College Lacrosse Schedule for February 19, 2014

We're almost to the point where February lacrosse is tolerable (because it's almost March), but the season's first three weeks are incredibly dumb. Games being played in snow (or even postponed or canceled due to weather) and generally miserable conditions makes Division I's early season half useless and half pointless. This isn't just the complaints of a soft blogger; other people -- like Eamon McAnaney -- are sick and tired of this nonsense:

"We're wasting time here with the sport as far as growing it. These games are outrageously good, and there's no place to put them," ESPN lacrosse announcer Eamon McAnaney said Monday in an interview after he took to Twitter with his opinions Sunday. "It's not just TV. I was watching the Virginia-Drexel game on my phone, and there's no one there. The field's surrounded by snow. Same thing with Hofstra-Marquette. I understand this year's a little outrageous as far as how much snow the Northeast has gotten, but it's supposed to be a spring sport."

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"You're missing a huge opportunity to generate interest in the sport when you're playing all of these games, and they might as well be played in Siberia," McAnaney said. "If the college coaches are interested in generating more fan interest and generating more fans — whether it be on TV or on campus — they're not doing themselves any favors by jamming all of these games into February."

The entire calendar needs to be reviewed. It's gotten to the point where it's a huge problem and action needs to be taken. The whole "SPRING SPORT" thing is fun, but these games being played while I shovel my back porch is stupid.

Anyway, there are two games today. Here are your highlights:

• Towson at Loyola: The Tigers have a junkyard attitude, but it may not be enough today against Loyola. Towson is still without the services of Andrew Hodgson and Ben McCarty, two important assets for the Tigers as they attempt to follow up an improbable run to the NCAA Tournament last season. Shawn Nadelen, Towson's head coach, recognizes the difficulty of competing without the two offensive spokes: “When you lose two guys that have been key contributors in the past, you’re definitely not at full strength,” Nadelen said. “We’re playing quite a bit of youth. Within different possessions, we’ve got a lot of freshmen out there, and it’s the first time for them." Considering that the Greyhounds are coming off a huge win against Penn State and still smarting from a tough overtime loss to Virginia, this could get kind of ugly at Ridley if Towson can't find a way to muscle some competitiveness into the game.
• Michigan at Detroit: Michigan pounded Mercer by 13 last Friday; Detroit snuck past Mercer by one last Sunday. Those results likely mean little when the Wolverines and Titans meet tonight at Ultimate Soccer Arenas in Pontiac. This is basically Great Lax State's Lacrosse Bowl, so it's probably a wise idea to check out these two pieces: "The Preview: Detroit offense v. Michigan defense" and "The Preview: Michigan offense v. Detroit defense".

Here's today's full schedule -- it's exactly what's in the bullet points immediately above -- with links to things so that you can monitor the carnage:

Leave your thoughts about the games or anything else (QUERY: Does Russia's loss mean that Putin is out of the Presidential medal round?) in the comments below.