Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME! Tournament.

Penn State-Drexel may the toughest thing you'll watch all week, assuming that you don't get stuck watching Notting Hill on Netflix. These are two of the more defensively-oriented teams forced to lock up this week in postseason play and there is very little offense kicking around to satisfy your carnivorous needs. Just accept this, people: At any moment during play, a grizzly bear with an accordion could walk out on the field and rip the sweetest version of "Tiger Rag" you've ever heard. So that's something.

Anyway, here's the heat on Penn State.

Penn State Nittany Lions: Two-Seed

For a more complete, mind-bending picture, here's a .pdf of the complete report.

Three pieces of incredibly important information from my brain to your eyes via your Internet computing machine:

Continue reading this post »

Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME! Tournament.

The great thing about college lacrosse is that it's full of all kinds of different styles of play. The bad thing about college lacrosse is that some of those styles of play are boring with a capital "Deadly." Drexel is kind of one of those boring teams -- the Dragons are only rated 43rd currently in the "Fun Factor" -- but the style of play has worked for them in THUNDERDOME! So, you know, good for Coach Voelker (despite my dozing off).

Anyway, here's the heat on Drexel.

Drexel Dragons: Three-Seed

For a more complete, mind-bending picture, here's a .pdf of the complete report.

Three pieces of incredibly important information from my brain to your eyes via your Internet computing machine:

Continue reading this post »

Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME! Tournament.

Will Manny. He's the man-ny. (Ugh. Sorry.)

Anyway, here's the heat on Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Minutemen: One-Seed

For a more complete, mind-bending picture, here's a .pdf of the complete report.

Three pieces of incredibly important information from my brain to your eyes via your Internet computing machine:

Continue reading this post »

Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME! Tournament.

Writing about Towson in the THUNDERDOME! Tournament is like watching one of those video diaries from I Shouldn't Be Alive. Victory favors the lucky, and Towson's miraculous comeback victory over Hofstra on Long Island and a little help this weekend from Penn State pushed the Tigers into the warm embrace of postseason Valhalla. These are the days of our lives.

Anyway, here's the heat on Towson.

Towson Tigers: Four-Seed

For a more complete, mind-bending picture, here's a .pdf of the complete report.

Three pieces of incredibly important information from my brain to your eyes via your Internet computing machine:

Continue reading this post »

Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME.



The UMass Minutemen are #1 in the nation and head into the THUNDERDOME undefeated. But will they make it out of it unscathed? Their first test will come against the Towson Tigers. The game will be played in Amherst at the University of Massachusetts, so the Minutemen will have home field advantage. The first meeting was a bit of a blowout, but anything can and will happen in the month of May.

Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME.

It's one big Keystone State showdown in Happy Valley as Drexel comes in from Philadelphia to State College to tackle Penn State. I just hit you up with the geography lesson, so here's the statistical lesson for this Colonial semifinal.

Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME

Are you ready for the CAA Tournament? Not until you check out our infographics on the four combatants in the THUNDERDOME. Here there are, and don't be afraid to click on them to make them larger.

#1 Seed Massachusetts Minutemen

#2 Seed Penn State Nittany Lions

Drexel and Towson are on deck after the jump

Continue reading this post »

Every Division I tournament. Every team. College Crosse has it all on lockdown. Please send cookies and naptime. Today we're slashing to bits the THUNDERDOME! Tournament.

The best thing about THUNDERDOME! was always that the guy with the biggest nail gun and nastiest scar didn't necessarily walked out of the arena the victorious, albeit wounded, champion. THUNDERDOME! rewards brutish fight and a blasted temper akin to a bear with a shotgun that just had his honey stolen. Yet, in 2012, Massachusetts kind of poured water all over the field's flaming boundary, running through the league unblemished with only one true bout that yielded some wounds: An overtime victory against Penn State out in Pennsylvania. Even the nasty middle of the league had itself worked out fairly early this season, which just isn't exciting in the context of "I WANT ALL THE MURDERS!" Regardless, it's all going down this week and, hopefully, the league can find some of the vengeance it had been missing most of the year.

Fancy infographics and detailed team profiles will follow, but for now, here's an overview of the 2012 THUNDERDOME! Tournament that you can study non-stop until your eyes bleed. Everything gets moving with the civilized bare-knuckle boxing starting on May 2, 2012.

CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT: THUNDERDOME!

Hate tons of possessions in a lacrosse game? Well, you're in luck, my boring friend! THUNDERDOME! is here to make sure that you don't see more than 60 possessions in your two hours of interest. As part of the bargain, THUNDERDOME! will throw in: One of the most dangerous offensive players the game has seen in five years; a Massachusetts offense that is sending opposing goalies to therapy with Daddy issues; a Penn State defense that strangles the life out of anything will lungs (they'd strangle things with gills if lacrosse was played in water, homeboy); and a Towson team that may not make it out of the second period of its semifinal game with its legs still attached to its collective body.

What a deal!

Here's how each team stacks up in some legacy metrics:

That Penn State-Drexel semifinal should be all sorts of close, and whichever moves on to play Massachusetts -- assuming the inconceivable doesn't happen -- will provide a decent test for the nation's last unbeaten..

Here's the shakedown on the big offensive weapons taking the field this weekend:

T.O.V. = Total Offensive Value (individual points per 100 offensive possessions). This is updated through all games played by April 29, 2012.
Rank = National T.O.V. rank. This is updated through all games played by April 29, 2012.

So, that's your overview. Who are you taking to take home top honors?