College Crosse Gameday: How To Watch, Attachments, Links, & Open Thread For April 21, 2018

After yesterday’s 10-pack of games, including the end of Patriot League play, we’re back again with 22 games. It’s the last regular season weekend for the ACC as well, so we’ll start to have fewer weekend games beginning today. It’s sad but at the same time exciting.

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 the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that game.

Skittles Scale!

(Ed. Note: For information/entertainment purposes only! #WeDoNotEndorseGambling)

Games To Watch

• Delaware @ Towson (Noon), UMass @ Fairfield (1 PM), Hofstra @ Drexel (2 PM): Remember how we entered yesterday’s Patriot League games with four teams at 2-5? Well now we have four teams in the CAA at 1-2. Towson has had their ups and downs, but they’ve had plenty of valleys in the past few weeks, especially with the losses of Jon Mazza and Sid Ewell for violating team rules. Fairfield has been competitive in their three conference games, but have lost their two games by a combined three goals. Hofstra has been the Hofstra we’ve come to know for the past few years, while Drexel can continue to keep the ball rolling if FOGO Jimmeh Koita can stay hot at the face-off X.
• Johns Hopkins @ Michigan (Noon): After a loss on the road to Penn State, the Blue Jays have what should be an easy game against a Michigan team still looking for their first Big Ten win this year. But the Wolverines have been competitive early in their losses, so expect some competition early. And just a friendly reminder, Hopkins has Maryland at Homewood Field next weekend.
• Princeton @ Harvard (1 PM): Two teams kind of going in different directions. Princeton won their first Ivy League game last weekend...against Dartmouth. But they’ve won their last three games. As for Harvard, they’ve lost their last three games, two of them coming against Cornell and Penn. It’s a must-win game for both teams if they want to make the Ivy League Tournament.
• Navy @ Syracuse (2 PM): These two teams haven’t met since the legendary 2004 National Championship game (when Quint had hair). The Orange are coming off yet another one-goal victory, this time against North Carolina in overtime after being down three late in the game. Navy is fresh off a rivalry road win over Army West Point and will be the second seed in next weekend’s Patriot League Tournament. Navy needs this win more than Syracuse. They don’t have a win against a top 10 RPI team yet (Syracuse is 6), and pending the results of next weekend’s ACC Tournament/blatant RPI booster, Cuse could be in the top five.

Game of the Day

• Notre Dame @ North Carolina (Noon): I love the smell of desperation. And that’s what North Carolina is in. They need to win and do it in a specific way. A UNC win would send them, Notre Dame, and Virginia into a three-way tie for third place in the ACC. The tiebreaker would then go to goals allowed against those three teams head-to-head. Currently, we have the following:
  Notre Dame: 7 (1 game)
  North Carolina: 15 (1 game)
  Virginia: 21 (2 games)
  So UNC would have to win and hold Notre Dame to five goals or fewer. In the past three games, Notre Dame has scored six, two, and seven goals respectively. So it is possible, but I’d say it’s unlikely unless the Tar Heel defense and Alex Bassil stand on their heads. UNC can also blow out Notre Dame by a 15-5 game and eliminate Notre Dame from the ACC Tournament. Anything can happen.

Attachments

Here are all of the teams that are still mathematically alive in their quest to make the NCAA Tournament. There’s 57 altogether, and that number should go down today:

The Hawks are excited for Senior Day!

It’s also Senior Day for UNC, and for Mike D’Alessandro, it means much more:

In the semifinals of the state playoffs during his junior season, D’Alessandro said he tore his ACL in his left knee. It seemed then like a minor setback. As he recovered, he came to the decision that he’d play both lacrosse and football at Carolina. Yet he opted not to play the latter after tearing his ACL in his right knee late in his senior year.

He said he underwent three more surgeries in college. All were performed to repair the cartilage in his left knee.

”Every year basically I’ve had to find out that I’ve needed a surgery,” he said. “I’ve shed a lot of tears, especially in front of my senior class, because I’m really emotional, I’m really passionate about just playing and everything about lacrosse.”

D’Alessandro said [Joe] Breschi has always thought he inspired the team. So even before D’Alessandro medically retired, Breschi brought him to every game.

The week of the Tar Heels’ visit to Duke on April 1, 2016, D’Alessandro said he learned he needed another surgery. Breschi called him to the front of the room after practice one day. And as he explained D’Alessandro’s situation to the team, Breschi dedicated the game to him.

Players wore helmet stickers with D’Alessandro’s No. 5 as UNC defeated Duke 17-16 in overtime. Eight weeks later, the Tar Heels won the 2016 NCAA championship in Philadelphia. D’Alessandro dressed then for the first time all season.

”It was really special to be able to share that experience with everybody,” he said, “and to be wearing my jersey”

Song of the Day

We’ll always love you, Avicii.

Games start at noon! I’ll see you out there!