College Crosse Prospectus - May 19, 2017: Albany Gets Ready For Maryland; Quarterfinal Previews.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for May 19, 2017.

College Crosse News.

CBS 6 caught up with the Albany Great Danes before their big game versus Maryland this weekend.

UAlbany's men's lacrosse team is preparing for a rematch against Maryland this weekend, in the NCAA tournament quarterfinal round. The Great Danes have never advanced to the championship weekend. To get there, they'll have to upset the Terps.

Here are a couple videos Albany recently posted.

Chris did a really nice post on all the non-D1 men’s lacrosse tournaments going on around the country.

If you only follow the NCAA Men’s Division I Tournament, there’s plenty of other lacrosse action out there that you missed. We’ve even crowned a few national champions too!

Ohio State’s pumped to be taking on Duke in the Elite 8.

Withers calls Duke a “blueblood,” and not in reference to the team’s primary color. The Blue Devils won national championships in 2010, ’13 and ’14 and made five other semifinal appearances since 2007.

“This is exciting for Midwest lacrosse and the community as whole,” he said. “We’re not only trying to get to the Final Four, but to win it all. When I came here as a freshman four years ago, there wasn’t much parity. Now, four years later, we’re up there with the Dukes, the (Johns) Hopkins and the Marylands — the bluebloods.”

One has to look only at the team’s common opponents to see that the Buckeyes can play with anyone. OSU and Duke defeated NCAA tournament teams Denver, Loyola, Notre Dame, Johns Hopkins and Marquette.

Quint previews the weekend in this post in the Baltimore Sun.

After an outstanding opening weekend of games in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament, one thing kept crossing my mind: This weekend could be even better. It's all about reaching the final four in Foxborough, Mass., and the eight teams left showed they have what it takes to be a champion. And no one is ready to quit playing.

Here’s Quint’s video for IL on the Quarterfinal matchups.

Good news for Cuse fans: Syracuse lacrosse's Ben Williams expects return to form at 'X' against Towson.

"I worked with coach, watched film. I think we identified the problem. Honestly, I think it's been the best week we've had this season,'' he said. "It (the adjustment) is nothing that would be anything surprising. I think over the past few weeks I've gotten into a few bad habits that have been masked by us getting out of games winning faceoffs. And obviously, the Yale guy played a great game. And I didn't put my wings or my team in a good position.'' Williams needs a significant bounceback week because Towson will present an even tougher faceoff matchup in Alex Woodall. "He's a great faceoff guy. We're going to have our hands full with him and their unit. But I'm very confident,'' Williams said. "I'm excited for this week, and I like the focus we've had so far.''

Could the winner of Maryland vs. Albany help determine the 2017 Tewaaraton winner? Chris Bengel from TerpStationMD thinks it could.

The Tewaaraton Award is the most prestigious honor in the world of college lacrosse. On Saturday, finalists Matt Rambo and Connor Fields will go head-to-head when Maryland faces Albany in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals. Fields and Rambo are arguably the two frontrunners for the award and that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. Both players are the biggest offensive threats on their respective teams and score over two goals-per-game. While both players are gifted goal scorers, traheir roles as facilitators may be their most impressive qualities.

KCRA does a nice piece on Northern California BALLER Brianne Gross.

Hat tip to reader @ITHuddLLe for this link about former Hobart star and professional lacrosse player, Justin Porter: Evanston lacrosse coach a testament to sport's transformative power.

Lacrosse changed Justin Porter's life. "Without the game of lacrosse, I'd be dead or in jail," Porter said. He got into trouble in school as a first-grader. One day, a teacher turned his trips to detention and in-school suspension into a budding passion for lacrosse. He brought Porter a lacrosse stick and told him he was going to become a ball boy for the varsity lacrosse program. "I just kept moving up through the ranks," Porter said. He ended up playing professionally. Now 33, Porter is in his second year as coach of the Evanston boys lacrosse team, a program that finished 9-9 last year. They're in rebuilding mode this season, and lost six of eight at one point after starting the year 7-1. Nine freshmen are on the varsity roster.

I loved this little exchange between Denver & Ohio State.

Great piece by 9 News in Denver on Pioneers star Trevor Baptiste.

The University of Denver has never had a better face-off guy than Trevor Baptiste. In fact, the junior may end up being the best the game has ever seen. How did he get started, and where did his love for lacrosse begin? "In the beginning it was swimming and football," said Baptiste talking about the sports he played when he was growing up. "Then I have to make a choice between football and swimming and chose swimming. Then I had to eventually choose between swimming and lacrosse and I chose lacrosse." Trevor got into lacrosse because all of his football buddies played it and told him to come out and play, but he wasn't taking face-offs. "I started out on defense but I guess I wanted to score goals so I moved to attach," laughed Baptiste.

BOSS Desko previews Towson.

Some pics of Notre Dame getting on their flight to Long Island.

What’s Up, Philly?

A Shark Tank deal with some Philly entrepreneurs fell through.

If you watched Shark Tank on Friday, you might have seen Philly-based ZOOM Interiors strike a deal with Barbara Corcoran. After other sharks like Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner passed on spending $100,000 for a 20 percent equity stake in the tech-meets-design business, a visibly uncertain Corcoran offered $100,000 for 33 percent — and they struck a deal. Yay! Cue the hugs and the happy Shark Tank theme music… But a funny thing happened in the next few months — both sides soured on the deal. The 24-year-old ZOOM co-owners Madeline Fraser, Elizabeth Grover, and Beatrice Fischel-Bock were hoping Corcoran would serve in a mentorship role, but instead found themselves dealing with a guy named Mike, her head of Shark Tank business operations. Although Corcoran graciously answered emails and was “so nice,” said Fischel-Bock, Corcoran “has a lot on her plate and is a busy lady. So after the due diligence process, she didn’t see it as worthwhile.” And without Corcoran on board as a mentor, the ZOOM team didn’t want to give up one-third of their business.

World/National News.

Get you a king who can do both!!: The King of the Netherlands has been secretly piloting KLM passenger flights for 21 years.

Your GIF for May 19, 2017: You gotta work hard if you want that beach body.

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

Instagram: @College_Crosse

Twitter: @SexyTimeLax

Facebook: College Crosse

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