NESCAC

[JumboFan4]

Tufts looked strong today. Should be a good tournament where the NY state teams will prove challenging, but clearly Tufts is the team to beat in New England.

When did Tufts switch to a zone scheme on defense? Seems to have made a difference in the last several games. Were they a zone team when they played Union and Midd? Also, seems like Bredahl may have a chance to break Uppgren's single season scoring record, assuming they can win a couple games in the NCAA's. Believe he should easily break it if Tufts makes the final.

[ah23]

When did Tufts switch to a zone scheme on defense? Seems to have made a difference in the last several games. Were they a zone team when they played Union and Midd?

I don’t think it’s their primary set, but they’ve been mixing it in and it’s been really effective. Thought it gave Bowdoin tons of problems.

[warriorslax17]

Maybe I am over confident here, but I think Bowdoin has a promising path in the tournament. They will have a tough matchup with RIT looming but should be exciting to see what they can do.

[ergit]

Maybe I am over confident here, but I think Bowdoin has a promising path in the tournament. They will have a tough matchup with RIT looming but should be exciting to see what they can do.

At this point, we don’t really have a point of comparison for the NESCAC aside from Tuft’s win over Lynchburg and their loss to Union. Optimism is good though…

[charliefayispredator]

When did Tufts switch to a zone scheme on defense? Seems to have made a difference in the last several games. Were they a zone team when they played Union and Midd?

I don’t think it’s their primary set, but they’ve been mixing it in and it’s been really effective. Thought it gave Bowdoin tons of problems.

It has been their primary defensive scheme for the last few weeks of the season...and I expect that to continue throughout the playoffs until another team demonstrates that it can effectively attack it (or even attack it at all).

On that point, despite the unfortunate distribution of superpower teams on one side of the bracket (RIT, Saint John Fisher, Salisbury, and Tufts), the Jumbos can find one silver lining in their tourney path, related to the zone scouting/prep issues created by the back-to-back game structure:

On the first weekend, they have a walk-thru first round on Saturday, then play Saint John Fisher/Catholic the next day, meaning that the winning Cardinals team will have no time to properly scout/practice against a zone.

Should they win that Sunday game, they will likely play Salisbury in the QF the following weekend, and southern teams notoriously struggle against zones (for example, Cabrini vs. Wes in 2017 and Salisbury vs. Wes in 2018). Win and you get RIT the next day, who will face the same scouting/prep dilemma as the winning Cardinals team the prior weekend (SU is the epitome of man-to-man, 1v1 D; Tufts is polar opposite running a zone; who/how do you prep?).

[ah23]

Potential point of optimism for Bowdoin could be faceoffs/controlling possession. Montemorano graduated and RIT's new FOGO has been really hit or miss against good faceoff guys this season. 10/34 against SJF (Post) and 9/30 against Union (Paolatto/Byrne) in two one-goal wins, 14/29 against York (Facciponti) and 13/24 against Clarkson (Hansen) in two wins by comfortable margins. If Bowdoin can be 2/3 or above on faceoffs? Good stuff. If it's closer to 50/50, RIT is going to score a ton of goals and I'm not sure Bowdoin will be able to keep up.

[InsiderRoll]

When did Tufts switch to a zone scheme on defense? Seems to have made a difference in the last several games. Were they a zone team when they played Union and Midd?

I don’t think it’s their primary set, but they’ve been mixing it in and it’s been really effective. Thought it gave Bowdoin tons of problems.

It has been their primary defensive scheme for the last few weeks of the season...and I expect that to continue throughout the playoffs until another team demonstrates that it can effectively attack it (or even attack it at all).

On that point, despite the unfortunate distribution of superpower teams on one side of the bracket (RIT, Saint John Fisher, Salisbury, and Tufts), the Jumbos can find one silver lining in their tourney path, related to the zone scouting/prep issues created by the back-to-back game structure:

On the first weekend, they have a walk-thru first round on Saturday, then play Saint John Fisher/Catholic the next day, meaning that the winning Cardinals team will have no time to properly scout/practice against a zone.

Should they win that Sunday game, they will likely play Salisbury in the QF the following weekend, and southern teams notoriously struggle against zones (for example, Cabrini vs. Wes in 2017 and Salisbury vs. Wes in 2018). Win and you get RIT the next day, who will face the same scouting/prep dilemma as the winning Cardinals team the prior weekend (SU is the epitome of man-to-man, 1v1 D; Tufts is polar opposite running a zone; who/how do you prep?).

They could just prep for it now? They have a full week. Do you actually think that these teams spend the whole week prepping for only one opponent? Fisher is likely spending 90% of their week prepping for Tufts.

[ergit]

When did Tufts switch to a zone scheme on defense? Seems to have made a difference in the last several games. Were they a zone team when they played Union and Midd?

I don’t think it’s their primary set, but they’ve been mixing it in and it’s been really effective. Thought it gave Bowdoin tons of problems.

It has been their primary defensive scheme for the last few weeks of the season...and I expect that to continue throughout the playoffs until another team demonstrates that it can effectively attack it (or even attack it at all).

On that point, despite the unfortunate distribution of superpower teams on one side of the bracket (RIT, Saint John Fisher, Salisbury, and Tufts), the Jumbos can find one silver lining in their tourney path, related to the zone scouting/prep issues created by the back-to-back game structure:

On the first weekend, they have a walk-thru first round on Saturday, then play Saint John Fisher/Catholic the next day, meaning that the winning Cardinals team will have no time to properly scout/practice against a zone.

Should they win that Sunday game, they will likely play Salisbury in the QF the following weekend, and southern teams notoriously struggle against zones (for example, Cabrini vs. Wes in 2017 and Salisbury vs. Wes in 2018). Win and you get RIT the next day, who will face the same scouting/prep dilemma as the winning Cardinals team the prior weekend (SU is the epitome of man-to-man, 1v1 D; Tufts is polar opposite running a zone; who/how do you prep?).

Don’t overthink it.

[UpperCorner22]

Oh - for the love of God!... does anyone know how to STOP getting Instagrams from Tufts lacrosse!!!

[charliefayispredator]

Oh - for the love of God!... does anyone know how to STOP getting Instagrams from Tufts lacrosse!!!

Create a fake dossier linking that Instagram account to Russia and leak it to the FBI.

[InsiderRoll]

Oh - for the love of God!... does anyone know how to STOP getting Instagrams from Tufts lacrosse!!!

Hahahaha

[overandback]

Maybe I am over confident here, but I think Bowdoin has a promising path in the tournament. They will have a tough matchup with RIT looming but should be exciting to see what they can do.

A bit overconfident, IMO. I think St Lawrence, assuming they dispatch the dragons, will be a stern test for the Polar Bears on Sunday.

[nescac commit]

3-1 on the day for the ‘Cac. Expect to see 2 practicing next week in preparation for the quarters. Say what you want about the teams that won, but Amherst proved lots of people wrong this year. Excited to see them develop under Woods. Program is in great hands

[Bystanders]

Anyone else think it’s completely inappropriate for that Tufts coach to allow his team to score 33 goals. Classy.

[boredatwork]

Anyone else think it’s completely inappropriate for that Tufts coach to allow his team to score 33 goals. Classy.

Feels like no good way to go about it. Didn’t score the last 9:18 of the game and a lot of scorers so it wasn’t starters (bredahl didn’t seem to play much more than 25 minutes)

With these back to backs it’s important to build a lead and rest
People as much as possible. Would be nice if the 20 guys not allowed to dress could get some reps in a game like that as well.

[CanLax]

Anyone else think it’s completely inappropriate for that Tufts coach to allow his team to score 33 goals. Classy.

You must not have seen the game...the starting attack and goalie were pulled in the 2nd and back-ups played the majority of minutes for the remainder of the game. Not sure what else you can do with restricted bench sizes.

[ah23]

Anyone else think it’s completely inappropriate for that Tufts coach to allow his team to score 33 goals. Classy.

As long as it isn't the starters running up the score after halftime, no. What are coaches supposed to do in games that are such mismatches, tell their backups to sit on the ball and take shot clock violations all afternoon? Isn't that more disrespectful of an opponent? Look at who was doing the scoring after halftime for Tufts yesterday. It was all backups, and their last goal was at the 9:18 mark.

Just for fun...Tufts' opponent today (St. John Fisher) beat Utica and Sage 29-3 and Nazareth 30-11 earlier this season. In all three games, SJF's starters were still in the game and still scoring goals well into the fourth quarter.

[Bystanders]

Just saying CNU stopped shooting at 29.

Not a huge deal and not on the boys.

On the coach.

[ah23]

Nope. It’s on the other team. Lacrosse games are sixty minutes long. If you think a coaching staff should tell backups to sit on the ball for 80 seconds and roll it out of bounds the whole second half, that’s your thing.

Also, not sure why 29 is the magic number for sportsmanship beyond selective outrage.

[warriorslax17]

It is collegiate lacrosse, get over it.