Archive for May 29, 2012
May 29, 2012 — Where men and women can agree … maybe
A couple of changes could be coming to NCAA lacrosse, and, some might say, none too soon.
John Jiloty of Inside Lacrosse blogged about how the NCAA championship weekend on the men’s side could see a huge revamping — including moving the championship weekend to June.
If that was to happen, I’d like to see the women do the same. Moving the championship to the first weekend of June, then bringing back mid-week games to the tournament (or, perhaps, having four-team regionals like in field hockey?), could shave the better part of a month off the front end of the regular season.
The upside? No more games in February.
Another active discussion topic, by Marisa Ingemi on the In Lax We Trust blog, is how to alter the rules to make the game faster-paced and to give more scoring opportunities to both teams.
Over the weekend, Loyola’s men allowed the University of Maryland exactly three goals in the championship game by holding them scoreless for more than 40 minutes. On the women’s side, Northwestern choked off Syracuse’s attack for the last 10 minutes of both halves.
A lot of that was good defense. But a lot of it was also a patient attack on the part of the two teams’ respective offenses and the willingness to hold onto the ball for several minutes before changing rhythm and putting in a good shot.
Now, men’s lacrosse has a built-in stall warning, which is triggered when a team holds the ball for an extended length of time before going to goal (usually about one minute), or if a team rescues possession from over the halfway line once during a particular possession.
The women don’t have any such stricture. But I think that should change.
My suggestion: in the last five minutes of play, a women’s lacrosse team with the lead would not be allowed to move the ball from the attack zone outside the 35-yard line. In essence, the “keep it in” rule would apply.
I don’t want to see a shot clock in either men’s or women’s lacrosse because it would be, frankly, a nightmare to implement across a broad range of games, from over-35 all the way down to youth contests.
That’s why you don’t have a National Federation rule mandating a shot clock in high schools. Sure, eight states do have the shot clock, but you’ve never had an uprising of coaches, players, and fans wanting to see its adoption nationwide.
After watching last weekend’s action, what do you think?
