Editor’s Note: Welcome back to Deep Pockets, a series of posts by the legendary Flip Naumburg! This time around, Flip hops back on the soapbox and talks about the big lacrosse tournament. It happens to be NCAA tourney time right now, but his thoughts really do hold true for ALL big lacrosse events. Read on, and enjoy whatever big lacrosse tournament you come across!
Tomorrow, or actually later today, the NCAA Lacrosse Championships will begin to unfold in Philadelphia.
Big Lacrosse Tournament: Bracket On Down!
I have always loved tournaments. I love the urgency and excitement that the post season can bring. The ‘finality’ that looms with every game is so exciting, motivating, and sometimes thrilling. The Division I Semifinals are particularly interesting. I think most sports are sort of defined by their post-season. One need only look at the “March Madness” phenomenon in college hoops to see the kind of excitement that a single post season can manifest. It is an exciting time every Memorial Day weekend in NCAA Lacrosse as Championships are about to be decided, and this year it will all happen in the City of Brotherly Love.
Road Show or Roadside Attraction?
D.U. is half of the match for that first DI semi. The Pios play Notre Dame, and the teams share the fact that they have been so close, and a part of the annual final four mix every year for a while now. They are both also former GWLL teams!
D.U. currently has a great combination of cornerstone pieces that fit the modern game so well. They have balance with youth, age, a Canadian cannon or two, a Native American with mad creative skills, and a local kid in goal, protected by some really large long poles. It is interesting because I live in Colorado. People say to me fairly often that it will be great for the sort of validating part of Colorado lacrosse if/when the D.U. Pioneers win the National Championship. I nod. I do not doubt that, but at the same time, the good work is well underway and has been for a while, pretty much starting right when Bill Tierney first showed up from Princeton.
I am not sure winning (rings) changes it all, but it certainly cannot hurt. D.U. is talented, maybe the most talented, but are they really as hungry as their opponent” We shall see. I will say that perhaps that little Burton Lacrosse Stadium on campus at DU might have been two or three times the current seating capacity. I do not think it is off base to think that, at DU, lacrosse could actually be a revenue producing sport, because they can absolutely pack them in for games and the place is too small. The ticket is too hot!
What’s For Dinner? Irish stew?
All four teams in the final four have pretty interesting stories and the two match-ups are certainly ‘compelling’ on their own. Notre Dame plays Denver in the early game. Wow! Notre Dame is hungry. They have been so close to the pinnacle, as well as way too close to being irrelevant on their tournament travels. Any way you look at it the Irish have found the right leprechaun just in the nick of time on more than one occasion over the last few years, knocking on the final four door each year, but never getting ‘inside’ to the desired outcome.
In South Bend and over many long Coach Corrigan years they have built a powerhouse, but one still with no’ pennant’ to show. Is it their time? The Notre Dame defense is a thing of beauty, talented individually and connected by their team concepts. I might be a little prejudiced. The coach of the defense, Gerry Byrne, might be the greatest all around defender that I ever saw with my own eyes.
I have been a part of the Vail Lacrosse Shootout since 1973, and I maintain that, with all the great play and players that came to 8000’ every summer to play, I am not sure I ever saw anything that impressed me more than Byrne’s individual week one year up there. First he was the tournament MVP for the Masters (+35) Division, and then he made the very prestigious Elite Division All Star First Team. Talk about crossing over. Size, skill, speed, intensity is what G.Byrne brought, and you can see it reflected in his ND defense. The Irish also have a couple guys that can just get you goals, and they are tough inside. so it is hard to shut them down if they play smart with no turnovers and stuff like that.
He Hate WHO?
At any rate it is interesting because these two teams play different styles and with all the conference rearranging going on these days I wonder if they (especially Notre Dame) have figured out the rivalries and ‘who to hate’, etc. in the big picture. DI is sort of under construction, and they are equal opportunity ‘haters’ at D.U. it would seem. Whatever team is there is just the team in the way.
The Battle of Baltimore
The second semifinal game is something out of an episode of “The Lost Boys” reunion. Both schools, Maryland and Hopkins are located in the heart of white man’s lacrosse Mecca, Baltimore (or close by). Both are perennial powerhouses in lacrosse, but neither has won an actual championship lately, and with Maryland it is WAY back in the day since they were all up there on the podium. It would seem that Hopkins is on a bit of a roll this year, busily overachieving on this road. Meanwhile Maryland looks like a team ready to explode (in a good way), and it’s almost scary to think how good and dominant that might look if they put it all in place for one afternoon.
Big Field With Big Dreams
I like the DI tournament this year, but I also like the way Division III is beginning to do the post=season, with lots of automatic qualifiers and play-in games that bring more team into the tournament and more teams have a chance to find their ‘Rocky Balboa’ moments where all things are possible for a much larger number of teams. DI is limited by numbers, but home games and AQs are fascinating to me.
Winner, Winner. Chicken Dinner?
I think ND and DU might beat each other’s brains in so that MD, who will walk on Hopkins, might have enough edge left over to get it done, but I could never bet against Notre Dame. Tomorrow. I can easily NOT root for them though, and that is my plan. I have family duties but it is my intention to ditch as much duty as I can so I can just relax and take it all ESPin.
EN: Thanks, Flip! And that last joke was a gem. Well played, sir!
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