Sam Johnson knew there was something wrong as he watched last season’s NCAA semifinal game between Cornell and Notre Dame. As Notre Dame continued to stall — holding the ball for upward of seven minutes at a time — Johnson realized it wasn’t the way spectators wanted to see the game being played.

‘It was the most boring game of lacrosse I had ever seen,’ said Johnson, Army’s athletics department chief of staff and a member of the NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Rules Committee. ‘We’re missing the boat if we’re saying that’s what people want to watch, and from a fan perspective, we have to do something to speed up the game again.’

Notre Dame ended up winning the game 12-7, advancing to the school’s first-ever title game. As for Johnson, he took what he saw and used it to incite changes for this year’s college lacrosse season.

Johnson and eight other committee members met in early August to propose changes to be made to the current rulebook, and the speed of play and improving the faceoff were two key areas the rules committee discussed.

A new rule put in place added a single 30-second count for teams gaining possession to proceed into the attacking zone. The old rule was removed, but it had specified that teams had 20 seconds to get the ball past the midfield line and another 10 seconds to enter the attacking zone. The team had to then re-establish possession in the offensive zone every 10 seconds or else turn the ball over. It caused the game to naturally slow down.

‘For eight seconds, you’re getting your offense set up again,’ Johnson said. ‘You stop setting up your offense, and you’re working to get your foot in the offensive zone again. It did nothing but disrupt the offense, and that rule inadvertently was causing stalling.’

Drexel head coach Brian Voelker, chairman for the rules committee, said that during his time with the committee, the rate of play was a topic discussed at every meeting.

‘Every time we meet, it seems like there is a couple different things we talk about, and pace of the game is one of the things we talk about a lot,’ Voelker said. ‘The changes that we made this year (were made) because we think it’s in the best interest of the game of lacrosse.’

The changes enabled referees to pay closer attention to the game rather than consistently counting and enforcing stall warnings. However, there are still cases of stalling that have raised flags about whether the changes are enough. A shot clock has been talked about as a way to prohibit stalling from happening at all.

Major League Lacrosse does use a shot clock. It gives each team a ’60-second shot clock, which is reset after a goal is scored, a shot hits the post or is saved by the goalie, or there is a change of possession. If the clock runs out, possession is granted to the other team,’ according to LaxPower.com.

But for Johns Hopkins head coach Dave Pietramala, a shot clock would cause coaches to make certain changes that may in turn hurt the game of lacrosse. Pietramala said teams would resort to playing a tight zone defense that would push attackers into ill-advised shots as the shot clock winds down.

However, Johnson feels a shot clock could level the playing field for mediocre defenses that don’t deploy complex defensive schemes. It would give coaches easy alternatives to combat with explosive offenses.

‘Do we want to see more zone?’ Pietramala said. ‘Do we want to see more teams rolling the ball to the corner because the shot clock is running out to get more people on the field? I don’t think that’s really good for our game or our television audience.’

Johns Hopkins pushed Syracuse to double overtime early this season. The Blue Jays played a possessive style of play, taking limited shots and holding the ball for minutes at a time without moving toward the goal. It provided shot clock advocates with support for their claims.

The game plan nearly had Johns Hopkins upending the Orange, as the Blue Jays fell in a tightly contested 5-4 contest. But it drew skepticism as well. Pietramala has to defend his decision to play a slow-paced game.

Johns Hopkins is the nation’s second-best scoring defense, yielding 6.13 goals per game. On Saturday, the Blue Jays deployed a more aggressive approach to defeat then-No. 2 Virginia 12-11.

‘People are quick to say that Hopkins plays a slow-down style, and very quick to judge what a team’s ‘style’ is,’ Pietramala said. ‘We chose to play a certain style (against Syracuse), which was effective and put us in a position to win. It was not the same style that we needed to beat Virginia.’

Voelker knows there are cases when teams slow down the speed of play to a grinding halt, but he doesn’t feel the shot clock is the only resolution. He said coaches are going to do anything within the rules to try and win, and because of this, the shot clock may be counterproductive.

But coaches stand strongly on both sides of the issue. Although teams in the past have settled for certain rules, the decision for or against the shot clock is not the same. The decision has ramifications that could alter the state of lacrosse to unrecognizable proportions.

‘If we felt like there was a consensus either way, we would probably talk about it more,’ Voelker said. ‘And we talk about it every single time. If we came out of any meeting saying we’re putting a shot clock in, the (other coaches) would be lined up with the pitchforks and coming after me.’

adtredin@syr.edu

 

Published on March 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm