Total MAYHEM!!

Intro

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of In the Crease with Danny and Kevin, a coast-to-coast discussion of D2 Men's Across. I'm your co-host, Kevin Stentrom, and with me as always is our tournament champion, Danny Moran. Hey, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Thank you so much for that kind introduction, Mr. Kevin Stentrom. How are you tonight in North Virginia?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

Danny, it is mayhem. Mayhem, I tell you. Mayhem. Right. I, you know, we've used that phrase before for the NCA lacrosse tournament. I think they also like May Madness. I don't like that because that's too close to March Madness and the basketball one. But I'll tell you that phrase really rings true this year in Division II in the bracket because it left me dazed and confused. But we'll hold off on that. We'll hold off.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

A couple of scratching, head scratching moments.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

A little bit, maybe. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. You and I have talked about this a little bit of last few nights we have, and we'll get to that definitely. But first, we have games to go over. But we usually do a top 10 roundup, but not all the top 10 played. Do you just want to go instead? I think you had an idea to go through what the last USILA coaches poll, top 20.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah, Kev, just for the final week of the you know, the regular season, final coaches poll the season before the tournament starts. I'd like to give you the top last top 20, okay? So at number one was Lenore Ryan Bears. At number two, Tampa Spartans. Number three, Limestone Saints. Number four, the Panther of Adelphi. Number five, the Mercy Mavs. Number six, the St. Anselms Hawks. Number seven, the Wingate Bulldogs. Number eight, the Pace Setters. Number nine, the Rollins Tars. And number 10, Mercy Hurst Lakers. That's your top 10 final Lewis. Number 11 is a tie at 11, they say. It looks like Lewis and Newberry both tied at 11. Number 13 is Maryville. Number 14 is Bentley. Number 15 is U Indy. Number 16 is Colorado Mesa. Number 17, Frostburg State. Number 18, Seton Hill. Number 19, Mount Olive. And final top 20 team, the Mox from Florida Southern. That was the final week of the coaches polk out. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

That's uh really interesting. I you know, obviously saw some of the teams how they moved up. Lewis moved up a lot on their their uh GLVC champion win. I think that's a pretty good pretty good uh list there.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Lewis had quite the week.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Yeah, yeah, they did.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

You know what we gotta do? We gotta pull out our top 20 from the first week and see how they ended up.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah, it's interesting. We had several. I don't think I even had Lewis in the top 20.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

I think I did, if I if I remember correctly, I'd have to go back.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

I had Mary Bill in there, I had you, Indy. I if I had Lewis, they were at the end, and it was one of those teams I thought about doing. So, congratulations to them and all the teams I made at top 20. That is a very good list, those are all really damn good teams, and I think it's pretty well deserved. Yeah, me too. Absolutely. I totally agree

Week in Review

SPEAKER_01 3:30

with that. But now we get to talk about the games that happened last week, and really it was the tournament championships for I think about six conferences. Let's start with the granddaddy of them all, the NE10 Danny. And this is how uh it was Adelphi and St. A's in the final, but this is how they got there. A Delphi beat Bentley 19-7, and St. A's beat Pace 12-11. And that was a really good close game. Yeah, really good game. Yep. Now a Delphi plays St. Anselm in the final at a Delphi. This was an interesting game, Danny. It ends up being 10-9. A Delphi wins. Really, if you look at it, it was probably 10-8 because Jack Andrews scored with on a buzzer beater, basically, to make it 10-9. Right. This was an intriguing game because it really looked like it was started off to be a Delphi's game, even though St. A's was winning all the face-offs. I think St. A's won every faceoff, right? 21 to 0. And a Delphi wins the game.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

That's just that just shows you how great their defense is. And I think Dylan Renner had like seven saves in the first quarter.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

And one of my notes early on, great goalie play early on. Dylan Renner, we know, but Finn Granera. Yeah, really, I think showing up in front of our eyes. First game. It's only his third start. Third start. His first start was against a Delphi.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Yeah, they threw him right into the deep end of the pool.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Because Anthony Kubik, their starting goalie, is out. And he's been out. And I'll tell you, Finn played very well that game.

SPEAKER_02 5:18

14 saves. Finn Finn might have won himself a starting job.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Yeah, well, he's definitely there next year because Anthony Kubik, I think, is graduating. So that makes it a little bit easier for the coaches. There you go. There you go. But here's what it's interesting. St. A's, I wrote a note, has to capitalize on their face-off strength. And they did that a couple times. They won a had a goal right off the face-off, I think, in the second half. But there was just little things like in the first half, they were making some minor mistakes, like some bad passes, which you can't do against a Delphi.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

No.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Giving them a break.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

They were able to get some shots off. They were able to get some shots off.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

And so that was early in the game. That's when they were down 6-1. And I wrote they need to clean up quickly. And I think they did. I think after that they played very solid against a Delphi. It was 8-5 at a half, but they got it to 7-5 with 335 left. And then it was 8-8 after 3. So they cleaned up those mistakes. Yeah. But the weird thing is at the end of the third quarter, they were man up. Do you remember this? Oh no. Stephen explained it to me. End of three, they were they were man up. And they did not try to shoot. They held for the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Oh, St. A's.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Yeah. And I didn't I didn't understand why they did that because they were winning every faceoff. They could have done a make it take it if they had made, if they had really gone for a shot. And they had plenty of time. It wasn't like they had, you know, 10 seconds. You know, it was only 10 seconds left on the on the quarter in that that man up. They had like 30, 40 seconds.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Maybe they just didn't want to take a chance on losing one. You know, you got the ball. It's possession, then you're still man up.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah. Yeah. And they were tied. They were tied.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

What a chance of maybe losing the face-off or 50-50 and getting, you know, and and Delphi getting a ground ball. That's the only thing I can think of. You know, he had the ball. Let's just play it out the quarter and start with the ball in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

See what we can do. But they didn't have much time in the man up when they came into the fourth quarter to capitalize on it. So uh they still had ball possession. And that's one of the interesting things, Dan. Man up opportunities were squandered on both sides, but on St. A's, they went 0 for 4.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

Yeah, it's you know, Delphi's defense is tough, and Dylan Renner's tough to get balls by, period. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And if you look at a score that's a one-goal game, one goal, two goal games, those little things matter. Getting a few man up goals matters.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

And he had a doorstep stop on it on a Nick Larson shot. Like he was just really good at Dylan. Dylan might be the best in the country, you know.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

I we've talked about this. It's him in the north and Pensa Benny in the south. And I give it to Dylan Renner just because I think more weight on his shoulders. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of things. Lenore Ryan has a good faceoff. Really good face off. They both have good defenses. I think they're I think that Lenore Ryan's close defense is a little bit better than Adelphi's. I'd agree with that. Maybe it'll switch short short stick D middies. And so I I just think that he's had more weight on his shoulders, and I'd give it to him over Rob Pence Benny.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

I thought, you know, yeah, I just I've watched a lot of a Delphi games, and just Dylan Renner has impressed me every single game. Every time. Every single game. He's made like some really impressive stops where most goalies just don't, you know, won't make those stops. He's that good.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Yeah, and talking about uh a Delphi's defense, I think that's also where they won. And if you look at the team stat, so turnovers, St. A's had 18 to a Delphi's 10, and then clears, St. A's only cleared 12 of 17, where Delphi went 22 of 23, which shows what a Delphi's defense could do, especially in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Yeah, they ride hard.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Yeah, and and that made somewhat of the difference, I think, in a very close game.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah, Eamon Hall, four goals. Braden Donalin, uh, one goal, four assists. Ryan Bauco, one goal, two assists, Rabuto, Steinbeck, Kyle Lewis, and Jason Rabuto added each one. And Dylan Renner, 15 saves. So Adelphyrani, 10 champs, Kev. Yeah. Yeah, great job. Great job by them. All right.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

And they wind up number one seed in the North. Yeah, and I think that's deserved as well. Absolutely. Totally. All right, let's move on. Totally different game, total dominance, and that's the ECC championship. Mercy got there by beating Malloy in 1911, and Frostbird State did that by beating Roberts Wesley in 15 to 7. Both games we we uh we called that way, and I'll be the first one to admit, I'm eating a lot of crow today. I still have got feathers and bones flossing out of my teeth. This one I got right. And then we even got the ending, but I never thought it would be like this. Mercy against Frostburg in the final 16-12 game. Mercy won in regular season, only a four-goal difference. This was total domination by Mercy.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Complete domination. That's my first note. Complete domination.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

I watched the game. I I watched all these games, and I was I was amazed at this. You look at X, they went 16-21 after three quarters. On D, they held the Bobcats to only four goals by the end of the third. On offense, they were beating their matchups and moving the ball really well. The Mavericks were. That's where we're drawing that one. They heard us and said, We're gonna teach you a lesson, boys.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

Mercy beat the snot out of Frostburg State. Malloy gave Mercy a better game. Frostburg was they couldn't get anything going, Kev. They couldn't get anything going, they were throwing the ball away, they were getting beat up on offense, they were getting beat up on defense. They were just yeah, and and and Mr. Jason Kuner. Yeah, 21 of 27. Yeah. I mean, what are you gonna do? Like, I don't know. And and Mercy's offense is so explosive. They're fast. There's a lot of guys that can score. Look at the amount of guys that scored. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, you look at the yeah, you look at the team stats, and that shows it too, right? Ground balls, mercy had 49, Frostburg 27, faceoff. We talked about 21 to 6. Cause turnovers, 13 for Mercy, five for Frostburg State, and then saves 16 for Mercy, 12 for Frostburg.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

Yeah, but Frostburg didn't look like they were ready for that game. They just didn't look ready.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

Didn't look a regular Frostburg team to me this season. And yet, and yet Mercy was clicking on all cylinders.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

They looked really good. They looked really good. They were moving the ball fast, guys moving off ball, passes were on target, they were quick shots. Hyder had a shot.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

You said Mercy's the team that scares you in the NCA. I watched that game, and that's that was the quote that was going in my head the whole time, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

They have so many kids that can score, Kev. Look in this game, Greg Gibbons, three goals, eight assists. Wow. Yeah. Um Brody Castanetti had four goals and assists. Andrew Calabria, two and two. TJ Hyder had four goals, Ryan Smith had two goals, Burgesson had one. I like that kid. He's young. Yeah, he's young. He's getting his chance, and he and he's doing pretty good for Mercy. And even Gerdville had one.

unknown 13:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

You know, like along with six ground balls. And you had TJ Hyder. He had five ground balls and a cost turnover.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

He had a really good cost turnover on a ride. And you know what? They were up 10 goals, like at that point. You know, those guys did not stop the whole. They were already up. You know, a lot of guys might say, maybe not. No, man. Haider went flying up there, did a nice wraparound check one hand, that ball came out, and they picked up the ball and they were on the run again. It was like gas pedal down, you know, throttle down, gas all the way. Mercy looked really, really, really good in this game, Kev. Yeah. And they wind up number two seed in the North. And once again, that's bot on.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Deserved. Spot on. Completely. All right. Let's move on to the GMAC. Alrighty. We know how those teams got there. We talked about it last week. Seton Hill against Mercyhurst in the final. Mercyhurst wins this one 12-9. This game to me was pount, punch, counterpunch, and a very physical game, Danny.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Yeah, you know, these teams they know each other very well, Kev. They play each other every year, a couple times a year. And it's always between these two. They don't like each other. They want to beat the crap out of each other. And this one, you know what? Seton Hill didn't play bad. No, it didn't play bad. I just felt that Mercy Hurst played a little bit better that day. You know what I mean? I think Mercy Hurst is a little bit stronger of a team than Seton Hill this year. And uh, you know, and they and they they looked, you know, pretty good in the game. They looked, you know, solid in all aspects of the game, if you ask me.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah, I it was it was interesting. There's some things that came out to me. One thing I noticed in the in the first half, every time Mercy Hurst Brady McCard had the ball, their short stick D Mitty, and he's bringing it down in transition, Seaton Hill was hounding him. It seems like they had two to three guys circling him. And I wrote, like, is that their strategy? Is that their way to like just try to like get the ball back? What's funny is as I was writing that down, Brett only makes a save, gives it to Braden McCard, who leads a transition to a goal. So every every punch that Seaton Hill gave, there was a counter move by Mercyhurst, you know, to to to win, and I think in the end that helped him win. It was 6'6 at half. It wasn't like this was a blowout anytime, and there were some incredible goals in this game. I mean, Tardiff, Colin Tardiff on the crease to tie it at seven. Braden Lockier from Seaton Hill. This guy just had pinpoint accuracy in that game. He had a hat trick with 1055 left in the second quarter.

SPEAKER_02 16:07

Yeah. Yeah. He had a good year. He had a good year.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

But then Brendan William on the ends had some incredible saves to hold Seaton Hill off. So, you know, it was it was 10-8 after three. And then Adam Oskerson from Mercy Hurst gets his own rebound. Another really cool shot, uh cool goal. Gets his own rebound on a shot to put the Lakers up 11-8. And that's basically our largest lead of the day, and that's basically it.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Good for him, yeah. Tardiff had three goals, Landon Moore had three goals, Antonio Rossetti had one and one. Chase Petchak had one and one. Lafarve had one and one. Oscarson, like you just said, with his goal. Ryan Mahoney had a goal, and Luki and Genie had a goal. Like a bunch of guys from Mercy Hurst scored. So uh Mercy Hurst finishes their season 13 and 4. Seton Hill finishes their season 11 and 6. And and Mercy, uh Mercy Hurst goes to the dance, man. Yeah. Yeah. They're at the fifth spot in the in the North. And I think that's deserved as well. I agree.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

I agree. All right. Let's talk GLVC. Here's where I'm eating a little crow on this one, too. So Lewis beats UWindy 13 to 7 in the semis. I think we both had U Windy on that one. I texted Coach Bruzi and and and congratulated him and said that the crow never tasted better. Then Rockhurst loses to Maryville 10-7. Maryville takes them again. So now you've got the matchup, Lewis and Maryville. They split during the regular season, right? One was an in-conference, one was out of conference game. Both games were kind of dominated by one team. So Maryville won that first game fairly easily. And then the second game, Lewis won fairly easily. This game ends up 11-10. Lewis pulls it out. Another close game.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Lewis hung on. Maryville looked pretty good. Both teams going at it. Again, two teams that know each other, Kev, that know each other, play each other several times a year. You know, they the kids know each other, they know their strengths, their weaknesses, what they like to do. So that's when these games get these, that's when you get these one-goal games. Two two teams really similar in style of play, really similar in um athletes on the field. Just, you know, they really match up really well.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah, and it was funny because it went back and forth. It was 3-2 uh Lewis after one, and then it was six, three at half Meryville. And Maryville just had a really patient offense, uh, led to long possessions in that second quarter, and they're shut their D shut down Lewis. Meryville then scores the first goal in the third, and they go up seven to three with 12-22 left in that quarter. And it looks like okay, is are the Saints taking control of this game like they did their first game of the season against Lewis? But that's not what happened. Baden Boyenko find the scores for Lewis at 9.07 to close within three, and then they just scored goal after goal really quickly. They scored two more goals in less than a minute to make it 7-6, and then they scored another goal about two minutes later. So they scored four goals in three minutes to get it tied at 7-7.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Yep, that's the game of lacrosse, man. That's what's so great about this.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

That's what I love about it. You can't take a four-goal lead and sit on it.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

No, not in games like this, not with teams that match up so well together.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

There's no way. The Flyers took us uh a two-goal lead in the fourth with 11-10 left, so they're up 10-8. And Maryville answers the two-goal lead with two of their own to tie it up with five minutes later with 6-21 left. And now then Lewis goes up, so they're up 11-10. Maryville has a chance with one minute left. And this was a crazy last minute. Meryville's got the ball, they take a shot, but the ball's awarded to Lewis. Lewis bringing it down in transition turns it over. Meryville brings it back into the box with 21 seconds left. They call a timeout, right? Sounds good. They get a shot, it hits off the crossbar. They they they get the reset, but there's only three seconds left on the clock.

unknown 20:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Not a lot of time. And they try to, you know, they try to bring it in, can't convert. Yeah. So go ahead. Team stats basically dead even.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Dead even. Great matchup. I can like these they know each other really well, strengths and weaknesses. They these kids know each other. They played against each other, they know what they can do, who's strong, who's not strong, who can get by who. Their kids are smart. Sometimes it's not always the coaches, you know. These kids get it after a while. So Lewis winds up 13 and 4, and so does Maryville. Yeah. They both wind up 13 and 4.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

And they play each other again.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Yeah. So who was it? Was Nolan Dallup had 2-2, Evan Clement with 3-1, Braden Boyenko 1-2, uh, Kevin Blas had two goals, Don Bravada had one and one, Andrew Skimmerhorn had one goal, and Paul Roskowski had a goal. And you know what? Both these teams, Kev, got a bid into the uh into the South region for the for the NCAA tournament.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

Yep, and Rhea Rath, Lewis's goalie, 16 saves. Good day. They both and and uh Ratke, Dylan Ratke had a good good game too on the Maryville side. That was a really close game. Here's Danny. The last one we have to go through. Oh no, we have two. Two more, two more. First, let's do C A C C then we'll do Peach Belt. C A C C You You called it. I didn't call it. You didn't call it? I thought Wilmington. So, first of all, I thought I thought you didn't call Chestnut Hill. We both picked Wilmington. Okay, okay. Wilmington gets in by beating Post 15-11. You had Chestnut Hill beating Georgian Court. I had Georgian Court beating Chestnut Hill. So I got this one wrong. And you know, Chestnut Hill won 12-5 against Georgian Court. They just did a great job. We both had Wilmington winning. Yeah. Chestnut Hill wins this game 17 to 8. They lost in the regular season 10-8 to Wilmington. Danny, we have discounted Chestnut Hill the last three years in the championship game. 2022, Wilmington was on the doorstep of getting into the NCAA. That's right. And we thought Wilmington's got this. Last year, Georgian Court beat them in the regular season. They had a great in-conference um record. We thought Georgia Court was going, they beat them. And this year, Wilmington once again is knocking on the door for possible NCAA. They were like number eight again in the NCA rankings last year. And they getting into the top 20 discussion. And Chestnut Hill just puts on the gas in the second half. Coach DiCarlo lives for the CAC championship and has his team always ready, especially his defense.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

It's just amazing.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Fourth year in a row for Chestnut Hill as conference champions of the CACC.

SPEAKER_01 23:54

And get this, we probably discount them. I went back, I'm like, well, how did I miss that? They lost their first three games of the season. Right. But two of them were to Pace and Seton Hill. Then they didn't lose again until they lost to Wilmington in the regular season. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Yeah. Yeah. Chestnut Hill's good. I don't know why I uh I thought Wilmington was going to win. I shouldn't, I shouldn't go against Chestnut Hill.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

I am not going next year. If if they're in the tournament, I'm not going against Chestnut Hill. I'm making my stand right now. I don't care what their record is going in next year. If they go into the tournament, I'm picking Chestnut Hill to win the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

Oh, yeah, man, me too. So Chestnut Hill winds up, you see ACC champs. They wind up 11 and 4, as does Wilmington. They both wind up 11 and 4. And that game and championship game, Sam Slater. How about this? Seven goals, one assist. My man had himself a day.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

They could not stop him.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Young man, Jake Ballerini had two and two. I know Jake's dad. I worked with his dad on a big, big, big construction job. And I remember I remember when he was like, Dan, look, you got to let me know about recruiting. What's going on? And Jake wound up at Chestnut Hill and he's doing great. Will Duty had three goals, no assist. Cade Johnson had two goals and assists, and Nate Matthews had one goal. So Chestnut Hill winds up your CACC champion for the fourth year in a row. Yeah, and let's point this out too. Yeah, let's go. A lot of crow are eating. Yeah, we are on that one.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

But let's I have to point out Chestnut Hill's known for their defense. And Coach DeCarl when he came on, he loves his defense. You have to give a shout out to their close defense. Daniel Grubb, RJ Rebecca, and Kyle Gartmeyer. All three of these guys, over six feet and well over 200 pounds. Yeah, man. That's a wall. And they move well. They just don't stand there. And then their goalie, Julius, Julius Sereno, 64% save percentage for the game.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

That's great. That's great. Yeah, Coach DeCarlo does a great job.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

All around team win.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

Does a great job, man. He does a great job. I think they're like just one or two players away from being like really good. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 26:21

The CACC, you look at those teams, Wilmington and Chestnut Hill and Georgian Court right now, post right behind them. They are competitive against each other. It's playing the out of conference big boys that they've got to get over the next hump. Yeah, yeah. And they're not far away. They're not. They're not.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Like I said, man, they're one or two, you know, stud like stud players away, whether it be offensively or defensively. But you know, they're right on that cusp, Kev.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Yep, yep. Okay, so last one to go through now is the Peach Belt tournament. Yeah. I'm eating crow in this one too. Monavalo, Flagler in the semifinals. You called it. I went, I went chalk with Montevallo. You went with Flagler. Flagler wins 10-6. They basically took care of him, especially in the second half. Uh, and then the second game, Lander beat uh Alabama Huntsville 11-9. A good game, very close. Lander had to pull it out in the last few minutes to win that game. I thought UAH was going to pull it out. And Lander pulls it out. It was a really good game. So now we go to the final on Sunday. Lander against Flagler. Same matchup as last year, Danny. Same result. Lander pulls it out 15 to 12. It's a good game. It's a good game. Lander starts off with a commanding lead. Seven goals. Yeah. And they were doing a great job of passing and cutting. I mean, one of the things I noticed was Flagler couldn't really stop the cutter from going into the center in the middle. And it didn't happen all the time, but the Lander was looking for it. And they'd be shooting from like behind the goal, whether it was not usually at X, it's one wing or the other. A lot of times it was on the right wing, left wing. And the the guy's cutting in the middle, and they doesn't see him.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

Open for layups. Yeah. They caught caught the defense looking. Yeah, you know, Lander jumped out to that big lead. And you know what? Flagler never really super duper recovered from that. They got some goals late in that game. They got like two or three goals late. You know, it was, you know, it was a five-goal game, still like a lot in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Well, and that's what's interesting. Like came back in the second to make it close 7-4, but then it was 10-5 at half. And then in the third, Danny, it was just runs. There was three by Langler, there was three by Lander to make it 13-5. Then there was three by Flagler to make it 13-8. And then there was two by Lander to make it 15-8. And that's where it ended after three. So there's a seven-goal difference again that Flagler has got to come back from in the fourth quarter.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Yeah. They couldn't recover from that. They just didn't have what it took that day. Lander looked good offensively, like you said.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Now they shut him down the fourth quarter and they score four, but a seven-goal differential, yeah. It's tough. Yeah. That was tough. Here's what's even either. This is what made it interesting, though, for me, Danny. At like nine minutes left, 943, Flagler got it back to a four-goal difference. It was 15-11. I'm like, 9.43, there's a lot of time left. But then there wasn't another goal scored until until 235 left. Another six minutes before a goal is scored. And it was 15-12, and that's as close as they could get it.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Yeah, that was it. Hey, Lander had a good year, man. They got ranked for a little bit. They were out. They were in, they were out. They wound up 12-4. Flaggler, that's a much improved flagler. That seven and nine record does not really indicate the type of team that they they are. They were really competitive in most of their games, even in their losses. They were competitive. Coach Bryant and you know, Coach Duncan does a really good job at Flaggler. And I think next year they're going to be really good again. But uh Peach Belt, Landers, your boys, they win it again. Kyle uh DeCrospino with uh three goals and two assists. Dean Dalpy with two and two. Quinn Engels, three goals, one assist. Carter Wilcox, two goals and one assist. And our man, Krue Conroy from Kalamazoo, Michigan, dishing out dimes, Kev. He had four assists.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was uh it was a good game. It's a good game.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

He finished his he finished his career with it with a championship.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

Yeah, that's awesome. Congrats to him and his team. Yeah, two years in a row for them. That's great. That is great. Yep. And those are the champs this year. They are.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Can you believe how fast this season has gone by? Like, I can't. All of a sudden, like, what the heck?

SPEAKER_01 31:19

You get so bore focused each week, like looking at the matches, matchups, what's gonna happen, trying to get the stuff ready. And then, of course, on my end, a lot of times, like sending emails out, just trying, you're just in the thick of it, right? You're in the thick of 400, 100.

NCAA Brackets

SPEAKER_01 31:34

We are in the NCAA tournament. It's time to talk about that and what the matchups are, and we're gonna discuss those games coming up. But first, I think we have to discuss the bracket itself. I have to say, Danny, when the South bracket came out, I was watching live on the NCA web. So as was taken aback just a bit. But I thought, I thought, okay, okay. I must be missing something here.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Those are the boos from all the all the fans out there.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

I must be missing something here. You know, I've got to go back and look this. Let's not like jump to conclusions. So I sent out the brackets on our social media accounts with no commentary except for here we go, right? Here we go. Danny, we have never had as much commentary on one of our posts as this one.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Kevin, I think you know that a lot of people are scratching their heads. Listen, the North region was like really well picked. But people don't think people don't think they're scratching their heads about that South region.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

Right. So let's we'll go down. You we kind of talked about as we went through the games that we just talked about, but just so everyone knows, here's the north north region bracket a Delphi one, Mercy two, St. Anselm three, Pace Four, Mercyhurst five, Bentley six. Right. No complaints there.

SPEAKER_02 33:06

No, so the winner of Pace Mercy Hearst, which is going to be a really good game. Really good game. Pace is 12 and 3, Mercy Hearst is 13 and 4. They both are really kind of similar type teams, good teams, you know, well balanced. So the winner of that will get a Delphi.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

Yeah, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about those coming up. I I let's talk about the South Bracket and then talk about what we think about the South Bracket. And I'll tell you kind of my thought process. I went through this. So number one was Tampa, two Lenore Ryan. And and we talked about this last week, Danny. We thought when Lenore Ryan won the SAC championship, because they played against Limestone, which has a better record than Rollins, and Tampa beat Rollins, Lenore Ryan would move to number one. That did not happen. Limestone's three, Lewis four, Meryville five, UND six. The last three are all GLVC teams. Nothing against that conference. But I will tell you, Danny, when I looked at this, I just was shocked. I when I saw Lewis come up at four, I'm like, okay. I could have seen they weren't even in the top eight, the the rankings before. And I'm like, okay, you I can see maybe you're rewarding them. They got they beat Meryville again. They beat Undy. Their strength of schedule gets a little bit better, their RPI gets a little bit better. Maybe they bump up, but I can't believe they would go to four. And then when Maryville was picked at five, I'm like, oh, that must be literally what I thought was that must be a travel thing for the NCAA. And we'll see Wingate at six. And and we saw Undy there. Now, so let's go back. Let me so I'm thinking about all this, and I and I I said I had to look at this further. I still was shocked that Tampa was ahead of Lenore Ryan, and I was shocked that three teams from the GLVC got in. Not that they were G because they were GLVC, but that Wingate, who had been in for so many weeks, had been in it after April 28th, after they'd already lost in the sack tournament, was beat out by all those teams. And I thought U Indy would drop, which they were higher than Wingate the week before. And I'm thinking, okay, what did I miss? What did I miss? And I went back to strength of schedule on what they have in the NCA PDF files. The last one, which was April 28th. Wingate's better than Meryville and Lewis. And like a 100th percentage point or 1000th percentage point less than you Indy. And then you look at Lenore Ryan and Tampa. I mean Tampa's strength of schedule a little bit better. Lenore Ryan beat Tampa and beat Adelphi and beat Limestone in the sack. I just I'm just perplexed, Danny. I'm I'm like, I'm trying to figure out how this happened this way.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Well, Kevin, just let's forget the wingate thing right now. Let's just talk about number one. You just hit the nail right on the head. What is the committee looking at? I mean, I thought we knew. You know, we've we've had NCAA committee members on this show and explain it to us. We we kind of understand what they're looking for, how these teams go about making their schedules. They want a strong out-of-conference schedule if they want to even get a consideration. Okay. Your conference is your conference. There's going to be good teams in your conference and bad teams in your conference. Okay. So it's that out-of-conference schedule. It's a regional thing. But you just hit the nail in the head. Lenore Ryan beat Tampa head to head. Beat limestone head to head. And winds up number two. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry, but that doesn't make sense to me. It just doesn't make sense to me. At some point, you gotta say, hey, they beat them. They beat him.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

So and and so what I did, Danny, two things I did besides the strength of schedule. I went back and looked at the selection criteria, and I went back and listened to our podcast with Dan Mara from last year. Right. On the committee. Yep. Let's go through what the criteria are. Division two in-region winning percentage. Division two winning percentage. Division II strength of schedule. Division II head-to-head competition. Results versus division two common opponents. And then there's additional selection criteria, which basically goes to in-region strength of schedule, in-region ratings percentage index, and performance index, which God knows how I'm still kind of clueless on how that math works there. So okay. But those are additional. I take those if even if you look at those in order of priority, okay, and you look at in-region winning percentage percentage, Tampa, Lenore Ryan, same. Winning percentage, same. Strength of schedule, Tampa's got it a little bit. Head to head, Lenore Ryan's got it.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

All right.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

Versus common opponents, too, versus common opponents. They both beat Wingate. So, I mean, it it's very close. I'll I'll give it very close. But then, so that leads me back to head to head.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

There you go. I agree. I agree. I thought for sure after LI LR beat limestone, I I was like, okay, they're sack champs. They beat limestone. They already beat Tampa. They're going to be number one. When they were number two, I was in shock. I was like, what, Tampa? That makes no sense. That makes no sense.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Well, and that's why I texted you a week ago. I'm like, hey, do you want to try to get Dan back on? Because the South region hadn't switched. Both tournaments, SSC and SAC, had played out. And I was surprised that Lenore Ryan was still two. And you're like, it'll well, we're good, right? Well, I don't know. Because if we had Dan Mara on, I probably wouldn't be as I'd be more confused this time. I think he did it. I listened to it again, Dan, and he did a great job. It was a great podcast. He laid this out very well. And that's what still doesn't make sense to me. Laying this out doesn't make sense. You go back to last year and we talked about Colorado Mesa, and he laid it out. Colorado Mesa had teams like Lees McCrae and Palm Beach Atlantic on their schedule last year, even though they went like 16-2 and they won their tournament championship. They are on the outside because of that total strength of schedule. You look at some of the teams that Lewis played, they won their they got back, they got in, I think, really because of what they did in their tournament. So good for them. They had, and I'll this is what I'll say. They did what they needed to do. They won out. Period, end of story. So congratulations, and that's going to be a great game against Maryvelle in the tournament. But they played some teams in their out of conference schedule. Tiffin and Thomas Moore.

unknown 40:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Who aren't that strong either yet? They're brand new teams. I know why Coach Peruzi did it, because other teams did it for him when he was Lewis. So I also congratulate him for doing that. He's sticking his neck out because he's putting his strength of schedule on hold to help other teams get better. But that still doesn't help you. That doesn't give you points going into selection Sunday. Well, it's just a lot of things. No, I'm saying about him doing that for other teams. What I'm saying, the only thing I would say is that the GLVC conference is overall obviously stronger, bigger than the RMAC right now. Right. And that may have been a little bit of a tipping thing for them. Okay, so then you see that, but I don't get how I just don't get then if you look at Wingate played Maryville head-to-headed, another head-to-head thing. Beat Maryville, but Maryville's in, Wingate's not out. And then you look at Undy, who had a stronger strength of schedule in the NCA rankings than Wingate. But if you look at common opponents, right? Yeah. I I don't see how Wingate didn't. And I'm not. I know a lot of people are going to say to me, You're being a homer. You're a Wingate fan. You and Danny are Wingate fans. Your boys went to Wingate, which we held off telling anyone for a couple of years. No one knew where our boys went for a few years. Now with your son, your second son playing there, it's a little difficult because he's a good player and it's the same last name. It's kind of tough to, but I will tell you, my first thing was when that came out, I'm like, Kevin, don't be a homer. Do your homework. Look it up. Dissect this. Try to decipher why Wingate, and I still can't, my head is still scratching. There could be a good reason that I'm missing, Danny, but I don't see it right now. I'm just dazed and confused still.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Well, Wingate wound up 12 and 5, and they they lost some games. Let's let's just go over a couple, just numbers, like the numbers thing, the criteria, right? Right? UND's strength of schedule was ninth in the country. They had one top five game and they lost. They had one top 10 game and they lost. And they had two, they went one and two in top 20. They lost to LR, they lost to Newberry, they lost to Maryville and Lewis, but they lost to unranked Rockhurst. Rockhurst was unranked when they beat Undy. They got ranked because they beat Undy. That's right. Okay, let's go with Maryville. Their strength of schedule was 17th. They had zero top five games. Zero. They went two top 10 games, and they went one and one in those top 10 games, and they went one and two in top 20. So they had three teams in the top 20. They lost to Wingate, they lost to Westminster, and they lost to Lewis twice. So UND lost to Newberry and Maryville. Wingate beat Lewis and Maryville. And I mean beat Maryville and Newberry. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

And also beat Mercyhurst that Lewis lost to.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

That's right. So now let's go to Lewis. Lewis was 14th strength of schedule, zero top 10 games. So they had none in the top five, none in the top 10. They went three, I'm sorry, three and two in top 10. My bad. They lost to Maryville. They lost to Colorado Mesa. They lost to Mercyhurst and U Indy. Again, Wingate. Well, that's top 20. That's not top 10. Right. But again, Wingate beat Mercyhurst and beat Merriamville. That's common opponents, right? Yeah. So let's go to let's go to Rollins. Let's think about Rollins for a second. Strength of schedule, 12. They went one and two in top five, talking about strength of schedule. Yeah. They went 0-1 in top 10 and 1-0 in top 20. They lost to you, Indy. They lost to Tampa, okay. They lost to St. Leo, who was ranked, and they lost to Tampa again in the Sunshine State semis. And that game meant something, right? A little bit more on the line for that game. So Rollins has some legitimacy as well. Exactly. In my eyes. Yeah. And now let's take Wingate. Let's take Wingate. Strength of schedule, second in the country. Four top five games. Okay. Four of them. They went 0-4 in top five. Two in at the double overtime. It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. They went one and oh in top 10, 3-1 in top 20. Far superior schedule, strength-wise, than all of those other teams, if you ask me. They lost to number 14 Florida Southern. They lost to number three, Tampa, number two LR, and number one Lenore uh limestone. So three losses for Wingate come from top five teams with two going into double overtime. You know, like I don't know, man. Like that math doesn't add up to me. It's you know, you want to talk about the math? Let's talk about the math. Because apparently it's about out-of-conference, strength of schedule, RPI, wins and losses, opponents, common opponents, and and wingate played what, seven ranked teams and had to play another ranked team again in their conference semis. That's eight ranked games out of 15, man. That's a tough schedule.

SPEAKER_01 46:43

Yeah, I think just to flip that a little bit, is Wingate needed to win one of those top 10 games against the Lenore Ryan or Limestone or Tampa. If they got one of those top five top five, but I I don't think they had any one any other teams they played that were top ten. Those are tough ones anyway. Newberry was top ten. No, they weren't. They're now their top ten. They weren't top ten when they played them. I think they were like eighth and ninth in the country or tenth when they played.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

Newberry was in the top 10 when they played. I don't remember. That doesn't matter. It doesn't matter now. It doesn't. But like again, I'm talking about math, all right? There's criteria there. There's math, there's algorithms. Okay. And you know, you talk about common opponents, head-to-head matchups, all the criteria that you stated that comes right from the NCAA bylaws. Yeah. No, I'm with you. I'm with you 100%. Math doesn't add up. Okay. So now let's Lewis. So let's talk about Lewis. Lewis had a good season, but they did play Tiffin. They did play Thomas Moore. Okay. So and and Wingate's got Mars Hill and LMU and some of the smaller, you know. In conference. In in conference.

SPEAKER_01 48:07

Tiffin and St. Thomas Moore and Thomas Moore are not in the GLBC. That's right. Out of conference schedule.

SPEAKER_02 48:14

That's right. So again, when you want to talk about criteria. And then at some point, at some point, doesn't the eye candy come in a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 48:25

No. No. Dan Mara talked to him about us last year. It does not. I get that. Here's what I would like to see, though, Dan. Dan, this is what I think we should see. We look at the USI, you and I, I mean, there's Inside Lacrosse, there's USA Lacrosse polls, those are media polls, and then there's the coaches poll on USILA. USILA, the governing body. NCAA, a governing body. NCAA does not look at any polls. Dan Mara told us that last year. I personally believe that the USILA and the NCAA need to sync up a little bit damn better on how they look at teams.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

Well, you know, again, I don't know what the heck they do. I mean, I thought I did. I thought I did. But, you know, this South region, again, it just doesn't make sense to me. And let's talk, like again, I want to talk about Lewis. Lewis is a good team. They did play Tiffany, they did play Thomas More. But you know what? They won out. They won out. Yeah. And you know what? They won enough games, had a strength of schedule enough and beat that conference and won in that conference with such a strong UND team and a strong Maryville team. Yeah. You know, they're both strong teams. I'm not, I'm not taking anything away from those teams. They're very good programs and very good coaches and good kids on the field that are balling out. And you know what? I think Lewis maybe with that win, because you and I said, Kev, we both said, you know, Maryville's got to win out to get in, or you Indy's got to win out to get in. Lewis wasn't even in the conversation. But they won out. But they won out. Okay, let's reward them. Give them the sixth. The fourth? The fourth? Yeah. Come on. I don't get it, man. Yeah. When you know, the when they announced Tampa, I was in shock. I was like, wow. I said it out loud. And then I knew Lenore Ryan and knew Limestone was coming next, right? And at the fourth, I'm like, okay, it could be either a GLVC team or another SAC team. Because if you go head to head in the SAC and the GLVC, I think the SAC is a much better conference, much tougher conference than the GLVC. The GLVC teams went Ofer against the SAC teams this season. You know, so and then they got rewarded with three, three teams. I don't know, man. I don't know. I'm with you. I'm with you. And I'm not saying that those guys aren't deserving, but Wingate and Rollins both have a legitimate beef.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

They do. I actually even think a little bit, although once again it goes to Newberry's in that conversation. But except that Newberry lost to Wingate. So I and I'm gonna say, but so but they have a tough schedule too.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

Yeah, like and they play hard, you know.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

I I think and you know, Newberry lost to limestone in the semi semis, just like Wingate lost to Leno Ryan. So you know, it's I think we just gotta let it lie now. It's head scratching. I there's nothing else we can say. We can talk, you and I can sit here and talk about this for another three hours. We talked about it for about an hour yesterday. Uh when we went recording.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

I know, I know.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

So we could go forever. So why don't we switch?

SPEAKER_02 51:45

Here's the funny thing, though. Let me tell you this. Because what it's the show started at 7:30. Like at 7:40, they announced the South side, right? At 7:45, my phone started blowing up, Kevin. Mine too. Blowing up, blowing up, blowing up. I was literally answering DMs till about 10:30 at night. Yeah, and I received messages from people all over the country, not just South or just Wingate people, or I received messages from limestone people, I received messages from Colorado Mesa people, I received messages from Pace and some of the northern people. And the North Ryan, yeah, you know, guys from Mercy were saying, like, what, what, you know, like what the hell just happened? Like, I was getting messages literally from all over the country, not just the South. Yeah, so the North people were watching, you know, yeah, and then you're exactly right. They're baffled too. And I think, you know, again, I think they got the North right. You know, if you if I look at the North, I agree, you know, those seatings and the way those teams are lined up, I think it's perfect. I really do. Yeah, and the South does just make doesn't make sense to me, especially Tampa at one when Limestone and when Lant Lenore Ryan beat them head to head and then beat limestone, the number one team in the country at the time, and and won the SAC championship. That had to give it to LR. So, right off the first bat, I was in like, oh man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

Well, all I can say, Danny, is that we're just the two knuckleheads from in the crease. Never play. What do we know?

Games to Watch

SPEAKER_01 53:26

I'm time for these two knuckleheads to turn the page and talk about the games coming up. So let's do that right now. Let's talk about the north region. Let's talk about the first matchup in the north. What I hate about these games, Danny, when they do this, they put them all at the same time. All 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Yeah. We're recording this on Tuesday night. We'll see if I get this out before these games go out. St. Anselm against Bentley. St. Anselm ended up with 10-4, Bentley 9-5.

unknown 54:00

St.

SPEAKER_01 54:01

A's lost to Bentley on 1 March 11-13, but then they beat Bentley end of the month, 17-8. We talked about this earlier. St. Anselm's goalie, normal goalie, Anthony Kubik, has not been playing. But freshman Finn Granara has been picking it up and playing well. He's really standing on his head.

SPEAKER_02 54:23

He's standing on his head.

SPEAKER_01 54:26

Now you look at face-off. Craig Yannoni at face-off for St. A's at 68% versus Cam Bartolomeo at 61%. That's going to be a battle. Both have offensive power. Alvidi, Thorngalaro, Harveth for Bentley, the Larsons, the Anders, Mulvey for St. A's. Yep. I like St. A's in this one. I think I put just a little bit better. They've got Ryan Slattery as N10 defensive player of the year. Now on paper, I give I agree. I give the slight edge to St. Anselm in this game. I think St. Anselm wins out.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Yeah, I like St. A's. I just think firepower offensively, they got more than what Bentley has. Bentley's a good team, formidable. They beat him early in the season. It was cold March 1st. It was cold, man. It was so you know what? The difference nice out now up in the Northeast. It's starting to get nice. So I like St. A's in that game. And uh I think St. A's is gonna have to go and play Mercy next after that.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Yep, yep. So next game on Wednesday, pace at 12 and 3 against Mercyhurst, 13 and 4. This is gonna be a good game. I like this matchup a lot. This is what here's what I wrote in the end. They both lost to St. A's. My gut is leaning to pace, but my mind says Mercyhurst. If I look at offensive power, pretty pretty even Ryan Kemp, Daniel Zabia, Declan Landers, Rafael Rodriguez for pace, Ethan Lanymore, Jeremy Phoenix LaFayev, Colin Tardiff. Defensively, though, does Brett only tip the scales for Mercy Hurst? And they also have guys like Braden McCart, who's a transition guy and just a beast. Like I said, gut leaning towards pace, but my mind with all that says Mercy Hearst. Pace hasn't been in this since 2017. Seven years. Is that inhibit them, or do they play like they've got house money and they just play free and relaxed?

SPEAKER_02 56:36

That's a good question, you know. I like what Coach Mariano's done with this team. They're 12 and 3, you know, and they lost to a Delphi. You know, it's so you know, they lost to the number top five team.

SPEAKER_01 56:47

But Mercy Hurst has the experience from last year. They've got a bad taste in their mouth from the final.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

They got players there that were in the final that got smoked and have a bad taste. That's right. They have players that have been there, Kev. Yeah. And you know, and they have a coach in Trey Keeley that's got this team humming. I said it last week. Yep. I said they've rattled 10, 11 in a row now. 11 in a row. They've rattled off. So this isn't the Mercy team, uh, Mercy Hurst team that we saw in the beginning of the season. This is a much, much better. Trey Keeley has worked out all the bugs with this team, and they're working. They're I'm gonna say that Mercy Hurst upsets Pace in a close one. I think the experience of Mercy Hurst is gonna take over that.

SPEAKER_01 57:39

That's where I was, that's exactly where I'm leading. You and I are exactly in the same thought. This is gonna be a tight game. Would not be shocked whatsoever if Pace wins this. It's gonna be that close in my mind. But I think Mercy Hearst with the experience from last year getting there. Remember, they had to fight back throughout the tournament to win. They've got that, and and Pace had it has had a great season. Great season, great team. Just don't think they've got enough experience in this. They've got experience playing against really tough opponents. I think you go to the NCAAs.

SPEAKER_02 58:20

Coach Mariano's gonna have the boys ready. You know that. You know that. You know that. He's an inspirational guy, he's a high-energy guy, and you know he's gonna have his team ready. He'll be emailing us when when they win. Yeah, he's I I love Tom. I think he's a great guy. He's he's just a good person, and then what he does with kids, and and you know, just he's just an amazing person. And I love what he's done with Pace this year. And you know, the teams, the games that Xabia gets three or more goals, they're just really tough, you know, pace. When they hold Xabia, when they get him to where they start to lock him down a little bit, which is not an easy thing to do, and it's not often, but when it happens, that's when Pace struggles a little bit. So look look for Mercy Hurst to try to take Danny Xabia out of the game and make other guys win. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 59:14

Okay, let's move to the south. It's the Lewis Meryville matchup again. You said it, they're both at 13 and 4. We've talked about this already. They beat each other each other in the regular season, and then Lewis came out on top in the conference championship. This is so evenly matched and continues in my mind the pick'em tradition in the GLVC. Could not pick the conference. We had to do it. I got DMs like, oh, you let you you downplayed Lewis. I'm like, look at I told you on the podcast, I told everyone, I'm just I have no idea who's gonna win. You know, so but I had to pick. And and I'm glad and I'm happily eating clo for crow for Coach Baruzzi. But can Lewis beat Meryville three times in one season? I say no. I agree with you. And I think the interesting thing is gonna be the goalie matchup. Rhea Rathey against Dylan Ratki. Who has a better day? But I I just think we did this last year with Bentley and Adelphi. It's so tough when you're that evenly matched to beat the same team three times in a row. I gotta tip my hat to Meryville.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:26

I'm with you on this one. I think Meryville pulls this one out. I do too. I I do. I just think you know, they got to go into Lewis, though. And it's not gonna be easy. Lewis is gonna be home. I'm sure their crowd's gonna be out there rooting and cheering and hollering. But, you know, maybe not. Maybe a lot of people are getting ready for finals and uh and graduation. So it might not be as crowded. Who knows? We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

I think it's I think it's gonna be crowded. I think it's gonna be a really tight game again. I'd be surprised if it ended up like the first two games where there was one dominant team. But it's it's gonna be a good match. All right, let's move on. Last game of this Wednesday, limestone at 16-1 against Undy at 11-5. Limestone's only loss was to LR in the sack final. UI, though, UIndy, though, they upset Wingate last year in the same position, 3-6. Wingate, though, I think we've talked about this faded a little bit into the year. I don't see that with limestone. I see limestone creating chaos on offense and defense, especially in the middle of the field. And I think it'll be too much for the Greyhounds this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:36

Yeah, the a song comes to mind, Kev, when I think, say goodbye to Hollywood. Say goodbye, you Indy. You've had a good season, but it's coming to an end. You're you're gonna face a team that's insanely good. Insanely good. Uh just, you know, uh on all facets. I mean, limestone's just a really good squad. UND hasn't seen anybody like them this year. Anybody. No, they're they're they're gonna be in for a long day. I think so too.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:08

All right, so those are matchups. Now the quarterfinals are on Sunday, May 12th. Adelphi would play Pace or Mercyhurst. The winner of that game. The winner of the game. When we say Mercyhurst, so who do you have?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:21

I say Adelphi beats Mercy Hurst, Dylan Renner. Totally agree.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

I totally agree. The defense is gonna come through again. Mercy against St. A's. Mercy. I agree. I I'm scared of them now. I agree with you. And we can talk about who we think is gonna win the in the Final Four next week in our podcast. In the South, in the quarterfinals, you got Tampa playing, we're saying Meryville, and LR playing limestone. So who do you I I mean, I think Tampa you gotta go with Tampa. Yeah, Tampa takes care of Maryville easily. What do you think about LR against limestone? Pick'em. I think it's a pick'em. I agree. I can't choose this game. If I'm gonna choose, I've got to go with the champion of last year and say Lenora. But I do agree that this is a this is a this is a as much a pick'em game as the Maryville Lewis game.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:30

Man, the the last game with these two were was phenomenal. What a game. What a game. Yeah. I you know, I think it's it's gonna be hard for LR to beat limestone twice, but but they're good enough. They got the firepower. They got well, it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

Limestone has to beat LR twice because they beat them once. It's that's what's so funny about this one. This is it's just like a totally different aspect. Uh the Maryville Lewis. That's how close those two teams are in both respective games. That's gonna be a crazy game to watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

Yeah, um, I'm gonna, you know, I would have to give the slight edge, slight edge to LR. Slight.

unknown 1:04:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:14

Slight. Yeah. Uh me too. I mean, it's it's it's razor thin.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:21

And why and limestone plays plays well at LR, but you know, LR, man, those those crowds, those fans, they'll be out in droves. They will be out. They will that that stadium will be mobbed on that game. Yeah, and you know, again, uh, Lenore Ryan did a great job with the stadium. Oh, yeah, they did. You haven't been there since I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:45

I really I hate to say this. I really want to go and see it in person because I've just seen it on screen. It's beautiful, yeah. Beautiful, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:52

You know, my son says, he goes, Dad, I love playing there. I love playing in there. I was like, Well, you play well when you play there. So most teams would be like, I don't want to go to LR, you know, because it's a tough place. Oh, yeah. You know, because they their fans come out in droves. They rabid. They are rabid. And I mean that in travel's way. Yeah, they do. They're travel's good. So, and you know what? And if the NCAA was smart, they would let Fabian Puentes call these games on the on the stream. Yeah. Instead of the clowns that they have, usually. Okay, well, we've taken enough out on the NCAA today. Yeah. I didn't say much about the NCAA. We just said we didn't understand. You're right. According to the criteria.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

As we end this segment, we said this last year, and I'll say it again. They have the committee has a very tough job. I just think this year we understand it even less than I thought we understood it.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:54

Yeah, again, I thought we I thought we kind of did understand. I thought we had our our easy. To the rail, and and I thought, you know, most of our picks have been on point.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:04

We may be kicking uh Dan Mara's uh brain again at the tournament weekend since he's gonna be there. Just sit him down, we'll have a cup of coffee, and he can explain how stupid and what knuckleheads we are.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:19

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Plaer's Spotlight

SPEAKER_01 1:07:27

Okay, Danny, it's that time. It's time for the player spotlight. My favorite part, Kev. My favorite part. And I know you like this because this one, we started this season with a goalie, Pete Nazario of Bridgeport, as you remember. And now at the end of the season, we get to have a bookmark with another goalie.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:47

We like our goalies, Kev, man. We know we like our goalies.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:51

Yeah, and that there's there's good reason. They're crazy for one. Just to sit in the crease there. I don't know how they do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

Yes, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:00

And they come with a very unique perspective. And we've had a lot of good ones on in the past. And this one is no different. He's definitely in that category. He has kept his team in a lot of games and helped them win at the same time. And it's not always the stats, as you know, right? The stats can say 50% save percentage or 45%, but it's the saves that you make at the right time. And this does this. How many times have we said that this year for this goal? Oh my god. Oh my god, did you see the save that he made? Did you see that save that he made? So why don't we uh not wait any longer and welcome him in, Casey Carlson, goalie for the UND Greyhounds. Hey Casey, how you doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:44

Good, how you guys doing?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:45

Good, Casey Carlson. Good to have you on the show, kid, man. It's been a while. How you been? Good, good, good.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:51

Good to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:52

How's mom and dad doing?

SPEAKER_00 1:08:54

They're doing good. They're getting ready for uh getting ready for dinner tonight after graduation.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Uh congratulations on your exact congratulations on your graduation, young fella.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:04

That this happened like an hour ago. And you found out yesterday that you're getting in you got into the NCA tournament. So this has been a 24-hour whirlwind, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:16

No, definitely. It's definitely been a been a roller coaster promotion the past this past four or five days.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:23

And Dan, I've got to say, he's he must be a dedicated in the crease fan. If he's after graduation, comes on the pod, and then gonna have dinner with the folks. He says to his parents, Hang on, I've got something to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

Yeah, hang out five minutes, mom. I got a podcast to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:40

Oh, definitely. I mean, this is this. Um me and all my friends, we listen to this when we're doing car rides and stuff, we're on the bus rides down to down to games. It's always interesting to see you guys' take and get an outside perspective and for what you guys do for Division II Lacrosse. It's awesome. So we're definitely huge fans. When I had when I had the opportunity to come on, I couldn't miss it.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:56

Well, thank you about that. But you know something? You've had quite the career, young fella. I've watched you come in from day one. Yeah, um, you came in as a freshman and played at Wingate, and you were there for two years, and you're the first guy I know that entered the portal. You know, that's it's it's a pretty popular thing these days. We'll maybe talk about that later. But you know, to to walk in on Coach Boyle's defense and start as a freshman, that's that's a lot of weight to bear, you know, especially the the the teams that they play and the type of ball that they play. And you know what? I watched you grow as a player, and I watched you grow as a young man. And then you went out to you, Indy. And let me tell you something, man. I've been nothing but less than impressed with you. Game in, game out, week after week, week after week. Kevin and I, we discussed it all the time. Like Casey, man, he's really doing good. So you've had quite the career, wouldn't you say? Pretty exciting.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:55

Yeah, definitely, definitely. Yeah, coming in as a freshman with with Coach Boyle, he's he's a tremendous coach, obviously, Hall of Fame coach up there. Um, and he definitely demands a lot of you out of you. And uh, and it definitely set my career up to be to be pretty successful and and have a standard set in place. Um, so it's been a little bit of a roller coaster here and there with the transfer portal and stuff. Um, but I I wouldn't change anything for the world.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:18

So let's we talked about that. I also want to hear more about your lacrosse journey and how you got to Division II and where you started from in New York and everything, but we opened it up. So let's talk about it. What was your impetus to transfer?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:34

Yeah. Um, so my sophomore year there, um, it was me and Capone, who's a phenomenal goalie, one of my one of my good friends to this day. We had a really good uh relationship. Um, and we kind of had that back and forth my sophomore year there, where we I enjoyed it. I think we had a we had a really good year. We went to we went and beat Lindenwood that year in the first round of the NCAAs, um, and then go down to limestone and come up a little bit short there. Um, but it was just the the aspect that I was waiting for a decision to be made um on that following year of what was gonna happen, um, and then deciding maybe there there's not gonna be a decision that's gonna be made or it's it might not go my way. Um and also I I love the I love the the town of Wingate. I love the school. Um, but it was just the maybe not the the social scene I was looking for outside of it. Um maybe looking at a little bit bigger of a school. I think at Indy here we're sitting at around 6,000 kids. So uh just being, I mean, you guys are from New York, you know, just being right outside the city and and all the stuff that goes on there, looking for something maybe more, a little bit more active. So that was that was main the main reason. And it was a little untraditional being mid-year. So that that was definitely a little bit of a of a scare there, but that was kind of the lead up there, and then had just had to either make the decision mid-year right there, or or s or stick it out and see what happened. And either way, I felt like I would have had a great time and enjoyed my journey. Um, but definitely just had to go off on a on a limb there.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

Well, first of all, I have to say, I have to say, Casey, uh, I asked you a tough question, and I really appreciate your honesty. And um, because I think that's important for other players to think about. You know, it's not an easy thing to do. So uh, and you you're rolling the dice sometime too. So I appreciate you at least giving that perspective for us.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:24

Oh, definitely, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:26

And coach brought you right back in at you, Indy. He brought you in with big open arms, and you got and you got to start right away. And I tell you, I was very happy for you, Casey. You know what? Your coaching, like where you come from, Oceanside High School. It's a little special, Kev. Um, his high school coach uh was a good friend of the family. Um, my sons played for him, uh, coach Rob Blount at Oceanside, and the assistant coach Mike Santistaban, who was my neighbor who lived right down the street, coached Casey at Oceanside. So I kind of knew about Casey coming in. I would see Mike walking the dog or whatever, and he'd be like, oh man, this kid's coming to Wingate and blah, blah, blah. We just sit and we talk. And so I kind of knew about you going into Wingate. Then I said, Oh, well, I watched you, and then you got to you Windy, and you shine, my friend. You shine, you really took your game to the next level. And I really believe that you Wendy is where they are a lot because of you and your play.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:29

I appreciate that. I mean, we definitely have last year, it was definitely we had a lot of uh senior leadership on on defense, and I felt like throughout my entire career, I've had that when I was a freshman there. I'd I had Reese Orman, guys like Huey, yeah, obviously, obviously Sean Moran as our GA. Um, that helps that helps the process a lot coming in as a freshman. Um, and then my sophomore year we had a lot younger of a group, and then I felt I was I then come to Indy, and then I'm right back to that with that just the seniors surrounding you. So this year I felt like definitely was more on me and a few couple other guys uh to to step up. But everyone around, even the younger guys around me this year, have really stepped into their role and and done their job to because it's you you could you could see a million shots a game and you could save a save a million shots a game. But if you're not seeing the shots, you don't want to see. If you're seeing them five yard step downs, you know, you you can take away three or four, but if you're not seeing much that you never get those numbers into into double digits or anything like that, you know. So it really is my defense this year.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:29

Yeah, that's that's well said. It it definitely is a team team aspect to that. And you so let me ask you this when you were more a freshman or maybe coming into you indie, let's talk you indie and in the starting role. Did you take the the quarterback role? And are you really telling the defense where to go, or do you have guys, you know, in close D that are running that set? How does that work for you? How because I've seen it both ways, right? Uh what what works best uh in for you as a goalie?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:03

Uh so yeah, so last year was a little bit interesting coming into that mid-year. So I didn't necessarily uh get that spot um until probably before right before week one. Um so it was still a battle um when I came in. Um and then it was just getting comfortable with the guys like Josh Jackson and Susie and stuff like that, the guys that just graduated last year. Um, so normally I like to take a more vocal stance. Um, but with them, this this was their team for for it was their fifth year at the point. Um, so I I took more of a of a laid-back role that year um and let them take charge of the defense. And and I was still learning our new defensive aspects too as the season went on and like new terminology and stuff. And then this year I've been able to more step into a more vocal role um with the with the leadership aspect. I I like to be vocal because we're talking about like to see the shots you want to see. So that's definitely something I practice. And even sometimes in games this year where you just gotta you gotta get on the defense and just say, give me something down the alley, give me something, you know, just keep them, keep them out of the middle. That's all I can please.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:02

Right, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:05

All right, so let's roll it back a little bit. Danny talked about it. Now I know why Danny wanted to have you on because he's known you since you're like two, it sounds like to me. So uh talk to us about your yeah, your lacrosse journey, you know, at Oceanside, how you decided to go D2. I mean, were that was you know, just kind of walk us through that and how you decided to go down that road, go to Wingate. Uh, we know why you went over to you, Wendy, but what what brought you to go to a D2 school?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:32

Yeah. So I mean, I I had a pretty long like traditional Long Island grow up. I played PL uh all throughout uh when I was in elementary school until you get to middle school there, and then played the the travel circuit with uh with Igloo and FLG um outside and two pretty good squads, Kev. Yeah, they they were they were it was it was a great time. Um, and then uh in eighth grade is where it gets a little untraditional. I got I got pulled up to varsity in eighth grade and sat behind a pretty good goalie played at Lamoy uh Malloy for a little bit, um, and then decided he he wanted to go into the trades. But uh so I sat behind him for a year and then started my freshman year at Oceanside and then had a freshman and sophomore year, had a coaching turnover, and that's where uh Coach Blount and Coach Santisban came in and they really tried to rejuvenate the program. Uh we played conference one, so we'd play against schools like Syaset with Mac O'Keefe when I was in eighth grade. Yeah, yeah, and uh and uh uh Massapua, uh Kenny Brouwer, uh Gibbons, stuff like that. And we weren't traditionally known as a powerhouse. So that was really going throughout high school. Like I knew I wanted to play college across. Um, and then when that junior year rolls around, you start getting start getting these phone calls and stuff. And where where I was leaning towards it was it was lower division one, where were some of some of the looks. Um, but the thought process through me and talking with my parents was I can go lower division one and have the same experience I had throughout high school. Try to break 500, your your championship is winning the conference, or I can go to division two um and and uh evaluate my options there and have a chance to win a national championship every year. Um and that was something that was big for me. I didn't just want to win a conference, I wanted to win a national championship. And and that was that was something that when I was now looking at D2, uh I decided on Wingate because when I sat down with Coach Boyle, um just just seeing his drive and and the players they had around them and what he'd done in that program and in realistically a pretty short amount of time, yeah, in a pretty tough conference. It's it's grown into the the beast it is today, the sack, but but coming in there four years ago, uh I I knew that was the spot that would that would put me in the best situation at that time.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:43

I I agree with that, you know, because that's kind of what happened to my son Sean in the same way, you know, lower uh lower division one, some some some it was like one or two big ones that looked at him, but you know, he he felt his options were better at the D2 level, you know, and he shined in D2, just like you, you know, like it was a good it was a good choice.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:05

Yeah, you'd rather that that was always my thing is I I'd rather I'd rather people people throughout high school they look at the division one tag so hardly and stuff, you know, they they they want to go D1.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:14

That's the that's the thing you want to go D1, especially Long Island, you know. When you're on Long Island, that's like all you hear, you know. That's oh my kid's got to go to D one, he's gotta go D one. And you know what? And the kids want to go D one because that's all they hear their parents talk about, exactly, you know. So, and then when it comes down to D2, like it's like sometimes it gets like why D2, why D2? And then when you realize what it does have to offer to get a chance to play and play on a team that can win and get possibly a national championship, get to that dance every year. Have you been to the dance every year in your career?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:51

Wow, that's pretty remarkable when you think about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:55

I I appreciate it. Yeah, and that was one of the big things that coming into college, I wanted to do. I I have I have buddies. Um, um, same thing with with Sean and Joey. Like you have friends that go D1 and stuff, and and you're you're playing in May and they're sitting at home, you know. So that was that was a big thing for me. Is I don't care if I'm dropping down a division and stuff, and maybe giving up uh a few extra shooting shirts or a few extra sneakers they're getting. Um when I'm in a make a push, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:20

Yeah, and I we like to say it's not really dropping down, it's just a different division, right? Yeah, each have their division three, NAIA, club, they all have their different pluses and minuses, and you got to find what fits. And we obviously on this podcast, we espouse how great D2 is because we think it's overlooked.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:42

When you think about the portal, you know, just talking about the portal, sorry to interrupt, Kev, but these kids that are entering the portal now, a lot of them are D1 coming into D2.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:52

Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:53

You know, these are D1 kids, they're you know, they're not getting the ride, or maybe they don't like the fit or whatever it may be, and they're coming into D2 because they're saying, you know what? I can go down there, I can go to North Carolina, I can go to U Indy, I can go to Florida on a Rollins or a Tampa and play on these teams and play for a national championship. And I think because of the portal, I think you're gonna start seeing more of that now, and especially next year with automatic qualifiers coming in, you're gonna see it even more. That's my prediction.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:31

Oh, yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:32

Yeah. All right. So I've got to ask this question. When did you lose enough brain cells to decide to be a goalie? What year was that? What was it always that did you always want to be a goalie?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:47

Did you play other positions in lacrosse and then yeah, I I played all around when I was younger. Um, we we I played PLL, uh PAL, and uh and going going through it, everyone when you're younger is like, oh, let me let me step in. We were we were doing stuff at uh this place called Turf Island by us. It's like an indoor uh indoor little turf field that uh that a bunch of the teams work on in the winter. Um those guys exactly and everyone wants to jump in and try it out. And I just tried out probably fourth, fifth grade. Um, and I I I don't know if it was the aspect of not having to run as much or whatever it is, and it it just it stuck, it stuck, and and I ended up being the one that stayed in net all the time, and I think I had a little bit more of a knack for it than other guys, and that was my other question.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:35

I mean, I think some of it must be that you just have a you have a skill set you're that fit it and you're doing it pretty well, and so why not stick with it, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:23:45

Exactly, exactly 100%.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:47

That's you see a lot of times we get goalies on and they're like the third of three brothers, so you know they they got forced into goal, you know, but they were kids on the street and in the backyard and then become great at it, you know. So that's funny. That's a great story.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:04

All right. So, what's next for you, Casey? You just graduated, you've got it. Well, you've still got some lacrosse to play. It's kind of like you pretend you're professional because you got no schooling left. You just all it's all across for as long as you can go. What happens after that?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:18

Um, so I'm heading back home. I think I'm gonna go to that's right now I'm in the process of applying to grad school. Um, in the transfer process, a little when I was down at Wingate, I was an education major with the folks in history. In the transfer process, going so late as I did, um, middle of my junior year. Uh, I had to drop that education part of it um and just keep the history part. So I finished with my degree, uh bachelor's in history, and then I'll be uh somewhere, somewhere in New York on the island, um, doing graduate uh graduate work uh for my uh uh education, education, uh masters.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:51

Oh, awesome. Awesome. That's great. What so do you have a thought of what you want to do with that, like teaching or like in what grades, or do you know what you want to do?

SPEAKER_00 1:25:01

Yeah, so it kind of the same path that I was on at Wingate to be a secondary education history teacher, um, which is high school. Um, and then also coach, kind of like one of my biggest mentors was was uh Coach Blount over at Oceanside. Um, and uh and hit him being a history teacher, he was able to balance family life, coaching, um, and also like still being involved in the sport that you love. So he was he was able to balance all that, seeing that in high school. Um, and also my mom's a history teacher. Um, and I saw those summers off and everything off.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:31

It runs in the blood.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:33

Yeah, most definitely, most definitely.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:35

Uh the truth so spoken. I was just gonna say, talk to Coach Blount, man. Yeah, I was just gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:41

Oh, yeah, it's kind of a grooming thing. You know, you get your you get your masters, yep, go back to Oceanside, become an assistant. When he's ready to retire, you take over.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:51

That would be the dream. If that if that was fine, that would be the dream.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:54

When I first moved to Long Island, it was literally like the third or fourth day we were there. We moved into the house, and it was like the weekend, it was like in August, like late August, September. And I hear whistles and cheering. And I didn't realize that Lawrence High School, where my kids would end up going, right? Was only like three blocks from me. I was new to the area, I didn't realize the school was that close. So TJ, my oldest, was like seven or eight at the time, right? So I said, Come on, TJ, let's go. It was a football game, high school football game. I was new to the area, so I grabbed TJ. We go. It's Lawrence High School playing Farmingdale High School. And who was the quarterback for Lawrence?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:39

That was that Blount at the time?

SPEAKER_02 1:26:41

Rob Blount. Rob Blount was the highest, was the quarterback, and he was a sick athlete, Casey. He was a sick athlete, two sport athlete, quarterback. He wound up going to post college and playing corner, or I don't know if he played quarterback. I don't know what he did.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:59

He played, he played, he uh he was kind of I he had that whole he had a documentary done on him, um, like the 99%, um, by one of his buddies, uh, who's a filmmaker now that he went to school with. Um, so I know I he played quarterback for three years, and I think played uh a little bit outside cornerback for them for a little bit um in like a coaching change or something like that, but also played lacrosse too.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:20

Yeah, I'm a great lacrosse player. Now, here's another funny part of this story. Coach Blount wound up being an assistant football coach at Lawrence High School all during their time when they were like powerhouse, right? So he wound up coaching my son TJ in high school as well. So that's yeah, it's really cool. The whole story's kind of cool. So we know Rob a long time, you know what I mean? Yeah, and every time he would see Sean, Sean was a little kid, a little guy, he would say, Catholic school, Catholic school, Catholic school, Catholic school. So he was he was great. So um when we we we would go, Rob wound up and this is. At the lacrosse playing on the lacrosse team. He was an assistant. Now, I don't know if you remember, but Doc Doherty was the head coach at Garden City High School for years. He's like the all-time high school uh Long Island high school coach, all time, Kev. Okay, you got this? All right. Yeah. I'm around tracking. He gets fired. He gets fired from Garden City after like 30 something years. Something happened. He was in the news and everything. Winds up coming to Warren's High School to coach the lacrosse team. I was like, yay, we got a coach. We got to coach, right? And Blount was the assistant. Well, turns out that Darty didn't coach much. He just had all these great kids come to his program. He wasn't that much of a coach. Winds up getting thrown out of a game and had to do a one-game suspension. Now, Lawrence High School in football, we kick your ass. In in lacrosse, not so much. We were lucky we we get touches. So Rob took over the game that Darthie got suspended. And it was the only game we won all year. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:13

There you go. He's just a great guy. I I don't know, Danny, if we warmed up Casey for the firing round, or we warmed you up for the firing round with that last story. But I think you should keep going.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:28

All right, here we got Casey Carlson from Oceanside High School, UND Greyhounds. They're on their way to the NCAA tournament. They got a big tough first round game. But you know what, son? It's been great to have you on tonight. You've been a great guest, you're a good kid from a good family. Gonna run some 10-12 questions by you. Give me your best answer as quick as you can. You ready, KC? Yes, sir. Here we go. Number one, mom's best meal.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:55

Oh, easy. Uh, that'd be uh her baked mac and cheese.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:59

Her baked mac and cheese. She does like her own homemade back mac and cheese to ruin everything. That's the best. I gotta get some. Number two, morning bird or night owl?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:09

Oh, definitely a night owl. The morning praxies get it after me.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:12

Okay, so what's your go-to midnight snack?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:16

Oh, that's uh recently it would be on rice cakes, peanut butter, and banana.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:22

Ew, that sounds disgusting.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:26

I I gotta start preparing after after lacrosse to start cutting back some of the calories.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:31

Okay, I think you answered this question before. Runs or lifts? You said you didn't want to run too much.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:36

Yeah, no, definitely lifts, definitely lifts.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:38

Okay, lifts. Number four, MLL or PLL.

SPEAKER_00 1:30:42

Oh, PLL all the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:43

Yeah, I hear you. Do you have any pregame rituals?

SPEAKER_00 1:30:48

Uh, yeah. This actually, this is this year was some stuff I've adopted. Um, just seeing some of the uh JJ McCarthy, who's a Minnesota Viking now, which is I'm a huge skull fan. So um uh his breathing techniques, he does um, is something I just adopted, you know, getting getting in the right mindset right before the first shot, you know. Um, so I've been adapting some of his breathing techniques and just just uh I'm on I'm the I'm the aux guy in the locker room too. So I guess that would be one of them too.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:16

Oh, that's great. That's great. Give us one item on your bucket list.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:21

One item on my bucket list.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:23

Uh, I guess it uh anything, anything, anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:28

Um, I guess it would have to like uh we're talking like vacations, or we're talking like anything you want, anything, whatever, whatever it is. Uh it would have to be uh like a trip to Hawaii or something like that, something tropical. Okay, that's funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:42

You're the you're the second player we've had on that said Hawaii, and I had to tell them, I'll tell you, I lived there for three years. That's a good pick.

SPEAKER_00 1:31:49

I I gotta get out there eventually.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:53

Yeah, we've he's done shows, he's done podcasts from Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:56

We're gonna be doing one in a couple weeks. I'll be there next week. We'll be doing a podcast from Hawaii again. I'm like you poor bastard, he's out there in Hawaii.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:04

So all right, number eight, your favorite class at UIndy.

SPEAKER_00 1:32:09

Uh, favorite class at U Indy. It would have to be my capstone class. I just finished up last semester, um, which was history 475.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:18

Tell me about it. What was so what was what did you like about it?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:21

He just kind of we got we got the reins set free on us, and we I mean the writing wasn't great. I wrote about a 40-page paper. Um, but the you you got to write on anything you wanted to, and and history and basically create your own narrative of of something that hadn't really been researched before. Um, so I was able to do mine on uh 1964 Freedom Summer um in the freedom schools down in uh Mississippi. Uh interesting. Yeah, it was it's just uh it was a little thing, it's a little niche thing, but I like the creative freedom we were allowed to have. And we never it was also nice, we never really met for class. It was kind of just go out and do something and do research. Yep, exactly. Just meet at the end of the year and turn your paper in and call it. So I I enjoyed that class a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:59

Oh, that's a great answer, man. Um, all right. One thing about you that not many people know.

SPEAKER_00 1:33:06

Oh man. Uh I guess my my friends here wouldn't know, but I have a uh I have a cat here at uh at uh at Indy now. Um here would know, but not not a whole lot of people uh outside would know. And uh hopefully limestone doesn't find out, so I'm not gonna chirp too bad on the uh you know it's coming.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:24

You know it's coming. Okay. Who's the funniest kid on the team?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:29

Oh, I'd have to say a wine Braddock. Um yeah, easily. He's uh he he's an interesting character, and especially his uh his brother Dylan's here now. So they they make a funny dynamic duo, and I live right down the hall from him here in our apartment complex, and he just he he's a character.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:45

Oh, that's great. What is your favorite lacrosse memory?

SPEAKER_00 1:33:50

Oh, I mean, you guys might not be might not be a fan of this answer, but uh I'd have to say beating Wingate uh in my uh uh last year's NCAA first round.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:01

I can understand that one when Riley hit the post.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:05

I know it's like goalie's best friend.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:09

Yeah, no, that was a great game, man. You played out of your mind, man. Casey, thank you so much for coming on the show tonight. We really appreciate it. You have been a great guest again. I've watched you grow in this game. I'm really happy for you. I'm proud of you. I wish you nothing but success in grad school. Go get him, kid. The world is yours. You've been just you've been phenomenal. You're a really good guy. My best mom and dad, haven't seen them in a while. Actually, the last time I saw him was at that game. That was the wing gig. And he was afraid to come up to me. I was like, I went over and gave him a big hug. It's like it's all good. Yeah, it's all good. It's all good. It's a small community, you know what I mean? It's a small community, we're all in it for each other. Yeah, most definitely. Thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:34:56

No, thank you guys for having me. Definitely. I appreciate I appreciate everything you guys do for D2 Lacrosse and definitely growing the game and helping out and and getting the invite. I I definitely would have it could have been missing my graduation, I would have made it.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:10

Hey, listen, good luck this week, too, man. Go get him, man. Go get him. You guys got what it takes. You got it.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:17

I appreciate it, appreciate it. Definitely.

Shout outs

SPEAKER_01 1:35:20

So, what do you think of Casey Carlson? He's grown up since you knew him when he was two years old.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:27

I didn't know him that long, but you know what? He's what a great kid, huh? Yeah, he's a good kid. Dude, he's a good kid, he's a good kid. I always liked him. I always liked him, you know. And he was a kid that came and just he was got thrown into the deep end of the pool on a team that was ranked and as a freshman. And you know what? He made decisions that felt was better for him. And look how happy he was. He had a smile from ear to ear. He's going back to the dance again, he's finishing his career out in a solid, positive way, comes from a great family, comes from a good background. And I'm just glad we we were able to get Casey to come on with us.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:04

He fit us in between graduation and dinner with his family.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:09

Yeah, yeah. He was trying to just make us feel good. He was just buttering us up, is what he was. Now, can you know, congratulations, Casey. You've had a great career and appreciate you coming on the show tonight and continued success, young man. Go get that master's degree, go out there and and and knock it dead.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:27

Exactly. All right, now it's time of shout-outs. I will start and we'll go back and forth. We just got a couple here. My first one goes to Hunter Holcomb of Colorado Mesa. He set the single season program record for assists at 93, Danny. One season.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:47

That's crazy. That's crazy. That's a lot of assists, Kevin. So congratulations, Hunter. That I saw that on my ball 93 times. I don't know if I could throw the ball 93 times. Much less diss out perfect assist. Good for him. Good job. Good job. All right, what do you have? Kev, I only have one shout-out tonight. And um, I gotta say that there's not enough, not not many words. There's not a lot I can say that hasn't been said about this young man already. I watched just about every single game he's played since he got into Division II. Um, he has set records, he has set school records, he has set NCAA records. He's a great, great player, a facilitator like nobody I've ever seen play this game. He's fast, he's uh gets his man hung up all the time, and he's the most humble kid that you'd ever meet. And that's uh Willie Greco, the attackman for the Wingate Bulldogs, finished his career second at all-time Division II NCAA in points, Kev 404 career points for Willie, and you know what? A nicer kid you won't find.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:03

I totally agree. What's interesting is that's our second shout-out for him uh on this season. Both well deserved. I saw that that stat on Instagram. I had a feeling you would you would uh want to shout him out, but you're right, that word is exactly it. Staggering. We shout out players for 200 career points, and that is staggering. He more than doubled.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:32

It's his game. It's just like I remember the first time I saw him play, I was like, oh my lord, this kid is good. And he was just sitting there dishing out dimes fast passes, just so good at it. His vision, his his speed, his change of direction, his change of speed, his his IQ, just everything about him. And then I in his sophomore year, he started to like kind of like go to the rack a little bit more, and then his junior year, he really lit things up, was attackman of the year, first team All-American. He's just been an amazing player, he's been great for division two. I mean, again, a humble kid, a nicer kid. You won't you won't find. You're really. I and I'm not just saying that. You're true.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:19

I got a personal story. So, my personal story is my son was a year ahead of him and playing attack at the time. When my son was a freshman, he was the top scout. He would play the number one oh, yeah, yeah, Ronald's. And get the crap beat out of him. So he's coming into his sophomore season, and I think, well, maybe he has a shot, maybe not to start an attack, but come in and play an attack. His words to me by the end of the fall, he's like, Dad, Willie Greco is just better than me. He is that good. His his vision, and Willie was the freshman then. And my son went to MIDI his junior year. And and and I will tell you that my son is really good friends with Willie, because Willie never treated it like he was a big shot or anything. And they were good friends, and and my son, just what you said, you cannot not like him and want him to do well. He is so humble and he's such a team-oriented guy. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:28

Good luck, Willie. It's gonna I'm gonna miss playing watching you play, kid. I really am. And he's got graduation this week, and yeah, everything's he's just good luck and and congratulations. And so hopefully I'll see you in the future.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:42

And speaking of graduations, we just talked about that. You talked about Wingate's graduation. We talked about it with Casey, and we've been seeing a lot of I've been seeing a lot of pics on Instagram obviously this week from the teams who made it to the dance. But like I said last year, I like even better seeing the ones and caps and gowns. All those players, especially when their coaches are there with them with a picture. So I would just want to shout out, last shout out goes to all the graduates out there who worked hard on the field and in the classroom to earn their degrees.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:15

Yes, go.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:19

Great shout out, perfect. And we have to remember our sponsor, our segment sponsor for this season, laxjobs.us. Finding lacrosse people with lacrosse jobs. Please check it out if you're interested in or need someone in a lacrosse position, or you want to work in the lacrosse field. They've got everything from coaches to businesses or whatever. I highly recommend going to it.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:44

And thanks to all our loyal listeners who just keep constantly barraging us with DMs and solid things, they've been great all season. Just, you know, we get information. We know who's hurt, we know which coaches are leaving. We're just like, we're on the inside with these people. And it's great that they get to communicate with us. And thank you, listeners. We couldn't we can't thank you enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:06

And that's a great segue to my last thing. There's another way for our listeners to get to us. If you can't find us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook, you can now text us right from our show notes. If you go into the show notes now, Buzz Sprout, our distribution platform, has set up something called fan mail. So if you go into our show notes for this episode and going on, you can find the link in there and start texting us. So it's another way for us to hear from you. Awesome. And with that, Danny, that's a wrap. That's a wrap, Kev.