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Hot Pot Of Lax: MCLA Upset MADNESS!!!!

Beware, today’s Hot Pot of Lax is UPSET CITY!

This week’s Hot Pot victim: The MCLA Tournament in Denver!

The MCLA Tournament kicked off yesterday on Denver, Colorado and 32 of the best MCLA teams from both D1 and D2 were set to do battle in their respective divisions.  The NCAA D1 tourney started last weekend, and with the exception of picking UNC over Maryland (even though I picked UMD in every one of  my posts!), my picks were pretty spot on.  How did I do in Day 1 of the MCLA Bracket Challenge?  Poorly.  Let’s chalk it up to upsets and bad weather… or maybe I just don’t know the MCLA that well!  For my own ego, I’m going to believe both are possible.

ASU beat Buffalo 11-8, Michigan beat Lindenwood 16-8, CSU beat Minnesota-Duluth 10-6, BYU beat UCSB 13-10 and Chapman beat Texas 15-8.  5 for 5 and I’m doing ok.  My winners are winning and my they’re doing it by the margins I predicted… more or less anyway.  And then we get to the next couple of games, and my bracket just falls apart.

I had Cal-Poly beating Oregon, but that didn’t happen.  I said CP by 2 and they lost by three.  Not even close.  Thankfully, I had CP losing in the next round, so this pick doesn’t really kill my chances.  But other picks did.

I also missed MSU – FSU.  I had MSU KILLING FSU and taking that game by 8 goals.  Looks like I REALLY blew that one.  FSU took down Michigan State 10-8 and I missed that call by 10 goals, AND who would win.  I really thought the Spartans could do some damage.  Wrong.

The biggest mistake I made in my bracket was picking Colorado to win it all.  Sure, they are a young team.  And yes, they lost a good amount of games to top teams this year, so it was definitely a stretch.  But I really thought they’d beat BC and then take it to the next level as the rounds progressed, making at least the Final Four.  Well, the Red Hot Buffs lost to BC 10-9, and my bracket is officialy busted.  I hope you’re doing better than I am!  It certainly wouldn’t be hard!

Over on the D2 side of things, I’m doing a little better.  Here are my picks for the D2 MCLA Tournament:

1st Round Selections: #1 Grand Valley State by 11, #9 SCAD by 2, #4 Briarcliffe by 6, #5 Davenport by 4, #2 St. Thomas by 8, #10 Westminster by 2, #3 St. Johns by 8, #6 Dayton by 6

Quarter Final Selections: #1 Grand Valley State by 6, #4 Briarcliffe by 2, #2 St. Thomas by 4, #3 St. Johns by 2

Semi-Final Selections: #4 Briarcliffe by 1, #2 St. Thomas by 2

Championship Selection: #4 Briarcliffe by 1

So far… NAILED IT!  I got all the games right, and even called a couple of the margins perfectly.  The rest were relatively close.  I’ll take it!  My pick of Briarcliffe to go all the way might be a little crazy, but I like the boys from Long Island.  What can I say, East Coast Bias?

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IN OTHER NEWS:

IOT will be a little different today.  Why not?  We’ll get to the links later, but for now, we have some PLAYING OPPORTUNITIES for our readers… pretty cool.  We just want you to be able to ball as much as possible!

– The FIRST EVER ever box lacrosse league in White Plains!
Location: Ebersole Hockey Rink in White Plains, NY.  There is a concrete surface and they’ll be playing NLL Rules!
When: July 6th – August 24th, 8PM-10PM
(Final schedule to be posted after registration.  All games are on Wednesday nights)
Ages: Men’s collegiate/post collegiate  basically 18 year olds to 40 year olds. (Only 4 team slots/80 players available.)
Cost: $125 per player
Format: 5v5 with no long poles, 7 regular season games, 1 playoff games, 3-18 min. running periods, Maximum of 20 players per team

If you wish to enter a team, please email Justin Otto ASAP. Otherwise, individual registrants can register at:
https://www.sportssignup.com/Top-Side-Lacrosse-LLC-Online-Registration.start

Registration is now open!!

– Open Tryouts for the Hollywood Men’s Lacrose Club, based in LA!

The Hollywood Men’s Lacrosse club, based in Los Angeles, California, will host open tryouts on June 5th, 2011 at 12:30pm at Crespi High School in Encino, California. Hollywood is a highly competitive post collegiate men’s lacrosse club comprised of former D1, D2, D3, and MCLA players living in greater Los Angeles. We play a year round schedule against teams in the Southern California area such as Beverly Hills, Southbay, and Newport Beach. Competition in our league is fierce so we only ask the most
competitive players to come out. If interested in attending the tryout and game immediately following, please email info@hollywoodlacrosse.com with a brief playing resume. For more information and current team roster, see our web site at hollywoodlacrosse.com.

Hollywood Lacrosse Club California lax
Hollywood Lacrosse Club in yellow! California men's lax in action!

– Golden Goal Tournament Park to host Lax Grad Tourney!

On June 4/5th, 8th grade boy’s town lacrosse teams will get one final chance to play together as a squad before entering high school.  The focus isn’t on recruiting, but on celebrating the close of a period of a player’s career.  In this day and age of hyper recruiting, it’s nice to see a tournament exist for 8th grade graduates solely designed for them to go out and enjoy themselves with their friends.  Youth and middle school lacrosse is ending, so let’s have a tourney and get a bunch of teams together!  Sounds cool!

Registration closes May 22, click here to register online or call 888-871-0777 to reserve a spot for your team!

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LACROSSE VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

Lacrosse The Nations doing work in Nicaragua.  LOVE THESE GUYS!