You spent the better part of four months meticulously dissecting the 2012 college lacrosse season. You shouldn't stop now because cold turkey is a bad way to go through life, man. College Crosse is providing decompression snapshots of all 61 teams and their 2012 campaigns, mostly because everything needs a proper burial.
I. VITAL SIGNS
Team: Brown Bears
2012 Record: 7-8 (3-3, You Fancy, Huh? League)
2012 Strength of Schedule (Efficiency Margin): 1.75 (14)
2011 Strength of Schedule (Efficiency Margin): 0.16 (26)
Winning Percentage Change from 2011: +3.81%
2012 Efficiency Margin: 0.62 (30)
Efficiency Margin Change from 2011: +3.62
II. "ATTA BOY!" FACT
- You have to love a team that gets out and causes havoc and mayhem and generally makes their opponents wish their bus had broken down pre-departure because the destination wasn't worth the journey. In 2012, the Bears finished the season with the sixth-highest rate of caused turnovers per defensive possession, a fact that proves that the takeaway at the highest level of college lacrosse isn't dead and buried and waiting for a zombie revolution in 125 years. Sam Ford (21), Phil Pierce (27), and Clay DelPrince (26) led the way for Brown in the stealing things department, a close defense that is big, rangy, and adept at killing defensive postures with socially acceptable robbery. All are back next season for Brown and that may be one of the most important storylines in the Ivy League entering 2013. The most notable aspect of all of this is that despite Brown's aggressiveness the defense yielded results without losing overall defensive vision (the Bears' defensive assist rate ranked seventh best in country last season). That's strong execution against a schedule that was ranked 16th in opposing offenses faced.
III. "YOU'RE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU QUALIFY FOR THE AARP!" FACT
- Brown's effort at the dot this past season was pretty vomit-inducing. Winning only about 41.5 percent of their attempts, the Bears ended up playing at a small possession deficit per 60 minutes of play only because they were able to clear and ride at good clips. While this isn't necessarily a deathblow for all teams, it wasn't a particularly good situation for Brown as the Bears offense lagged compared to its peers around the country and needed some possession volume to generate tallies and make the scoreboard blink. A few extra possessions for that Brown offense -- due to increased production on the whistle -- may have erased one-goal losses to Duke, Harvard, Bryant and Yale.
IV. MR. FIX-IT HAS A ONE-FIX ENGAGEMENT, AND IT'S . . .
- Tommy Capone -- Brown's primary face-off specialist -- needs to come along and start winning some attempts at the dot. During the 2012 season, the rising sophomore won just 47.3 percent of his draws, a production measure that ranked him only 50th in the country in individual face-off rate. If Capone (and Brown as a team) can summit 50 percent on their draws, the complexion of their games may change drastically. It's all about possession percentage at this level of play; if the Bears start to move it in their favor, the offense gets extra opportunities to light the candle while the team's defense -- which should be a strength in 2013 -- doesn't need to work so hard to keep Brown in games.