LaxPower Back-Up Stick

These two items may be of limited interest, but the Ivy League has at least 2 neutral venue events in November:

November 18: Harvard vs Yale Football at Fenway Park in Boston

November 24: Harvard vs Cornell Ice Hockey at Madison Square Garden in New York

While I have no way of knowing, I'd suspect that the League might try Columbia again as a venue for the Lacrosse ILT this year. The Fenway event seems like it's being enthusiastically promoted.

faircornell wrote:These two items may be of limited interest, but the Ivy League has at least 2 neutral venue events in November:

November 18: Harvard vs Yale Football at Fenway Park in Boston

November 24: Harvard vs Cornell Ice Hockey at Madison Square Garden in New York

While I have no way of knowing, I'd suspect that the League might try Columbia again as a venue for the Lacrosse ILT this year. The Fenway event seems like it's being enthusiastically promoted.

Madison Square Garden!? Wow, big and very expensive venue. Yes, Fenway is being fully promoted from what I've seen... of course, those aren't tourney games. As for the Lacrosse ILT, well, anyone's guess is as good as mine. I was sort of thinking that maybe they're trying to line up a neutral site other than Columbia (Hartford, CT?), or they would have already announced the site... but that's just speculation.

Cornell hockey has played at MSG pretty regularly:

The game will mark the eighth consecutive season and the 10th time in the last 12 years that Cornell has played on the storied ice in Manhattan. But it will be the first time the Big Red clashes with its biggest current rival. While Cornell and Harvard compete in the ECAC Hockey and even met in the league's championship game as recently in 2017, this meeting at Madison Square Garden will be a non-league affair. The teams will still host their traditional league games at their respective rinks later in the season.

This will be Cornell's fourth appearance in The Frozen Apple, following victories against Michigan in 2012, Penn State in 2014 and New Hampshire in 2016. The Big Red has also competed in six Red Hot Hockey matchups with Boston University in odd-numbered years starting in 2007, which ignited a renaissance for college hockey at Madison Square Garden.

https://cornellbigred.com/news/2018/4/2 ... apple.aspx

Ivy League Tournament returning to NYC and Columbia again this year as per IL

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... 2019/53381

I'm neutral on the issue, willing to give the idea a second chance, but would argue against it if attendance doesn't improve.

calourie wrote:Ivy League Tournament returning to NYC and Columbia again this year as per IL

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... 2019/53381

I'm neutral on the issue, willing to give the idea a second chance, but would argue against it if attendance doesn't improve.

Would (or has) Columbia ever considered adding Men's Lacrosse? Kinda surprised they haven't already. Maybe hosting a tournament like this would get some chatter going @ the school?

Confirmation: https://ivyleague.com/news/2018/11/29/2 ... ?path=mlax

(...and I wouldn't hold my breath on Columbia adding men's lacrosse...)

I must say, the League's decision to play the men's and women's ILT games simultaneously on adjacent fields (men's in football stadium, women's on soccer field) is likely to exacerbate an already difficult parking situation for those who drive to the event. I hope the League is making plans to provide special parking & transportation options for both game days.

With Yale scheduled to play Villanova and Penn State in February, I am reminded of the League's apparently archaic rule against formal practices before February. Last year Yale lost its regular-season opener against Villanova. Last season, Cornell lost its regular-season opener against Colgate; the Big Red was then forced to play its first-round NCAA tourney game on the road against a Syracuse team it had already defeated during the regular season, so these February results do have consequences. Okay, it's by now an old complaint, but I hope the League eventually takes note of the realities of lacrosse scheduling that now has multiple games in February.

Happy holidays to all who read this!

1) hosting the event in Columbia pretty much renders the Ivy League (regular season) title meaningless. 2) the home and casual students of the Ivy League Champion pretty much lose the opportunity to attend the games, 3) access and parking on a late Friday remains problematic - what should have been arranged is for nearby public and private lots to provide discount parking for the event, 4) Columbia gets to host an event in a men's sport that it doesn't support, 5) hotels are expensive - discount rooms could have been arranged, 6) last years event showed that hosting in NYC was no windfall, nor did the waves of Wall Streeters bolster the attendance.

On the positive side, A) once the fans of a team learn it has advanced to the Tournament, fans can advance-book their rooms, 2) lots to do in NYC on a Saturday (but there is also plenty to do in other locations).

I can only guess that selecting Columbia was done for ease of advance planning for the Ivy League Administrators. No parking arrangements, no preferred hotels. What am I missing?

The Columbia weekend would be much fan-friendlier if the games were on Saturday and Sunday instead of Friday and Sunday. Getting to the stadium on Saturday is 10x easier on Saturday. These boys all played multiple games per day in tournaments all through high school. They can handle a 24+ hour turn around.

February is the shortest, but hardest month for Ivy lacrosse. In addition to the Yale and Cornell losses noted above, Brown lost to Quinnipiac 12-11 in OT while Princeton needed 2 overtimes to beat Monmouth on opening weekend. Harvard squeaked out a 10-9 win over UMass Lowell on opening weekend, but then lost to Holy Cross for the first time in program history in their second game of February.

Okay, maybe not a surprise, but the Ivy League leads the nation in NCAA graduation success rate. Yale, Dartmouth, and that school without men's lacrosse, ummm I mean "and Columbia," have top graduation rates for athletes.
https://ivyleague.com/news/2018/11/14/g ... -year.aspx

Here is a real interesting prospect.

Not seeing this recruit on any “top” lists yet.
A 2020 LSM from Loyola Blakefield.

5 of 7 Ivies are recruiting this 2020 LSM.
Will be curious to see where he lands.

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/recruiting/profile/4571

Inside Lacrosse just released their Ivy preseason rankings.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ence/53545

Can Opener wrote:Inside Lacrosse just released their Ivy preseason rankings.
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ence/53545

IL predicting:
1. Yale
2. Cornell
3. Princeton
4. Penn
5. Brown
6. Harvard
7. Dartmouth

Okay, not hard to see the logic of Yale and Cornell in the top two spots, or Dartmouth at the bottom. Last year Cornell was picked to finish 5th ( https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ence/51086 ) and I wonder if that just might bode well for Brown this year. I also wonder if Dartmouth gets at least one conference win.

After Yale & Cornell it's a real stew. Who will be healthy, who will get help from overlooked players, or players who make quantum leaps in improvement over earlier output, which goalies can steal an IL game- or two.

Just imho impressions: clock winding down on Penn? Were those OT losses to Yale in the tourney a few years back their high water mark for a while?
Will Princeton wither away Sower's years as they did Schreiber's? He's a junior now. TickTock
Year 3 for Daly at Brown. He's made the ILT in his first two, but the trajectory is... well gravity is a b*tch.
Harvard... anyone even mildly interested in the Ivies knows the issue of great recruits, meh results. Coach on the hot seat with alumni I believe, if not with the admin.
Dartmouth seems to be on the uptick, but like the song says, "...been down so long looks like up to me..."

bearlaxfan wrote:After Yale & Cornell it's a real stew. Who will be healthy, who will get help from overlooked players, or players who make quantum leaps in improvement over earlier output, which goalies can steal an IL game- or two.

Just imho impressions: clock winding down on Penn? Were those OT losses to Yale in the tourney a few years back their high water mark for a while?
Will Princeton wither away Sower's years as they did Schreiber's? He's a junior now. TickTock
Year 3 for Daly at Brown. He's made the ILT in his first two, but the trajectory is... well gravity is a b*tch.
Harvard... anyone even mildly interested in the Ivies knows the issue of great recruits, meh results. Coach on the hot seat with alumni I believe, if not with the admin.
Dartmouth seems to be on the uptick, but like the song says, "...been down so long looks like up to me..."

How is Simon Mathias not pre season first team All-Ivy. Will draw #1 pole for 3rd year as well as the focus of a game plan? Sowers, Teat and Mathias are the top 3 attackmen in the league.

Interesting to see the physical size differences in the leagues based on the IL preseason All-League selections.
Ivy team average size is 5'11" 189lbs.
ACC team average size is 6'0" 198lbs.
Big Ten team average size is 6'1" 197lbs.
I excluded G and F/O as well as LSM and SSDM because didn't include those for Ivy.
Yale last year and Brown in 2016 had some very big athletes which I think really made the difference for each team in the league as well as in the NCAA tourney. You can't coach size....
Yale's senior class last year averaged 6'1.4" 205lbs.

InDeoSperamus wrote:Interesting to see the physical size differences in the leagues based on the IL preseason All-League selections.
Ivy team average size is 5'11" 189lbs.
ACC team average size is 6'0" 198lbs.
Big Ten team average size is 6'1" 197lbs.
I excluded G and F/O as well as LSM and SSDM because didn't include those for Ivy.
Yale last year and Brown in 2016 had some very big athletes which I think really made the difference for each team in the league as well as in the NCAA tourney. You can't coach size....

Did you check to see if teams update the size and weights each year? Some do and some don't.

Typical Lax Dad wrote:

InDeoSperamus wrote:Interesting to see the physical size differences in the leagues based on the IL preseason All-League selections.
Ivy team average size is 5'11" 189lbs.
ACC team average size is 6'0" 198lbs.
Big Ten team average size is 6'1" 197lbs.
I excluded G and F/O as well as LSM and SSDM because didn't include those for Ivy.
Yale last year and Brown in 2016 had some very big athletes which I think really made the difference for each team in the league as well as in the NCAA tourney. You can't coach size....

Did you check to see if teams update the size and weights each year? Some do and some don't.

Not sure what you mean, but each roster I looked at is 2019. To the extent some schools do and don't update weight and height, it should affect each of the leagues equally and shouldn't change the delta.
Yale's senior class was huge last year - 6'1.4" 205lbs average size. They made a huge difference and it always seemed Yale had a size advantage in the Ivies last year and even in the NCAAs.

Only team that looked bigger than Yale was Duke

The most fascinating story line in the Ivies this year will be how teams handle Teat. He went wild in the first 2/3 of the season when he was guarded with a traditional defensive scheme. Once teams went to Shut Off Teat ("SOT"), however, things changed in a hurry. In the four games in which teams deployed SOT, he racked up 1.5 points/game. In the other 14 games, he averaged 6.6 points per game. By using SOT, Brown cut Cornell's scoring from 19 in the regular season (2 weeks earlier) to 7 in the ILT. Yale declined to go SOT in the ILT final was upset by Cornell 14-8. Teat was back to his usual 6 points in that game. I was amazed that the Cornell staff never seemed to come up with an effective answer to SOT last year. He spent most of those games standing idly, seeming to accept his fate. They didn't work very hard to get him the ball on re-starts or to launch some "possession" shots on goals and then let Teat bring the ball back into play. As a fan of the game, it's hard to love SOT, but it's also hard to say it doesn't work.