FACEOFFS IN THE CROSSHAIRS?
When the NCAA rules
committee reversed its proposal to ban the motorcycle grip, faceoff men everywhere praised the decision as a victory for their beloved brand of specialization But recent comments by Furman coach Richie Meade, president of the IMLCA, and Stevenson coach Paul Cantabene, whose playing career redefined the position, suggest faceoffs again will be under the microscope when the next round of rule-change discussions transpire in 2014-15. Opponents say faceoffs interrupt the back-and-forth flow of the game and have an adverse effect on its pace. They also cite cheating and officials’ inconsistency in adjudicating them. Meade’s solution: eliminate faceoffs entirely.
“At some point in time, there was somebody in the sport of
basketball that said, ‘I don’t think we should do a jump ball after every basket.’ And they probably thought that guy was crazy,” Meade said. “I’m that guy.” Meade proposed that after every goal, the ball should be retrieved by the goalie, rolled to a marked spot where the restraining box meets the goal line extended and put back in play by the scored- upon team. In a 15-goal game, he said, it would eliminate nearly eight minutes of dead time. “When you say something like that, people listen and dismiss it. But I really feel strongly that we should have a serious discussion about it, and I’m going to advocate that we do,” Meade said. “Everybody that faces off in the world is going to hate me.” Cantabene said coaches need to devote time and resources to understanding faceoffs and developing specialists, and that the position has been compromised by coaches who
instruct players to gain possession by any means necessary — legal or not. “We can’t teach our kids to be great kids off the field and then teach them how to beat and cheat the rules,” he said. “Some coaches have taken it too far and caused the faceoff to be in peril, when it’s supposed to be a great aspect of our game.”
Cantabene said faceoffs provide an avenue for less physically gifted athletes to contribute to the growth of lacrosse at a more cerebral position.
Faceoffs survived this round of NCAA rules changes.
“You can’t get rid of some part of the game because you don’t like it,” he said. “I don’t like that teams can play zone defense, yet they do. It’s part of the game. This is a great way to get kids to go to college, make a living and be a part of a team. It’s not our job to eliminate positions. We’re not going to eliminate the quarterback in the NFL because Tom Brady’s too good.” — Matt DaSilva
>>RUNNING WITH THE RULES
Fairly or not, the Terps had become the poster children for “stall ball,” most notably eliciting mounds of stall warnings in NCAA tournament games against Johns Hopkins (11 called on the Terps in their 2012 quarterfinal win) and Syracuse (10 in a 2011 quarterfinal win). Coach John Tillman and company said they never agreed with the assessment that they didn’t allow players to go the goal — and they reached the last two NCAA finals doing it their way — but the early numbers this year were staggering. The Terps averaged six more goals per game through the first quarter of the season.
MARYLAND — C.M. 2012 (18 games)
Goals per game 10.72 Shots per game 33.70 Saves per game 8.72 Ground balls 30.00
2013
(through 4 games) 16.75
40.50 10.50 35.75
44 LACROSSE MAGAZINE April 2013>>
A Publication of US Lacrosse
©JOHN STROHSACKER
©GRAY QUETTI
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