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MARYLAND One of these days,
the Terps will break through. Their entire starting attack returns, including All-American Matt Rambo. And after running two midfields heavily, Maryland can handle some attrition there.
DENVER Early postseason exit aside, this was still a team that was 13-1 in early May and counts possession dominator Trevor Baptiste and Tewaaraton finalist Connor Cannizzaro among its four first-team All-Americans returning.
NORTH
CAROLINA The Tar Heels lost only five
players from their national championship team, so there’s great temptation to anoint them the early favorite for 2017. But they were 8-6 entering May, after all, and defensive questions will pop up again.
JOHNS HOPKINS A little high for Hopkins? Maybe. The Blue Jays never had Connor Reed and Joel Tinney in their midfield and lost Drew Supinski halfway through the season, yet still averaged 12.3 goals.
NOTRE DAME History suggests the
defense will be fine, and a nucleus of Ryder Garnsey, Sergio Perkovic and Mikey Wynne is a decent place to start at the other end.
laxmagazine.com The Cavaliers stumbled to a 7-8 finish and another winless ACC campaign.
Certainly, there were contributing factors. His contract was up in January. The Cavaliers have unquestionably slipped from their perch as perennial visitors to the final four, and their struggles on offense en route to a 7-8 record this year were glaring. Virginia was at the vanguard of early recruiting. As of late, the Cavs also endured lousy injury luck (Chris LaPierre and Tanner Scales) and untimely exits from the program (Austin Geisler and Greg Danseglio). As Starsia might say in his direct-yet-eloquent fashion, he’s a big boy here. He gets to own his record. But it’s also worth
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COACHING CAROUSEL Get the latest news and information on
coaching hires at Virginia, Princeton and UMBC — which is similarly replacing its former longtime coach, Don Zimmerman — at
LaxMagazine.com.
July/August 2016 » LACROSSE MAGAZINE 45
wondering if this is what the sport really wants, the pressure from schools to win yesterday (not to mention today and tomorrow). There’s nearly as much instability in Division I men’s lacrosse as big-time college sports — with openings at Binghamton, Hartford, Jacksonville, Princeton, UMBC and Vermont this summer as well — yet there isn’t nearly the same level of compensation involved and head coaches aren’t hopping from one program to another en masse. (In the wake of Starsia’s departure, Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan engaged in talks with Virginia to coach his alma mater, but ultimately declined.) The sport is the flagship program at only
a small handful of schools. Lacrosse ventured down this road in the recent past. Maryland jettisoned Dave Cottle after he won 68.8 percent of his games over nine seasons but failed to make it to the semifinals four years in a row. Navy nudged out Richie Meade. The debate over the
decision not to retain Starsia will generate the most attention. He is a Hall of Famer, and one of college lacrosse’s elder statesmen. The better conversation, though, has to do with whether amplified impatience is merely an inherent price of growth or an impulse that should be tempered in a sport still adjusting to a larger profile.
5 for 2017
©CECIL COPELAND
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