The Crease Dive Episode 8 Featuring Greg Gurenlian And Ty Xanders
Greg Gurenlian is the GOAT when it comes to faceoffs in lacrosse. The man knows absolutely everything about the position and is the best expert in the world on the craft. So after the longest faceoff of the season divided the lacrosse world in two last weekend between people who could appreciate Trevor Baptiste and John Travisano battle it out for 45 seconds…
…and the idiots who think that this somehow ruins the game, it only made sense to have Greg on to give his insight on the draw as well as talk a little more about the position in general.
We also brought on Ty Xanders this week, the founder and editor of Recruiting Rundown. With high school lacrosse seasons starting up all across the country, there’s nobody better to talk to about the next batch of college lacrosse studs than Ty. He’s the most plugged-in guy when it comes to the recruiting scene so he tells us about names we need to watch out for in the upcoming years, and also talks about what it’s like dealing with psychotic parents on the recruiting circuit.
You can check out the full episode right here. Make sure to smash that motha heckin’ subscribe button, y’all.
Weekend Preview (March 16-18)
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#12 Vermont @ #1 Albany | Saturday, 3pm | Albany Stream
This is without a doubt the biggest game in America East lacrosse history. Two nationally ranked, undefeated teams going head-to-head with Albany currently at #1 in the nation. This is also the biggest game in the history of The Crease Dive as it’s the first time we have to recurring guests go up against each other. We have Tehoka Nanticoke going up against Ian MacKay so really this is like trying to get me to decide who is my favorite child. Obviously every parent has a favorite child but they just never actually want to say it.
If I’m breaking this game down with my mind, I think that Albany just has too many weapons offensively for Vermont to handle. We saw it against Maryland last weekend. Even when a kid like Tehoka Nanticoke is essentially shut down to a non-factor, the Danes still find ways to produce with guys like Kyle McClancy and Jakob Patterson. And oh yeah, they just so happen to have the best player in the nation in Connor Fields. So as long as Albany gets their possessions, they should come away from this one still undefeated. But almost the same thing goes for Vermont’s offense led by MacKay. They’ve got a ton of crafty Canucks down there who score the shit out of the ball, and Albany hasn’t exactly been playing lights out defense since that Syracuse game. All I have to say for this one is that if you’re a fan of nasty nasty goals, you’re going to want to watch every second of this game.
#2 Maryland @ #6 Villanova | Saturday, 1pm | Nova Stream
The last time these two teams played, Danny Seibel scored the overtime dagger to upset the Terps. If you’ve followed Nova so far this season, you’ll know that they’ve been continuing their trend of unleashing daggers in overtime, with Seibel having the game winner against Yale down in Texas last month. My heart is telling me that there’s going to be another upset in the making. But my brain? Not so much. I just can’t see Maryland losing games in back-to-back weekends. That one against Albany last weekend still has to sting. They had the game wrapped up and then that 4th quarter happened. I don’t think a team led by Connor Kelly and coached by Tillman will let their boys take their feet off the gas at all this weekend. It’s all good though because Nova Nation will all be focused on Alabama this weekend instead. If one team has to lose on Saturday, it’s probably best that it’s the lax team and not the basketball team.
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#9 Virginia @ #4 Notre Dame | Saturday, 6pm | ESPNU
Virginia came so damn close to getting their first ACC win since the 2014 season the other week against Syracuse. But obviously that wasn’t the case and they’re still winless in the conference for the last 3 seasons. Something has to give eventually. Unfortunately for them, however, it’s not going to give easily because they’re going up against a loaded Notre Dame team this weekend in South Bend. A Notre Dame team that just took down Denver last weekend, and who looks to have possibly the best defense in the nation. Virginia is also gonna have to try to do this without their leader and 2-way middie Ryan Conrad, who is out for the season with an injury.
With that being said, I think Virginia’s biggest problem against Syracuse was just that their shooters weren’t changing up their shots at all and Dom Maddona in cage for Cuse is a beast. As long as the fellas change planes a little bit with their shots and start to hit some spots, they should have a pretty decent chance at getting it done. I just don’t know how realistic it is, though, to beat the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.
#7 Yale @ Cornell | Saturday, 1pm | Ivy League Network
This is a sneaky big game in the Ivy this weekend. Cornell is coming off a huge win against Penn State and their former coach Jeff Tambroni. Their only losses on the year so far have been a season opener to Colgate who was playing very well to start the year, and a 2-goal loss to Albany after they had the lead for most of the game. So Cornell is well on their way to being back and it’s the kid Jeff Teat leading the way.
For at least the last 2 or 3 seasons, Ben Reeves has been THE guy in the Ivy. He’s been one of the nation’s best attackmen and he’s for sure been the Ivy’s best. There are a couple of young bucks who are looking to take that title from him right now, however, and they’re Princeton’s Michael Sowers and Teat from Cornell. Yale hasn’t exactly had the hardest schedule since dropping their season opener to Villanova. They’ve played Michigan, UMass, Bryant and Fairfield. Obviously it’s a big Ivy League matchup so they’ll be up for it, but I definitely wouldn’t be surprised to see Cornell go up early in this one. My mind is telling me that Yale comes away with the win since they’re a better team all around, but I wouldn’t be shocked to see Teat come away with an 8 point day and maybe see Reeves only putting up 5 or 6.
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Other Good Games To Watch This Weekend
- Loyola @ Navy, Saturday, 1:30pm
- Ohio State @ Denver, Saturday, 3pm
- Syracuse @ Rutgers, Sunday, 1pm
Jordie’s TCD Picks of the Week (4-1 Last Week, 18-10-3 Overall)
So we switched things up a little bit last week. Instead of doing picks ATS, we just decided to pick some straight up winners. At the moment while I’m writing this blog, the spreads for this weekend’s games aren’t out yet so we’ll be doing the same thing this week and keep rolling with it for the time being. Anyway, my picks last week were:
- Albany over Maryland, they came from behind to win 11-10.
- Hopkins over Syracuse. The Blue Jays rolled 18-7.
- Loyola over Duke. The Blue Devils ended up coming away with the 13-9 win.
- Villanova over Penn. Nova won that game 8-6.
- And then my Underdog of the Week was Hofstra over UNC. The Pride took down the Tar Heels for the 3rd year in a row, winning that game 12-6.
For this week’s picks, I’m riding with…
- Albany over Vermont
- Maryland over Villanova
- Virginia over Notre Dame
- Yale over Cornell
- And my Underdog of the Week is going to be Navy knocking off Loyola in some Patriot League action.
For everybody who has been on the #FadeRobbyO train, the kid Robby O ended up going 3-2 last week. Huge bounce back week for him after going 1-12-2 combined in his previous 3 weeks. I’d still say to keep the Fade Train going since he had Arizona as his champs for his March Madness bracket and we all know how that turned out, but I guess we’ll have to see because he seems to be fading me here. He’s going with Albany over Vermont, Villanova over Maryland, Notre Dame over Virginia, and Cornell over Yale. His Underdog of the Week is going to be Drexel taking down Georgetown. Smart man picking an underdog team from Philly. Make sure to follow him on Twitter @R_Zetti.
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