It's time for MAYHEM!!

SPEAKER_07 0:00

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Intro

SPEAKER_05 1:32

I'm your co-host, Kevin Stenstrom, and with me as always is Duo Guru Numero Uno, Danny Moran. Hey Danny. Kevin, that was a good one. Where'd you come up with that one? So remember, remember, uh Clay James, one of our listeners, called us the duo gurus, and I just figured you're numero Uno and I'm numero dose. That's how I went with it.

SPEAKER_07 1:55

Clay James, he's a clever man. He's a clever man. Kevin Stenstrom, what a week. How are you doing, my friend, back in Northern Virginia, huh?

SPEAKER_05 2:04

I'm back in Northern Virginia. Kind of was on the road a little bit during some of these championship games. I'll tell you it's going to be even tougher when we get the NCA tournament because most of them are at the same time. But I digress. We need to we'll go into the week in review, but before we do that, I know we usually the top 10 roundup, but we want to you want to do a little twist on that this week.

Top 20

SPEAKER_07 2:24

Yeah, Kev, you know what? We do the top 10 roundup every week, and we leave some teams out sometimes we don't talk about them. But you know what? It's the final week of the season. Um, you know, our regionals and our NCAA tournaments are set, our championships have been won. So I think it's only fitting that we name the final top 20. What do you think?

SPEAKER_05 2:48

That sounds great. Now, are you you're using the USILA poll? Yes, I am. There we go. Just to make sure, because there are three that are out there. But we usually that's what everyone should know. That typically the ones we go with is just USILA.

SPEAKER_07 3:02

Yeah, just USILA. That we don't go with the Nike, we don't go with anything else, just the USILA. So number one, Lemoyne finished their season 16-0. Number two, Rollins finished their season at 15 and 1, Kev. Number three, U Indy at 11 and 2. Number four, Adelphi, 15 and 2. Number five, Lenore Ryan, 14 and 2. Number six, Wingate Bulldogs, 12 and 2. Number seven, Mercy Hearst, 12 and 2. And number 8, Mercy Mavs, 12 and 3. 9, Limestone. I forget that I didn't write down their schedule, uh, their record. Record I don't know why.

SPEAKER_05 3:49

I don't know why. Okay, they're nine, they're close. They're a lot of wins and a few losses.

SPEAKER_07 3:55

Right. Number 10, Bentley at nine and four. And number 11, Tampa. Unbelievable at 11, right? 13 and 3. Number 12, St. A's, 9 and 3. Number 13, Colorado Mesa. We'll be talking about them a lot tonight, I think, Kev. 14 and 2. Number 14, Florida Southern finished their season at 13 and 5, Kev. Number 15, Seton Hill.

unknown 4:28

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_07 4:28

Finished their season 11-4. Number 16, Ace, the Setters, finished their season at 11 and 4. Number 17, the Newberry Wolves, finished their season at 11 and 5. Number 18, Frostburg State, Kev finished their season 12 and 4. Number 19, Anderson, the Trojans finished 12 and 6. And number 20, Peach Bell Champs, Lander. How about those guys sliding into the top 20? Uh finish their season at 12 and 4, Kev. So that's your top 20. Final, final week of the 2023 season. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 5:11

It's unbelievable. I can't believe we're already here. Congratulations to all the teams. They had great seasons. And there are other teams that didn't make it that had really good seasons as well.

SPEAKER_07 5:21

And we'll uh it's a really good season, really good year in division two. A lot of good things happen.

SPEAKER_05 5:27

Great games, a lot of good games happen.

Week in Review

SPEAKER_05 5:29

So to close out the regular season before we get into the NCA tournament, we've got a in our week in review, we've got a few conference tournaments that were still happening this past week to go over. So let's let's get to that right now. Let's start off with the RMAC because that one was that happened last Friday night. Uh, so to get there in the semifinals, uh, Colorado Mesa beat Adams State 23 to 2, and Westminster beat CSU Pueblo 18 to 6. Both kind of how we thought they would be. So that meant the final was once again, Colorado Mesa against Westminster. Colorado Mesa pulls it out, and I mean pulls it out 21 to 16. To me, that seems like oh, it's kind of a runaway, but Westminster always was fighting back. Colorado Mesa came out quickly and really established dominance, going up 7-3 after one. So you're thinking, yeah, there's Colorado Mesa, exactly what you thought. But Westminster fought back, and it was 10-8 at half, Danny. And I'll tell you the one of the big differences was Westminster's goalie, Jake Miller. He kept them in the game. So much so that the third quarter was a dead heat, each team scoring five goals. But in the fourth, Colorado Mesa just takes over and wears down the Griffins. I just think they had too much firepower. You got the Brummet brothers, you got Stanke, you've got Holcomb, you got Switzer. I mean, you just got bunches of guys coming after you, and they outscored them six of three in the fourth to go up and win 21-16. Yeah, we we kind of picked Colorado Mesa, didn't we? We did, we did. So just some key stats. Jed Brummet, five goals.

SPEAKER_07 7:20

James Steinkey, four goals. Another really good player.

SPEAKER_05 7:24

Yeah, and yeah, and then you look at some of the the team stats. Colorado Mesa outshot Westminster 64 to 30, and the shots on goal were 38 to 19. And there's really the difference, right?

SPEAKER_07 7:36

When you're shooting that much, now Colorado I mean Westminster was Westminster was playing defense all night.

SPEAKER_05 7:44

Yeah, a lot of it. There were 14 penalties in this game, Danny.

SPEAKER_07 7:51

14 stinks. I hate to hear that.

SPEAKER_05 7:54

Man, it's a championship game. Let the boys play a little bit. Right, right. They these the I wouldn't say it was a chippy game, but it was it was physical and aggressive. These teams were going after it. Supposed to be. Yeah. Uh ground balls, Colorado Mesa also won out 44 to 33 over Westminster. But once again, Jacob Miller, Westminster's goalie, 38 shots coming his way. He made 17 saves. He had a good game.

SPEAKER_07 8:20

Yeah. Congratulations to Colorado Mesa. You know, another good season, a lot of miles under those guys' belts. A lot of traveling for them. And they're your RMAC champs.

SPEAKER_05 8:31

Yeah, and they they deserve it. They they were the really the shining light in that that conference. Westminster's right behind them, but their team's a lot younger. And you saw this, you see the size of Colorado Mesa. They're going to be back next year just as strong. So let's move on. Do you want to talk any 10? Sure. Okay, so just quickly, Bentley and Adelphi. This is the semifinal. Bentley beats Adelphi 7-4. They did it again and outscored the Panthers. Then Lemoyne beat St. A's 8-4. Both defensive struggles, both those games. So then it brought to the the final Lemoyne against Bentley. And Lemoine wins 12-8.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:18

Yeah. It was 3-1 after one. Bentley. Bentley came out. There was a few turnovers. Bentley scored three unanswered to really go up. And I thought when I was watching that, I thought, wow.

SPEAKER_07 9:32

Yeah, here we go again, right? Like, here we go.

SPEAKER_05 9:35

Yeah. But you know what? Did Lemoyne panic? No. And I'll tell you the other thing. If you look at the first quarter and the fourth quarter, Bentley played to me, seemed to play with more urgency. They had to in the fourth quarter because they were down 12-5. Okay. And I think with the discipline and the methodical play that Lemoyne does, they just lull you. And if they get you on a six on six all the time, they're going to win every time. Pretty much. I think if you're a team to beat Le Moine, you have to think you have to play like you're four goals down to begin with.

SPEAKER_07 10:21

And have that sense of urgency. No, you know what's funny that you say that. I was thinking, you know, I've watched Lemoyne probably seven, eight times this year. Saw them live once. Uh watched this Bentley game, and I said, you know what? You know how you beat Lemoyne? Gotta be fast. Fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. Move the ball, move the ball, move the ball, move the ball, move the ball. Because if you settle for one second, they're gonna chew you up defensively. Yeah. You know what? They, you know, Bentley went out to that 3-1 after the first quarter. Like you said, there was some uncharacteristically uh turnovers made by Lemoyne in that, you know, in that first quarter. And but you know what? They don't panic. No, they don't.

SPEAKER_05 11:06

No. And and Bentley did a good job with those. I mean, that's when you saw them really coming out. Some of those goals were coming kind of like transition, fast-paced goals. They didn't let Lemoyne get set.

SPEAKER_07 11:17

I felt that Bentley's defense played pretty good. They did. They did. I really did. I felt that you know the Falcons really dug in there. They played really good defense. But you know what? Kim Pesamente, man, he had himself a game.

SPEAKER_06 11:32

Six goals.

SPEAKER_07 11:33

Dude, he was unstoppable. He was unstoppable. He just played like played like a man amongst boys that day. He really did. He did took the game over. He took it over.

SPEAKER_05 11:45

He really did. And then you get Vavanese, their goalie. He had three saves in about three seconds.

SPEAKER_07 11:51

Great game. He had a great game.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

Keep it at 12-8. I mean, that's how good he played. I mean, because Bentley came came needed to storm back, and they did a good job. It was 12-5 after three, and they came back and made a 12-8. And then Vavanese basically shut the door three times where you'd think if they get a 12-9, there's a chance.

SPEAKER_07 12:10

You know, they they brought it to back to 12-8. Vavanese made those three saves in the 30 seconds, man. That was that was really, really good. He he was phenomenal. I you know what? Just Lemoyne is a really, really well-coached team, Kev. They don't make mistakes, and they're gonna take your best and weather weather your best. They're gonna weather it out. They're that good. Yeah, they're that good.

SPEAKER_05 12:38

When you look at it, Vavanese had 16 saves, but add this in here, and there's another game that will follow this template. Faceoffs. Lemoyne had 17, Bentley six. So you put those two together, those special teams with face-off and and goalie play. You're not gonna meet beat many teams that are are playing that way.

SPEAKER_07 13:00

And still only lost by four to the top team in the you know in the nation.

SPEAKER_05 13:05

Right.

SPEAKER_07 13:05

You know, they they gave him a game, they gave him a game. They did, they likely said that.

SPEAKER_05 13:10

They deserve, they deserve to be in the NCAA tournament, hands down, Bentley does.

SPEAKER_07 13:16

100%, 100%. They've had a killer schedule and they play well.

SPEAKER_05 13:21

Yeah. Okay, let's move on to the ECC. So in the semis, Mercy beat Malloy 19-9, and Frostburg State beat Roberts Wesley in 21-13. So pretty convincing wins on both those cases. So now Mercy faces Frostburg, and they win 15-9. And I'll tell you, Danny, Frostburg started this just the way they needed to and wanted to. They had timely saves, they had some quick transitional look to go up 3-0, with you know, still a lot of time left in the first. But the question I and I wrote this down, can they keep that up? And they they couldn't. Another team that's not gonna panic that early in the game, and it's three-three after one.

SPEAKER_07 14:10

Right. It was a fast-paced first quarter, man. Oh, it was crazy. Those guys were those guys were flying both sides up and down the field. I was like, oh man, they can't keep this pace up. And it was three-three after one, like, but you know, Frostburg jumped out to that three-nothing lead real quick, and you know, same thing, just like it's like Bentley.

SPEAKER_05 14:29

I'm like, whoa, it was it was cool to see. And then once again, Mercy her, and here's what's funny, and it was um almost like mirror images. In the first half, I saw Frostburg's D not letting Mercy get a lot of looks inside, and there's a lot of perimeter shooting. And then if you look at the second half, that's the only looks Frostburg had was perimeter shots.

SPEAKER_07 14:52

Yeah, they had trouble getting inside, you're right. And you know what? I felt that PJ Aguirros, the face-off I've got that note too was phenomenal. He was phenomenal because they've been they've been uh spreading the love there with Cooner, yeah, and Aguirros. And Cooner, you know, last few games has really played a little bit more than PJ Aguirros, but uh Aguirros just he was on fire, on fire against 18 face-off wins.

SPEAKER_05 15:25

He was on fire, and and Tommy Amano. So you know those two. Yeah, it's the same same combination, and we're gonna see that with Mercyhurst as well in their game. But what's interesting is it was eight four at a half. Mercy. I think Frostburg State had a lot of opportunities, but they couldn't put the shots away. And it's it's like 11, it's 10-6 after three, it's still within four goals, or right before the third ended. And the it mercy punctuated the end of that quarter with a goal with one second left after a broken play and a great save by Meckley. And to take about talk about, we've talked about this before with other games. Almost takes the the wind out of your sails when that happens.

SPEAKER_07 16:13

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of firepower and mercy. You know, you got Haider and Calaveria and Kiernan and Gibbons and just now. It just you know, it just keeps coming and coming. I mean, but you know mechley was solid, I thought.

SPEAKER_05 16:35

He was all those four players just mentioned, all had hat tricks. And and Kiernan and Gibbons both had three goals and three assists. I mean, they spread it around and they are tough to beat. You've really it's just tough. That much firepower. Another great game, another great game. Mercy just had more that day.

SPEAKER_07 16:56

Yeah, yeah. Mercy, Mercy's a good team, man. We know that they're good. Yeah, they're good.

SPEAKER_05 17:01

All right, now the G Mac. Seton Hill played Walsh in the semis and beat him 19-6, and Mercyhurst took on Lake Erie, and they won convincingly 22 to 8. So now we've got the matchup again. Seton Hill versus Mercy Hurst. And I just want to point this out, Danny, that I was correct that Mercyhurst was not going to let Seton Hill beat him. You were I lucked out on that one.

SPEAKER_06 17:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 17:27

They they're good game, though. Oh, it's a great game. Mercy Hurst wins 11-9. Yeah. And once again, they come out and score the first three goals, and they were fired up. Did you see that? That their sideline when they went up by three. Yeah, they were pumped. And and then Sean Dorn, they helped he helped them out. I mean, I'm telling you right now, I think the difference was Dorn and Olney in that game.

SPEAKER_07 17:54

100%. I hundred percent. My two circled names, Sean Duran and Olney. They were phenomenal, both of them.

SPEAKER_05 18:04

When you can do make it take it like that and just continue to just have the ball and then only making saves against Seton Hill players with the firepower they have, yeah. All the difference in the world. It was five, three at a half, though. So Seton Hill comes back and they're scratching back in, but the Lakers store score two quick ones uh five minutes into the third. Seton Hill answers it's 7-5, but then Lakers open it up a little bit. They make it 10-5 uh after three. And guess what? That was the mirror image of the regular season game because Seton Hill was up at that point, too. Wow. That's interesting. Yeah. So and so, and Seton Hill doesn't give up. They try to come back, they score the first two in the fourth to make it 10-7, but that that gap was just enough. That uh, you know, the it's a two-goal game with 140, a 241 left, 11-9, and and that's where it stays. And like we said, I I Sean Dor Duran, 18 face-off wins, Brent only, 19 saves.

SPEAKER_07 19:14

You know, when Seton Hill scored at the 522 mark at the fourth quarter, brought it within 11-8. I was like, okay, yeah, see Seton Hill's coming back, man. They're starting to play well. Sean Duran, just get another possession after possession after possession. And then you know what? Once that happens in the final quarter, once you get like, you know, you're below five, four minutes, you can start to slow the offense down a little bit. And I just think the Lakers just were a better team than Seton Hill that day. Yes.

SPEAKER_05 19:47

But though I love you, you I circle that on my calendar. Every time you see Seton Hill, Mercyhurst.

SPEAKER_07 19:53

Yeah, you gotta watch that game. They're really good games. But you know what, Kevin? I gotta honestly say, I never felt that the Lakers were gonna lose that game. I didn't need to felt that they were in control, that they got possessions when they needed to, they made big stops when they needed to.

SPEAKER_05 20:11

You know, they just there's it was just I think you go back to to Sean and Brett only and you and you're just like they've got this. And there were, you know, when Seton Hill made it 10-7 in the fourth, you start to think, oh, can they can they come back? Can they do this? And just like the game that Seton Hill won, these teams are strong enough, and when they get that two, three goal, four-goal lead, you may be able to, you know, just kind of nick at it a little bit, but you can't close it. Can't close it.

SPEAKER_07 20:44

You know, I've I I felt that Seton Hill played good. I played, I think they played tough. They had good looks. Yeah, you know, they were getting good looks, they were getting good shots off. They're they're they're a good team. They're well coached, they have athletes there. Um, I just think that slow start in the beginning for them might have been what hurt them in the end, plus Olney, plus Duran. So yeah, and like a you know, that slow start plus against those two guys, it was gonna make a long day. So, congratulations to the Lakers. Good job, fellas. Yeah, without a doubt.

SPEAKER_05 21:17

Good game. Okay, let's go to GLVC. The semifinals were interesting because Lewis pulls off the win against U Indy 12-11. That was a back and forth battle. It was tied 10-10, and then Lewis scores one goal and then gets a second on an open net. So that's why, but it was it was to be honest, I was surprised. I thought you indie was gonna have that game. So hats off to Lewis to do that and get into the finals.

SPEAKER_07 21:45

Yeah, I think it blew the whole country apart, man. That I don't think anybody in the country expected Lewis to beat Undy. Nope. Yeah. I was wondering that did Undy have a couple of injuries, you know?

SPEAKER_05 21:56

Well, Lewis played Undy tough in the regular season. It was like if it wasn't overtime, it was like a one-goal game. So, you know, if you look back, they played him tough. So good matchups. They could do it. Right. So, and then the second semifinal was Rockhurst against Maryville. I thought Maryville would pull this out, but Rockhurst was really strong. It was an evenly matched uh game, but they ended up winning 14-9, which then brought the final to Rockhurst against Lewis. Either team that gets this would win, be the first ever, either team, first ever GLVC crown for either one of these teams. So that's what's really cool about this, right? That's what I love about this one. Yep, yep, yep. Rockhurst wins out 9-8.

SPEAKER_07 22:44

I can't explain it, man. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 22:47

Yeah. It was, and Rockhurst beat uh Lewis 13-8 in the regular season, and this was a total back and forth game. If you look at that, there were six ties and four lead changes. But it was it was so close. It was tied 2-2 after one. Rockhurst goes on a bit of a run to make it 4-3 at the half. Lewis, though, it's Lewis's turn in the in the second half. They go on a run and outscore the Hawks 4-2 in the third to take a 7-6 lead. Then Rockhurst in the fourth, they go on a rally and they go up two with 4.58 left. And you're like, geez, you know, can Lewis come back? Lewis closes to within one again with two minutes left. And those last two minutes are pretty exciting because they went back and forth, and Rockhurst just held them off. It was a good game.

SPEAKER_07 23:40

Championship lacks, championship lacks, man. But I I didn't expect either team to be there for some reason. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_05 23:50

Yeah, it's right. I I thought it'd be you Indian Mineryville. I think you and I agreed on that.

SPEAKER_07 23:55

Yeah, you know. So hey, hats off to Rockers. Congratulations, guys.

SPEAKER_05 24:01

You know, first ever crown for them. That's just awesome. First ever championship. Tyler Smith of Rockhurst had three goals. Some other key stats. Uh, Rockhurst had 47 shots to Lewis's 34. So if Lewis could have gotten a few more shots, I could have pulled it up. And then here's what's an interesting one in extra man. Rockhurst went one for four, which okay, that's not, but Lewis went 0 for 2. And if they could have just buried one, that's a tie game. Yeah. It's yeah, it's that's how close it was. You know, just it just a goal difference. It was a it was a good game. It was a good game. Hats off to both teams, but certainly congrats to Rockhurst on getting that win and getting the championship.

SPEAKER_07 24:48

Boys are getting rings. Boys are getting rings over there, Rockhurst.

SPEAKER_05 24:53

Now, not to say that these all the championships weren't intense, but these next two, the last two we're gonna talk about, in my opinion, were crazy. And let's start with the peach belt. That was a good game. Lander and Flagler. This, Danny, was a game of different quarters. And I think this was a very intense game. These two teams laid it out there. Lander takes control in the first, and they go up 2-0. And in the second, the teams keep sparring back and forth. Lander gets a few more jabs in, and so they get they they get seven goals in that quarter to Flagler's four. So it's a 9-4 score at half. And you're thinking, okay, Lander's Lander looks like they've got this. So they keep going, they keep going like this. Now there was uh I also point out there was scrappy play on both ends, both teams. These teams did not seem to really like each other during this game. Did you see that? They both wanted it, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_07 26:04

They both wanted it. There was, you know, got a little physical there. It was like you know what it was a good game, Cap. It was a really good game.

SPEAKER_05 26:11

Yeah, because then in the third, all the momentum was with Flagler.

SPEAKER_07 26:15

Flagler started chipping, they started chipping back, getting those ground balls, winning a few possessions, boom, throwing them, getting a biscuit in the basket. You know, it was it started.

SPEAKER_05 26:26

And they were getting fired up. And I'll tell you what, I would love to have heard what Coach Duncan said at halftime. That's all I want to know. What did he say? They're down nine-four. He's probably like, guys, look at we. I don't know what he I only want to pretend to know what he would say, but he got them on the right track because at the end of that quarter, it was 10-9. Yeah, they brought it within one.

SPEAKER_07 26:47

Yeah, the all the momentum was in Flagler's corner at in the third quarter, man. It was good.

SPEAKER_05 26:53

Yeah, so that Bearcats they gain the upper hand, they score a first goal coming out of the gates to go up 11-9, and then they and then they close it out. So it was a great, great game. Here's some key stats for that. Uh shots. Flagler had 35. Lander had 63, Danny.

SPEAKER_07 27:13

Yeah, yeah. Well, that first half.

SPEAKER_05 27:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 27:17

You know, that first half was just fire shooting match. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 27:20

Right. Cost turnovers. Uh Lander had 11 to Flagler's three. I think that helped them out, obviously, uh, stem the tide of what Flagler did. Um, and then ground balls, lander 46 to Flagler 38. So those were just a little bit of difference. It's funny, you see those, and you would have you would think that the score would be a lot different.

SPEAKER_07 27:43

Yeah, well, you know, sometimes the the the numbers don't match what the score says sometimes, you know.

SPEAKER_05 27:50

Well, and the and here's here's probably yeah, look, and then Flagler's goalie, Nate Lair, he had 21 saves, and he was standing on his head.

SPEAKER_07 28:00

Yeah, he may yeah, he had a lot of balls fired at him with 61 shots on him, you know. So yeah, yeah, you know what? Flagler's young, you know, and they they do make young mistakes and they do look a little young out there. I don't know if you thought that. You know, they do look like a team that's not there yet.

SPEAKER_05 28:22

I will tell you, I I think we talked about this before. I didn't see it as much in this game, except that they just weren't playing that well on the in the first half and a little bit in the first half, once again. I think they like to play up-tempo and fast. But when they play up-tempo and fast a lot, their brains aren't seeing the game slowly. So that's where they make they're they're moving fast, they're thinking fast, and that's when they make mistakes. They've got to kind of control, be the game's got to slow down for they're young. Give them two years, those players will be playing that same speed, and the game will be a lot slower in their minds, and that will make all the difference.

SPEAKER_07 29:05

And just think of all the NCAA games that those kids will have under their belt because they're not sitting, they're playing, you know, they're playing as freshman, playing as sophomores. You know, for for Flagler being a second-year program and getting to the Peach Belt Championship is amazing in and of itself.

SPEAKER_05 29:23

Well, right, and but the same thing with Lander. Lander's only four years, four years, just something like that, and their first tournament conference championship, those guys played great. Kyle D Crespino, two goals, one assist. Nolan Oaky, three goals, crew conroy, two goals and three assists. I mean, they played a really they're they're a very, very, very good team. They are they compete with with everyone, and and and so it it was it was just a great game. It was great to see, just like in the glvc, a totally new champion. When you when they won, did you see the fans came out on the field and started jumping on top of the the the scrum of the players?

SPEAKER_07 30:14

The peach belt, the peach belt is different. Those squads, those schools have embraced lacrosse big time, Kev. They're supporting their teams. You know, you you watch these. This is the third Peach Belt Conference Championship that you and I have been a part of in this podcast, and each one of them have been great games with a boatload of people there supporting their squads. It's been great, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:41

And it was just so cool to see how that enemy was like all hell broke loose when they won. Yeah, everything's fine, fans are on the field. It's man, cats and dogs living together. What can we say? I tell you.

SPEAKER_07 30:53

Um, all right, we got championships, you know. It's got a lot to be happy about. These guys grind all year. Oh, I know. You had a son in D2, and you know what it's like getting up at six, and then you got classes, and then you got study hall, and then you got film and lifts, and then practice, and then oh, we got to get ready Friday. We got a game, you know, we got to get on the bus for six hours, and you know, it's a grind. D2 is a grind.

SPEAKER_05 31:19

Especially, and especially when you've got conferences like the CACC, like GLVC, who usually gets a team in the UNDES in the NCAAs, but even Peach Belt. This tournament is their swan song for the year. And so if they're in the finals, yeah, there's nothing better, especially when you win. And that's the same thing that happened in the last game we'll talk about in the CACC. Georgian court played post in the semis, they won 16-14. So post gave them a run.

SPEAKER_07 31:54

Post is a really improved team, Kevin. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

Then Chestnut Hill beat Wilmington 12-8 in the semi. So it was Georgian Court against Chestnut Hill. Chestnut Hill wins 10-9, and they continue to own this conference tournament championship.

SPEAKER_07 32:16

Yeah, I didn't expect that. I expected a good game, but I thought Georgian Court, you know, was gonna pull it out. I just felt that they were a little better. Chestnut Hill played very well.

SPEAKER_05 32:25

It was a good game. I did too. This was a barn burner of a game, Danny. This and it had split personalities like some of the others. Chestnut Hill owned the first half, going up 6'1. And I'll tell you, Georgian Court didn't really help them. I mean, they had a lot of trouble clearing the ball, they had some bad passes. I mean, you got to give some credit to Coach DeCarlo because he had his D dialed up to create some of those turnovers. I mean, we talked to him, he he takes pride on his defense, and he you knew he wasn't gonna let the same thing that happened when they lost nine-five to him in the regular season. He was gonna make it a battle. Yeah, did you see him on the sidelines?

SPEAKER_07 33:07

Did you uh I'm sure that after that that mid-season loss to them that he got on that defense pad, you know how he is. He's got that jersey in the man, you know how he is.

SPEAKER_05 33:17

Yeah, he was really forcing them just to take perimeter shots, and I think that's kind of a lot of their mo chest. I mean, George and Court anyway, you guys like Dan Burnham, they like to shoot from the outside, right? But they just couldn't, they could the their defense, Chestnut Hill's defense did a great job in that first half, but then in the third quarter, it was a totally different story. Talon Smith, Vince Junta, and Dan Burnham, they come alive and they score six unanswered to take the lead seven six after three. I mean, I it's like, where did that come from?

SPEAKER_07 33:57

Yeah, yeah, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_05 33:59

And then, of course, then the fourth, then it just kind of just tense. You're trying to figure out who's gonna do what chestnuthill scores first in the fourth to tie it, but then Georgian court Georgian Court scores the next two to go up nine, seven. Then Chestnut Hill ties it at nine, then no one scores for three minutes. We're at the end of the game, Danny. It's 130 left. And Georgian Court's goalie, Vincent Burkhart, makes a good save. But they failed to clear because of a good ride by the Griffins. It wasn't just a bad pass. I mean, it was a a good defensive ride. Yep. And so so what do they do? Justin Hill brings it down, and Jack Klein scores on the crease or close to the crease with four seconds left to win the game. Insane. And then you talk about the the fans uh of the peach belt game. Well, you know, they've got the fence at at the at the stadium there. They the the fans are gonna come over. All the chestnut hill players went right to their fans after they won to celebrate with them. Did you see that? It was awesome.

SPEAKER_07 35:10

No, I didn't see that.

SPEAKER_05 35:11

That's that was cool.

SPEAKER_06 35:14

Yeah, that's cool, is right. That's cool. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 35:16

I mean, they immediately did that. They well they they got to their goalie and then they all rushed over their fans, and you know, so crazy game. Georgian court undefeated in the regular season, and like I said at the beginning when we talked about this game, Chestnut Hill owns the CACC tourney, they've won three years in a row.

SPEAKER_07 35:36

Yeah, Coach Carl does a great job there, man. I thought I you know what I thought it was uh Georgian Court's year. I really did. I did too.

SPEAKER_05 35:44

Well, and they had a great season, the regular season champs, they did, they did have a lot of things. In doing that, that was a phenomenal game. I did not think I thought when we got to this podcast, I'd be saying how the best game I watched for intensity was the Peach Belt Conference. Oh no, this last one, the CACC. It was a barn burner. It was great. K Johnson, uh, three goals, one assist. Will Dutty, three goals for Chestnut Hill. They play great, and it was just a great game.

SPEAKER_07 36:14

You know what, Kev? When people think about D2, they're thinking about the NE10, they think about the sack, you know, with the big squads and the big, and they don't realize that these conferences the these teams play great, they're well above 500. Yeah, they play, they play great schedules. I mean, Coach Hover puts a crazy schedule together every year. And you know what? When you go to the CACC, if you're in any of those schools, guys, you're gonna play tough squads, you're gonna play high-end lacrosse, and and you you know what? You go to Chestnut Hill or Georgian Court or any of those schools, you have a chance at winning a conference tournament every year, yeah. And we don't talk, you know. I think a lot of people don't think about those conferences, the CACCs and maybe the ECCs. You know, a couple of years ago, the ECC was big, right? You know, now it's kind of not the same anymore, but you're seeing like the peach belt growing and the CACC getting better and better. It's just D2 is just growing like crazy.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

And and we talked about this when we did the previews, we've talked about it several times. There's a bunch of teams that haven't done much in the past that are starting to knock on the door. We've talked about Post and Malloy a lot, they're doing that. You Wilmington's not going away in the CACC. You look at the the peach belt, every team in that conference is good.

SPEAKER_07 37:46

And so a lot of improvement in division two teams, a lot of improvement, you know, just like you know, what coach Jez and Coach Dunner doing that Meloy and post, just amazing what they've been able to do right in a real short amount of time. So right, and then you look at the Peach Belt Landers in the Alabama Hunts Bills, even the Flagglers. I'm telling you, Flaglers gonna be a team to watch out for very soon.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

Just like then look at and then look at GLVC. Look who was in the final, Rockhurst and Lewis, and we didn't even think they were gonna be there. So name all can Quincy, even Quincy in the GLVC had a better season this year. Davenport had some good wins. It is going to get tougher and tougher.

SPEAKER_07 38:28

Lake Erie even improved and played some tough teams real tough this year. So, you know, the I think the entire division two is elevating themselves. Yeah, yeah. The level of play among the mid-the mid-range guy, I guess what we would call the mid-range because they're not in the upper 10 or the upper 20, they're playing quality lacrosse. You know, like St. Leo didn't get ranked this year, but they were, you know, getting votes. But they had a great year, yeah. And they play tough teams. They have to play Tampa and they have to play Rollins and Florida Southern and Florida Tech, and you know, so all these mid-level schools are just everybody's improving. The entire division two is just improving as a division, it's just getting better and better each year, Kevin. More parody and more parody.

NCAA Spotlight

SPEAKER_05 39:25

Okay, let's move on to our coach's spotlight. We are definitely changing it up because we don't even have a coach for this spotlight. You know, Danny, every time NCA selection time comes around, which starts really with the NCA rankings a few weeks before, you and I get a lot of questions from listeners about, you know, what do we think? How do they decide this thing? What do you think? Is my team gonna get in? Yep. Yep, yep. And to be honest, I usually have more questions than I have answers. Like, I'm not not not smart at all. So thought, why don't we bring on an expert? And so tonight we have like a member of the selection committee to help us unravel this mystery, and maybe in future years we'll look a lot smarter. That's great. So why don't we welcome him in, Dan Mara, not owner of the New York Giants, but commissioner of the CACC and part of the NCAA D2 Selection Committee. Hey, welcome, Dan. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 40:30

I am great, sir. Thank you for having me. Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_07 40:32

Hi, Dan. Thank you. Thank you so much for coming on Indec with us, two knuckleheads, uh, with the podcast. That's just strictly about Division II. And as you know, it's been the selection week this week. And uh, like Kevin kind of said prior, a lot of people are asking questions. They don't understand how things get done, and they they DM us and they question us. And and like Kevin said, we we don't have all the answers. So that's why we are so happy to have you on tonight.

SPEAKER_05 41:05

Yeah, so let Dan, let's just start with that. Walk us through the process. I don't even know. Do you do the rankings too the few weeks before? When do you start getting together with the committee? When do you start talking? What's the criteria? And in your selection process, just walk us through the whole process of how you do it.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Yeah, well, just to separate, I mean, there's polls that come out that have absolutely nothing that have nothing to do with what we do.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

Right.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Those are pretty much based strictly on one loss record, past reputation, etc. Uh, but the the actual rankings that you that come out from the NCAA are are done by the regional advisory committees. Okay. Division two lacrosse is divided into two regions. There's the north and the south. And because of the strange configuration of D2 lacrosse, Colorado, Mesa, Colorado, Pueblo, etc., are in the south, even though most people with a sense of geography would tell you that's not really accurate. But in terms of trying to balance, balance the divisions, right? That's how we've come up with that. And the racks are the regional advisory committees are made up of eight people each. And that is then made up of two people from each conference.

unknown 42:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

In the uh in the north, we have we have uh the CACC, the ECC, the NE10, and the GMAC. And from each each conference in the north has an administrator and a coach on the committee. That's that's the mandated breakdown.

SPEAKER_05 42:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Administrator and coach. And those groups meet. Uh the first the practice ranking, which was not publicized at all, was on April 10th. And that was we looked at all the numbers, which I'll get into in a minute. We looked at all that to come up with what we thought thought would be was accurate. Um that then the North Rack and the South Rack submit their recommendations to the national committee, which is made up of two people from each of the RACs. I'm on the national committee, as is Rachel Burleson, who's the uh A D at Franklin Pierce from the North. And then Chris Barrett is also is also on the uh uh the South, the National Committee from the South. And then we we review it for consistency, for accuracy, and then and sometimes changes are made. Sometimes what the what the RAC says says does not get through the national committee. Uh and so it can be changed. Um rarely, but it does happen. Um and then the uh first ranking that comes out is alphabetical.

SPEAKER_05 43:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

So you know who's in consideration, but you don't know where they stand. And then and then there's two um numerical rankings that come out, and then the fourth each on that Wednesday. Which this is an important point. They take in consideration games played up till Sunday. So on Sunday, the the games freeze. The data is then submitted by the NCAA to this computer program that we all have access to. And Monday, 10 a.m., that's when we start to look at the numbers and see see who's done what. Um and then that then goes uh like it for our rack, we have everybody submit their own rankings, tentative rankings, and then we review those on Monday night. And then 11 a.m. on Tuesday, we have our call come up with our rankings. Then the national call is at 1 a.m. or 1 p.m. on Wednesday, and that's that's then you see something come out Wednesday afternoon.

SPEAKER_05 44:48

That's right, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

And then that fourth ranking that you see, that's the the actual the six teams that are selected in each region. So that's the stuff we go from a practice to an alphabetical to numerical, and then to the the actual seating.

SPEAKER_07 45:05

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

So then in terms of what we you want to know what we look at, right? Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I think I think most people look at one loss record, and that certainly is a criteria. We look at overall one loss record and in region one loss record because you're competing for a regional tournament, so regional one loss record is certainly very important. Um, we look at strength of schedule, which often can be correlated with one loss record. Sometimes a team will have a very good one loss record, but a strength of schedule that is not quite that good.

SPEAKER_07 45:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

Then there are two other equations, which I could not begin to tell you how they are formulated, the RPI and the PI, which take into consideration who you played, what their record is. Did you play them home? Did you play them away? But goals and goals are never taken into consideration, like margin of victory, et cetera. That's not part of it. You either win or you lose. Um RPI and PI are two other data points that we look at. Um, there is a number of columns, and sometimes people who have access to the charts that we get will count the columns and say, well, this team should be ahead of this team because it's seven to the three in columns. They've got better numbers. But strength of schedule is in so many of those columns that that's not really a fair indicator that you'll often like the any 10 teams have very good strength of schedule because you know they get to play each other and then they're winning teams. Um so sometimes core your one loss record might not be quite as good because you know you're you're playing potentially national contenders every week.

SPEAKER_07 46:44

Right, right, right. Okay, makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

So it's it's an equation that needs to be looked at, and then often the numbers are so close, particularly as we got get later in the year, where there's been a lot of interplay. Um, and you know, one team's got a better record, the other team has a better strength of schedule, one team has uh this record against the top 10, another team has this record, and you come out and say, Man, that's really close. I don't know how to decide. Often that just goes down to head to head then. Have they played each other? Or you know, what's their record, what's their record against common opponents, which is also which is not really as effective as a head-to-head, but it is it is something because often you're just looking for something. How can you how can you differentiate between these teams that their body of work is is so is so similar? And one more point I just want to make. I know I've been going on for a while here, so I just want to. No, it's great. This is great. Please, please. Well, you know, when we're putting our rankings in, we're not saying that the team we rank number four, if they played the number five team, that they would beat them tomorrow. That's not what we're not trying to, we're not trying to prophesize what would happen. We're not handicapping the games. We're saying that up till now, up to this point in time when the data is frozen, this team has a better body of work than this team. That's all that the ranking is saying. It's not saying that that team A would be team B. It's just saying that with all the data that we have, when we crunch the numbers, look at the common opponents, look at head-to-head, this team is here and that team is there, and that's how we come up with it.

SPEAKER_07 48:22

So very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

It's it's got a lot of numbers, it's it's a lot of math. It's almost all math, actually. Uh and you know, the eye test is not allowed. You know, we a lot of times a new rack member will come on and say, Well, I saw team A play and they look really good to me, or I saw team B play, and boy, they don't look that good. They won, but they don't look that good. That's how Danny and I do it all the time. Well, yeah, that's how we all that's how we all do it in our just day-to-day lives. But but when you're on a rack, that's not that's not that's not it. You know, we can't say that I saw that's really good. You know, it has nothing to do with it. But you know, like early on, and we had people say, Well, I I've I put that team in my rankings because they were in the top 20 nationally. I saw them, so I thought we had to rank them. There's no no correlation.

SPEAKER_05 49:13

Yeah, yeah. So let me ask you this, uh Dan. And because I you said it's it's a lot of math, and and that's where Danny and I fail, and then we got to go back to the eye test. But I think one of the things that's really interesting, if you look at the South region, let's just start with Limestone and Wingate. You know, they had head to head, they both beat each other once, not even looking at the the score, you know, they both beat Lenore Ryan once. You know, how does that then become? I guess that's a question. Now, limestone up number two and wing gate number three, is that is that ever come down to like a a just a a selection committee vote, or is it is it really still the numbers the way it comes out? Do you know what I'm you know what I'm asking?

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Well, the answer is both. The committee votes based on the numbers, okay. You know, okay. Uh yeah, I mean, when if when you see a ranking come out from a committee, it doesn't mean that everybody agree that this team is here and that team is there. I mean, uh it's not it's not it's not a it's not like the jury system, you know, where everybody has to say, I mean, you could you could have difference of opinion. We've had situations where, uh, fortunately, not for this last for the the seatings, but we had situations where we had five, three vote on this team's two and this team's three. So I mean there's there's differences of opinion. You know, and wow, but but our concern is just we want to be consistent. We don't want one week to say this team is here because their strength of schedule is so good, and then the next week say, well, no, this team's here because their one loss record is so good. We want to we want to be certain that we're looking at everything equally, you know, and um right.

SPEAKER_05 51:00

So then is the are there.

SPEAKER_02 51:01

I think what happened at the end of I'm not I'm not on the southern rack, so I was not in on their regional discussions. Um but I think when the committee was looking at it, uh Wingate had the first win. So that gave that so when they were comparing numbers, then that gave them that head-to-head that can be important in in comparisons. Then limestone beats Wingate, that then negates that head-to-head. It's not that that win is it's not that that win is more important because it was later in the year, although some people may look at it that way, that's but that, but in the way we look at it, that's not true. Um now, so now that that wing gate advantage of having the head-to-head is away, is taken away because limestone came comes in with that W.

SPEAKER_05 51:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 51:53

All right.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

I don't know if that answers any of your questions.

SPEAKER_05 51:56

No, it does. It's really fascinating. I find this really fascinating.

SPEAKER_07 52:00

You know, and like like Limestone was a four-loss team, and Wingate was only a two-loss team. And Wingate had beat Lenore Ryan, Anderson, pretty much everybody in their conference. So I think that surprised a few Wingate people. I had I I'd have to say a couple of Wingate people are probably surprised at that.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure. Yeah. Well, you know, Limestone's average loss was was RPI four. So that means that when they're losing, they're losing to the best of the best, you know.

SPEAKER_07 52:29

Uh yeah, they're they're no, they're good squad, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 52:32

Yeah. So, you know, there there can be situations in this type of equation where a loss to a good team helps you more than beating an average team.

SPEAKER_07 52:45

Right. I gotcha. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 52:47

Just because just because all the math about because now all their strength, you know, a good team obviously has a good record. So so their strength of schedule comes with that now, and that then goes into your strength of schedule. And you could even not be playing, and your numbers change because the teams that you played.

SPEAKER_07 53:04

Right. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

Well, so like say you you played somebody, you take a week off, and a team that you beat just plays two games that week and wins them both. Now your strength of schedule is better. So you could actually people say, Well, how can they move? They didn't do anything. Well, they but the people that they played did things, so so their record changes.

SPEAKER_05 53:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:27

Their record changes as that happens.

SPEAKER_05 53:30

So if they played teams that then continue to win and win against good teams, now their strength of schedule looks better, even though they didn't play. So then their numbers go up.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

Yes. Yeah. Like, you know, say you're a good team and you're losing your conference tournament early, but you've got other teams and they keep and they win, and maybe you beat those teams in the regular season. So now your numbers are getting better. They advance, they they advance in the RPI. So now your average RPI loss goes up.

SPEAKER_05 54:06

So that almost answers one of my questions because I was thinking about you know the upheaval in the conference tournaments with a lot of the top teams losing the semis, Wingate, Adelphi, and U Indy. And then you match that in with what I was saying. I mean, that changes a lot of the calculus. I would assume that changed some of the calculations that you're used to seeing, like pretty drastically, or it could have, even though it's just one game. And then you add in the whole thing, like I was saying, and I've said it on this podcast, I thought, and this goes probably more back to the eye test and win-loss and everything you're talking about. I said that I thought if Colorado Mesa ran the table, and they did, they would have a good chance of getting in. But and and then, but then limestone did their thing and won their conference, which kind of would have messed things up a little bit. And then and then U Indy, but then Undy lost their in their semifinals. But if you look at that, you indie beat Mercyhurst. Mercyhurst goes ahead and wins their conference tournament. So that then makes their strength of schedule even better. Is that am I reading that right? Is that kind of part of the category? I'm going to be out on the committee next year, Dan.

SPEAKER_01 55:24

Their numbers change. Yeah, their numbers change as as that goes along.

SPEAKER_02 55:28

So yeah, it's it's it's an interest, it's very interesting. Because I mean, we all are sports fans, and we all say, you know, how could how could they do that? You know, this team's got this record and that team's got that record, but that's not all that we're looking at, you know, and it's the eye test isn't allowed. Um, so there's there's a lot of moving parts before you actually wind up where we wound up with our 12 teams.

SPEAKER_05 55:52

So let me ask you this. I just want to make sure I get this right. Even when you get to the final rankings, which is the selection, yeah, your regional committees are still involved in that, correct? And then they then then those number, those teams go up to the national committee.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

Yeah, what happens? Uh we had a call Saturday morning, 9 a.m. as a regional advisory committee. And we got together and we looked and we came up with with our rankings. And if there were games that hadn't been played yet, you know, we say, okay, well, if this happens and then we're gonna do this, if that happens, we're gonna do this, and then that then goes to the national committee. Uh and the national committee had a call on Sunday to review it all, and we agree on basically everything, and then we reconvene again at four o'clock because we've got that selection show deadline of seven o'clock. So we reconvene again at four o'clock and discuss what we had discussed at one and what the regional advisory committees had discussed on Saturday, and that's when we finalized the ranking. So it's pretty much hot off the press when it comes out on that selection show.

SPEAKER_07 57:08

It's amazing, it's really amazing. It's uh so I so for the Colorado Mesa people, for the Colorado Mesa people who've been wondering, I'm gonna have to say that right now, even though you know a lot of their games were away, they only had a couple home games and they were late in the season. I think they had 10 games that were on the road, and they went 14 or 16 and 2. They had a great record, but I'm saying to myself, I think it's their strength of schedule that's held them back. You know, they had a Lise McCrae on their schedule, they had a Palm Beach Atlantic, and then I'm not so sure that the conference is that strong with Adams State and Colorado State Pueblo. So I think I think being in that conference might hurt them a little bit, huh?

SPEAKER_02 57:59

Geography is obviously obviously an issue for them. Yeah. Uh the Armac is actually it's not an official NCAA conference because they don't have six teams. You know, they play they play lacrosse, but it doesn't actually they're not considered a an NCAA conference for for lacrosse.

SPEAKER_07 58:15

So they're listed as they're listed as independents then.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

Well, kind of, but understood.

SPEAKER_07 58:21

You're right. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 58:22

Uh, but you know, Colorado Mesa's problem, their record's great, but their strength of schedule was uh 30 30 33rd, maybe. I don't know. I think it it was below 500. I think it was 0.491 sticks in my mind as Colorado Mesa's overall strength of schedule. You know, and nobody who made the postseason had a strength of schedule below 600.

SPEAKER_07 58:45

Wow, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 58:47

And that's only one facet, but that's obviously when you add all that stuff up. And I'm not saying you it's I don't know how the calculation goes. I'm not adding all the numbers or what, but that's that that is a big difference between you know 600 and 49, you know, 491 to 600.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

Right, right. And it uh that's where the committee needs to read and say, okay, yes, they're 15 and two, but their strength of schedule is the 33rd ranked in the of the 40 teams in the south. Um, and that they had eight wins against teams that are 31 or lower in in the southern region, you know, right.

SPEAKER_07 59:27

The Lees McCrae's, yeah, the Lees McRae type teams, right?

SPEAKER_02 59:31

They opted to play Lees McCrae and Palm Beach Atlantic. Uh, I think Palm Beach was one in 11 and Lees was, I think, 0-15, uh, which you know probably didn't help them in terms of they got wins, but it didn't help them strength the schedule. And then when they play at car, I think CSU Plebolo did not have a very good record either this year. So that and they had to play them a few times. So, you know, all that all that goes into the equation. That's why scheduling is a hot button topic with with a lot of the coaches, where they're trying to, you know, figure out how they can get the right teams. And sometimes it's just luck, you know, that a team you schedule a team, non-conference team, and all of a sudden they go, they go ten and five, and you didn't expect that. And it but it really helps you, right? And and the reverse happens too. You you think you're doing a good job, you go and you know, a team that was in consideration last year, and you schedule them, and oops, they they bought them out and they go, you know, five and ten, and that now it winds what you thought was gonna help you winds up hurting you.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:32

Right, right. That's so it's it's it's a crapshoot sometimes with some agencies then. And actually, it's one day last year's record.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:40

We were talking with Chris Kerwin of Westminster, and he basically said that he said, actually, there he goes, it's we schedule before, and when we think we may have a good schedule, and sometimes it comes out better on strength of schedule, and sometimes it doesn't. That's exactly what we're saying. And I I'll tell you just personally, I feel for those those teams the arm in the RMAC, especially Westminster and Colorado Mesa, who work their butts off to travel so much and get the get quality teams outside of their conference to to try to get to that strength of schedule, right? And really get play good competition. So I guess that leads to my one of my final questions is do you foresee automatic qualify now? RMAC wouldn't qualify until they had six teams in the conference, but do you see automatic qualifiers coming down the road? Because I think something like that would help conferences like that who you know are trying so hard to to get into the tournament, right? And I'm just curious from your perspective, do you see that possibly coming down the road?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:45

It's definitely uh in the discussion. Yes, I mean it's it's a it's a significant consideration. Uh, you know, we we have a very small field, we have 12 teams, you know. So you don't want you don't want all that to be taken in by automatic qualification. You want to have the opportunity for good teams that don't necessarily win their conference tournament to get in, but right, yeah. But uh right now, the only three sports in division two that don't have AQs are football and men's and women's across. Uh so all the all the other sports do have automatic qualification.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:20

I didn't know that. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:22

And it's being discussed at the at the national level. There's a championships committee that oversees all division two championships, and it's it's on their agenda, it's been on their agenda, and they're reviewing it, as is uh potential expansion of the brackets.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:35

Well, and that's what I think you would need to do, obviously, right? But you'd want to go to like something like 16 teams so you can get some of those quality teams that don't win their their conference. And I know what that is. That's that comes down to money then and other things that come into consideration. I'm not saying it's uh a negative, but obviously that comes into the consideration travel, money, etc.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:55

Bracket bracket expansion has to be done in conjunction with the NCAA budget cycle. You know, it needs it needs to be budgeted for. And if say you had two teams or you had four teams, obviously it's gonna be an even number, you know, whatever it might be. Then there needs to be funding to take care of that because getting a Colorado Mesa to limestone, that that's gonna cost somebody a lot of money. Right per DMs of seven or so.

unknown 1:03:20

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:22

A lot of big sales going on out there for that.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:27

Yeah, no, it's interesting stuff. It really does. It kind of brings it all together a little bit. So it's based on a lot of strength of schedule, who your opponents are, who your opponents play, who your opponent's opponents play, their records. Yes, all of that gets combined.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

Yes, your opponent's opponent's strength of schedule is it's figures in.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:51

So now, like you said, you need a calculator and a lot of time.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:55

Yes, yeah. I mean, and you need to be you need to be careful that the people you schedule are also trying to schedule strongly so that their strength of schedule doesn't wind up hurting you.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:09

Right, right. Because like last year, Wilmington had a great year, and I'm sure some coaches probably tried to line up Wilmington this year and they didn't do so well this year. So that's the perfect example of that.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:22

Yeah, and their their coach Christian Zwicker, he he went out of his way to he got Tampa to open up, you know. He got Mercy, he he went, he got the the heavy hitters last year's, you know. Um, but his squad didn't respond the way the the previous team did. Um and it right. It was it was tough for him, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:42

Yep, that's yeah, and then it's those other teams that then then then schedule Wilmington thinking, okay, here's a quality team, and and they're a quality team, but they didn't have so every time Wilmington now loses, if you beat Wilmington, your strength of schedule actually goes down because their record isn't as good as you thought it would be.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:01

RPI drops, so your average RPI win now gets actually gets higher as it doesn't get lower.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:08

You want right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:10

You know, so it yeah, it's it's a problem. Yes.

SPEAKER_07 1:05:15

So it it's very intricate, it's very complex. It's you know, and there's a lot of people involved here. It's not just one committee, it's several committees sitting together and putting their minds together and voting. And wow, it's an interesting process. I didn't realize it was so duh, what am I looking for? What's the word I'm looking for? Complex. Yeah, yeah, it's very complex. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:40

Yeah, so Dan, let me ask you one last question. How long are you are folks on the different committees? Is it two years, four years?

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Well, if you're on if you're on the national committee, which also means you're on the rack, right? That that's that's a four year term.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:57

If you're appointed by your conference to be on rack which means you're not on the national committee that's a three-year appointment okay and then once you're on the rack you get selected to how do you get selected to the national committee then totally totally separate process um there's an uh it's that's a national position so it's it it's through an NCAA nominating process gotcha okay where the conference the conferences have control over who's on their rack who's who's their rack representative as long as one of them's not the national committee person so like in my situation when I went on the rack this is my third year when I'm on the rack we had to actually take one of the administrators off who was on it because my appointment by the national committee superseded what we did as a conference.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:47

Okay so probably clear as mud but that's no I get it I get it the big guns came down and said Dan shall be on the rack. That's what they said. Yes that's well I'll tell you what we really appreciate you coming on. I'm sure there'll still be some people that are scratching their heads saying why not and whatnot but I I couldn't have asked for more this has been really educational for for me and was really helped us out and I hopefully it'll help out our our listeners understand the process better. It's it's just fascinating. And I may actually be uh sending you emails and asking you questions when people ask me questions next year.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:27

Sure sure maybe maybe I'll have answers I'll do my best anyway I mean yes I I appreciate you having me on and hopefully uh you know I you're never going to make the real ardent fans happy when you explain the process to them but at least maybe now they'll have they'll know that there was nobody out to get them that there was there was just a a hardworking committee that reviewed all the information that they had and and that's what what we came up with to try to best service the student athletes.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:58

Oh couldn't have got a better person to explain it to us. Dan Mara we really appreciate you coming on the show tonight and explaining this uh rather sticky situation like you said a lot of parents a lot of players maybe even some you know other people's and why scratching their heads but you really explained it so well and uh thank you so much for coming on tonight we really do appreciate it no problem hap nice meeting you and uh really appreciate your support of Division II lacrosse

Games to Watch

SPEAKER_07 1:08:29

all right Dan actually all right Danny it was great having Dan on to talk about really that really was a great education for me what he talked about and how they do the selection and everything. Kevin I wanted to get a drink and a cigar and just sit back and listen to him and just absorb everything that that man was saying just he was great he explained it phenomenally um just very interesting very complex uh but I think our listeners are going to have a much better understanding of what goes into it how intense it is how many people are actually involved regionally conference wise and then nationally so there's there was things there tonight that I learned that I didn't know I'm sure the same was for you oh without a doubt what's no I totally agree with you say and and I think we as fans we get mired in our passion and we can't see it objectively and I think what we just need to realize is with these two region committees and with the national committee they're looking at the numbers they're doing it dispassionately as best as possible to make sure they get it right and they are consistent.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:55

And it's not an easy job. It can't be an easy job it comes down to votes sometimes and sometimes you know someone's got to lose unfortunately you know hopefully we get to AQs and we get a few more teams in there but once we even if we went to 16 teams 17 through 20 will be upset. Of course yeah well definitely definitely you know when I think they should be in all their fans I would be the same way.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:17

Right so so you know when when you let's let's think about division one they have automatic qualifiers and then have eight at-large bids right yep so those at-large bids those teams are usually very very good with extremely high strength of schedules but in division two it's all by the numbers since we don't have automatic qualifiers it's all by the numbers which makes it I think different yeah than division one or division three. Yep you know I just think it makes it different I think it's harder to get to where you want to be in division two than in any other divisions in division one or division three. So if you want to be an elite squad in division two you're playing the best of the best against the best of the best the elite of the elite or trying to anyway and then you got to hope that when you do that that the teams you play actually stay at the top that's right you want them to do good.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:28

Right.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:29

Right so example you lose to Mercy Hearst but Mercyhurst just keeps on winning and winning and winning and winning that loss isn't so bad. Right. So whereas in division one or division three that loss would hurt you you know it would hurt you because you have one one and loss records getting tournaments right getting to your conference tournament getting a good seed in your conference tournament with a chance to get to the championship and by God by gosh by golly you win the championship you're automatically in. May not be the best team in the conference correct correct might not have the best record. So it's different at Division II with all the numbers all the algorithms so these people have to sit put the numbers in who played who did they play who did they play who did that team's teams teams team play what was their record what was that team strength the schedule so it gets deep it gets complicated and I think what Dan said he's like we're not out to get anybody I thought that was kind of cool the way he said it felt it was like you know we're not we're not we're doing it by the numbers with committees with you know there's a number of people that are involved Kev. It's just not one of two people sitting going what do you think it's not that it's it's uh it's stratified.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:01

So if the regions do one thing and the national committee says you know if the region said oh X and that's totally out from the numbers national committee can change that they don't change it often because the the regional committees do their job well.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:16

Yeah they get it right they're pretty on point he said it was rare that it happens but it happens but it was rare so you know what Dan's job is not an easy job or any person on that committee or sits on those racks you know I don't think any of those jobs are an easy job.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:34

I think it's intense and it's gonna get harder for him next year because I'm gonna be emailing him a lot when we get to the 90s.

SPEAKER_07 1:13:41

But you know what Dan was a great guest and I'm glad he came on and I hope that our listeners have a better understanding.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:48

I think they will I totally agree. So then let's just get into it and what the games are now the first round of playoffs start this Wednesday our podcast will not be out when these games are played but let's run down those they're all on Wednesday May 10th let's start with the North region first game that I've got on my list Bentley plays a Delphi for the third time this year.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:17

Yeah Delphi's got to travel though they're going up to Massachusetts they are so they're getting they're getting on a bus for a couple hours it's a little bit different when you're when you're the await team I think especially in a game as important as this so then so then who you who are you thinking you know I love a Delphi man you know that I love this team all year just I just you know I think that that win against Lemoyne I think they shot their load a little bit at that loss against Lemoyne.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:47

You know they'd already lost to Bentley one they lost Bentley the week or the game before then they lose to LeMine and then they lost again and so I think you know Bentley had their number Bentley just knew how to play them I I will tell you I can't see a Delphi losing three times to Bentley I can't I I got to pick a Delphi neither neither can I I can't see a Delphi and Coach Purdy and Kat and all those guys they're good coaches. They got great players you know Dylan Renner in goal and he you know he's been playing great all year and and you know Brian Hoarder at the X and just you know they're deep at the midfield they got a great attack unit they have a great defense they have just a solid squad but I'll tell you what yeah I no I I totally agree with you but we have to give our hats off to Bentley coach Murphy the coach there since 1993 they won several any 10 championships they've been in the the finals many more times this is their first time going to the dance congratulations to coach awesome and and like we said earlier uh when we were talking about the NE10 championship they deserve to be in this tournament hands down oh they yeah they do they have a hell of a schedule Kevin they have a hell of a schedule man you know they're playing the top top dogs so I I like a Delphi I think it's gonna be a close game though I I do oh it'll be close it'll be close okay the next game this one is on an earlier time it's at 12 noon it's mercy playing St. Anselm both lost to Lemoyne and a Delphi so if you're trying to see like see who you know may have the advantage I'll tell you though Danny I think Tommy Umanu may be the difference in this game and I have to not give the give the nod to mercy you know I I'd have to agree with you on this one I think St.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:55

A's is a very good team I just don't think they're as good as Mercy. That's just my opinion I think Mercy's a better team I think they're a little deeper I love their attack unit love the midfielders defense with Justin Gurdville back there and Tommy Amano they're gonna be tough.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:12

I you know mercy's been a tough team all year totally very talented very talented and and just you know they they've been there they've been there they got veterans there that been there so I I like mercy in that game okay so let's move to the South region the south region man it it is going to be crazy wide open wide open wide open Tampa plays Lenore Ryan Tampa beat Lenore Ryan in February 13 to nine but that was February pick'em it's a pick'em game and look at the matchup with the goalies with Ulmer and Pensa Benny.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:53

Pensibeny's been playing lights out yeah Lenore Ryan's got to travel at Tampa it's been like 92 degrees down there. It's gonna be hot it's gonna be it's not hickory.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:07

So I think uh this is a pick'em I agree this is a pick'em game you know what it's a pick'em game I think it's that close um I think Tampa at home pulls it out I think what you just said is because they're at home now they lost at home to Florida Southern but they haven't lost at home since 2019 before that yep they're tough and look at the team I don't think they're gonna lose i i think it's gonna be once again a very close game that's a game I want to watch man yeah that's gonna be to just the match you know that's on at the same time that wingate you indie's on the team 4 p.m I have my command central but I also have to work so I don't know what I'm gonna do. Oh boy to Wingate Undie Wingate beat Undie in late April 14 and 9 Undy beat Mercyhurst who Wingate lost to but that was an early loss for Wingate. What's their second game?

SPEAKER_07 1:19:06

They're playing at Wingate yeah wingate gets gets the three seed in the South you think a couple of Wingate people might not be happy with that seeding yeah with limestone you know I don't know for a four team you know four loss team as opposed to a two loss team and you know the the two wins against each other negate anything. So I think you know a couple of wing people might be right about where they are but it is what it is they're at the three and they get to host you Windy which they did just three weeks ago.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:45

Right and uh they took care of business then they took care of business didn't they and you Windy lost I don't know if I don't know I don't know I I like wingate at home I like wingate at home too but I'll tell you what I saw them when they played in the semifinals of the sack tournament they didn't look like the same team either they not that they weren't focused but they've got to come with that fire in their bellies like they did when they played UND, Lenore Ryan and Limestone in the regular season. If they do that they'll win hands down.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:21

Yeah I mean limestone played very well in the semis against Wingate. Wingate did a lot of uncharacteristic things in that game so I just think they you know caught wingate on a bad day and it happens teams have bad days you know long season a long season that you focus yeah it's a grind and you know what and when you're an elite team and you're in the top three top four top five that means everybody's bringing their A game against you. So to keep that level you know and Wingate's got a nice you know mix of younger players and veterans so how do you keep the younger players up and how do you keep the veteran players right you know it's a grind. It's a hard thing to do to keep that level of intensity throughout the year. Oh yeah so I think you know I think limestone is a great team a great team ball players on both sides of the you know they're well coached they're they're good so I think wingate should have got that too that's just my opinion that's just my opinion all I'm gonna point out Danny is you weren't on the committee.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:31

So your vote doesn't count. Okay you're right all right so let's talk about that let's talk about the quarterfinals in the South region first the Wingate Undie winner does play limestone on Sunday May 14th at limestone at limestone and the winner of the Tampa Lenorine game plays Rollins at Rollins so that's the matchup there I don't even want to attempt to say who's gonna win that because I don't know what the matchups are. I can't we have to wait and see that I can't yeah then then north north region quarterfinals whoever wins Bentley or Delphi has to go to Lemoyne and play them another any 10 matchup there. And then Mercyhurst plays the Mercy St. Anselm winner those all of those games are going to be really really good games in the in the quarterfinals coming I think the committee got it right I think the best teams are there.

SPEAKER_07 1:22:29

The top 12 teams I think that belong there are there you know I think some of the Colorado Mesa people might not think that but maybe they'll understand after tonight's podcast.

SPEAKER_05 1:22:41

Well and I tell you until I talked with Dan on this podcast I I in my mind I can see it go back and forth between UND and Colorado Mesa. Now that we went through that and he discussed that with him I can definitely see why Undie was in and Colorado Mesa was out.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:03

Much tougher strength of schedule much tougher strength of schedule and you know what when UND lost to wingate didn't hurt him because wing was ranked number three in the country it didn't it doesn't hurt him you know what I mean so it only so losing to a good team like that is not hurting them too much because their RPI is so strong. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:27

So it's very interesting how it's how it's all played out right Kev it's gonna be a wild ride I'll tell you in this NCA tournament it's gonna be a wild ride I can't wait.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:36

But yeah I remember last year that we were kind of wondering what was going to happen Florida Southern people were pissed because they didn't get in and you know so I think now I think now with Dan Merrick coming on and explaining to how it how it operates and how it how it works and the process hopefully people understand.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:57

Now they're gonna be pushing for AQs you know that that's I hope they do need AQs man we need a Qs I hope why can't we get this why can't we get that so I think we're headed there though I do I agree I agree that's why I asked him that question

Player's Spotlight

SPEAKER_05 1:24:13

all right it is time for the player spotlight my favorite part Kev my favorite part you bet to say this player is the work horse for his team is an understatement he's a beast yeah he not only is his team's primary faceoff specialist at a 55% average I might add which close to 56 let's give it let's give him the extra shabby i know my math must have close to 60 let's call it close to 60 yeah but besides that he likes to stay on and and play D Midi all the time too so talk about needing endurance Dan I I'm in ice baths just watching him play yeah yeah me too so why don't we just welcome him in Brian Hoarder face off specialist D Midi and anything else the team asks of him from the Adelphi Panthers hey how are you doing there Brian good how you guys doing tonight happy to be got the crowd got the crowd rooting for you Brian Hoarter from Adelphi man thanks so much for coming on the show tonight we really appreciate you taking the time it's finals week you're in you're a graduate student you're about to get that master's I'm glad you took the next 10 minutes to just you know take a breather and and talk with us two knuckleheads we appreciate it thanks for having me fellas pleasure to be on long time listener first time caller now oh there we go there we go love it love it hey when I talked to coach purdy uh for our any tent conference preview I gave him a call and he effused praise on you he even said you stepped up to take on the face off duties so is that true were you not a face off specialist and you're like oh yeah I'll do it for you coach so it's been it's been a long road of going back and forth from face-off guy to not face off guy so back when I was at New York tech my freshman year I played oh midi for about three weeks after uh that clearly wasn't the path switched me to D MIDI sophomore year played defense again faced off kind of like where I was at in role here junior year at tech played offensive midi faced off took the year off senior year when uh when tech shut down and since I got here pretty much doing a lot of the same things so wherever wherever they need me throw me out it's awesome so let's talk about that with New York tech what was that like having to go through that probably real disappointment when New York tech shut down their program and then what was it like then and then being able to come to a Delphi yeah so when when we got the news broke to us it was it was kind of shattering so I was going into my senior year we ended up hearing pretty much the same time the general public heard so we kind of all got left scrambling bunch of my buddies straight away they kind of started going different spots thankfully they ended up honoring our scholarship so I was a senior I was like it's gonna be more of a headache to deal with these transfer credits than anything so I ended up duking it out senior year just being a student doing just student things so it was nice to get a little bit of a load off my back but during that time obviously talked to coach fulfilling coach purdy got the itch immediately after after about two weeks of not playing lacrosse and the year and I can honestly say it's probably one of the best decisions I've ever made that's amazing I swear Danny when he says he's had the itch he must have had the itch because he plays two damn positions on the field you know yeah yeah and you know what to go from one really really good program to another really really good program that I I'm sure the coach has welcomed you with open arms.

SPEAKER_00 1:27:54

Yeah for sure the best company around here I mean these past two years I can honestly These are some of the best friends I've made in my entire life. Everybody's an absolute riot on last year's team and this year's team. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:06

Well, it seems like it seems like an Adelphi is a tight-knit group. You know, it seems like, you know, and the alumni's because I go to the games, I was at the Lemoyne game a couple of weeks ago. I see how the alumni come, they they packed that place, man. It's uh it's a really good feeling. It must be a great feeling to see a packed house every time you play, huh?

SPEAKER_00 1:28:24

For sure, especially those night games. Once you get uh once you get those stands packed out, you know, you know you always have the alumni, like you guys said, but it's it's electric. I mean, absolutely amazing field facilities are awesome. And getting out to go all whites under the lights, can't beat that.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:38

I love it. I love it. I have to point out, so you came over last year. Coach also told me when we were talking on the phone that you were voted best player on the team by your teammates last year. So, what was that like coming in? You know, you're only one year, and your teammates say point right to you and say, Brian, you're you're the man.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:02

It was honestly true honor because you guys know last year's team had in a ton of talent.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:09

And for them to turn around and say that I was I was essentially the the keystone to the bridge mental world. I mean, it's it's one thing when it's voted on by the coaches, but when you when you have your own guys that you're going into the trenches in every day, they're turning around and saying that you're a big part of this, it means a lot, and you kind of have to wear it with pride, to be completely honest.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:28

Kind of means more than the coaches, if you ask me, you know. Yeah, like I said, that that at the off my group is tight, man. I see you guys, I see guys on the sideline, I see guys the way you interact, you know. Even when things are bad, I just see how how you guys just like really support each other. It's a really, really good program to be in.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:49

Yeah, because I mean we have it, you have your decent amount of commuters, and then you guys know most of most of us are from Long Island, but we have the guys from out of state come. Everybody's everybody's pretty close to each other, so it's it's pretty seamless to to come together and really get tight as a group.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:04

That's pretty awesome. Now, by the time this podcast comes out, you have played Bentley for the third time. And talk about needing a tight-knit group to try to turn that around. What's the feel in the locker room with that?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:18

Locker room feeling is good right now. So, um, obviously, it's been a little bit of a hiccup for the past two weeks, but everybody's as tight as could be. We know we know what we can do, we know that we're a good team out here, and we stumbled the past couple weeks. We're it's time to pick up the pieces and kind of get back to work here. That's that's basically the motive out here. Practices have been workdays, kind of just trying to get the bad taste out of out of our mouth and and get back to work and hopefully get back on track on Wednesday.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:42

You know what, Brian? You know what? It seems to me like you guys played so well against Lemoyne. That was such a really, really good game. Both teams, the defenses on both sides were just it was an amazing game. I I was telling everybody, and and I mentioned it on the podcast, I felt like I was watching the D1 playoff game. The IQ was crazy on the field, the amount of athletes and just what they could do on both sides. And I was wondering, maybe do you think that that game took a little bit of steam out of you for the following week coming to play Bentley?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:16

Yeah, being here, especially last year when I got on the big talk of the campuses, it's always Panthers, Dolphins at the end of the year. It all crescendoes to the end. Obviously, it's gonna take a lot out of you, but I I think we kind of just got caught last week during the NE tens, but it definitely definitely is a big week when we play Le Moyne here. So it takes it takes full effort, full energy, full everything. So well there, maybe we got caught caught. Bentley played a hell of a game.

SPEAKER_05 1:31:44

That's what I was gonna say. I mean, Bentley came both times against you guys, they came with a great game plan, and they played their games to perfection against you, to be honest. And and so nothing against them. I mean, I think they really came out, and it was they those were great games too. It just it just seems like I I didn't see that's what's saying I didn't see a lot of mistakes. There wasn't uh on your side on the Delphi side. I just think that you know the mistakes that were happening were being forced by Bentley's good defensive play, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:16

And if what was that Wednesday night? It was also just a complete goalie show showdown. We had Dylan Renner 18. Yeah, and the Bentley goalie was on fire, also. Yeah, sometimes sometimes you run to a little pitcher's duel, and that that's what happened.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:30

So, yeah, yep. All right, so now I've got to ask you because you're playing two positions. Is there a position that you like better?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:39

I'm gonna be honest, I do like playing D many more.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:43

I was gonna guess that was probably just by your demeanor. I'm like, this guy likes to hit people. That's all I'm gonna say. Look at the neck on them. Look at the neck on them. Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:53

The battle versus college shirts is a serious thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:32:55

I think it maybe that top button is screaming, and there's never I thought you did that uh on purpose for your your profile picture in the uh in the on the roster there.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:09

No, every every time I take a roster picture, I look at it, I'm like, what the hell was I doing?

SPEAKER_07 1:33:16

You look like a detective looking at it right now. You look like a detective, detective order, homicide. Oh my god, that's funny. But dude, you've been bawling out even last year, you know. North region, third team, you know, all all any 10. I mean, you're just bawling out and having a great season again. And now you gotta face Bentley again. Yeah, little chip on that shoulder, maybe in the Panther uh locker room.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:47

Little chip, some could say. But the uh everything's coming full circle right now. I mean, if you follow this last year, same thing that's happening with us in Bentley last year, having to play him three times. We had to play Le Moyne three times. So yeah, that's how the NE10 basically rolls out. If if you're in that tournament, there's a good chance you're playing a team three times in a year, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:34:07

Right, yeah. All right, now, Mr. Hoarder. You can hit guys and you can win a lot of face-offs, but now you have to go against the master with questions. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:22

As ready as I'll ever be. Come on now.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:27

All right, Brian Hoarder from Adelphi face-off guy, short stick mini pulling double duty over there at the Panthers in in Long Island. Floral Park High School, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:39

Wrong. I'm on now already. New High Park High School.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:42

Oh, New High Park High School. Now, you know what? Just stick a foot in my mouth. I apologize. They hate each other, those two schools.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:51

Okay, so that's even better.

SPEAKER_07 1:34:56

Brian Hoarder, thank you so much for coming. Here we go. Couple of questions, just give us your best answers, all right? We'll do mom's best meal.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:04

Oh, I'm gonna have to go chicken colours, preferably Sunday morning, fresh out of the uh fresh out of the oil.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:11

Chicken cutlets on Sunday morning breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:14

Sunday morning. I I work out Long Beach Saturday night, so that I wouldn't say Sunday morning, usually, usually Sunday afternoon.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:21

Okay, all right. Um, PlayStation or Xbox?

SPEAKER_00 1:35:26

Xbox, no question.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:28

Runs or lifts? Like, I gotta ask this question.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:31

Yes, then come on.

SPEAKER_05 1:35:34

Danny, he almost wait before you go on, he almost seems disgusted with the questions. Like, come on, man. Come on, man.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:41

That's all you got, right? All right, favorite TV show.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:47

I'm gonna go how I met your mother. Oh, that's a good one. I like it.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:52

Yeah, it's a pretty good show, actually. Favorite cartoon as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:57

I know this is a common answer, it's a chalk answer. I'm going Spongebob. I don't want to.

SPEAKER_05 1:36:01

Going SpongeBob pineapple. I think it's just the generation, it's just that time. I mean, it was yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:08

Favorite professional football team, New York Giants, Dave quarterback.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:15

Big blue.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:16

Uh who's your favorite football player? All time, all time.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:22

The throwback hard here. I'm gonna say Jeremy Shockey.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:25

Hey, that's a good one. Tight end from Miami, yeah, man. Hurricane former Kane. I don't know if he can spell Miami, but he was a good player. Um, favorite kind of music that you like to listen to, Brian.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:40

Kind of bounce around with everything. If you looked at my playlist, it just jumps back and forth. I'll say I've been on a Morgan Wallin kick, so I'll say uh I'll say country.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:48

Uh, you know what? You're about the fourth person in the row that said that. And uh, what was the last song you listened to?

SPEAKER_00 1:36:56

This is a this is a shout out to my buddy from NYIT, Matt Our Known, Whiskey Glasses by Morgan Wallen.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:01

All right, shout out to Matt. All right. Uh, if you could play a musical instrument, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:10

All right, two two parts to this. I played trumpet when I was in high school, horrible. So put that on the record. But if I was good at guitar, I think I'd be the most popular man on earth.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:19

Okay, cool, cool. I love it, I love it. Favorite class since you've been out of Delphi?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:28

I'm gonna say most I've learned probably applied machine learning with Professor Juan, the man.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:35

And what's that about?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:37

A whole lot of coding, staring at a computer a lot, a lot of hard work, but probably learned the most in a class that I've ever learned in college.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:44

And who and who is and who is the professor?

SPEAKER_00 1:37:46

Professor Juan Haramillo, the man behind the keyboard.

SPEAKER_07 1:37:50

He's the man, huh? All right. Gotta get tell the professor, man. He's on the he's on the podcast.

unknown 1:37:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:00

Oh here's the next one. Who's the funniest guy on the team?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:07

I'm gonna say Magic Mike McGovern. He's in charge of two calls during the games. He's an absolute riot. I don't even, I don't even know if he's trying to be, but he's a man.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:15

All right, Mikey gets a shout out. In your life, what's been your best lacrosse memory?

SPEAKER_00 1:38:25

I'd have to go with last year's any ten championship. Either that or when I was a fresh from the ECC championship at New York Tech, but I'd probably say last year's Any Ten Championship because I was definitely playing more last year and it was incredible in the rain.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:39

Can't beat it.

SPEAKER_07 1:38:40

Yeah, that's awesome. Okay, last but not least, give us your best impression of coach. McGovern had a great one, right? He did a really possession uh uh imitation of him last year.

SPEAKER_00 1:38:56

Yeah, I'm actually looking at him through the window right now, so this should be good. Um, I'm actually this is a Dave Sansone number 41 on the team, impersonation of Coach Purdy. Actually, so when we're in the back of the bus, we give Dave Sanzone open mic, he just cracks everybody else up. But first, you got to check if Coach Purdy can hear you. So he loads up on the mic, Coach Purdy, can you hear me? Coach Purdy, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_07 1:39:23

Dave Sanzo gets a shout-out. I actually know, I actually know Dave's mom. I met his mom a couple of months ago, maybe about a year ago. She's really nice, and uh found out that you know our boys played D two lacrosse, and we've you know kind of hit it off talking. And she's told me her son was out of Delphi. And that he plays, he's a pretty good player, he's got some nice size, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:39:46

Yeah, great player out of Nassau, stereotypical Nassau guy, hardest worker in most rooms. He walks into, and he's he's an absolute riot, one of the first people I ran into on campus, and do I had a good friend coming in?

SPEAKER_07 1:39:56

All right, cool, man. Well, Brian, you did great on the sh on the firing around. You were awesome tonight. We really appreciate it. What a great kid you are, man. I had a lot of fun with you tonight. You seem like a seem like a fun guy. Long beach. You go out to Long Beach on the on the weekends that we have.

SPEAKER_00 1:40:13

I work out there, so I don't know if it's by choice, but yeah, I am out there.

SPEAKER_07 1:40:16

Okay, all right. Sounds good.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:20

Danny, I've never seen a player

Shout outs

SPEAKER_05 1:40:23

come on to the player spotlight guns ablazing, like Brian Hoarter. He's a good kid, huh?

SPEAKER_07 1:40:32

He's a happy, happy, happy kid. Just a really good kid. He looked like he was having the time of his life. He was enjoying the hell out of it, wasn't he? He may just take over the podcast. We we're out. He'd be great at by running a podcast. He's definitely has the personality. He's a really good player, Kev, on a really, really good team that's really well coached, and that has a chance at a national championship. I love a Delphi. I think they're a really good squad. You know, I remember always questioning a Delphi. Why are they at four? They haven't played anybody. You know, why are they at three? They only had four games. I don't get it. Yeah, and now I get it. I get it. You know, just they're a good squad, well coached, deep, um, high IQ team. Just you know, everybody on that team can play. They all know the game very well. Some of them kids probably don't even need to be coached. That's how good they are. Yeah, so Brian was great. I I was so happy he came on. He looks like a good kid. He's having fun, he's getting his masters in a couple of weeks. So good for him, huh?

SPEAKER_05 1:41:40

Exactly. Exactly. It was great to have him on before he graduated. But now it's time to move on to shout-outs. Do you have any, Danny? I have no shout-outs. I've got two. You ready?

unknown 1:41:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:41:53

This is my first. I've been seeing a lot of picks on Instagram from the teams who made it to the dance. As they should. They should post, you know, we're in, ticket punched. But the picks I like even better are the ones in caps and gowns. So a shout out to all the graduates and players out there who worked hard on the field and in the classroom to earn their degrees.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:22

Well said, Kevin.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:26

And here's my last shout out. As you know, Danny, we recently hit over 25,000 downloads for our podcast. So shout out to all of our listeners and all the people who've come on this podcast to provide the content and my partner in crime for going on this crazy ride with me.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:48

Oh, Kevin, this has been great. 25,000. I wouldn't have noticed when we got one. I was like, really? You know, hey, it's been a great run. It's been fun, it's been interesting, and we have a sponsor's, you know, scorebreak. Check them out sponsoring us, and you know, definitely check them out. And and just it's been a great ride. It hasn't been a wild ride, it's been a fun ride, it's been a lot of fun. My prolific producing podcast partner, Kevin Stenstrom. And with that, that's a wrap. That's a wrap.