Author: Mike

Treading Water

On By MikeIn lacrosse1 Comment

Washington Post lacrosse guru Christian Swezey tackles the top issue facing Division I lacrosse today: growth. Or more specifically, the lack thereof.

Lacrosse is exploding across the country. High school programs from Florida to Michigan to California are thriving, with more than 1,000 schools adding lacrosse over the last 25 years. But while Division III has matched that growth– doubling in size to 145 over the same time period– Division I has not. When Butler dropped its lacrosse program in January, it brought the total number of Division I lacrosse schools down to 56, only 6 more than where the division stood in 1982. So why hasn’t Division I lax matched the growth of the sport?

One popular explanation is Title IX. Division I women’s lacrosse has grown to 81 programs, with more being added every year (including at Navy next year). Unlike the men’s game, D-I women’s lacrosse stretches from coast to coast with programs at Cal, Stanford, Oregon, St. Mary’s, and UC Davis. A team from the midwest, Northwestern, has won the last two national championships. This kind of growth is possible because there is no women’s equivalent to football. Football eats up 85 scholarships at I-A schools and 63 at the I-AA level, so any idea of adding another men’s sport is already handcuffed if the school is to remain Title IX compliant.

Even without Title IX, though, money would still be an issue. Coaches’ salaries, recruiting, travel, equipment, and 12.6 scholarships aren’t cheap. Men’s non-revenue sports are usually the first to get cut at most schools, as any wrestling or gymnastics fan could tell you. It’s no surprise that colleges aren’t scrambling to add another one.

The dirty little secret, though, is that many people in the lacrosse community don’t want Division I to grow. Look at who some of the best teams in college lacrosse are: non-scholarship Ivy League schools, service academies, Johns Hopkins… If Division I grew to include I-A mega-schools like the those in the SEC and Big XII, what would happen to the traditional powerhouses? The answer is the same thing that’s happened in every other sport that these schools once dominated; eventually they’ll fade away as larger state schools with lower admissions standards take over. For some of the game’s biggest supporters, that isn’t very appealing. Lacrosse is still a tight-knit community in the Northeast, where everyone more or less knows each other. A lot of people want to keep it that way.

So where can growth in Division I come from? The answer might be Division II. Bellarmine is a small school (2,500) whose sports compete in Division II. The school started its lacrosse program in 2005, and in 2006 played its first full season in Division I. NCAA rules prohibit a school from fielding teams in both Division I and Division III. There is no such rule for Division II, though. Lacrosse is now the flagship program at Bellarmine, who is using the growing popularity of lacrosse to raise the school’s profile. The Bellarmine model could be a blueprint for other schools to follow.

One way or another, Division I needs to grow. Whatever other motives people might have, nothing is more important than giving more kids the opportunity to continue playing the game they love after high school. That’s supposed to be what it’s all about, right?

It’s Good To Be Loved

On By MikeIn bowls, football, navy footballLeave a comment

Bowl game talk is in the news again. The Baltimore Business Journal is reporting that the Camden Yards Sports and Entertainment Commission is considering submitting a bid to bring a bowl game to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Like the proposed game in Washington, the Commission is interested in possibly establishing an affiliation with the Naval Academy. Unlike the Washington game, this would not be a new bowl game but rather a transplanted game that is struggling in its current host city. It’s still early in the process, and the game wouldn’t happen earlier than December 2008; but the more bowl talk that’s surrounding Navy, the better.

Fenske Transferring?

On By MikeIn navy basketball, recruitingLeave a comment

CSTV’s Hodge Report is reporting that forward Bobby Fenske is leaving the Naval Academy. Fenske (6-8, 196), a prized recruit who originally committed to the Air Force Academy before being medically disqualified, averaged a little more than 8 minutes per game in his freshman campaign (including 10 starts). While seeing limited action, he did shoot 40% from behind the arc (10-25) and was almost certainly being counted on as a centerpiece of Billy Lange’s frontcourt for the next three years. Fenske’s departure leaves the small forward position a two-man battle between junior Adam Teague and sophomore T.J. Topercer. No word yet on where Fenske will end up.

OJ AvworoCoach Lange may be losing a forward via transfer, but he’s gaining a guard. Idaho’s O.J. Avworo (6-0, 180) is transferring to Navy. Avworo, who was heavily recruited by Navy before committing to Idaho, will sit out next season in accordance with NCAA transfer rules. He averaged nearly 27 min./game with the Vandals last year while starting 24 games and leading the team with 95 assists. Avworo should contend for the starting point guard spot when he is eligible to play in 2008-2009, which would free up Kaleo Kina to take over Greg Sprink’s role as Navy’s primary scoring threat in the backcourt.

eBay Scavenger Hunt, Vol. 1

On By MikeIn army-navy, ebay, navy football2 Comments

There are dozens of old Navy game programs on eBay at any given time. This one, however, is a bit different. First, it’s supposedly signed by the enitre Navy team, including Roger Staubach. Second, whoever is selling it has the date wrong. The seller says it’s from the ’67 game, but that’s actually the program from 1964. Obviously, since Roger had already been to Vietnam and back by the ’67 Army-Navy game.

Chronological faux pas aside, signed memorabilia is something I get nervous about buying anywhere, let alone on eBay. But if you aren’t paranoid like me, it’s worth a look.

Paul Johnson Visits Jacksonville

On By MikeIn navy football, Paul Johnson1 Comment

Head football coach Paul Johnson made a swing through Jacksonville to talk to the local alumni association chapter on the wine and cheese circuit. The Birddog was there, along with more than 100 alumni and fans at UNF’s University Center.

The Times-Union was there too, although they didn’t provide any detail on the speech. Hopefully that’s where I can step in. Fullbacks coach Chris Culton made the trip too. If you’ve heard Coach Johnson talk to USNA alumni groups before, you know that he makes basically the same speech each time. It’s nothing most hardcore Navy fans don’t already know, but it’s still good stuff; especially for those who may have forgotten just how far Navy football has come in 5 short years. Some highlights:

– Coach Johnson said he was “astounded” that Navy’s facilities hadn’t improved between the time he was offensive coordinator (1995-1996) and 2002 when he took over as head coach. Facilities had slipped behind both Air Force and Army over that time. That was one of the first things he set about correcting when he came back.

– Player attitudes were another thing that needed correcting. Coach talked about how, in his first year, the team would lose a game but the players didn’t act like they cared. After the game they’d be on their cell phones looking to see where the party was. Accountability and a winning attitude were things that didn’t really exist. One of the things that he did to correct this attitude was ramp up the intensity at practice. The more you invest, PJ says, the harder it is to lay down. Of course, the harder you work, the fewer people there are who’ll want to do it. A side effect of this new philosophy was that a lot of guys “didn’t think football was fun anymore,” as PJ put it, and ended up quitting. That helped to keep the team at a more manageable size (about 150 or so).

– Mentioned that the first goals that he set for the program was to win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy and to make Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium a tough place to play again.

– Coach Johnson had a 3-pronged strategy for improvement. First was making the players that he inherited better. To do that, PJ brought strength and conditioning coach Mike Brass with him from Georgia Southern. With summer training taking up a lot of the time that other schools would be using for offseason workouts, Coach Johnson wanted to find a way to make more time for players to use for conditioning. The end result is “0” block cruise. Football players have a chance to start their summer professional training as soon as classes end rather than waiting until after Commissioning Week festivities are over.

The second part of the improvement strategy was to recruit better players. The previous staff cast a wide net, bringing in hundreds of players in the hopes that through sheer luck, a few of them will turn out to be legitimate I-A prospects. Rather than do that, PJ and his staff target kids that they know can play.

The third leg of the rebirth of Navy football was to change the schedule. Playing top 25 programs week in and week out doesn’t give us a chance to win. Coach restated the 4-4-4 scheduling philosophy: 4 teams you should be favored against, 4 teams where it should be pretty even, and 4 teams that you need to “play up” to beat.

– Coach Johnson wrapped up the prepared portion of his talk by talking about spring practice and looking ahead to this season. He said that he felt that the team made good progress this spring. He said that all three quarterbacks played very well and that he’d be comfortable with any of them. He also said that the defense made great strides. At the beginning of the spring, the offense pretty much had their way with the defense. The opposite was true at the end. That’s important because, according to PJ, the defense was always ahead of the offense on the best teams he’s coached.

– The offensive line might be the best he’s had at Navy. Definitely the most athletic. The whole team, in fact, is more athletic than ever. There are a lot of young players on defense; 10 new starters. Coach Johnson says that he thinks they can play, but you never know until you play a game.

– After his speech, Coach opened the floor to questions. Lots of good stories in the Q&A. For example, PJ talked about the 2002 Air Force game, when Fisher DeBerry told newspaper reporters after the game that he wanted to “send a message.” PJ clipped that newspaper article, framed it, and kept it on his desk for motivation until the next year.

The most interesting thing that Coach talked about in the Q&A was the need to play a game in Florida for recruiting purposes. He talked about maybe getting games with USF or UCF. If something couldn’t be put together with either of those schools, then PJ said that the answer might be to schedule the Notre Dame game in Florida again. But one way or another, PJ was very clear that we needed a game in Florida.

That was about it. Tom Heilmann once again did a terrific job putting the event together. Football season can’t get here soon enough.

The Seeds of Discontent

On By MikeIn lacrosse9 Comments

When the field for the NCAA Division I lacrosse tournament was revealed, many lacrosse fans were left scratching their heads. As with NCAA tournaments in every sport, there was the usual questioning of which teams were invited to play and which ones were left to prepare for next year. This year, though, the most talk wasn’t about the fate of “bubble teams;” it was about the arrangement of the teams at the top.

Cornell got hosedCornell ended the regular season undefeated and atop both the media and coaches’ polls. The champions of the Ivy League had already defeated the two polls’ consensus #2, Duke, so it appeared that they would be the no-brainer #1 seed in the tournament. The selection committee, however, had other ideas. Duke received the #1 seed. Cornell fell all the way to #4, behind not only Duke but Virginia and Johns Hopkins as well.

Now, I have no problem with the media and coaches’ polls not being part of the committee’s selection or seeding criteria. They shouldn’t be. In fact, I don’t necessarily mind that Cornell is not the #1 seed, although they’d be my choice. I do have a problem with Cornell being seeded behind a 4-loss Johns Hopkins team, though. Maryland head coach Dave Cottle sheds some light on how that happened:

“There is a formula for seeding the tournament that is 50 percent results, 30 percent strength of schedule and 20 percent RPI,” said Maryland head coach Dave Cottle, a member of the selection committee.

I won’t go into the obvious conflict of interest involved with having tournament coaches as part of the selection committee. It’s a sham, but that’s not my point for today. For now, my objection is to the enormous weight placed on the strength of schedule and the over-reliance on the formula.

This won’t be a very popular argument. There are some people who feel that the world revolves around schedule strength. But there are two things that stick out as serious flaws of making simple strength of schedule a 30% chunk of the selection and seeding formula.

First, strength of schedule is already factored into the RPI. 75% of the RPI formula consists of opponent winning percentage plus opponent’s opponent winning percentage. By adding a separate strength of schedule component, you end up counting it twice. The end result is that the team’s winning percentage, which really should be the biggest factor in the formula, is marginalized.

Second, strength of schedule as a stand-alone measurement is meaningless. Having a tough schedule isn’t a team accomplishment. You don’t have to be good to lose to a top team; anyone can do that. Should a loss to Duke be more beneficial than a win over someone like Air Force or Canisius? It is now. If a team goes 0-14 but played the top 14 teams in the nation, that team will have the #1 strength of schedule. That means that a winless team gets 30% of the formula in determining the tournament’s top seed. Yes, I know you aren’t eligible for the tournament with a losing record. But does it make sense to use a system where that scenario is even theoretically possible?

Even if the formula is tweaked, that won’t solve all the problems there are in the selection system. When you read Cottle’s comments in the linked article as well as the comments of other committee members in other stories on the same subject, you get the sense that they were bound by the formula. If that’s the case, then what on earth is the point of having a committee? It doesn’t take a committee of lacrosse experts to churn out formula results. You can do that with any random guy off the street who’s handy with a spreadsheet. The committee is either obligated to seed teams according to their formula score or they like to project that image in order to justify their selections. Neither condition is appealing.

It’s never a good idea to sacrifice common sense for the “objectivity” of a math problem that is inherently flawed.

All Good Things…

On By MikeIn lacrosse, navy lacrosse1 Comment

Navy’s season ended Sunday evening in the first round of the NCAA lacrosse tournament with a 12-8 defeat at the hands of North Carolina.

Recaps: Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, Annapolis Capital

It’s a hard loss to take. Navy outshot UNC, but after scoring 4 goals in the first ten minutes, the Mids’ offense could only muster 4 goals out of 31 shots over the last three quarters. North Carolina trailed 6-5 at the half, but came out in the 3rd quarter playing a zone defense that seemed to catch the Mids off guard. The offense never recovered.

So, thus endeth the season. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I’ll ever call 11-4 with a Patriot League championship a disappointment. That said, I admit that I had higher hopes than a first-round loss for the senior seasons of Dingman, Billy Looney, Dow, Barger, Wallace, and Wallin. I really thought that this group had a chance to go far. And before I turn into Debbie Downer, in a way they did. They are, of course, the winningest class in Navy lacrosse history. I guess I just wanted more for these guys. They were a big part of what’s become a renaissance for Navy lacrosse. But as the saying goes, deserve’s got nothing to do with it. In the end, five UNC goals in the 4th quarter is all that matters.

One line in Bill Wagner’s recap caught my eye:

Meade knew it would be important for Navy to create a half-field, six-on-six type of game and prevent North Carolina from scoring in unsettled situations. His worst fears came to fruition as the Tar Heels got goals off fastbreaks, substitutions and rebounds.

Once upon a time, that was Navy’s bread and butter. The 2004 team lived off of running teams into the ground by sending in wave after wave of fresh-legged midfielders and scoring goals in transition. What happened to that? What’s changed? Not that there’s anything wrong with settling down and playing 6-on-6 lacrosse, of course. It’s simply a matter of style, and there’s obviously more than one way to win. But in three years, Navy went from the running and gunning team in lacrosse to a team where you hold your breath on every clear attempt. We’ve won both ways, so I’m not complaining as much as I am curious about the apparent shift in coaching philosophy. The only thing I can think of is perhaps the coaches don’t feel that the midfield is quite as deep, but that is just pure speculation.

Speaking of depth, there are a couple of obvious questions that need to be answered about next year’s team. Who’s next on the Ray Finnegan goalie production line, and how are we going to replace the sheer goal-scoring production of Ian Dingman? The answer to the first question will probably be Matt Coughlin, a rising junior who was a two-time All-American in high school and standout at NAPS. At 6-2, 209, he’ll definitely be the biggest goalie we’ll have seen between the pipes in Annapolis in a long time (should he win the job, of course). The answer to the second one might seem less apparent, but with Ian Dingman’s “Adventures in Commissioning” it’s a problem we’ve faced before. When Dingman sat out the 2005 season, John Tillman turned to his midfielders to pick up the slack. With an offense designed around Jon Birsner feeding cutting and slashing midfielders, Navy scored 157 goals in 2005 with all three starting midfielders and Birsner earning All-America honors. If that’s the route that Tillman wants to take the offense next year, he should have the horsepower to do it with Basil Daratsos, Terence Higgins, and Tim Paul.  Bruce Nechanicky looked like he was on his way to a fantastic season before going down to injury against Georgetown. He would fill Birsner’s role nicely. Nick Mirabito and his team-leading 44 points returns on the attack. If Tim Paul switches from attack back to the midfield next season, Nechanicky and Mirabito would probably be joined by Matt Guido or Matt Bitter. Jordan DiNola and Brendan Teague will once again anchor a solid defense.

With Bucknell and Colgate on the rise in the Patriot League, 2008 will be a very entertaining year.

Hello, Cleveland

On By MikeIn bowls, football, navy football1 Comment

There aren’t too many examples in the sports world of the three service academies acting together as a single unit. Considering what it takes to make it happen, it’s usually a pretty big deal when it does. And nothing brings service academies together like… the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission.

The commission has brought together the three service academies and the Mid-American Conference in a game to be played annually at Cleveland Browns Stadium, called the Patriot Bowl. Rumored for more than a year now, the inaugural First Merit Patriot Bowl will be played on September 1st at 6pm and will feature Army vs. Akron in the season opener for both schools.

First Merit signed a 3-year deal to be the title sponsor of the game, which is scheduled to take place over Labor Day weekend each year. Navy already has games scheduled on that weekend over the next two years (Towson in 2008 and Hawaii in 2009), so assuming that each service academy will rotate through once in the next three years, expect some schedule juggling (I’m looking at you, Towson). The MAC representative each year will be one of the confrence’s Ohio schools in an effort to maximize the game’s attendance. Attendance is a concern, too, since none of the MAC schools really set the world on fire in that category. But the commission hopes to draw 30,000 for the game by inviting teams with a national following (the service academies), and making the game the centerpiece of a weekend sports festival featuring “patriotic, civic events, including a tailgate, Cleveland Firefighters vs. Cleveland Police flag football pre-game match and spectacular halftime show.” 

As far as Navy as concerned, it looks like a pretty good deal. We already play a couple of MAC teams every year anyway. If it’s only once every three years that one of those games is played in Cleveland, at a big venue, as part of a weekend festival, and with a trophy on the line (the “Cleary Trophy,” not to be confused with the ECAC hockey trophy of the same name), then it isn’t exactly a big hassle. Assuming, of course, that it’s the MAC team giving up a home date and not Navy. It almost certainly will be, since they’d want to count that attendance figure toward their averages.

No word yet on TV coverage.