College Crosse Prospectus - March 17, 2017: Penn State’s Pick Game, Syracuse Vs. Hopkins.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for March 17, 2017.

College Crosse News.

Joe did it again! His post on Penn State’s pick game is required reading before the Nittany Lions game today vs. Fairfield.

On paper, Penn State’s offense is like any other high-scoring offense. Sophomore attackman Grant Ament (16G, 16A) plays the role of Batman. Freshman attackman Mac O’Keefe (NCAA-best 4.14 goals per game) stars as Robin. And the Nittany Lions have a face-off specialist in Gerard Arceri (68.8%) who allows them to play a lot more offense than defense.

When you watch the film, the six-on-six movements are far from conventional. Penn State plays a pick-heavy offense, but their picks aren’t announced beforehand -- they’re spontaneous. Plenty of teams run picks at X that resemble spread pick-and-rolls in the NBA; Penn State’s picks are more comparable to combination routes in the NFL.

Robert Morris gets ready for NEC play.

Meet Conner Yepsen and Tyson Gibson of the Robert Morris lacrosse team.

Our man Edward Lee of the Baltimore Sun with a touching article about how teammates of former BALLER Ed Baltz, Jr are honoring his legacy.

The words are spoken both happily and forlornly because reality can be unforgiving. It has been 328 days since Blatz, a junior defenseman on the Georgetown men's lacrosse team, died at school. To honor Blatz, several of his former teammates from Garden City High School — just east of New York City — and those who grew up with him are wearing No. 14, Blatz's high school jersey number. Tim Muller, a senior defenseman for fourth-ranked Maryland who grew up in Garden City but played for Chaminade, dumped his No. 36 jersey for No. 14, this year.

"It means a lot just to carry his memory," Muller said. "I do my best every day to make him happy, and we're playing for him as a group of friends to show that we miss him and that we want to play for him."

The Daily Collegian with a preview of the Penn State vs. Fairfield game today.

Penn State is playing for history with a target on its back.

The Nittany Lions are in the top-3 in each of the three polls and are the top-ranked team in the Nike/USL Top 20 Poll.

And after opening the season 7-0, the 2017 Nittany Lions have matched the 1992 team for the best start in program history, and a win over Fairfield (2-4) puts this bunch of Nittany Lions into the record books. No Penn State men’s lacrosse squad has won eight games to open up a season.

Shout out out to @OrangeLax for his great preview of the Hopkins vs. Syracuse game.

Welcome to Hopkins Weekend! The only weekend that really matters.

BOSS Desko previews Johns Hopkins.

Everyone’s watching the Dance.

Cornell gets ready for Yale.

The Cornell men’s lacrosse team is still searching for its first win of the season coming off a narrow 19-18 overtime loss to No. 13 Virginia at the Pacific Coast Shootout this past weekend. The hard-working Red will look to capitalize on a high powered offense as it faces off against Yale this weekend. Cornell will travel to New Haven on Saturday to take on the Bulldogs in its Ivy League opener.

This is great.

Maryland can’t wait to play Villanova after their unexpected break.

What’s Up, Philly?

Hamilton is coming to Philly! This is big news since I haven’t seen it yet. (Ed. Note: I probably still won’t see it.)

I’m going to be violently ill: Sixers take Embiid to another specialist.

The 7-2 center met up with the Sixers last weekend in Los Angeles, where they played back-to-back games against the Clippers and Lakers. The team said he was going to meet one of his doctors there to check out the torn meniscus in his left knee. Then Thursday, the team announced that Embiid stayed behind in Los Angeles with Dr. David Martin, the Sixers' director of performance research and development, and the two traveled to San Diego to see another specialist. The team said there was no timetable for anything and that it wanted to get Embiid in front of as many specialists as it can, and that the visit coincided with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting.

World/National News.

Get outta here!: PGA golfer casually removes alligator from Bay Hill course.”

Not good: “Robots are learning to chat in their own language.”

Born in Ukraine and raised in Toronto, the 31-year-old is now a visiting researcher at OpenAI, the artificial intelligence lab started by Tesla founder Elon Musk and Y combinator president Sam Altman. There, Mordatch is exploring a new path to machines that can not only converse with humans, but with each other. He’s building virtual worlds where software bots learn to create their own language out of necessity.

Your GIF for March 17, 2017: Surf’s up!

That’s it for today!! I’ll see you out there!! Make sure you follow us on social media!

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