New Men's Lax Rankings

[bigmatt718]

http://www.insidelacrosse.com/league/di/polls/17

RU Men's Lacrosse now ranked #8 in the nation in the Media Poll...Coaches Poll out later today. We were #10 in that one last week, could see us at #7, maybe even #6. But can someone please give these guys at this website a Block R to use for us? The old Knight Head is like red to a bull to me to see, even in a Top 10 poll for a sport.

 

[PhilaPhans]

A version of the knight head seems to be coming back for a lot of sports.

 

[PhilaPhans]

While we're at it, how did Denver get good at LaX? I know it's been a few years that they've been good now? Did they just pick a sport they wanted to compete in other than hockey and crazy fund it? Is it the lack of western powers?

 

[rufamily]

it is interesting that in the media poll Cuse is ahead of us even though they lost at home to an Army team we beat at home and Hopkins got demolished by Princeton yet they are still ahead of us. i do not think that we are there yet but, the Brown win was important and if we can beat SB that would be a statement. Rankings are not the real issue just keep winning and do not have any WTF losses and we will be ok.

 

[bigmatt718]

A version of the knight head seems to be coming back for a lot of sports.

At least use the new Knight Head.

 

[bigmatt718]

While we're at it, how did Denver get good at LaX? I know it's been a few years that they've been good now? Did they just pick a sport they wanted to compete in other than hockey and crazy fund it? Is it the lack of western powers?

Pretty much that. I always think that the Pac 12 is waiting to go all in on Lax, and when they do they would invite Denver to join as they would much rather be in the Pac 12 than the BE. I could see Stanford, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah all start D1 and then offer Denver to join to make it an 8 team Pac 12 Men's Lax conference.

 

[bigmatt718]

it is interesting that in the media poll Cuse is ahead of us even though they lost at home to an Army team we beat at home and Hopkins got demolished by Princeton yet they are still ahead of us. i do not think that we are there yet but, the Brown win was important and if we can beat SB that would be a statement. Rankings are not the real issue just keep winning and do not have any WTF losses and we will be ok.

Baltimore Mafia strikes again. Just need to handle our business and we will be fine. If we beat SB and Princeton we will be 9-0 and Top 5 when the B1G gauntlet starts vs Hopkins.

 

[rufamily]

While we're at it, how did Denver get good at LaX? I know it's been a few years that they've been good now? Did they just pick a sport they wanted to compete in other than hockey and crazy fund it? Is it the lack of western powers?

When Tierney went there to coach.

 

[demauroj]

Get through stony brook and Princeton and get thru the ones we SHOULD Win and we a looking at being undefeated going into Johns Hopkins

 

[PhilaPhans]

When Tierney went there to coach.

I'm just curious why Denver all of the sudden decided to pony up and become a lacrosse power. Why they brought in Tierney, etc.

 

[bigmatt718]

It's insane how quickly the B1G got good at lax. In the very near future it will be like B1G Wrestling or B1G Volleyball, where a legit Top 10 team in the country is only 4th in the B1G.

 

[gef21]

While we're at it, how did Denver get good at LaX? I know it's been a few years that they've been good now? Did they just pick a sport they wanted to compete in other than hockey and crazy fund it? Is it the lack of western powers?

Tierny

 

[gef21]

I'm just curious why Denver all of the sudden decided to pony up and become a lacrosse power. Why they brought in Tierney, etc.

I think Tierney wanted the challenge.

 

[rufamily]

I'm just curious why Denver all of the sudden decided to pony up and become a lacrosse power. Why they brought in Tierney, etc.

The story I heard (from a very good source) was that he was asked to consult with Denver, so he went out there just to talk to them and to explain what it might take to become competitive in lacrosse at the national level. The admin of the school loved his ideas and vision and asked him what it would take for him to take the job. At that time all of his kids we out west so he gave them some crazy number (somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000) and after a few days they said ok and he said ok to them. Now his daughter moved back East to take a head College job, but from everything I know he loves it out there and he is not coming back. Rumor has it that he kind of wanted out of Princeton as it was getting harder for him to get kids into the school.

 

[Caliknight]

I would add they funded the program very, very well from the start. Colorado was the first western state to really adopt lacrosse. It's huge there.

 

[Caliknight]

Not sure how we are behind Syracuse. Or some others. Whatever. We keep winning that won't matter.

 

[bigmatt718]

I would add they funded the program very, very well from the start. Colorado was the first western state to really adopt lacrosse. It's huge there.

I really hope the Pac 12 schools can overcome Title IX. It's a shame that Air Force and Denver are the only relevant programs west of the Mississippi. A Pac 12 Lax Conference with Stanford, USC, UCLA, maybe Cal, Oregon, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah and Denver would be awesome for the sport.

 

[DJ Spanky]

A version of the knight head seems to be coming back for a lot of sports.

That's a shame. We worked really hard to get the Block R branding, and now we seem to be discarding it.

The story I heard (from a very good source) was that he was asked to consult with Denver, so he went out there just to talk to them and to explain what it might take to become competitive in lacrosse at the national level. The admin of the school loved his ideas and vision and asked him what it would take for him to take the job. At that time all of his kids we out west so he gave them some crazy number (somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000) and after a few days they said ok and he said ok to them. Now his daughter moved back East to take a head College job, but from everything I know he loves it out there and he is not coming back. Rumor has it that he kind of wanted out of Princeton as it was getting harder for him to get kids into the school.

Not a surprise - Denver is a great place to live. We were looking at moving out there around the Dot Com Crash in 2000 - I was setting up for a round of second interviews in Feb. 2000, and suddenly not only were people no longer there, but whole floors were no longer there. Sadly we never made it out there.

 

[Caliknight]

I really hope the Pac 12 schools can overcome Title IX. It's a shame that Air Force and Denver are the only relevant programs west of the Mississippi. A Pac 12 Lax Conference with Stanford, USC, UCLA, maybe Cal, Oregon, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah and Denver would be awesome for the sport.

Utah is doing D1.

 

[Caliknight]

The story I heard (from a very good source) was that he was asked to consult with Denver, so he went out there just to talk to them and to explain what it might take to become competitive in lacrosse at the national level. The admin of the school loved his ideas and vision and asked him what it would take for him to take the job. At that time all of his kids we out west so he gave them some crazy number (somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000) and after a few days they said ok and he said ok to them. Now his daughter moved back East to take a head College job, but from everything I know he loves it out there and he is not coming back. Rumor has it that he kind of wanted out of Princeton as it was getting harder for him to get kids into the school.

Apparently the admissions Dean who used to favor laxers was ousted a few years before Tierney left which made it harder for get kids in. Apparently the "1200 Club" was no longer viable.

 

[NJ_CO_RU]

Apparently the admissions Dean who used to favor laxers was ousted a few years before Tierney left which made it harder for get kids in. Apparently the "1200 Club" was no longer viable.

The above comments are all pretty much accurate. I think Princeton also gave Tierney a ton of grief about having his son on the staff (prior years) since the school has a stringent nepotism rule. From my understanding it left a bad taste in his mouth. He also has a great assistant coach in Matt Brown and a great pipeline to Canadian players and a vastly improving high school network to pick from.

I live out in Denver since 08 and am pretty active in the lax community (coaching/volunteering) and its huge out here. Playing lax in NJ in the 80's & 90's, our best teams would got to MD, Long Island, upstate NY and get throttled. Somewhere along the line, NJ narrowed the gap with better feeder programs and better coaching. In Denver, the schools are enormous so generally speaking, the coaches should have a deeper pool of athletes to chose from. Case in point, when Cherry Creek (CO) went out to play Mountain Lakes last year, Cherry Creek won with ease. Mind you, Cherry Creek have four thousand students and Mtn Lakes has a few hundred. Also, the coaching and feeder programs are organized with a lot of ex D1 and D3 players. Sure, there are a lot of volunteer dads that don't know how to hold a stick, but that's pretty rare.

If title IX were to be amended, Colorado and Colorado State would each have several hundred kids at tryouts.

 

[rufamily]

Not a great example as that ML was not a great team by Laker standards. but, I get what you mean. 10-8 is not with ease in my book

 

[bigmatt718]

Utah is doing D1.

Hope Colorado, CSU and Arizona State are next. All 3 are elite club programs.

 

[NJ_CO_RU]

Not a great example as that ML was not a great team by Laker standards. but, I get what you mean. 10-8 is not with ease in my book

Ahh, thought it was a bigger margin of victory.

 

[bigmatt718]

RU Men's Lax is ranked #7 in this week's Coaches Poll...literally inches from the #6 spot behind Hopkins.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

RU Men's Lax is ranked #7 in this week's Coaches Poll...literally inches from the #6 spot behind Hopkins.

YUGE!

 

[rbled]

The story I heard (from a very good source) was that he was asked to consult with Denver, so he went out there just to talk to them and to explain what it might take to become competitive in lacrosse at the national level. The admin of the school loved his ideas and vision and asked him what it would take for him to take the job. At that time all of his kids we out west so he gave them some crazy number (somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000) and after a few days they said ok and he said ok to them. Now his daughter moved back East to take a head College job, but from everything I know he loves it out there and he is not coming back. Rumor has it that he kind of wanted out of Princeton as it was getting harder for him to get kids into the school.

Missed the responses in this thread and posted in the other lax thread about this. I can confirm this is accurate from an extremely reliable source. One difference is that bringing him in as a consultant was a ruse from the beginning. The plan all along was to offer him the job, however they AD new the only way he would even consider is to see first hand all of the resources they were prepared to commit to the program. The AD found out through backchannels that he was growing increasingly unhappy at PU with developments like the ones mentioned by Cali and others below so they went all on on the long con and it worked.

 

[Ole Cabbagehead]

Missed the responses in this thread and posted in the other lax thread about this. I can confirm this is accurate from an extremely reliable source. One difference is that bringing him in as a consultant was a ruse from the beginning. The plan all along was to offer him the job, however they AD new the only way he would even consider is to see first hand all of the resources they were prepared to commit to the program. The AD found out through backchannels that he was growing increasingly unhappy at PU with developments like the ones mentioned by Cali and others below so they went all on on the long con and it worked.

Wow. What a coup. That AD deserves major credit for pulling that off. I wish we could pull that once in any sport - instead of hiring stupid consulting firms to identify the candidates everyone already knows about. But then I guess Rutgers has also never been willing to go all in on anything either.

 

[rudad02]

Tierney graduated from my alma mater Cortland State. We churned many successful D1 lacrosse coaches, including Fred Acee at Air Force a year ahead of me. Sid Jamieson at Bucknell my classmate. Started Bucknell program. Coached there for 38 yrs. Sid is an Iriquois Indian originally from a reservation in Ontario Canada. Tony Seaman, yr. behind me. Coached at Penn.,Johns Hopkins & Towson. Dave Urick long time coach at Hobart & Georgetown. Mike Waldvogel- long run at Yale. Among others.

 

[Caliknight]

Indeed, Cortland St. has produced many great coaches. Must be something in the water up there.

Coach Jamieson is a great guy. As the game grows, people need to be reminded of where the game came from. With the influx of native players, hopefully this is easier to continue to do.

 

[rbled]

Wow. What a coup. That AD deserves major credit for pulling that off. I wish we could pull that once in any sport - instead of hiring stupid consulting firms to identify the candidates everyone already knows about. But then I guess Rutgers has also never been willing to go all in on anything either.

True, but also hard to compare a smallish private institution like DU to a big state school like RU. Not nearly as much red tape that they have to go through other than t9 compliance. As a private school, Denver is able to make logical business decisions that are harder for us. They already had experience seeing the impact that a top flight hockey program brings to the school in terms of visibility. Adding one of the fastest growing HS sports which was exploding locally with no other D1 programs in the state besides Air Force was really a no-brainer. The Denver MLL franchise has long been the top drawing team in the league by a substantial margin. At that point it was a matter of figuring what it would take to compete, which was really facilities and a proven coach. You also have to understand that DU doesn't support a FB program so compared to that cost, a top flight lax coach and facilities is pocket change.

 

[Caliknight]

rbled are you going to the Ohio St. game?

 

[WhichReligionIsRight]

Pretty much that. I always think that the Pac 12 is waiting to go all in on Lax, and when they do they would invite Denver to join as they would much rather be in the Pac 12 than the BE. I could see Stanford, USC, UCLA, Oregon, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah all start D1 and then offer Denver to join to make it an 8 team Pac 12 Men's Lax conference.

Lacrosse is increasingly popular along the West Coast. IMO, however, the sport competes more at the rugby level (club sport) than, say at volleyball or swimming or water polo (where the Pac 12 is among the best in the nation at the NCAA level).

 

[rudad02]

Indeed, Cortland St. has produced many great coaches. Must be something in the water up there.

Coach Jamieson is a great guy. As the game grows, people need to be reminded of where the game came from. With the influx of native players, hopefully this is easier to continue to do.

Thanks for the response Cali. We had a lot of LI guys in my day. I was a baseball guy. Had never seen lacrosse. Once in a while I would catch a glimpse of a practice or a game & see guys passing the ball around the perimeter & thought what a dopey game. What the hell did I know! Many yrs later one of my son's ended up playing D1 lacrosse. Great game. Really follow it & our guys in particular of course.

 

[NickyNewark51]

Thanks for the response Cali. We had a lot of LI guys in my day. I was a baseball guy. Had never seen lacrosse. Once in a while I would catch a glimpse of a practice or a game & see guys passing the ball around the perimeter & thought what a dopey game. What the hell did I know! Many yrs later one of my son's ended up playing D1 lacrosse. Great game. Really follow it & our guys in particular of course.

I was just like you...thought the game was expensive to outfit and silly....but I grew up in the 50s through 70s before it started to blow up...and in North Jersey where hardly anyone knew the rules or cared...lol...it has started to capture my imagination lately though..

 

[rbled]

rbled are you going to the Ohio St. game?

Would like to but will be in Thailand on vaca.

 

[Caliknight]

Lacrosse is increasingly popular along the West Coast. IMO, however, the sport competes more at the rugby level (club sport) than, say at volleyball or swimming or water polo (where the Pac 12 is among the best in the nation at the NCAA level).

This is definitely changing at the high school and early level. Once lacrosse became a CIF sanctioned sport, as it did 6 or 7 years ago, the game has really exploded. All of a sudden, it mattered. It hasn't translated to the college ranks on the men's side, though more programs out west have teams, including Stanford, USC, Oregon, and a few others. But yea, water polo and volleyball especially are huge out here.

 

[Caliknight]

Would like to but will be in Thailand on vaca.

Should be a good one. I think a lot of guys are coming back from our era. Nice, where in Thailand?

 

[rbled]

Should be a good one. I think a lot of guys are coming back from our era. Nice, where in Thailand?

Yeah, it looks like it's shaping up to be a great match up. Would be great to see the guys too. Itinerary is not finalized yet. Just know we land in Hong Kong and spending a few days there, then fly to the north of Thailand. Then planning on staying on one or two of the islands in the south but not sure which yet. We'll spend a few days in Singapore before flying back to SFO. Have you been? Any suggestions (keeping in mind I'll be with my wife and son [laughing])?