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ECAC Lacrosse Tournament: Rocky Mountain Way

By Hoya Suxa
BALTIMORE, MD - MAY 28: Peer Fish #36 of the Denver Pioneers stands on the sidelines during the second half of their game against the Virginia Cavaliers at M&T Bank Stadium on May 28, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
BALTIMORE, MD - MAY 28: Peer Fish #36 of the Denver Pioneers stands on the sidelines during the second half of their game against the Virginia Cavaliers at M&T Bank Stadium on May 28, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
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Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the ECAC Tournament.

The ECAC was a bit of a caste system in 2012: Those with favor sat with society's elite with a combined 39-15 record; those pulling beets from the fields were a combined 15-36. Without the kind of upward mobility inherent in some leagues due to the chaos concomitant in a free market, all those with lineage advanced out to Denver for the league's postseason, which is great if you prefer your money old and likely from rum-running.

Fancy infographics and detailed team profiles will follow, but for now, here's an overview of the 2012 ECAC Tournament that you can study non-stop until your eyes bleed. Everything gets moving with the sort-of Eastern colleges conference starting on May 2, 2012.

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT: ECAC

Denver, the tournament's four-seed, is the party's host this week, sporting an undervalued offense and a supporter group that is as strong and fervent as any of the Eastern elite. Loyola enters the tournament with an unblemished conference record, although the Greyhounds are coming off their first loss of the season -- a 10-9 overtime defeat at the hands of Johns Hopkins. Fairfield and Ohio State round out the field and will face each other in consecutive games. (On Saturday, Ohio State trounced Fairfield, 8-3.) It's a relatively balanced ECAC field, with Loyola serving as the favorite but there is a motivational carrot hanging for its three competitors: Without the tournament's fancy postseason trophy and the automatic NCAA Tournament invitation that it carries, there is a strong possibility that those three teams could see their seasons end out in the Rocky Mountain way depending on what exactly shakes out this week and weekend.

Here's how each team stacks up in some legacy metrics:

2012 ECAC TOURNAMENT
SEED TEAM PACE RANK AOE RANK ADE RANK AEM RANK
1. Loyola 68.34 15 33.71 14 23.35 6 10.37 5
2. Ohio State 64.87 36 28.84 38 21.78 4 7.06 14
3. Fairfield 62.20 49 30.51 26 28.95 28 1.56 30
4. Denver 63.55 43 37.18 2 26.92 19 10.26 6
PACE = Number of possessions per 60 minutes.
AOE = Adjusted offensive efficiency (goals for per 100 offensive possessions).
ADE = Adjusted defensive efficiency (goals against per 100 defensive possessions).
AEM = Adjusted efficiency margin (AOE less ADE).

This is probably Loyola's tournament to lose, but the Greyhounds are far from decided favorites. This is good for America and even better for your eyeballs.

Here's the shakedown on the big offensive weapons taking the field this weekend:

WEAPONS OF CHOICE: ECAC
TEAM NAME T.O.V. RANK TEAM NAME T.O.V. RANK
Denver M. Matthews 12.3937 8 Loyola M. Sawyer 10.6692 20
Denver A. Demopoulos 9.1199 48 Loyola E. Lusby 9.3889 43
Denver E. Law 8.6522 59 Loyola J. Ward 5.9747 157
Denver J. Noble 6.5476 133 Loyola D. Butts 5.7614 147
Denver W. Berg 6.0799 151
Fairfield S. Snow 8.1636 72
Ohio State L. Schuss 12.3927 9 Fairfield B. Adams 7.5191 91
Fairfield J. Snellman 6.6597 129
Fairfield E. Warden 4.7263 197

T.O.V. = Total Offensive Value (individual points per 100 offensive possessions). This is updated through all games played by April 29, 2012.
Rank = National T.O.V. rank. This is updated through all games played by April 29, 2012.

So, that's your overview. Who are you taking to take home top honors?

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