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May 6, 2008

Brown lax coach disappointed, for Georgetown

BY MIKE SZOSTAK
Journal Sports Writer

Brown lacrosse coach Lars Tiffany is disappointed that his Bears, the Ivy League co-champions with Cornell, were not selected for the NCAA Division I lacrosse tournament.

But he is more disappointed that Georgetown did not receive a bid. The Hoyas finished 9-4, beat NCAA tournament teams Duke by four goals and Navy on the road in overtime, played a schedule that included Maryland, Syracuse, Delaware and UMass, the 2007 national runner-up, and were ranked No. 11 in the USILA poll.

“And look what it did for them? Maybe that’s not the answer,” Tiffany said Monday night, referring to strength of schedule as a criterion for selection. He was taking a break from responding to close to 200 e-mails and 50 telephone messages left in the wake of Brown’s 6-5 victory over Princeton Saturday, knocking the Tigers from the Ivy League race and securing a share of the title.

“I’m more upset about Georgetown than about us,” he said.

Tiffany knew his team, ranked No. 13, was on the bubble before the selections were announced Sunday night. The 11-3 Bears lost to Hofstra, Denver and Cornell, all NCAA tournament teams, and they beat only two teams that finished with winning records.

“We were on the wrong side of the bubble,” he said with a laugh.

Tiffany is concerned that the selection committee is relying too much on number crunching and not enough on deliberations.

“We would have loved if there had been a conversation,” he said. “The last three or four years they have migrated away from committee to hard quantitative analysis.”

Tiffany guessed that Navy, Drexel and Brown were in the running for the last at-large bid.

“When they named Navy to play North Carolina, the wind left our sails,” he said. “And when Denver came up, we knew we were dead. That’s when it was time for me to talk to the team and focus on 2008.”

It was a great season. The Bears won 10 of their last 11 games and shared the Ivy title for the first time since 1995. Jordan Burke, the junior goalie, established himself as one of the best in the nation and should receive All-Ivy and All-America consideration. He was a three-time Ivy League player of the week. Monday night he received the Fritz Pollard ’19 Trophy as Brown's outstanding male varsity athlete of the year.

The NCAA Tournament starts this weekend. The quarterfinals will be May 17-18 at Cornell and Navy and the semifinals May 24 and final May 26 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro at 1 p.m. The Division II championship will be May 25 at Gillette at 4:30 and the Division III final May 25 at Gillette at 1:30.

The Division I women’s semifinals and final will be at Towson University in Maryland. The Division II women’s tournament is taking place in Houston and the Division III women’s semifinals and final at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.

mszostak@projo.com / 401-277-7340

Posted by Mike Szostak  at 3:26 PM to College Sports | Permalink

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