New Rules for NCAA Men's D1 Lacrosse?
October 25th 2011 17:10
New Rules for NCAA Men's D1 Lacrosse?
Two sets of possible new rules for NCAA Men's lacrosse were debuted in trial games in mid-October. Georgetown vs the University of Maryland By Catonsville (UMBC) was played with limited substitutions - only on the out-of-bounds horn - with 20 seconds to cross the midfield line and 10 more to get into the attack area on a clear, 30 seconds for a shot on goal, and bringing a defensive player up to the wing after a faceoff violation disallowed. Ohio State vs University of North Carolina (the other Duke) played with 60 seconds allowed in the first half and 75 seconds in the second half for a shot on goal (save/pipe/rebound) and substitutions only after the horn.
In announcing the tryouts of the potential new rules, the NCAA said they were "experimental rules that stakeholders hope will increase the pace of play". However, there has been speculation that the Georgetown-UMBC game was a payoff to Coaches Dave Urick of Georgetown and Don Zimmerman of UMBC, each of whom competed to have the under-achieving coach Georgetown Award named after them. (Urick prevailed, and received the first Georgetown Award). No official score of the game was recorded, although UMBC achieved the low score. Zimmerman supporters for the Georgetown Award have highlighted this as evidence that he should have received the first award.
In the Ohio State - UNC game, a shot clock was to allow 60 seconds in the first half and 75 seconds in the second half; However, 60 seconds was used throughout. Similar to the Georgetown - UMBC game, no score was reported for that game, although some have maintained that is because the scorekeeper was occupied with the shot clock. Greg Cannella, the U Mass coach found that the shot clock resulted in a zone defense, and suggested that "... the zone defense could be outlawed - Just like in pro basketball". He also noted that a 2-point goal would be needed because of the zone defense tendency to limit close-in shots."But basketball has already developed that." he added.
The International Headquarters of The Society for Jai Alai ('The Fastest Sport on Foot') has filed a protest with the NCAA that states that (among other things) the NCAA aims to usurp jai alai as the spring sport of choice in Florida. Jai alai is second only to shuffleboard in The Sunshine State as a spring sport. In addition, in a move that many anticipated, the NBA has filed a protest stating that the NCAA is trying to transform lacrosse into 'basketball with sticks and a larger net' Don Zimmerman, Head Coach at UMBC and member of the NCAA Rules committee, responded "I don't like no subbing on the fly". In apparent homage to UMBC, Laxmagazine quotes Zimmerman as saying "I don't like no subbing on the fly.Really Long Link Zimmerman was the coach at Johns Hopkins immediately after Henry Ciccarone and had a strong run including 3 national titles in his first 4 years (1984 - 1987), but once he came into his own with a 6-5 season in 1990 "his contract was not renewed". Many speculate that it was this stretch at Hopkins, based on Ciccarone's recruiting, that eliminated him from receiving the first Georgetown Award.
Limiting substitutions has been proposed as a way to have more well-rounded players in the game and less of a role for specialists. (Lax Views is currently investigating a story that Johns Hopkins researchers are developing a genome for a player using DNA from lacrosse greats Jim Brown, Mike French, Frank Urso, and Paul Rabil.) For the limited substitution game, it was reported that the coaches found that the players sometimes tended to take less "conventional" shots just for the horn, which allowed substitutions. Referring to limited substitutions, Coach Zimmerman said "With faceoff guys and long-stick midfielders and short-stick defensive middies, there's got to be a better way of getting them on the field." However, several current and recent players who attended the game as spectators had different opinions. Cody Jamieson, a recent Syracuse player said "Yo! Who wants to get substituted? I think the horn just sounds cool", while David Earl of Notre Dame said the horn represented "a call to the Heavenly Father" (Evidently the horn was not working during the 2010 or 2011 NCAA Championships.)
The NCAA has not announced decisions on these potential rule changes because they need to carefully coordinate the transition to a different lacrosse. According to Zimmerman "We envision a more exciting and safer game where we could eliminate sticks and perhaps just bounce the ball rather than cradling it. And no sticks would mean less in the way of injuries." Of course we would have to modify the ball slightly - It would have to be larger, say 30 cm in diameter [30 cm is 1 foot - Ed.] and probably hollow, rather than solid." When asked if that would describe a basketball, he replied "Well, if you want to put it that way. But nothing is locked in -- I am just thinking aloud here." He went on to state that "... and we could make it even more exciting by elevating the goal and perhaps making it smaller." He hurriedly added "... not like jai alai, but more like basketball." He also noted that equipment changes could be in the offing. "To help bring youths into the sport,they need to have successes, so we are considering a sort of 'furry' coating on the ball and Velcro inside the pocket of the stick. because there is no surer way to turn a kid off on lacrosse than have the ball fall out of the pocket while he is playing. But these changes have not been implemented. In particular, we are thinking about how to handle shooting with such sticks - Whether we should credit a goal for the proper angle and trajectory, since the sticks will not release the ball. But creative minds are hard at work on this and other things to improve the sport"
Two sets of possible new rules for NCAA Men's lacrosse were debuted in trial games in mid-October. Georgetown vs the University of Maryland By Catonsville (UMBC) was played with limited substitutions - only on the out-of-bounds horn - with 20 seconds to cross the midfield line and 10 more to get into the attack area on a clear, 30 seconds for a shot on goal, and bringing a defensive player up to the wing after a faceoff violation disallowed. Ohio State vs University of North Carolina (the other Duke) played with 60 seconds allowed in the first half and 75 seconds in the second half for a shot on goal (save/pipe/rebound) and substitutions only after the horn.
In announcing the tryouts of the potential new rules, the NCAA said they were "experimental rules that stakeholders hope will increase the pace of play". However, there has been speculation that the Georgetown-UMBC game was a payoff to Coaches Dave Urick of Georgetown and Don Zimmerman of UMBC, each of whom competed to have the under-achieving coach Georgetown Award named after them. (Urick prevailed, and received the first Georgetown Award). No official score of the game was recorded, although UMBC achieved the low score. Zimmerman supporters for the Georgetown Award have highlighted this as evidence that he should have received the first award.
In the Ohio State - UNC game, a shot clock was to allow 60 seconds in the first half and 75 seconds in the second half; However, 60 seconds was used throughout. Similar to the Georgetown - UMBC game, no score was reported for that game, although some have maintained that is because the scorekeeper was occupied with the shot clock. Greg Cannella, the U Mass coach found that the shot clock resulted in a zone defense, and suggested that "... the zone defense could be outlawed - Just like in pro basketball". He also noted that a 2-point goal would be needed because of the zone defense tendency to limit close-in shots."But basketball has already developed that." he added.
The International Headquarters of The Society for Jai Alai ('The Fastest Sport on Foot') has filed a protest with the NCAA that states that (among other things) the NCAA aims to usurp jai alai as the spring sport of choice in Florida. Jai alai is second only to shuffleboard in The Sunshine State as a spring sport. In addition, in a move that many anticipated, the NBA has filed a protest stating that the NCAA is trying to transform lacrosse into 'basketball with sticks and a larger net' Don Zimmerman, Head Coach at UMBC and member of the NCAA Rules committee, responded "I don't like no subbing on the fly". In apparent homage to UMBC, Laxmagazine quotes Zimmerman as saying "I don't like no subbing on the fly.Really Long Link Zimmerman was the coach at Johns Hopkins immediately after Henry Ciccarone and had a strong run including 3 national titles in his first 4 years (1984 - 1987), but once he came into his own with a 6-5 season in 1990 "his contract was not renewed". Many speculate that it was this stretch at Hopkins, based on Ciccarone's recruiting, that eliminated him from receiving the first Georgetown Award.
Limiting substitutions has been proposed as a way to have more well-rounded players in the game and less of a role for specialists. (Lax Views is currently investigating a story that Johns Hopkins researchers are developing a genome for a player using DNA from lacrosse greats Jim Brown, Mike French, Frank Urso, and Paul Rabil.) For the limited substitution game, it was reported that the coaches found that the players sometimes tended to take less "conventional" shots just for the horn, which allowed substitutions. Referring to limited substitutions, Coach Zimmerman said "With faceoff guys and long-stick midfielders and short-stick defensive middies, there's got to be a better way of getting them on the field." However, several current and recent players who attended the game as spectators had different opinions. Cody Jamieson, a recent Syracuse player said "Yo! Who wants to get substituted? I think the horn just sounds cool", while David Earl of Notre Dame said the horn represented "a call to the Heavenly Father" (Evidently the horn was not working during the 2010 or 2011 NCAA Championships.)
The NCAA has not announced decisions on these potential rule changes because they need to carefully coordinate the transition to a different lacrosse. According to Zimmerman "We envision a more exciting and safer game where we could eliminate sticks and perhaps just bounce the ball rather than cradling it. And no sticks would mean less in the way of injuries." Of course we would have to modify the ball slightly - It would have to be larger, say 30 cm in diameter [30 cm is 1 foot - Ed.] and probably hollow, rather than solid." When asked if that would describe a basketball, he replied "Well, if you want to put it that way. But nothing is locked in -- I am just thinking aloud here." He went on to state that "... and we could make it even more exciting by elevating the goal and perhaps making it smaller." He hurriedly added "... not like jai alai, but more like basketball." He also noted that equipment changes could be in the offing. "To help bring youths into the sport,they need to have successes, so we are considering a sort of 'furry' coating on the ball and Velcro inside the pocket of the stick. because there is no surer way to turn a kid off on lacrosse than have the ball fall out of the pocket while he is playing. But these changes have not been implemented. In particular, we are thinking about how to handle shooting with such sticks - Whether we should credit a goal for the proper angle and trajectory, since the sticks will not release the ball. But creative minds are hard at work on this and other things to improve the sport"
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