In his regular Saturday column, Dan Fleuette discusses and comments on the latest news from the world of lacrosse. Be sure to check this space every Saturday at Breitbart Sports for incisive analysis and news of all things lacrosse.

National Profiles of Albany’s Thompson Trio

Anybody reading this column has seen stories about the unreal talent of Albany’s Thompson Trio–brothers Lyle and Miles, and cousin Ty, who make up the most potent attack squad in college lacrosse.

Last Friday, ABC News did a profile of the Thompsons as “Person of the Week” for World News with Diane Sawyer.

Sawyer introduces the Thomspsons saying, “Born to play a sport that is older than the United States, three athletes, one family, who want to tell us ‘this is more than a game, this is a celebration of all they are.'”

Not to be outdone, the AP featured an in-depth story this week on the Thompsons in “The Big Story”. 

Breitbart Sports has been following and writing about lacrosse for the last couple years. As interest and participation in lacrosse continues to grow, it’s likely we’ll see more coverage from major news organizations.

MLL Calls Out Jay-Z 

Major League Lacrosse couldn’t resist the urge for click-bait, and jumped all over rapper/business mogul Jay-Z for calling the game “soft.”

I’ve seen lacrosse called many things, usually a variation of “a spoiled white prep school sport” (ignoring the many programs that are being developed in inner cities, as noted here at In the Crease).

But I’ve never heard lacrosse players called “soft.”  That is until DJ Kahled’s new single “The Don’t Love You No More” came out earlier this week.

Jay-Z and Drake have been trading barbs via interviews and recent releases–and in the latest veiled dig at Drake on Kahled’s new single, Jay-Z says:

“Haters wanna ball,

let me tighten up my draw string

Wrong sport, boy,

you know you’re as soft as a lacrosse team.”

Being called “soft” didn’t sit well with Major League Lacrosse, who in a statement, laid down the gauntlet to Jay-Z:

“Lacrosse is often called the fastest sport on two feet. Players are on the field dodging and shooting balls at over 100 miles per hour. With that said we don’t think Jay-Z knows what he’s talking about when he calls Lacrosse ‘soft’ I can guarantee you it is anything but a ‘soft’ sport. Mr. Carter would not last one minute on a lacrosse field during a match and he is more than welcome to come to any of our games and try.”

Its doubtful we’ll see Jay-Z on the field anytime soon, and it’s probably true that he wouldn’t last a minute in a MLL game, (he wouldn’t last a minute in an NFL, NBA, or NHL game either, who would?). But who wouldn’t watch that?

Games of the Week

Lots of them.

Thebiggest lax event this weekend is Selection Sunday on ESPNU at 9PM.This is where the 18 teams in the NCAA Tournament are selected. Thereare 10 AQ slots – these go to conference winners, which makes thisweekend’s tournaments critical to who will get in.

Withonly 8 at-large bids up for grabs, and the ACC all but guaranteed tolock up five of them, that leaves precious little wiggle room for anyonenot coming out of this weekend with their respective conference crowns.

Asof press time, only Notre Dame and Loyola, winners of the ACC andPatriot tournaments last weekend, are locks for the NCAA tournament.

NotreDame was likely a bubble team before last week’s tournament. Knowingthis, they went out and ran the table to pull off an inspiring, ifunlikely, ACC championship, to win the first AQ spot.

Loyolahas been on top of the Patriot division for entire season. Their mostimpressive win came in early March against Duke, against one loss toVirginia to start the season.

Tournament play alphabetically by division, predictions in parenthesis:

America East

Albany v UMBC (Albany)

ESPNU 10AM Saturday

 

Atlantic Sun

Richmond v High Point (High Point)

 

Big East
Denver  v Villanova (Denver)

Fox Sports 1 4:30 Saturday

 

Colonial Athletic Association

Hofstra v Drexel (Drexel)

 

Eastern College Athletic Conference

Air Force v Fairfield  (Fairfield)

Fox Sports 1 5:00 Saturday

 

Ivy League

Penn v Harvard (Penn)           

ESPNU 12:00 Sunday

 

Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
Siena v Marist (Siena)

ESPN3 11AM Saturday

 

Northeast Conference

Hobart v Bryant (Bryant, and not just because my dad went there)

Other Games to Watch:

Loyola’salready going to the NCAA tournament, but Hopkins is not a lock–a winagainst the Greyhounds would be hard to dismiss for the selectioncommittee.

Tewaaraton Announces 2014 Award Finalists

The Tewaaraton Foundation has announced the 2014 Tewaaraton Award men’s and women’s nominees, presented by Panama Jack. Twenty-seven women and 28 men were selected as nominees, from which the 14th annual Tewaaraton Award 10 finalists (five women, five men) will be selected and honored May 29, 2014, in Washington, D.C.

 

The men’s award nominees include players from 18 schools, including 2013 finalists Tom Schreiber (Princeton) and Lyle Thompson (Albany), as well as representatives from 14 of the top 20 teams in the April 21 USILA Coaches Poll. Eight schools had two or more players nominated, with Duke and Loyola each receiving three. Two men’s nominees were added in this round–Deemer Class and Myles Jones, both sophomore midfielders from Duke.

Men’s Nominees (alphabetical by school)

Lyle Thompson, Albany – Jr., A

Miles Thompson, Albany – Sr., A

John Glesener, Army – Jr., A

Gunnar Waldt, Bryant – Soph., G

Kevin Massa, Bryant – Jr., F/O

Connor Buczek, Cornell – Jr., M

Niko Amato, Maryland – Sr., G

Mike Chanenchuk, Maryland – Sr., M

Wesley Berg, Denver – Jr., A

Jeremy Noble, Denver – Sr., M

Ben McIntosh, Drexel – Sr., M

Jordan Wolf, Duke – Sr., A

Deemer Class, Duke – Soph., M

Myles Jones, Duke – Soph., M

Wells Stanwick, Hopkins – Jr., A

Joe Fletcher, Loyola – Sr., D

Justin Ward, Loyola – Sr., A

Nikko Pontrello, Loyola – Jr., A

Joey Sankey, North Carolina – Jr., A

Matt Kavanagh, Notre Dame – Soph., A

Jesse King, Ohio State – Jr., M

Tom Schreiber, Princeton – Sr., M

Kieran McArdle, St. John’s – Sr., A

Kevin Rice, Syracuse – Jr., A

Randy Staats, Syracuse – Jr., A/M

John LoCascio, Villanova – Sr., LSM/D

Scott McWilliams, Virginia – Sr., D

Mark Cockerton, Virginia – Sr., A

 

Women’s nominees (alphabetical by school)

Mikaela Rix, Boston College – Jr., M

Covie Stanwick, Boston College – Jr., A

Hannah Hook, Denver – Sr., G

Kerrin Maurer, Duke – Jr., A

Shannon Gilroy, Florida – Jr., A

Taylor D’Amore, Johns Hopkins – Sr., A

Jaclyn Sileo, LIU Post – Sr., A

Nikki Boltja, Louisville – Sr., A

Kaylin Morissette, Louisville – Soph., M

Marlee Paton, Loyola – Sr., A/M

Taylor Cummings, Maryland – Soph., M

Brooke Griffin, Maryland – Jr., A

Kelly McPartland, Maryland – Jr., M

Megan Douty, Maryland – Jr., D

Abbey Friend, North Carolina – Sr., A

Sloane Serpe, North Carolina – Sr., D

Alyssa Leonard, Northwestern – Sr., A

Bridget Bianco, Northwestern – Jr., G

Margaret Smith, Notre Dame – Sr., M/D

Jackie Cifarelli, Ohio State – Jr., A

Meg Markham, Penn – Jr., D

Lucy Ferguson, Penn – Jr., G

Frankie Caridi, Stony Brook – Sr., G

Alyssa Murray, Syracuse – Sr., A

Kayla Treanor, Syracuse – Soph.

Courtney Swan, Virginia – Jr., A

Five men’s and five women’s finalists will be announced May 8 and invited to the Tewaaraton Award Ceremony. The original men’s and women’s watch lists were announced Feb. 27, with additions made March 20 and April 10, and were ultimately comprised of 66 men’s players and 58 women’s players. The selection committees are comprised of 11 men’s and 11 women’s current and former coaches.

First presented in 2001, the Tewaaraton Award is recognized as the preeminent lacrosse award, annually honoring the top male and female college lacrosse player in the United States.

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