College Crosse Game Day: How To Watch, Attachments, & Open Thread For May 4, 2017

For most teams, the season is on the line, as the majority of the ten conference championships get underway this afternoon. There are many one bid leagues, and probably only one multiple bid league outside of the ACC. Things could get crazy and the bubble could change, just look what happened last year.

YES, THERE IS A CHANCE!

Below is today’s Big Board. Clicking on the team name will take you to that team’s homepage. Clicking on the Stream cell will take you to the broadcast of that game, while the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that game. Cells with $$ signs in them indicate streams that require a subscription or a pay wall. Everything else should be free or on your basic ESPN plan. Let’s go to the Big Board!!

Conference Semifinal Previews

NEC: It’s been an intriguing conference to watch, even if the winner will probably have to play in Wednesday’s Play-In game. Hobart (or Hobert) is the host and the top seed, and they won the whole thing last year. Bryant is the second seed and has a good shot at reaching the championship game once again. Robert Morris has a sneaky good offense, while Sacred Heart has had a very good year up until now. In the regular season, the Pioneers upset the Statesmen at home in overtime, while Bryant crushed Robert Morris. I’ll be at the semifinals all day today and will bring you recaps of those games.

Big East: It’s pretty much a one-trick pony in Denver, but Villanova-Providence should be entertaining. Well, hopefully it is. These teams met last week and the Wildcats had no problem beating the Friars. We should see a different game, as both teams have had time to make adjustments, especially on the Providence side. Will their defense, led by Jarrod Neumann and Tate Boyce, be able to stop a ferocious Nova offense, led by Jack Curran? And can Marquette upset Denver again in the Big East tournament for the second straight season?

America East: Another one-trick pony in Albany highlights the tournament, but can Binghamton, UMBC, or Stony Brook spoil the party? Last year, Hartford, the four seed, upset Albany at home and eventually won the America East Tournament. The two seed, Stony Brook, also lost to Vermont. The Great Danes are a top 10 team in the nation, but don’t have a very good win over a team yet. They played well against Syracuse and Maryland, losing to both teams by one, and did beat Yale by one. But that win over the Elis got worse with their loss to Harvard, and could be bad if they don’t win the Ivy League. I think Albany has to win their conference tournament in order to make it to The Big BBQ.

SoCon: People like Richmond to win the conference’s AQ on their home turf, but Air Force definitely has a say in that. They defeated the Spiders, 9-7, earlier in the season in Colorado. Did the thin air play a role in that game? I think if there’s a rematch, the Spiders will be able to win that one and get the AQ there. Furman’s one loss in conference play was to Richmond last week, 13-4, and Jacksonville just got in with a win over Bellarmine and a High Point loss last week. The Dolphins did play Air Force to overtime on the road earlier in the season, so watch out for John Galloway’s young squad.

Big Ten: The highlight of the weekend, where we should see five teams in pending conference chaos. Maryland plays Penn State in a game that was decided by two goals in the regular season at College Park, while the Buckeyes are the host and play Johns Hopkins. OSU defeated the Jays, 13-9, at Ohio Stadium in the regular season after falling behind at halftime. The big story here is the Hopkins goaltending situation. Brock Turnbaugh was awful against Maryland, and Gerard Logan came in relief. Logan was the starter at the beginning of the season before Turnbaugh took over midway through the Virginia game. Is it Logan’s time again?

CAA: THUNDERDOME is back! Towson hosts again after taking care of Hofstra, and no team is safe in the bubble. The Tigers have Drexel today, who only lost to the Tigers by one in the regular season, while Hofstra has an off-and-on UMass team. Even with two losses, the Pride need to win the CAA to have a chance of making the NCAA Tournament. Same with Towson, who has four losses.

Attachments

Our latest College Crossecast is up!

You should definitely check out today’s Prospectus with all the all-conference selections and award winners.

And peep our Power Rankings for this week!

Hoya has done individual conference tournament previews for the Big East, NEC, and the CAA THUNDERDOME! We should have the SoCon, America East, and Big Ten previews up later today as well.

Song of the Day

This song always gets me going.

Games start at 1! I’ll see you out at the NECs!!