Well here we are, bitches. Memorial Day Weekend is finally here. The greatest weekend on the calendar year in and year out. Because not only is it the unofficial start of the summer and the official start of MailTime, but we also get to kick it off with the NCAA Final Four at Gillette Stadium. The 2018 season started on February 1st with Vermont taking down Furman 12-6. Now we’re coming up on 4 months later, there are only 4 teams remaining and we’ve got 3 games left on the schedule. Yale vs Albany at noon on Saturday and then Maryland vs Duke to follow.

We have a couple of episodes this week to get everybody ready for Championship Weekend so first up we have our actual Final Four Preview show. This week we had on Duke goaltender Danny Fowler and 2nd Team All-American defenseman JT Giles-Harris to break down their matchup against the reigning champs.

You can listen to that episode right here on iTunes

And if you’re not on an iPhone, you can listen right here on Soundcloud. 

Also–the other night we tried to do an Instagram Live show but unfortunately my audio wasn’t coming through. The good news, however, is that Matt Rambo and Tehoka Nanticoke were there to jump in my place and join the kid Robby O so he had a quick little impromptu show with those two legends previewing the Final Four. You can listen to the highlights from that right here.

Memorial Day Weekend Preview

Albany vs Yale | Saturday @ Noon | ESPN2

This is the first time in school history that Albany has ever made it to Championship Weekend. This is also the first time that Yale has made it back to Championship Weekend since 1990, so for the first time in anybody on that team’s lifetime. And it’s also a rematch of a game from earlier in the season when Yale smacked the shit out of Albany 14-6 back on April 22nd. So there’s a lot that goes into this one. For both teams it is a completely new environment but a familiar opponent. With that being said… this Albany team is a lot different today than the one that Yale had seen last month.

The difference here is that Albany was still trying to figure out how to play with an injured Connor Fields back on 4/22. It was only his 2nd game back after going down with a knee injury and he’d end up injuring that knee a little more by the end of this game. Now obviously Fields’ knee doesn’t seem to be anywhere near 100%. But what Albany has done since the injury is figure out who they are as a team without Connor Fields being the guy doing most of the work. And we saw it against Denver last weekend. You had Tehoka Nanticoke putting on a clinic and bullying defenders. You had Kyle McClancy really taking over that dodging role and Sean Eccles finishing the rock. And, of course, you had TD Ierlan putting in work against Baptiste at the faceoff X. So while this Albany team looked lost toward the end of April with their star player going down with an injury, I think they’ve found themselves again we sure as shit wont’ see another 14-6 game again this go around.

For Yale? Well aside from getting shit pumped by Cornell in the Ivy League final, they haven’t had a drop off all season. They’ve obviously been led offensively by Ben Reeves but they get so many contributions from the rest of the guys down there on offense. And then defensively they’re just nasty. Between that ruthless 10-man ride and Chris Fake holding his own against Pat Spencer, they made Loyola look like a club team last weekend. However… I don’t know if that’ll be the case again this week. Because I think Albany is just way more creative than Loyola is and they’ll be able to figure out ways to beat that ride. And I also think that Albany has more weapons who can create for themselves offensively than Loyola did if Spencer wasn’t able to really get things going. So I like Albany in this game but obviously it’s only going to come down to a goal or two.

The biggest matchup to watch here is going to be TD Ierlan vs Connor Mackie in the faceoff X. Ierlan is a 2nd Team All-American, Mackie is a 3rd Team. The last time these two teams played, Mackie was having his way but TD Ierlan is now coming off of a week where he just went 50/50 with the greatest faceoff specialist that college lacrosse has ever seen. And not only did he go 50/50, but he won the most important ones as well. So Ierlan is going to go into this matchup with a ton of confidence and he also had a ton to learn from after getting smoked by Mackie the first time these teams played this year. We went from a 1st Team All American vs a 2nd Team All American last week to a 2nd Team vs a 3rd Team this week. Certainly not an easy road for TD Ierlan but I see him winning this matchup maybe 55%-45%.

Duke vs Maryland | Saturday @ 2:30pm | ESPN2

I saw a tweet the other day that said regardless of who wins this game, it will be the 9th straight year that the National Championship Game features either Duke or Maryland. It was the Terps in the previous 3 title games. Then it was Duke going back-to-back before that. Then Maryland lost in 2011 and 2012. Then it was Duke over Notre Dame in overtime back in 2010. So the last time that neither Duke nor Maryland were playing in the National Championship game was Syracuse over Cornell in 2009. That is crazy. So in game 1, you’ve got a couple of teams getting there for either the first time ever or the first time in 28 years. In game 2, you’ve got 2 teams who have essentially made Memorial Day Weekend their alumni weekend.

What’s even crazier, though, is that you think of Duke and Maryland as these blue-blood programs who are constantly battling each other. But these two teams haven’t played each other since 2014 when Maryland was still in the ACC. So it’s not like these two teams are necessarily that familiar with each other. Which is why I’d expect this game to probably start off a little slow. Especially considering that Maryland has been in this game the past 4 years so it’s not like they’re going to have any sort of jitters being on the big stage. But once this game finally opens up? Well both of these teams have so much firepower on the offensive side of the ball that I think the 2nd half of this game is going to be the best half of lacrosse we see this year.

By now everybody knows what Justin Guterding and Connor Kelly are capable of doing. I don’t need to waste any time talking about them. But the young guns in this game are really going to be the difference makers. You’ve got a couple of freshman on Duke–Joe Robertson and Nakeie Montgomery–who have been filling up the back of the net so far this tournament. And then you’ve got a couple of freshmen and a sophomore on Maryland–Bubba Fairman, Logan Wisnauskus and Jared Bernhardt–who have been lights out for the Terps all season. So Guterding and Kelly are both obviously going to get their points. What I think this game will really come down to is which team’s secondary cast can show up the most. I think as long as Duke doesn’t go through any long scoreless droughts in this game, I like their chances. But if Duke’s young kids aren’t able to score for a while and Maryland starts to smell that blood in the water? Then they’ll smash down their foot and it’s game over. But for right now, give me Duke coming out of this game by 1.

P.S. – My picks for the DII and DIII games are Saint Leo and Wesleyan.

Shipping Up To Boston

So the boys are heading up to Foxboro early tomorrow morning. I’ll be hopping on a bus from Philly to NYC at 3 in the morning tomorrow, then we’re driving up from New York to Gillette. We’ll be there all weekend so make sure if any of you guys are heading up there as well, let us know and we’ll meet up and possibly consume a cold one or twenty. I know for a fact that we’re trying to make it to the Albany tailgate and the Duke tailgate, but we’re down to make some pit stops along the way. So if any of you beauties are going to be at Gillette this weekend, see ya there. And for everybody else? Have yourselves a hell of a weekend and remember…

Low-to-High Till The Day We Die.

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