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Who Does It Better? Lax on TV

Welcome to our brand new series, Who Does It Better? We will showcase one match-up each week in which we put two people, places or even things up against each other and ask you, the reader, Who Does It Better? It’s all good-hearted fun though, and that should be pretty prevalent by our match-ups. Know of a good match-up we should feature? Let us know!

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This week’s match-up comes to us by way of a topic discussed recently on The Lacrosse Network. Last night while talking with professional lacrosse player Kyle Hartzell, a question was brought up by Samir about box lacrosse being more present in major media. With all the lacrosse on TV this year, thanks to live streaming from companies like TLN and then of course the games on the ESPN Network, I want to see which one people think is more fun to watch, Box Lacrosse or Field Lacrosse?

Please remember! This is all in good fun, we love everyone featured in this series and couldn’t be more appreciative of their contributions to our great game!

Field

Field lacrosse has been the staple for lacrosse exposure on major media with the NCAA National Tournament being broadcast on ESPN each year, MLL throughout the summers and even recently the MCLA National Tournament being shown on Fox Sports.

After much public criticism about the game slowing down and teams stalling the ball, I heard from several people that, even with the limited number of games on TV, some of them just weren’t watching because of the teams playing and the possibility of stalling to kill the clock and win games. With recent rules trying to speed the game back up, there has been a lot of positive feedback about the new rules and how they are making games more fast-paced and action packed.

dive_shot_lacrosse

The MLL on the other hand, has been full of action with the 2-point line, shot clock and high scoring games, the only thing making things games hard to come by is simply the dates and times at which they are broadcast, or if they are broadcast at all.

Field lacrosse is definitely speeding back up and fans are responding very positively to it. People seem to love hard hits, a lot of scoring, and great back and forth action. The bigger fields help lead to some great fast breaks and sick outside shooting. With the majority of lacrosse participants playing field lacrosse, there is no doubt that this has been our go-to and favorite to watch since lacrosse was being broadcast back in the days of CSTV.

Box

Box has been on the rise in my opinion. The NLL has shown a lot of legitimacy in my mind by working with a company like The Lacrosse Network to bring their games to the general public. Even the NALL worked to stream several of their games this season. Greg of East Coast Dyes brought up a great point about Box Lacrosse being very fast-paced already with plenty of hard hits and goals to please even the most attention deficit person.

cody_jamieson

Call it a stretch, but I think there is some correlation between those that love hockey and basketball and those who have been really enjoying the Box games being broadcast. Close quarters, a lot of back and forth, shot clocks, and some gritty play has to turn some basketball and hockey fans onto the Box lacrosse game.

The biggest difference in the two games, outside of the obvious field size, is the physicality of box. Field lacrosse has been making strides to lock down on dangerous hits, crosschecks, and anything that could lead to a fight. Box embraces a lot of those as just another aspect of the sport.

Personally, I favor watching the field game because it has the fast breaks and passing of soccer, with the close action, hits and scoring of hockey. As a middie, I love the opportunities that fast breaks and great transition play creates and thoroughly enjoy watching it on the big screen.

Who ya got lax nation, would you rather watch field lacrosse or box lacrosse? If there was a box game and a field game on at the same time, which would YOU choose?