They were gritty and well-coached. Buczek has a bright future.
Tillman is an all-time great. With NIL money and a supportive Athletic Department, Maryland will continue to be the standard.
And to beat a dead horse - because it deserves a beating - this might have been ND's year. Maryland was exposed a bit on Championship weekend. I think they were pushing it because of their Championship game history and the quest for perfection. ND was the only team with the discipline of an Ivy and the physicality of a Big 10 team. I didn't think Maryland had flaws but they were gassed on Memorial Day. Princeton hung in there and that was a team that didn't even qualify for the Ivy league Playoffs.
The results are in and further proof that it was criminal that ND didn't make the Tourney. Next year will be a tough one for Joe Breschi. Lacrosse remains a close-knit community. The Corrigans are a founding family of modern day lacrosse. Kevin remains very close with Virginia. He had a say in Tiffany's hiring. He and Danowski go way back when Hofstra was the only big-time power that would take on an upstart and danmgerous ND team.
Corrigan is a little fireball of a man. Breschi screwed over Duke, UVA and ND. I would not want those 3 programs and coaches gunning for me.
After the selection show (both immediately and the next day), the Loyola AD (forget her name) said the room was very tense, which is corporate-speak for folks were arguing big-time.
Do we know who was on what side of that divide? Would there be a chance, given his ACC connections, that Breschi was supportive of the ACC teams? Who else would (should) carry the flag?
Or would capitulation without a minority report be damning enough?
Thanks.
BTW, I agree with thoughts on the weekend:
- Princeton played well,but didn't have enough guns.
- Cornell needed a few more minutes, because Maryland was gassed.
- Tillman is like a driver on a Roger Penske-backed racing team: Has what he needs to make it work and he does. And will.
where coach/AD from that conference has to abstain when deciding on teams from the conference.
The biggest problem is having people on the committee who are ignorant of the sport. Why not use all the various sites who actually watch the sport and rank the teams?
Even ESPN - who televises the games and has knowledgeable lacrosse people as commentators should have input (they seem to by pushing UConn a home team every year in women's basketball)
I don't doubt that he argued for the ACC. I imagine someone else did as well so the final vote was 3-2. He probably called Tiffany, Danowski, and Corrigan after and said he did the best he could. And that would probably fly if the issue was:
UVA unseeded and in same bracket as Maryland (absurd but maybe they wanted that match-up)
5 seeded Ivy league teams (mind-boggling but maybe they wanted to reward them after Covid)
Selecting Priceton (should have been DQd after failing to make Ivy League Tourney but maybe they liked Ws over Rutgers and GTown - those were good)
Ohio State over Duke and Notre Dame (circular reasoning because if you value head-to-head than ND gets in over Duke and if OSU's biggest win was over ND and Carolina and you believe the ACC sucks than those aren't big Ws)
Even if you held firm with the above as weird as that rationale was - and then looked at RPI, head-to-head and top-20 wins - you're left with Duke, Notre Dame and Harvard. And if you're on the committee and you are part of selecting Harvard over ND and Duke you have to walk out of the room and not be part of the process. At that point, actually watching lacrosse doesn't matter. You should just leave it to a computer to spit out some sort of formula. The human process has no bearing on the outcome. So - yes - capitulation absent some minority report is enough.
I can't imagine a bigger screw job than what the committee did. Breschi wanted to be part of the committee. He knew what he was getting into.
I don't think anything nefarious will happen. Corrigan, Danowski, and Tiffany are class acts. But I'm not sure they let up on the gas next year if any are up on Carolina. I imagine each will be more apt to exchange notes on UNC tendencies.
What's worse is that Corrigan can't publicly denounce the decision because his long-time mentee and friend Gerry Byrne - and son Will - coach Harvard.
Completely agree on the Harvard conundrum: That was the team we should've swapped with and I think the Irish could've made a very long run from that starting position (Gosh knows I would've been in the crowd at Yurcak Field at Rutgers).
That next Lax coaches meeting should be very interesting.
or used to be (i.e, Maryland) has been represented in the final. Last time it didn't happen was 1987 when Hopkins beat Cornell. This year only Maryland and Virginia had a shot to keep that streak going and they had to play each other in the quarters. Not only did they make it to the final, but Md won. In those 34 straight years, current ACC teams have won 21 times (Cuse, UVA, UNC, & Duke), Maryland twice, and 11 championships to others: Bill Tierney-7 (Princeton or Denver), Hopkins-2, Yale-1, and Loyola Md-1.
By the way 9 times during this 34 year championship run either 2 teams currently in the ACC or one current ACC team and Maryland played each other in the championship match including ND's two runnerups to Duke. And since the NCAA Lacrosse tourney began in 1971, there were only 2 other years that at least Maryland or the 4 current ACC Lacrosse teams who have won a championship was in the championship match. That was 1977 & 1978 when Hopkins played Cornell. .
This is the Big 10's 2nd Lacrosse championship, both by Maryland, out of their 5 times they made the NCAA championship as a Big 10 member. tOSU in 2017 is the only other Big 10 school to ever get to the final when they lost to Maryland. On the other hand, while a member of the ACC, Maryland got to 11 NCAA championship matches and won 6 NCAA or USILA National Championships.
Hard to believe only 1 ACC team made it to the tourney this year and 3 Big 10 teams got in.