Between the Lines
5/27/2011 9:00:00 AM | Men's Lacrosse
Your Comments: If you want in on the how to increase the pace of lacrosse games aka the shot clock debate, I'm only a tweet away @BrianHigginsSU.
Trivia Question (Low Scoring Edition): What's the fewest combined goals ever scored in a Syracuse lacrosse playoff game?
Immediate Trivia Answer: 11. And it took overtime to get that far in Maryland's 6-5 quarterfinal win this past Sunday. The second lowest scoring game ever was a 7-5 Syracuse first round win over Princeton in 1999, John Desko's first year as head coach. Incidentally, from 1986-2002 Princeton was the only team, four times in 47 games, to keep the Orange out of double figures in the playoffs.
This Week: I'll let Coach Desko introduce where we're headed. “It probably sounds like sour grapes from me, but all in all I don't like the way teams are playing the game of lacrosse. It's not great for the spectator and it's certainly not good for the game of lacrosse in general.”
First things first, the main culprit in Syracuse's quarterfinal loss was major struggles with faceoffs, winning only 3 of 14. That said the snoozefest that happened this past weekend and increasingly too often throughout college lacrosse cannot go on. Stalling, which Maryland was called for 10 times Sunday, is not lacrosse. Much like taking a leisurely lunchtime stroll around the park is not lacrosse.
I place no blame for this on Maryland coach John Tillman or any of his players. The Terps realized what they had to do to make the Final Four and well within the current rules brilliantly executed their game plan and should be commended for it. It is not up to a coach to entertain the fans, it is up to a coach to win games. Therefore it must be up to someone else to make sure the sport remains fan friendly.
This past week I heard from many who don't usually watch lacrosse, either Syracuse fans or sports fans in general taking a peek at the playoffs. Their general consensus about Sunday's game, a game that went to the wire and was decided in overtime, it was boring. Not a good sign for your sport when a game determining who goes to the Final Four is tense and emotion packed and can still be called boring.
The Problem: It's easy to look at a 6-5 score, or the pair of 5-4 games against Hopkins and Villanova, or Loyola's thrill a minute 3-2 win against Towson earlier this season and come to the conclusion that there's not enough goals being scored. Certainly more goals would be ideal, but that isn't the problem. You can easily have a low scoring game that's filled to the gills with action and excitement. The problem in college lacrosse currently is lack of total possessions per game.
I can only hope the ghost of Syracuse Nationals owner and basketball shot clock inventor Danny Biasone is smiling when I say this. When he set about creating the shot clock he first figured out how many possessions would ideally be in an enjoyable basketball game and then came up with the 24 second clock off that number. A quick trip down to Armory Square and the permanently counting clock and adjacent plaque can fill in any Syracusan not up to snuff on their Biasone knowledge.
All the possession stats about to be presented are courtesy of Matt Glaude and the folks at College Crosse. The Syracuse-Maryland game featured a dreadfully low total of 44 total possessions with the Terps having 25 thanks to their faceoff advantage. The Orange had the ball just 19 times the whole game. In other games this year against teams that threw the brakes on, we saw 48 total possessions against Princeton and 50 against Providence. The stall filled game against Hopkins needed a pair of overtimes to up its possession tally to only 66.
Conversely, SU-Virginia is always an exciting game. Fans, and this I believe is the goal, flock to the Dome, Klockner, or wherever necessary to see these teams play. This year 14,340 converged on the Dome and saw 80 action packed possessions of lacrosse between the Orange and the Cavaliers. SU-Duke came strong with 83 possessions and SU-Cornell had 77.
Over the course of the entire season Syracuse games contained on average 68 possessions. In fact out of 61 Division 1 teams only 18 averaged more than 70 possessions per game and out of those only 6 were clearly playing that fast on purpose by averaging more possessions than their opponents.
The Solution: After comparing possession numbers this year to the most entertaining games in my mind ideally an average game would have around 75 total possessions. The wild up and down games would still trend towards 90 while the absolute possession floor would be in the low 60s.
The most obvious route there is a shot clock. “I don't know what else they can do,” Coach Desko said. “There's going to be some negatives that come with a shot clock. But it's got to be a heck of a lot better than watching a 5-4 lacrosse game.”
Potential shot clock issues include teams just waiting till the buzzer and winging a shot out of bounds, backing it up, and regaining possession. Also zone defenses could surround the cage and not allow offenses the opportunity to even look at the goal before the shot clock expired.
Another potential solution is a harsher penalty for the stall warning. Maryland was called for stalling 10 times against Syracuse Sunday. So they just moved their offense completely inside the attack box and there was little effect. But if the stall instead of a warning becomes a turnover, this puts a lot of pressure on the referees to make a subjective call.
Some said Syracuse should have extended their defense and taken the ball away to combat the Terps stall. But with current stick technology short of knocking a player's entire wand out of their hands the takeaway check has become increasingly difficult. Ok you might say, then change the sticks. For equipment manufacturers such as STX and Brine this quickly becomes cost prohibitive.
As you can see there isn't one easy answer that will solve lacrosse's problem. But some combination of the ideas is necessary going forward.
The Potential Future Problem: Through 2009 membership in organized lacrosse leagues, from youth to adult, had grown nearly 600% since 1998. The largest participation and growth numbers both came at the youth level. It was neat to see three youth games, and these kids had to be 10 at the oldest, going on simultaneously horizontally across the field at Gillette Stadium Sunday before the quarterfinals commenced. It's a shame that the excitement those kids assuredly felt to be on that field was not then matched by exciting play in the NCAA games.
It seems universal that kids get into lacrosse because it's an exciting game to play. It's fast paced and you get to run around, but it's also physical. The college game conversely has ground to a halt. The gap needs to be bridged before these kids watch the games on TV and also decide they're boring. If the NCAA games don't look exciting on television, these kids might not pick up a stick in the first place. Hopefully the college lacrosse powers that be do something before it's too late.
Higgo's Heroes: The seniors. After far too much time spent on what's wrong with a great sport, let's talk about what's right with it. The Syracuse senior class. Seven were named All Americans Thursday and John Galloway, Joel White and John Lade made the first team for the second consecutive year.
The class' last act may have been disappointing, but what a thrill ride they took us on for four years. Two national titles, 11 one goal wins, and scads of exciting plays stick out. But this group should also be commended for being a joy to deal with on a day in day out basis. Congrats guys on a great career, thanks for everything you've contributed to Syracuse lacrosse, and best of luck in the future.
