May Madness is here and it feels so good. The fun started earlier in the week with UMBC winning its play-in game over Marist and now everyone gets in on the action with the First Round of the NCAA Tournament today and tomorrow. The first game up is today at noon between Syracuse & Loyola.

Directly below is the Big Board for May 11, 2019. Clicking on the 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 on the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that particular game. All times Eastern Standard Time.

College Crosse NCAA Tournament Preview

Jake, Ryan, & I previewed all the games this weekend on our College Crossecast NCAA Tournament preview show.

The 2019 NCAA Lacrosse Tournament season has finally arrived, and like Santa on Christmas Eve we’ve come bearing with gifts to celebrate the occasion. Auditory gifts, to be specific. It’s a first round preview episode of COLLEGE CROSSECAST!

I’m joined by Safe and Jake as we get you all set for the opening weekend in both the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse and Women’s Lacrosse tournaments. We start with some more coaching move news (:35) and the release of the Tewaaraton finalist list (3:00). Then it’s on to previewing the big games of the weekend. Want to know where we talk about the game you’re interested in? Follow along:

-Penn State-UMBC: 11:14

-Loyola-Syracuse: 14:00

-Yale-Georgetown: 29:35

-Penn-Army: 38:30

-Virginia-Robert Morris: 46:24

-Towson-Maryland: 56:35

-Notre Dame-Johns Hopkins: 1:12:24

-Duke-Richmond: 1:23:45

-Our Final Four picks: 1:23:45

Chris has everything you need to know about this weekend’s games.

Tournament time is finally here! The Men’s Division I Tournament got started on Wednesday with UMBC defeating Marist, but the other 15 teams get started this weekend with the first round. All games are on ESPNU and each day of four games begins at noon. For some, it could be the final games of competitive lacrosse ever. For others, it’s a chance to extend their college lacrosse seasons and time with their teammates.

While reading, check out our first round NCAA Tournament preview edition of the College Crossecast.

SATURDAY GAMES

Syracuse vs. #8 Loyola (Noon, ESPNU)

How They Got Here

Syracuse: After a 2-2 start to their season which included a stunning home loss to Colgate, the Orange have looked like a very good team in the college lacrosse landscape, especially on defense. Syracuse has limited the opposition to single-digit goal totals seven times, all of them wins. But their ACC Tournament run ended too early for the team after a late collapse to UNC to pretty much push them out of being a seed. This will be the first time since 2012 the Orange started the NCAA Tournament away from the Carrier Dome.

Loyola: The Greyhounds have one of the best players in all of college lacrosse in Pat Spencer. The senior, who sounds like will play college basketball next season, has not been to Championship Weekend since he was a freshman. And that team got destroyed by North Carolina in Philadelphia. He looks to return back to Philly three years later and give the Greyhounds their second ever national title. Loyola hosted the Patriot League Tournament as the regular season champion yet again, but was upset by Army West Point in the semifinals.

College Crosse BINGO

It’s back! For the third straight year, we’re doing Bingo for the First Round games!

It started as something for fun in 2017. It returned last year. And it’s being done again. The First Round Bingo card has returned for its third year. The OG lacrosse Bingo card involves every game this weekend, so it makes you watch all eight matchups. Each team has at least one spot on the board, some more than others. There’s some squares involving members of the broadcast crew and other lacrosse stories that might be relevant this weekend.

Attachments

Looks like the Quakers are ready to go.

Quinnipiac names Mason Poli head men’s lacrosse coach.

After a turmoil-filled fall for the Quinnipiac men’s lacrosse team, the school is turning to a familiar face to continue leading its program. Quinnipiac’s director of athletics and recreation Greg Amodio announced Friday morning that Mason Poli will have his interim tag removed and become the sixth head coach in the history of the program. Poli took over as the interim head coach when Quinnipiac parted ways with its former long-time head coach Eric Fekete in early October.

Stay hydrated, Robert Morris.

What you need to know about Penn State lacrosse’s historic season and path to a national championship.

When Mac O’Keefe’s shot lasered past the Johns Hopkins goalie in sudden death overtime, Penn State men’s lacrosse team took another big step in its historic season. The junior, who has one of the most lethal shots in the nation, sprinted along the sideline and was tackled by frantic teammates as the program celebrated its first-ever Big Ten championship. “It didn’t really hit me until the next day,” O’Keefe said. “I’ll definitely remember it forever.”

The Washington Post called Maryland “underdogs” and I love it.

Virginia men’s lacrosse team set to begin ‘Phase III’ of season against Robert Morris.

Virginia men’s lacrosse coach Lars Tiffany breaks this season down into three phases. Phase I: Win a regular season ACC title. The Cavaliers accomplished that on April 13 despite a loss at Duke. North Carolina also lost that weekend, securing Virginia’s 25th regular season championship. Phase II: Win an ACC Tournament title. Virginia’s defense dominated Notre Dame last weekend in a 10-4 rout in the final. On Saturday, it’s on to phase III: Win a national championship.

The controversial history of headgear in women’s lacrosse.

John Hulbert is a dad and a coach. First, it was soccer and baseball. A while back, John and his family moved to Florida. That’s when John’s son decided he wanted to play lacrosse. “And next thing you know, I became a lacrosse parent,” Hulbert says. Every time he played, Hulbert’s son would put on gloves, elbow pads, arm pads, shoulder pads and a helmet. But when Hulbert’s daughter started playing the game, something was different. “They only wore goggles,” Hulbert says. “That’s all they wore — goggles and a stick and cleats — and that’s all they were required to have.”

Coach Desko & his lads previewed the Loyola game today.

LET’S GOOOO!!

“Greasers” find new home at animal shelter. (H/T @BossyBritches72)

They’re called “greasers.” Old lacrosse balls that have become so worn and slick that they can’t be used for games or practice. What do you do with them? Anyone with an old lacrosse stick and a large dog has probably played fetch. Now, four members of the Culver Military Prep lacrosse team have gone one step further, turning 20 to 30 greasers into tug ropes for the shelter dogs at the Marshall County Humane Society. First-classmen Kelan Duff (Chicago), Emmett King (Brownsburg, Ind.), Jack Parker (Ada, Mich.), and Jake DeMare (Naperville, Ill.) combined the old balls with nylon nautical rope to make the toys appropriate for larger dogs.

Can UMBC pull off another upset of No. 1 seed?

The first round of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament will have an overwhelmingly local flavor to it. With UMBC’s 14-8 opening-round win at Marist on Wednesday, five Baltimore-area teams will compete in first-round action Saturday and Sunday, tied for the second most from the state in tournament history. A record six made the 2007 field, but only the Retrievers and eventual champion Johns Hopkins advanced to the quarterfinals.

Coach Alberici talks Army lacrosse & previews Penn.

Younger lacrosse players have more concussions than older players

Younger boys who play lacrosse are more likely to get injured and sustain concussions than high school or college players, a U.S. study suggests. Researchers looked at injuries per minute of athletic exposure (AE), which includes both practices and competitions, for 21 youth boys’ teams, 22 high school boys’ teams, and 20 college men’s teams over three lacrosse seasons. In youth boys’ lacrosse there were 268 injuries during 26,070 AEs, for an injury rate of 10.3 per 1,000 AEs, the study found. That compares with an injury rate of 5.3 per 1,000 AEs in high school lacrosse and 4.7 per 1,000 AEs for college players. Concussions were also more common in youth lacrosse, with an injury rate of 0.7 per 1,000 AEs compared with 0.3 per 1,000 AEs in high school and college.

Pat Spencer’s serious about playing basketball after his college lacrosse career is over.

One coach referred to Pat Spencer as college lacrosse’s version of LeBron, and many believe he’s the best player in the country. He’s a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award – lacrosse’s player of the year honor – for the third consecutive season. As if he needed further validation, the Loyola Maryland star was drafted with the first overall pick in the new Premier Lacrosse League college draft on April 24. But he’s putting pro lacrosse on hold to play college hoops. “He’s nice in basketball,” said former Kansas and NBA guard Josh Selby, who has played pickup against Spencer numerous times in Baltimore. “He can do everything: shoot, handle it, dunk and defend. I haven’t seen him play lacrosse, but he can hoop.”