Lacrosse Efficiency Rank Improvements and Regressions: 2010 to 2011

A friend sent me an email the other day asking about Penn State the difference Jeff Tambroni had made on the program in just one season.  

Now, I have no real good way to answer that question.  In fact, my response to the email was, "They're better; they'll win a THUNDERDOME! championship in at least one of the next two or three seasons."  It was a totally garbage answer, but I felt comfortable with it because it was sent in the middle of the night and the only reason I was awake was because people were screaming outside of my apartment window after getting ousted from the Go-Go club next door.

After thinking about the question on my morning commute -- I have a truly mind-numbing existence -- I decided it might be worthwhile to publish some efficiency rank changes from 2010 to 2011.  In the overall, I think these kinds of tables are pretty useless: Each year has its own circumstances, and to compare performances year-to-year really raises some issues as to application and value.

At a more granular level, this stuff is fun and it probably keeps people from emailing about how teams have improved or regressed from year-to-year.  That second piece is especially important to me, mostly because a constantly vibrating Blackberry will soon become a non-vibrating Blackberry due to it being shattered into a thousand therapeutic pieces.

So, here's the full efficiency rank improvements and regressions from 2010 and 2011.  Print it out, stick it on your refrigerator, send it to your grandmother in lieu of flowers or actual love . . . I don't care what you do with it.  Immediately below, I'll provide tables for the top-five biggest rank gainers and losers in each of the three categories.