The weekend kicks off early, as we have seven games on the docket today. Unfortunately, only four of today’s games will be streamed. Which is not ideal, especially since Cornell vs. Penn State & Towson vs. Jacksonville down in Charlotte, NC are two of the games today that won’t be available.

Directly below is the Big Board for March 8, 2019. Clicking on a team name will take you to that team’s homepage, while clicking on the Stream/TV cell will take you to the broadcast of that game. Additionally, clicking the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats for that game.

Preview

Ryan, Jake, & I taped a new Crossecast on Wednesday night in which we previewed all of the games today and the weekend.

Boy, the lacrosse gods have treated us to an epic weekend of matchups. Loyola-Duke on a Thursday? A massive weekend of lacrosse in Charlotte with three top tier teams in Cornell, Penn State, and Loyola? Showcase games in California and Georgia? Bitter rivalries like the Central Jersey Derby and the duel between two of the game’s most storied programs in Johns Hopkins and Syracuse? Boy, we’re spoiled. And we’re here with a new College Crossecast to prep you for it.

I’m joined by Safe and Jake with 100 minutes of diving deep into arguably the most stacked lineup of the regular season. We start off with a review of the midweek games, including Princeton’s win over Navy (1:28) and some notes on Albany and their loss to UMass (10:22). From there we get you ready for Thursday Night Lacrosse between Loyola and Duke (15:06), a Friday slate highlighted by the Tambroni Bowl between Cornell and Penn State (24:40), and the noon slate on Saturday (39:10).

Attachments

Excellent article by Ed Lee of the Baltimore Sun: Social media another area to monitor for area lacrosse programs.

Joey Epstein, a freshman attackman for the Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse team, has a simple motto for what to broadcast on social media. “Don’t post anything stupid,” Epstein said. “I think it’s pretty simple.”

Sounds easy, but social media served as the epicenter for some turbulence in the past week. Albany sophomore attackman Tehoka Nanticoke was mysteriously held out of Saturday’s 17-16 loss at No. 2 Cornell, and coach Scott Marr said two days later that the NCAA had suspended Nanticoke due to a post on Instagram that was interpreted as promoting a company, which is an NCAA no-no. The following day, the NCAA refuted Marr’s remarks, saying that the school had “proactively withheld” Nanticoke and that the organization had cleared him of wrongdoing on Monday. And the university’s athletic director renounced Marr’s statements on Wednesday.

Get rid of it: New crease dive rule already a headache for Syracuse lacrosse.

Syracuse lacrosse defender Peter Dearth had a mere split-second to made a decision as Virginia’s Michael Kraus went airborne toward the Orange goal on Saturday. That blink of time was way more than Dearth needed, however. Kraus was flying toward SU goalie Drake Porter. Under the new NCAA crease dive rule maybe it would be a legal play, maybe it would not. Dearth wasn’t going to take a chance. So he pushed Kraus out of the way, drawing a penalty.

“I’m trying to defend Drake at all costs. So I’d rather push someone than have them dive at my goalie,’’ Dearth said earlier this week. “I would probably do it again if it meant that Drake’s not getting hit in the knees. I’d rather give up a penalty and protect our player. I’d figure that’s just the way we’d want it as a team.’’

US Lacrosse Magazine with a post on Preston Burbidge.

Preston Burbidge battled through the first half of Utah Valley’s home matchup with Simon Fraser — one that ended with the score at 3-3. It wasn’t the most exciting half of lacrosse this season, but it was a big game for the Wolverines to prove they belonged among the top teams in the MCLA’s Division I.

Utah Valley got a spark shortly after halftime. Burbidge, a middie, watched as his goalie made a “killer” save and launched the ball to him in transition. He caught the ball and proceeded into Simon Fraser’s half of the field, where he met a defenseman anticipating the meeting.

“I saw the player that was coming at me, so I was going to make a roll dodge, and he tried to throw a rusty gate, so I stopped midway,” Burbidge said.

PHILLY FOUR!!!

Maryland bill would put time limits on practices, prohibit checking in hockey, lacrosse.

A bill designed to make youth sports safer is making its way through the Maryland General Assembly. The bill would limit football seasons for kids age 14 and under and puts time constraints on full-contact football practice. The legislation would also prohibit checking in hockey and lacrosse.

“We want to minimize injury. Sports are a terrific thing, and we want our kids to participate as fully as possible, and we want to make sure, when they do so, they are not risking any long-term damage,” said the bill’s sponsor, Delegate Terri Hill, D-Baltimore and Howard counties. Hill is a physician.

Here are a couple great new videos from Jacksonville.

Nanticoke issue a small string in wide NCAA net.

There are strings attached. Tehoka Nanticoke -- and by extension his UAlbany men’s lacrosse team -- found that out the hard way last weekend. He was not in the lineup for a 17-16 loss at Cornell on Saturday, and considering the fact that the sophomore is one of the best players in the country, I’ll go out on a limb to say that his absence had something to do with the one-goal loss.

At issue -- in a murky, convoluted sequence of events that played out starting last Thursday and ended with his reinstatement on Monday -- was an Instagram post by Nanticoke in which he tagged “some third-rate stringing company,” as described by head coach Scott Marr.