GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING, College Crosse Nation! Thanks for making us a part of your day! Here’s everything you need to know for February 1, 2019.

College Crosse News

Utah & Vermont start the 2019 season off this afternoon. Check out our Game Day post here with information on how to watch the game online and other important links for today’s match-up.

Excitement is in the air as Utah embarks on its first season. The importance of a school like Utah getting lacrosse is self-evident: Utah is a Power 5 school in the Pac-12 and the program would be the western most Division I men’s lacrosse program in the country. But all that side stuff is kind of immaterial today, as the most important thing for Utah is getting a win against a very strong Vermont team.

Adam wrote a great post yesterday on 11 non-obvious Tewaaraton contenders.

The college lacrosse season is nearly upon us, which means it’s time to preview some of the top players in all the land. If you’re reading this, you probably already know about Loyola’s Pat Spencer, Cornell’s Jeff Teat, and Princeton’s Michael Sowers—the consensus top three attackmen in the country. We’re not going to bore you with another list that includes them.

In all likelihood, one of those three guys will win the award. They’re in their own tier. It’s those three, and then everyone else. But the D1 men’s lacrosse landscape is absolutely stacked with elite players, and by the time May rolls around we’ll be talking about at least a few of the guys from the list below alongside guys like Spencer, Teat, and Sowers.

Back to the Future for Loyola this season.

Inside Lacrosse reports that Duke’s Brad Smith is “out indefinitely” due to a foot injury.

Duke All-American midfielder Brad Smith won’t play in the Blue Devils’ opener at Furman Saturday night and is set to miss additional time with a foot injury, sources tell Inside Lacrosse. A spokesperson for the Blue Devils confirmed on Thursday morning that the senior is “out indefinitely,” and no timeline was given for his return.

#TeamLopes

The Salt Lake Tribune has lacrosse fever.

Team captain Seth Neeleman, a son of program benefactor David Neeleman, likes Holman’s approach. “Even if we were [a club] right now, we’d still be doing the exact same thing,” he said. “Nothing changes. Obviously, our opponents are going to be a lot tougher and a lot more talented and a lot more history-rich in success, but nothing really changes.” As a founder of four airlines, notably JetBlue, David Neeleman says he never celebrates a start-up moment. He recognizes Friday’s game is “a very little, first step of a big process” and describes the Utes’ inaugural season as a case of “trying to keep my expectations in check.” Yet as he stood on the sideline of a scrimmage vs. Marquette last weekend, Neeleman was encouraged. He watched Utah “just absolutely out-hustle Marquette” in a competitive contest.

Check out the Detroit Mercy Season preview.

Here is out our newest Crossecast featuring Chris, Ryan, & Jake giving their takes on today’s match-up between Utah & Vermont and the rest of the action later this weekend.

Although the calendar still reads January, we are believe it or not just one day away from the start of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse season. Hope that last sentence was a sight for sore eyes as you nearly freeze to death warming up your car.

We here at College Crosse are proud to deliver a new season of COLLEGE CROSSECAST, and we’re trying something new this season after hearing your feedback from the survey we doled out last month. Starting with this episode, we’ll be doing a weekend preview to help cut down on time as well as publishing it later in the week to get you more excited for the weekend to come.

In this episode, I’m joined by Chris (live from Salt Lake City) and Jake as we get you set for week one of the 2019 season. We cover Utah’s debut against Vermont (2:00), St. Bonaventure’s first game as part of a Saturday slate with some intrigue between Jacksonville and Detroit-Mercy (5:40), and a Super Bowl Sunday duel between BU and Providence that can serve as a useful litmus test for both teams (15:20). We also applaud Furman for embracing SATURDAY. NIGHT. LACROSSE. and do an abbreviated pick ‘em segment (17:10) for the small slate.

On the River Banks posted a great season preview for Rutgers men’s lacrosse.

The Rutgers men’s lacrosse team has produced a 30-15 record the past three seasons and established themselves as one of the better programs in Division I. However, the Scarlet Knights have just missed on qualifying for the NCAA Tournament each of the past three years and haven’t advanced that far since the 2004 season. Head coach Brian Brecht returns for his eighth season in charge after signing a contract extension this offseason. While the program lost three All-Americans from last season’s team in Jules Heningburg, Michael Rexrode and Christian Mazzone, there is plenty of returning talent, as well several intriguing newcomers added to the mix. It’s a big season for the program, which looks to end a 15 year NCAA drought and accomplish a program first by winning a Big Ten title.

Go mic’d with Duke’s coach Caputo.

I wrote a long post on my favorite topic: Big Ten dominance.

Big Ten Thursday Lunch Club Memo

To - Big Ten Thursday Lunch Club members

Re - Mission Impossible: 5 Bids - Rogue Conference

The 2019 season is almost here. Real games begin on Friday with the Utah Utes kicking off their inaugural season against the Vermont Catamounts. While we obviously celebrate the start of new programs at Utah & St. Bonaventure, this post/series will be focusing on something college lacrosse fans are a bit more familiar with, namely Big Ten dominance. So, I’d like to welcome you all to the Big Ten Thursday Lunch Cub, a weekly post focused on the six teams in the Big Ten and their chase to accomplish the impossible, getting (at least) five members into the 2019 NCAA Tournament. This is obviously a difficult task, but I believe the GAWD conference is up to it in 2019.

Penn State men’s lacrosse’s Jake Glatz and Nick McEvoy prepared to step up if needed.

Nearly 10 months after being forced into action after injury struck star face-off specialist Gerard Arceri, Jake Glatz and Nick McEvoy feel they are in a much better place to succeed if called upon. When Arceri went down in a crucial Big Ten game against Maryland last season, it was Glatz who filled in during the final moments of the game. He went 0-2 at the face-off x, and Penn State ultimately fell the the second-ranked Terrapins by a score of 13-12. Following the tough loss, coach Jeff Tambroni commended Glatz for stepping up despite the unfortunate results.

We want more!!

What’s Up, PhilaJersey?

Talk about a nuclear winter, amirite: It’s so cold, even a nuclear reactor in N.J. can’t do its job.

The frigid temperatures the state is experiencing has taken its toll in a number of ways. One of the consequences has been the shutdown of one of the nuclear reactors in Salem County.

PSEG spokesman Joseph Delmar Sr. says the utility company’s Salem Unit 2 reactor was manually taken offline by control room operators early Thursday morning at 3:01 a.m. due to frazil icing conditions at the circulating water intake structure on the non-nuclear side of the power plant. Delmar says there was no impact to the health or safety of the public or plant personnel.

World/National News

Woof: This might be the worst January at the box office in the last six years.

Super Bowl LIII is likely to sack moviegoing this weekend, following a dismal January at the domestic box office.

The weekend of the big football game is traditionally slow at the mulitplex, and 2019 isn’t expected to be an exception as February gets underway.

The sole new nationwide offering is Sony’s Miss Bala, a remake of the Spanish-language film of the same name. The $15 million action-thriller, directed by Catherine Hardwicke and starring Gina Rodriguez, is tracking to open in the $6 million-$10 million range.

Your GIF/Video for February 1, 2019

Walter. Hey WALTER! How many times have I told you, bro? You can’t sleep outside my window.

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