Eulogizing the 2012 College Lacrosse Season: (20) Drexel

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: Drexel Dragons

2012 Record: 8-8 (4-2, THUNDERDOME!)

2012 Strength of Schedule (Efficiency Margin): 2.38 (8)

2011 Strength of Schedule (Efficiency Margin): -0.29 (33)

Winning Percentage Change from 2011: -7.14%

2012 Efficiency Margin: 3.55 (20)

Efficiency Margin Change from 2011: -0.57

II. "ATTA BOY!" FACT

• Drexel upped their degree of difficulty from 2011 to 2012 -- fairly significantly, actually -- and not only survived but showed pretty well in the overall. Wins against St. John's, Penn State, Hofstra, and Towson are supported with tough losses to Virginia (8-9), Notre Dame (5-6), Bryant (6-7), Bucknell (11-12), Penn State (9-10), and Massachusetts (6-8). Some of the reason for all of these close games against solid competition may be due to the fact that Drexel attempted to make its opponents forfeit due to boredom (more on this in just a few Internet sentences), but the fact remains that the Dragons looked at one of the hardest slates in the country, managed to pull out a decent record, and were competitive in six of their eight defeats on the year. Brian Voelker is still looking for his first trip to the NCAA Tournament with the Dragons, and this kind of schedule -- and success within it -- is the heat that is going to make Drexel a tough out once they get there.

III. "YOU'RE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU QUALIFY FOR THE AARP!" FACT

• Drexel finished the year ranked 38th in the "Fun Factor" -- a measure that attempts to quantify the watchability of a lacrosse team -- but that's mostly due to the fact that the Dragons were very competitive in 2012. Other than that, Drexel was eye-murder last year: Only one team had an estimated offensive time of possession mark higher than Drexel despite playing only about 59 total possessions per 60 minutes of play (that mark ranked 59th in the country); no team threw as many balls at, around, and nowhere near the cage per offensive opportunity than Drexel; only eight teams had a more difficult time than the Dragons at actually connecting on their shots (Drexel's raw offensive shooting percentage was just 25.78); and only four teams saw their opponents make more saves per possession than the Dragons. This combination of "HOLD-WILDLY MISS-HOLD-WILDLY MISS-ACTUALLY SCORE/OPPONENT SAVE" is the kind of lacrosse that makes you want to slap it and deal with the custody battle later. The style yielded results in 2012 but, as a comparison, the German language also gets results but you'd never want to propose to your girlfriend while spitting German fire.

IV. MR. FIX-IT HAS A ONE-FIX ENGAGEMENT, AND IT'S . . .

• Brendan Glynn, Robert Church, and Aaron Prosser need to start putting their stamp on this offense and give it some more juice. It's not that these guys aren't producing (they are), it's that they have the kind of explosiveness to really roll opponents over. None of these three guys shot above 30 percent last year and if the Dragons want to make the jump toward the very top of THUNDERDOME! and put itself into a stronger position for an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament, these three guys needs to start connecting with the efficiency of nationally elite offensive threats.