S3 E13. Princeton v. Towson & SU v. Harvard: Playoff Preview, Part, III.

NCAA Lacrosse Championship Preview: Princeton vs Towson and Syracuse vs Harvard

In this special episode of 'Get the Lax Scoop,' the hosts discuss the upcoming NCAA Lacrosse Championship matchups. They delve into the Princeton vs Towson game, noting each team's season performance and key players. The episode also covers the Syracuse vs Harvard game, highlighting the unique advantages and challenges for both teams, as well as the potential for upset victories. The hosts provide predictions, with some leaning towards Princeton and others suggesting potential surprises from underdog teams.

00:00 Introduction to the NCAA Lacrosse Championship

00:40 Princeton vs. Towson: The Tiger Showdown

02:06 Player Highlights and Team Performances

07:53 Reflecting on the Season and Tournament Insights

08:45 Syracuse vs. Harvard: A Clash of Titans

13:48 Predictions and Final Thoughts

16:30 Conclusion and Sign-Off

NEW BOOK!
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Links to training videos:
Master The 5 Best Dodges From the Wing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_7LDOcQQ6Q&t=88s

Blazing Shots... on the Run!
https://youtu.be/XiptPlM63oQ

Check us out...

On YouTube @jaymcmahonlax23
On Instagram @jaymcmahonlax23
On Facebook @: facebook.com/jmcmahonlax23. Page name: Jay McMahon Lacrosse

Jules Heningburg: https://thelaxlab.com/

Check out!... Coach Tintle's Lacrosse Barn:

https://g.co/kgs/eXedCXf

SuccessHotline with Dr. Rob Gilbert on Ironclad & Apple Podcasts

Brian Cain Daily Dominator on Apple Podcasts

Lacrosse Charities Mentioned in S2 E36:
https://www.4thefuturefoundation.org/

https://www.harlemlacrosse.org/

https://15forlife.org/

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to a very special NCAA Lacrosse Championship episode of Get the Lack Scoop. Absolutely. Jeff, are there any guests today? None. No, we don't need any. No. We have plenty to talk about. Jay, why is that? We're coming to you. We're coming to you on the precipice of the N NCAA cross hormone. In fact. Two playing games have already taken place. Jay, we already have to play off action. It's incredible. So exciting. Okay, onto the next, onto the next and what we have here. Let me check my notes. Jay. I believe we're moving on to the Princeton Tigers, the number three seed against also, this is a tiger, tiger matchup. Steve, this might be very interesting for you. Yes, I noticed. It's actually, I looked this up, Ron. The Princeton mascot is the tiger and the Towson mascot is doc the tiger. Ah, let, let's save that for me. So if the tiger is fighting the tiger, I I said the tiger. As exciting as that is. Ooh, that's a little teaser for the rest of any tiger who's nicknamed Jay. Jay. It's okay if we don't go in order. Jay, it's okay if we just, well, how about the coaches? How about be a little more conversational? Jay flipping around through your notes. The Princeton coach's name is Madeline. What's the Towson Coach's name? Naline What? Dawn Naline. I'm telling you, Matt Madeline versus Sean Naline. There are no coincidences. Exactly. Nothing is random, but as Ron said, Princeton is the number three ranked team in this tournament playing the Colonial Athletic League. Champion Towen. Doc Tigers. Yeah. And here's another team. Tasn goes, oh and four, one in six, and their winning streak has been 10 and Oh incredible. Wow. Yeah. 10 freaking wins in a row. And they have beaten UMBC Drexel twice. They beat Fairfield, who was nationally ranked at the time. They beat Hof twice. They've got some nifty players. This guy Mikey I always get his, pronounce his last name wrong. It's like Weiss Hower or something like that. But he's got 68 points, pretty solid. I remember him last year. He was really, really nifty. And but the Tigers are the tigers. I mean, the Tigers beat Duke. They beat UNC, they beat Penn State. They've got some serious wins, 12 wins, three losses. They lost to Maryland, lost to Cornell twice. So, you know, they basically lost to the number one and number two seed. And that's it. So, I hate to say it, but Princeton's looking kind of impressive. Jay again, we, we just wanna say Bernie Bonanno's son plays for Princeton. I know Ron, that's what you wanna come out with. That's great. Peter. Buton, go to the brown. Got 20 points freshman. Jay, can I say anything? Jay, may I speak? You know, Jay, I did the research. I ought get the credit. Jay again, the Brown and Moses Brown connection. Moses Brown's crowd graduate. Peter Beano. Jay what I didn't hear out of your research is the Ivy Rookie of the Year. Ooh, I did not know that. Peter Beano. Yes, Jay. So apparently your research, do you know Bernie won? That your, your leaves leaves a little something to be desired. Jay? I don't think Bernie won that. So, yeah, I, I, Chris, I had more points as a freshman. I didn't win it. I got screwed. I took every face off that year too. So, anyway, go ahead Ron. I. It was rigged. Steve rigged. I'm wondering, I should have been, been player of the year as a senior too. That was the biggest screw I had. Like a seven 75% winning percentage in face offs. Had like 50 points. They were like, nah, let's give it to this guy from Penn. Penn had like one Ivy win, screwed Ron. I don't know how I, I survived, but it, it's resiliency I guess. Thank god we did tonight's episode so Jay could do that. Steve, that's really the only reason you and I are here. Oh, you're fine. Talking about yourself and your svet speedy days. Everyone would admire Jay. I was, I was, mine was a self-deprecating story about being a seventh grade fat goalie and running into a goal. I'm not really sure that what we're doing is the same. But No, you, you keep, you keep talking yourself that We'll let our listeners decide, Jack. We'll let our listeners decide. Now Jay, moving back to the game, if we might I want to say, which I'm not proud of as a Maryland guy, I know absolutely nothing about Towson. Not one thing can I say about them. I haven't seen them play once this year. A again, impressive like Colgate though, that they're on that kind of run. However I I, this Princeton team is tough. There is tough, as you said, I mean, when you're, when you're 12 and three and your three losses are to the two best teams in the tournament. I would also say that, you know, I kind of like their side of the bracket for them. I, so anyway, I, I think this is a Princeton win. I think they win big. I think they score a bunch of goals. I think this is like a 15 to nine Princeton win. Oh, Ron, yeah, I had. 16 to eight. Very close doubling up for the Tigers. But yeah, you know, they got Coulter MCee, they got kabiri, they got all these guys, you know, lots of points, yada, yada, yada. And their defense, they got the number eight defense, rather the number eight offense, the number nine defense. They're, they're pretty balanced, these tigers. Steve, let's hear it. I can't wait. Alright. This, this, actually, this one surprised me a little bit in my research. You know, where we had the, you know, Princeton had like one Yelp review for five stars, so I don't even know if that counts, if you only get one. But you know, the Tiger versus Doc, the Tiger. What really surprised me though is I was looking at Princeton's roster. I was expecting a lot of names like Graham, Worthington II or something like that. Helm, they have Ron, my story. They have like, you know, first names like Bo Coulter and, and McKnight, but nothing Princeton like. So I, I saw something was lacking and then. I went over to the Towson roster and I, and I was just wowed with some of the names on that roster. So let's hear it. Just, we have Chop Gallagher, C-H-O-P-A, first Man. Yeah, we have Jake Law and Chop was a defenseman. I I other games. Miles Want. Whew. Drex Frank. We got Joel Spagnolo and spelled JOE apostrophe. LL. Yes. And then, you know, wrapping up is Matthew Wolfington. So with such strong names on the roster, I'm actually gonna pick my first upset here and I'm gonna go Towson. Wow. Hands down. No doubt about it. And it's gonna be a seven six barn burner. Ooh, ooh. I like it. Low scoring game. Absolutely. Ron, any commentary on Grey's Pick here? I. I think it's foolish. It's foolishness, but we'll see. We'll see. I mean, you know, never know. I love the reason Ron, he spell it Joe apostrophe LL Joel. I have it's so smooth. It's incredible. I have rude the day when GFIs made these kind of idiotic pronouncements and somehow they always seem to come out right. And God, I hope toon wins. I know if they win, I'm just gonna, we even had a single upset, you know, I need to make sure that Marelli knows that you picked him because he'll, his head will explode. That would be amazing if they win. So, you know, I think it's a foolish pick, but God knows what this guy, Jay, you know as we're sort of, we're obviously talking about the tournament, but we're also reflecting on the season. And it's interesting you mentioned Fairfield. I was just thinking about like they were the darlings of the lacrosse world. I know. Holy cow. And, and they still ended the season 12 and three. Right. But you know, but then like Sacred Heart was sneaking in there'cause they beat Fairfield and they were ranked, they were ranked like 17th or something and then they lost in their tournament, they got yanked. So yeah, it was, it was a rug pull. A little rug pull on both those teams. Yeah. Yeah. So a little pump and dump. So I think Jay, we're moving on to, I think, I actually think the next two games are really, really intriguing games. You know, we're gonna, I know we're gonna go next to the number six seed. We're moving down the bracket, Syracuse against Harvard. And, and just in such NCA fashion that, you know, Syracuse wins the a CC tournament. What do they get? Their reward is to play the team you lost to during the regular season in the Harvard Crimson. I feel like that was a screw. Yeah. No, that's not random, right? I mean, no, they're giving, they're giving Cuson an opportunity to avenge the loss. I mean, clearly this is they're just doing the Hollywood script, right? And then for Harvard, obviously it's kind of a screw. It's like we already beat them. It's like, play them again. Go ahead. Yeah. I think, you know, as it turn, as it turned out, it seemed like Harvard was the last team in the tournament as an out large. Yeah. And their win over Syracuse was huge. If they didn't have that Army would've gotten in instead of them. So Jay, I'll tell you, having watched Syracuse live against Virginia and watched them on TV a few times, I, I. The way they move the ball offensively. And you know, it's, it, it, you know, not surprisingly with Gary Gate, it reminds you of some of the old Syracuse teams. They have that creativity, that swagger on offense. Mm-hmm. But they, they're, there's just no selfishness there. They share the ball, make the extra pass. And, and you know, this to me is one of the most intriguing end of the field matchups. Jerry Byrne, arguably the best defensive coach in the country for a long, long time. It's interesting that you say that Syracuse beat Notre Dame twice. Because if there's one defense that I would say could come up with something to handle that Syracuse offense, it would be a, a Jerry Byrne coach defense. Right. So I, I, I think the game will be won at the Harvard defensive end of the field and the Syracuse offensive end of the field. Who has the ball more faceoffs. If s if, if Syracuse is getting the ball off the ground and winning the faceoff battle, I just think it's gonna be awfully hard for Syracuse to win that game. But I'm gonna, funny thing, very intrigued to see what happens at that end of the field. A absolutely, but the funniest thing about the, these two teams is that Harvard is the team that is like bigger, faster, stronger. They have the athletes that Syracuse, you know, they have some good athletes, but they're mostly, you know, average size like myself, they're like all five 10, you know, like Joby, SPEL is a heck of a player. He's up for the ton. Deserves all the credit he gets. But he is not very athletic and neither is anyone else on their team. But like you said, their sticks are so good. And I think what's hurt them sometimes they got five losses, is that they, they don't get an edge any other way than if their sticks have to be like a hundred percent. I mean, like it's the way they move the ball, they move their ball faster than most people can move their feet. And the margin though is so thin and they shoot incredibly well if they're not shooting, like with pinpoint accuracy. And same thing with their passes, they don't have an advantage'cause they can't run by anybody. And Sam Kang for Harvard is really good and spite l for Harvard, long Island guy is really good. They both have over 60 points and they actually have more athletes on Harvard, so it'll be really interesting. But I agree with you. If, if Syracuse is clicking, which they should be, they just won the a CC championship. They actually had lost three games in a row before that. But they win the a c CCC championship, they're at home, they should be fired up. Obviously things should be clicking. They want to avenge that loss. Hmm. My, I'm still not gonna say it. Ron, what's your call? I'm gonna let Steve go first here. I'm, I'm very interested to see what Steve says on this. This one, I wanna see what this Yelp, I mean Harvard, but their endowment. You think they'd have some Yelp reviews, I guess, you know, all those easy A are what edged Harvard out at 4.2 versus 4.1 on the Yelp reviews. So Harvard has the edge. The meal plans are within a couple hundred bucks, so that's a toss up. Here, Harvard came through with a few names on the roster. We have John Orant iv, so that, that actually set things right for me on the Ivy League roster. I was very happy with that. They have fourth Andrew Van Stone, which is very strong, and Ray Dearth, which was very cool because I figured when he filled out forms that had last name first, he would be Dearth Ray. So, dearth Ray, I love it. Syracuse actually has the edge on the roster because they have Brett Buckoo Jr. And and did Jimmy McCool, I mean. Once you have Cool in your name, you win. So with, with being think's Buckoo Senior, what's that? That's incredible to think there's a Buckoo Senior and Junior. That's incredible. Yeah. Brett Buckoo Jr. You know, so so with Jimmy McCool on the roster, I'm giving the edge to Syracuse. I think it's going to be a a high scoring game in the 1514 kind of mode. I like it. First game was a high scoring game, no doubt. So Jay, just a couple more things here. One again, bringing it back to the lacrosse powerhouse Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. Coached by one, Mike Foli. I'd like to point your attention to number 90 on the Syracuse roster. A freshman, Owen O'Farrell. Ooh, Moses Brown graduate. So I wanna give my man Owen, a shout out. But I think there's two difference makers on offense that I've seen have flashes of brilliance, and they're sort of those, you know, prototypical Canadian, native American kind of offensive finishers number A 91 trade deer. Mm-hmm. Number 77, Owen Hilts, I think. Oh yeah. Those two players. Hilt has been lighting it up lately. Can be difference makers for Syracuse. Yeah. On offense. However, I am going to pick my first upset. Wow. Go for it. I'm taking Jerry Byrne and the Harvard Crimson. A friend of the show, by the way. It's really har it's a tough one, Jay, but I can't just go with the favorites. That would be incredible. All the way across. I, I think that the way that Jerry, as you say, they've got some offensive. Firepower. And I think that defensively Jerry will have a scheme that can give Syracuse some problems. He'll understand some of the things you're talking about. Mm-hmm. Maybe force Syracuse to beat you off the Dodge. Slow to, you know, Jerry's great. Slow to go. Yeah, well, and, and fake it. Take a slide. Jerry disguises his slides. Like, you know, he'll, he'll, he'll change it up. He'll hedge, he'll go in that hedge and like it, I, I think I, I don't know. That's what I wanna go with. I, I think Jerry's gonna beat him on the defensive end of the field and this, but, but to do that, it's gonna have to be a low scoring game. I'm gonna go ten nine Harvard in overtime. Ooh, Ron. That sounds exciting. But you know what? It's not gonna happen as much as I'd love to see it. I love Jerry Jerry's like 15 two, you know Syracuse, right? I'm not crazy about Syracuse, but hey, I think they are gonna get it, get it together and get everything clicking and get that dome hopping and I think it's gonna be 14 to 10. Orange. Woo. Alright, Jay? Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. Alright, we'll see. I'd happy. We'll see. I'd be happy with either. Hey, if Jerry gives up 14 goals be a great first round. Super competitive. Tremendous games. Jay. We're not done yet though, Ron. No, we're not. We have two more to go until we meet again. Here's to hoping you find the twine. We're signing off here at the get the lax scoop. Thanks again so much. We will see you the next time.