College Crosse Prospectus: Quarterfinal Prep Continues; Cascade S Helmets Looks

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for May 18, 2017.

What You Missed

We recapped every other postseason lacrosse tournament.

Who do the computers think will win this weekend’s quarterfinal matchups?

A brand new College Crossecast is up, where we discuss the First Round and preview the Quarterfinal round.

The new Cascade S helmets began to show up in college locker rooms.

Lacrosse The Nation

We’ll make our rounds for all four games this weekend. We’ll start with Duke-Ohio State. And the Blue Devil’s freshmen have been a huge part to this year’s team:

Congrats to Tyler Pfister on being a finalist for the Unsung Hero Award:

Next up: Denver-Notre Dame. First, the new Cascade “S” helmets for Notre Dame:

With Denver, head coach Bill Tierney returns to Long Island, where it all started for the legendary coach, pens Mike Chambers of The Denver Post.

Levittown High no longer exists, and Tierney has no remaining family living in the area. But he certainly has fond memories of playing and coaching lacrosse in one of the game’s most sacred plots.

“Tons of them,” Tierney said. “I played in the first box lacrosse league in 1974-75, and in ’75, we actually played at the Nassau Coliseum, which is right across the street from Hofstra. A lot of great things have happened in that area.”

Denver (12-3) faces Notre Dame (9-5) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday in an NCAA Tournament quarterfinal game at Shuart Stadium on the campus of Hofstra University, minutes away from Levittown and Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale.

The 64-year-old Tierney, who is the only Division I coach to win national championships at two schools, coached his final Princeton game at Shuart Stadium in 2009, and one of his best memories was on the same field in 1998, when his son, Trevor Tierney, helped the Tigers upset Duke in the NCAA quarterfinals.

There’ll be plenty of drama when the two teams meet, according to Mark Haas of CBS Denver.

In the last eight matchups between the teams, seven have been decided by just a goal, including five going to overtime.

“It is crazy there have been some where we have a lead and they caught up, or they have a lead and we caught up,” said Tierney.

Notre Dame leads the all-time series 12-8, but the Pioneers have won the last five, including the last four on the final shot of the game.

“It makes it exciting and unpredictable when they are that close,” said senior Connor Cannizzaro.

Let’s move on to the Sunday games, beginning with Towson-Syracuse. Let’s begin with the new Cascade “S” helmets for each team.

Goaltender Evan Molloy was a big reason for the Cuse win.

And he celebrated in honor of John Wall, who we found out on Monday isn’t as clutch as Molloy.

Syracuse wants to make sure you’re prepared for their matchup against Towson.

And they were a hint to a lacrosse question on Jeopardy!

Meanwhile, the Tigers have a cool promo video.

And also talked to some of the players and The Captain.

Brian Bolewicki jumped on for an interview as well.

Edward Lee of the The Baltimore Sun has two stories for you. One is on Shawn Nadelen saying that he expects FOGO Alex Woodall to play Sunday.

Nadelen did not seem overly concerned about Woodall being limited on Sunday.

“We’ll just have to adjust like we did against Penn State,” he said. “That’s why it’s nice having multiple options this year as opposed to the years past where we really had Option 1 and then we had to see what we would do for Options 2 and 3. Connor [Harryman] did a good job coming in and giving us some strength at the position and earning some wins at the faceoff X in that third quarter. That game was tied up, and we needed to start making a run, and he did a good job with that. So he’s kind of been the next guy in line, and then you’ve got a seasoned guy in [senior] Alec Burckley right there and a couple guys behind them. So we’ll assess where we are depending on how Alex is doing and if he can go on Sunday and then figure it out from there.”

The second is how Towson is using their underdog label to once again prove the skeptics wrong.

“I think that our program over the course of the four years that I’ve been here has really embraced the role of a confident underdog,” senior goalkeeper Matt Hoy said Tuesday afternoon. “Everyone in the locker room has confidence in our ability and our ability to win games. But we also understand that to the outside world, we are considered underdogs. So we really relish the fact that every time we get on the field, we can band together as brothers and kind of prove ourselves time and time again.”

That attitude helped Towson upset No. 2 seed and 2015 national champion Denver in the first round of last year’s tournament before falling to No. 7 seed Loyola Maryland in the quarterfinals. It’s the same demeanor that propelled the Tigers (11-4) to upend No. 7 seed Penn State, 12-8, in another first-round game Saturday.

“We had confidence going into that game,” said senior long-stick midfielder Tyler Mayes, a Bel Air resident and Calvert Hall graduate. “We have the utmost trust in everybody on our team, and inside our locker room is really all we’re worried about. We know that every game is going to be a tough game, and Penn State is a very good team. But we had confidence in ourselves that we would be able to move onto the next round.”

To advance to its first NCAA tournament semifinal since 2001, Towson will have to solve No. 2 seed Syracuse, which edged Yale, 11-10, on Sunday night to improve to 9-2 in one-goal decisions. The Orange (13-3) have won the past nine meetings with the Tigers, but the sides have not played since 2000.

Finally to the Albany-Maryland game. First, the Cascade S helmets.

Mark Singelais of The Times Union writes about Albany head coach Scott Marr and his return to Delaware, which has played a vital part in his life.

If ever the phrase "full circle" applied to a sporting event, it's this one. Following his playing career at Johns Hopkins, Marr had two coaching jobs before he was hired to build UAlbany's program 17 years ago. The first one was at Delaware, where he served as offensive coordinator from 1992 to 1994. From there he departed for Maryland and spent six seasons as an assistant coach with the Terrapins from 1995 to 2000. They reached three national championship games during his tenure.

"The fact that it's Maryland makes the whole scenario crazy," Marr said. "All the star alignment and all that kind of stuff ... It'll definitely be emotional for me to take the field. I think it's all positive energy, really. It's all good. Just people from my past that helped me to get where I am."

The Great Danes will have dinner at the home of Marr's father-in-law, Tom Tomashek, on Saturday. Marr is still deeply affected by the death of his mother-in-law, Laura Tomashek, four years ago.

[Bob] Shillinglaw, who's retiring this year, will serve as UAlbany's host for the weekend. He'll accompany the team to practice and the game and serve as a troubleshooter.

"I'm excited for him and all the hard work he's put in," Shillinglaw said. "Scott's one of those guys that he immediately becomes friends with everyone and he's very close to our family."

Marr also has a message to the Albany community:

Some of the players also have another opponent to face. As Michael Kelly of The Daily Gazette notes, it’s finals (Towson also has finals this week).

Some players had to leave early from Tuesday’s practice to get ready for exams, which contributed to a somewhat relaxed atmosphere around the Great Danes, who are just days removed from downing reigning national champion North Carolina 15-12 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. While preparations are underway to take on Maryland (13-3) Sunday at Delaware Stadium in Newark, Del., the heavy lifting for UAlbany (15-2) will come later this week.

Already, though, UAlbany has a strong familiarity with the Terrapins. Maryland beat UAlbany 12-11 a month ago in a game played several weeks after the game was originally scheduled, only to be postponed by weather. That means this week is the third this season the Great Danes have spent preparing to face the Terrapins.

“But we’re just excited to have the chance to play them again,” [Eli] Lasda said. “I’m just thankful every day I’m still here playing lacrosse.”

That goes extra for Great Danes like senior midfielder Adam Osika, who really was in no hurry Tuesday to leave Casey Stadium. His last final exam was behind him, leaving him to stay after practice concluded to work on his shot for a bit before he spent the rest of his day relaxing.

“I’m just chilling,” Osika said.

On the other side, Jessica Nocera for UMTerps.com has a great feature on defenseman Tim Muller.

During a breakout 2016 season, Muller started all 20 games at close defense and led the team with 24 caused turnovers and had 42 ground balls.

This was a jump from his sophomore and freshman year seasons where while he appeared in all 19 games his sophomore year, he only started four times but totaled 25 ground balls and caused six turnovers. During his inaugural season, Muller appeared in just three games as a reserve

“It’s funny,” said coach John Tillman in an interview with The Baltimore Sun in August. “He’s a very unassuming guy, a very humble guy who quietly goes about his business. But we do have a ton of confidence in him. Everything that we’ve asked him to do since he got here, he’s done.”

This season, Muller doesn’t have the eye-popping stats one might expect from a top-line defender, but what he has been is a steadying influence on a defense that features a first-year starting goalie, a freshman and sophomore starting at close defense and a pair of sophomore long-stick midfielders.

In non-Tournament action, Man vs. Pizza.

Congrats to Delaware’s MVP for the year.

A cool feature on Colgate’s Jackson Patterson:

#TBT

The NEILA announced their All New England teams.

Philly Jawns

The Philadelphia Eagles signed running back LeGarrette Blount to a one-year deal! He will have his introductory press conference later today at 3 p.m.

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

World News

Legendary grunge and rock singer Chris Cornell died suddenly at the age of 52 in Detroit.

Video of the Day

Along with Kinnear’s tribute, we have one of Cornell’s most famous songs.

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

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Managing Editors: Safe Fekadu, Chris Jastrzembski, Ryan McDonnell.