GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation!! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here are your links for February 28, 2018.

College Crosse Game Day.

Only two games today, but can you really complain when you get more Happy Hour Lacrosse? You can find today’s Big Board directly below. 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 clicking on the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that game.

College Crosse News.

Check out Chris’ recap of all the action from yesterday.

We almost had our first big midweek upset of the season. A crosstown rival taking on a quality team on short rest did affect the Villanova Wildcats early, but Nova was able to mount a fourth quarter comeback to stay undefeated. Meanwhile in the nightcap, BU’s John MacLean sent the Terriers home happy thanks to a #WhitneyInOT goal.

Jamie Trimboli sits with Citrus TV’s Jonah Karp to talk lacrosse.

Penn State men’s lacrosse coach Jeff Tambroni discusses ways to keep growing lacrosse’s popularity.

Growing the game has been a big part of lacrosse for a long time. While its popularity has come a long way, the sport wants to take it further. There are almost as many ideas as there are people involved with lacrosse on what the sport can do to keep making strides.

Coach Jeff Tambroni talked about two different areas the sport can improve to keep lacrosse on the rise — one being some rule changes that we’ll go over in a separate story, and then spending some time improving championship weekend.

While lacrosse has undoubtedly grown in popularity as a whole, one area that has gone backwards is championship weekend. The final four is typically held at an NFL stadium in the northeast and is always on Memorial Day weekend. The semifinal games are on Saturday and then the final takes place on Memorial Day.

For about a decade as the sport has continued to grow, attendance at the biggest event lacrosse has to offer has been going the wrong way.

In 2007 and 2008, attendance peaked for the annual event. A little over 48,000 were in attendance for the finals both years, one held at the Ravens’ stadium in Baltimore and another at the Patriots’ stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Although bouncing back a little in the last few years, attendance has been in a steady decline. Last year, 28,971 watched Maryland break a long national championship drought in Foxborough. The same site that just nine years earlier had 20 thousand more there.

VMI was pumped after beating NJIT.

Shout out to the MCLA: First-ever non-varsity collegiate lacrosse game on ESPN3 platform happening on Saturday.

The SELC Northwest divisional clash between No. 17 Liberty and West Virginia will be broadcast on the WATCHESPN (ESPN3) platform this weekend, making it available to thousands of lacrosse fans across the country. This is the first non-varsity collegiate men’s lacrosse game to be aired via this ESPN platform. The contest between the Flames and Mountaineers, which is slated for 3 p.m., is one of two Liberty games that will be on ESPN3 this spring.

The “Midnight Mayhem” game on April 6 against Pitt will also be streamed nationally. “At Liberty we are very fortunate to have amazing support from our University,” said Liberty coach Kyle McQuillan. “One small part of that is the ability to broadcast our home games live, complete with play-by-play and color commentary. This season will mark the first time we are able to simulcast our broadcast on ESPN3.

The Daily Orange with a nice post on Cleveland St.

In the last week of June 2015, Dylan Sheridan was busy evaluating eighth- and ninth-grade lacrosse players at an Under Armour skills camp when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

At the time, Sheridan was the defensive and recruiting coordinator for Princeton men’s lacrosse, and had spent the previous four years at Denver as a face-off coach and defensive coordinator, helping the Pioneers to three final four appearances.

Sheridan took his phone out of his pocket to see Cleveland State’s athletic director, John Parry, calling him. Less than a month prior, Sheridan had interviewed to become the inaugural head coach for the Vikings, and moments after he answered the call from the camp, he found out he’d been chosen.

“I felt it could be a pretty special place,” Sheridan said. “(Parry) really loved the game and it was a school that I felt could be attractive to a lot of different kids. I decided I would love to be there if they wanted me, and fortunately, they chose me.”

Meet the St. Joe’s Monks!

What’s Up, PhilaJersey?

Here are 12 of spring’s most anticipated restaurant openings in Philly.

It’s been a long, cold winter, but it’s feeling like spring — and the openings of lots of great new restaurants and food purveyors — are right around the corner. Here are some of the projects we can’t wait to patronize when they debut over the next few months.

TALK
We’ll have to wait a little longer for the debut of Marigold Kitchen owners Andrew Kochan and Tim Lanza’s eclectic a la carte concept in Rittenhouse Square: when we caught up with them at Philly Cooks earlier this month, the opening had been pushed back to spring.

World/National News.

They caught him red-handed: Cook arrested for taking $1.8K worth of lobster tails from Bellagio.

Las Vegas police are reporting that a cook at the Bellagio hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, Alex Hernandez, was arrested on one count of embezzlement on Feb. 26 for reportedly taking food home. Bellagio security informed officers that Hernandez had been caught stuffing 25 lobster tails in his backpack and walking out the back door with them. The lobster tails were valued at around $75 each, making the total haul worth about $1,875.

Your GIF/Video for February 28, 2018.

ATTACK!!!

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.