albany: Another good call with Albany. Went Harvard for Ivy win! Another good game and tough loss. You called two goal differential, actual 1 goal, not bad.

Brown/Providence: Disappointing result for Brown. I picked Brown to win as well. You had the 12 right, just wrong team.

Dartmouth/UMass Lowell: I went with the Big Green, but would have predicted exact score as a one goal win... good on Dartmouth! Vermont game next weekend presents a predicament for me.

Cornell/OSU: Come on, should have stuck with Ivy for this one! Another great game to watch. Will be fun to watch Cornell this season.

0.5/7 for exact scores.

[Can Opener]

Thanks for scoring along at home, RM. Yeah, I’m not really beating myself up on the Yale game. Wacky one. I do regret underestimating Dartmouth. I initially didn’t think they were going to get off the snide this year, but now I think they will get an Ivy win or two. For that matter, it’s feeling like an “any given Saturday” kind of season in the Ivies. It’s hard to picture any of the current top four going undefeated and I wouldn’t bet against a big upset along the way by Harvard or Brown. Brown is two goals or two saves away from being 4-0. Let’s get our picks out earlier this week so everyone has a chance to weigh in before faceoff.

[bearlaxfan]

Who will BG knock off in the IL? Glad the Brown game is in Prov

What is the probability that the current top 4 in the eye-test (IL season hasn't even started! ) make the ILT? 50% +/-? I'll say 60+% chance (hey if C.O. can pick scores, I can throw this out there).

BR: back to f/o questions after the win at tOSU.
UP: O rolls w/o Handly, but saving below 40%
PU: is it just that they're a year older? New OC, correct? Good goalie play.
YU: If Ierlan wears down to 60% (wears down to 60%!!!), they don't yet look like a FF team unless he's dominant. Now maybe goalie issue?

[MDlaxfan76]

Who will BG knock off in the IL? Glad the Brown game is in Prov

What is the probability that the current top 4 in the eye-test (IL season hasn't even started! ) make the ILT? 50% +/-? I'll say 60+% chance (hey if C.O. can pick scores, I can throw this out there).

BR: back to f/o questions after the win at tOSU.
UP: O rolls w/o Handly, but saving below 40%
PU: is it just that they're a year older? New OC, correct? Good goalie play.
YU: If Ierlan wears down to 60% (wears down to 60%!!!), they don't yet look like a FF team unless he's dominant. Now maybe goalie issue?

I'm certainly not predicting these, but HU and Brown are likely at least vulnerable to Big Green.
Beyond those, however, it would be truly remarkable to upset any of the others, assuming key guys stay healthy at those schools.
I think there's a substantial step-up differential at this point.

But Dartmouth's definitely gaining some confidence in their ball handling, coupled with physical play.
Goaltending is a differential potential.
I just don't think they have quite the fire power, and while improved at X, the FOGO's are young and certainly not dominating.
But at least playing much improved lacrosse...really happy for players and coaches.

The modest goal this year was to begin to translate the better play and team culture into some W's in out of conference play. The most important factor to getting that done was winning at least some FO's. We're seeing more than just that, so far. So, who knows.

But 2020 is already a 'success' relative to modest goal.

On Yale goalie situation, unless there's some other factor, I'd give Starr the job for a bit.

[Can Opener]

From 2016 - 2019, Brown outscored Dartmouth 56-14. (Not a typo.) Last year in Hanover, Dartmouth improved to a four-goal deficit, losing 11-7. Brown's next 10 games leading into the Dartmouth match-up feature 7 opponents currently ranked in the top 15. The other three games are not cupcakes -- Harvard, Holy Cross and Bryant. Will Brown be amped up for a W that lands them in the Ivy tournament or demoralized from running this gauntlet when Dartmouth comes to sunny Providence? (This is a gut check season for the Brown coaching staff, BTW, as they are now 25-26 since taking over in 2017.) I think the scenario for Dartmouth to get a win in any Ivy game has to include Hincks standing on his head (whatever that means) and making 18+ saves. Probably a 9-7 win or something of that ilk.

If Big Green fans are road-tripping to Providence, you will enjoy checking out one of the nicest new facilities in college lacrosse. No more miles of chain link fence, rickety stands and Porta Potties.
https://www.brown.edu/facilities/projec ... and-soccer

[Atticus]

From 2016 - 2019, Brown outscored Dartmouth 56-14. (Not a typo.) Last year in Hanover, Dartmouth improved to a four-goal deficit, losing 11-7. Brown's next 10 games leading into the Dartmouth match-up feature 7 opponents currently ranked in the top 15. The other three games are not cupcakes -- Harvard, Holy Cross and Bryant. Will Brown be amped up for a W that lands them in the Ivy tournament or demoralized from running this gauntlet when Dartmouth comes to sunny Providence? (This is a gut check season for the Brown coaching staff, BTW, as they are now 25-26 since taking over in 2017.) I think the scenario for Dartmouth to get a win in any Ivy game has to include Hincks standing on his head (whatever that means) and making 18+ saves. Probably a 9-7 win or something of that ilk.

If Big Green fans are road-tripping to Providence, you will enjoy checking out one of the nicest new facilities in college lacrosse. No more miles of chain link fence, rickety stands and Porta Potties.
https://www.brown.edu/facilities/projec ... and-soccer

A few comments/observations. First: I, too, enjoy your weekly predictions and understand that you're going to miss a few badly if you throw it all out there every week! Keep it up, CO! Second, as for Dartmouth, I'm not really sure of the relevance of 2016-18, but I will give you last year. Brown did win that game by scoring the last 3, but it was a one goal game midway through the 4th and D had a two goal lead midway through the 3rd. In the end, Brown was the better team but not by much. It was a very competitive game. Third, believe me, these are all "gut check" seasons for Dartmouth so I think that factor would be a wash... Finally, what has Brown done so far THIS season (and Dartmouth for that matter) for you to conclude that it would be such a longshot for Dartmouth to beat Brown? I don't make predictions and I am not making one here, but a 4 goal win over 0-5 Quinnipiac, for example - as well as all their other results - do not make Brown look like a heavy fave against anyone.

[Sting The Corner]

Well Dartmouth is getting votes for the top 20 (at least over on IL) and Brown isn't, so today wouldn't Brown be the underdog? I think if you switched schedules we're likely looking at a 4-0 Brown and a 2-2 Dartmouth, still too early to see who these teams really are. Any way you cut it, it's great to see the Big Green winning games, and it's better for Brown to drop a couple early with the opportunity of 8 top 20 teams left on their schedule for some quality wins.

Watched Cornell-OSU yesterday--I can't imagine how great the Big Red would be this year with TD Irelan, so close.

[QuakerSouth]

Surely I am not the only one to notice this in the Ivy schedules, but here are consecutive games for some teams:

Penn: Princeton, Cornell, Yale
Yale: Cornell, Princeton, Penn
Cornell: Penn State, Yale, Penn
Brown: Princeton, Penn, Yale, Cornell
Harvard: Cornell, Penn, Princeton, Yale

Thats a headache just seeing it in print. A modern day lacrosse Murderers' Row. These teams will be battle-tested come tourney time. Just hope they don't beat the stuffing out of each other and avoid injuries.

[Can Opener]

From 2016 - 2019, Brown outscored Dartmouth 56-14. (Not a typo.) Last year in Hanover, Dartmouth improved to a four-goal deficit, losing 11-7. Brown's next 10 games leading into the Dartmouth match-up feature 7 opponents currently ranked in the top 15. The other three games are not cupcakes -- Harvard, Holy Cross and Bryant. Will Brown be amped up for a W that lands them in the Ivy tournament or demoralized from running this gauntlet when Dartmouth comes to sunny Providence? (This is a gut check season for the Brown coaching staff, BTW, as they are now 25-26 since taking over in 2017.) I think the scenario for Dartmouth to get a win in any Ivy game has to include Hincks standing on his head (whatever that means) and making 18+ saves. Probably a 9-7 win or something of that ilk.

If Big Green fans are road-tripping to Providence, you will enjoy checking out one of the nicest new facilities in college lacrosse. No more miles of chain link fence, rickety stands and Porta Potties.
https://www.brown.edu/facilities/projec ... and-soccer

A few comments/observations. First: I, too, enjoy your weekly predictions and understand that you're going to miss a few badly if you throw it all out there every week! Keep it up, CO! Second, as for Dartmouth, I'm not really sure of the relevance of 2016-18, but I will give you last year. Brown did win that game by scoring the last 3, but it was a one goal game midway through the 4th and D had a two goal lead midway through the 3rd. In the end, Brown was the better team but not by much. It was a very competitive game. Third, believe me, these are all "gut check" seasons for Dartmouth so I think that factor would be a wash... Finally, what has Brown done so far THIS season (and Dartmouth for that matter) for you to conclude that it would be such a longshot for Dartmouth to beat Brown? I don't make predictions and I am not making one here, but a 4 goal win over 0-5 Quinnipiac, for example - as well as all their other results - do not make Brown look like a heavy fave against anyone.

Excellent points! I had forgotten that the 2019 B-D game was that close in the fourth quarter. I probably didn't state this very well, but I was trying to compliment Dartmouth by pointing out that annual blow-outs appear to be a thing of the past. I am Ever True to Brown, but this year feels very spooky to me with their murder's row schedule. (Not unique to Brown as Quaker South points out!) Any way you slice it, this Ivy season has some of the best story lines in recent memory.

[Atticus]

Agreed, CO. Big Green have Carolina, Harvard, Cornell and Yale as a string coming up soon, so we'll see how it feels in a few weeks! For now, we enjoy what has clearly been some forward progress.