NCAA Lacrosse Final Four weekend -One of my favorite sports weekends of the year - 2013 NCAA Men's & Women's Lacrosse Final Four from Philadelphia

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:9293097

Womens Semifinals being streamed LIVE Friday night via 
http://espn.go.com/watchespn/player?id=886438

2013 NCAA Lacrosse Championship - Semifinal #1: 

Cornell Big Red vs #7 Duke Blue Devils from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Saturday  May 25  2:30 p.m., ESPN2, DirecTV Channel 209 

2013 NCAA Lacrosse Championship - Semifinal #2: 
#4 Denver Pioneers vs #1 Syracuse Orange from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Saturday  May 25  5:00 p.m., ESPN2, DirecTV Channel 209

Repeat showings:

Semifinal #1: Cornell Big Red vs Duke Blue Devils 

Sunday  May 26  6:00 a.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Semifinal #2: Denver Pioneers vs Syracuse Orange 

Sunday  May 26  8:00 a.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

http://espn.go.com/espnw/college-sports/9310210/2013-women-lacrosse-final-four-north-carolina-uses-toughness-advance-face-maryland

2013 NCAA Women's Lacrosse Championship from Villanova Stadium in Villanova, PA.

Sunday  May 26  8:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208

2013 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.

Monday  May 27  1:00 p.m. ESPN, DirecTV Channel 206 

SkyCam Presentation at 1:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Post Game 

Monday  May 27  3:30 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208

Recap of the championship game: highlights, analysis, interviews with players and coaches

Repeat showings:

2013 NCAA Women's College Lacrosse - Championship from Villanova Stadium in Villanova, PA.

Monday  May 27  7:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

2013 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship 

Monday  May 27  9:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Tuesday  May 28  1:00 a.m.ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Tuesday  May 28  7:00 a.m. ESPNU DirecTV Channel 208 

Taped broadcasts: 

2013 NCAA Women's College Lacrosse Semifinals: 
Semifinal #1

#3 North Carolina Tar Heels vs #2 Northwestern Wildcats

Tuesday  May 28  1:00 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Semifinal #2: 

#4 Syracuse Orange vs #1 Maryland Terrapins

Tuesday  May 28  2:30 p.m. ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208 

Purple Reign Again? It's Orange vs. Purple in Sunday night's title game, as #1 Lady Gators lose to Syracuse in 2nd OT of NCAA D1 Women Lacrosse Semi-final #1, while #3 Northwestern again holds off Terps in repeat of last year's title match in nightcap; AT&T's U-Verse

Purple Reign Again? It's Orange vs. Purple in Sunday night's title game, as #1 Lady Gators lose to Syracuse in 2nd OT of NCAA D1 Women Lacrosse semifinal #1, while #3 Northwestern holds off #4 Terps and hope to capture their 7th NCAA Lacrosse Championship trophy

Owing to the terrible and completely unsatisfactory Internet service I've been getting thru AT&T's U-Verse the past three weeks, where I've seemingly only been able to access the AT&T server maybe 15% of the time that I want, and only then, sometimes for only a few minutes -only five minutes all day Thursday!- this is my first post since early Tuesday morning.


For someone like myself who's not just a blogger and a news junkie, but someone who frequently hears from lots of friends and people I know all over the world, some well-known or very knowledgeable about their particular subject area, whether now in Cannes for the film festival or in LA or London or wherever, NOT having reliable Internet access at home has made me increasingly exasperated.


So it was in that mood, one of almost desperate exasperation, that I tried my best to get online Friday night to watch the two NCAA D1 Women Lacrosse semi-finals up in Long Island at Stony Brook, since they were, amazingly, NOT being televised LIVE on-air, despite all the hundreds of cable stations that presently exist.


I tried a dozen or so times to get onto ESPN3.com or Watch ESPN -which is being heavily promoted on the Mother Ship these days- to watch the #1 third-year Florida Gators play Syracuse, one of only two teams they'd lost to all year, a 2OT defeat in the season-opener at Gainesville. Last weekend I watched the entire second half of what proved to be the Gator's 15-2 laugher of a Quarterfinal victory over a young Penn State state squad in Gainesville on SUN Sports, where the Gator's speed, quickness and depth just seemed to overwhelm a young and improving Nittany Lion team that's freshman and sophomore-centric, with exciting and talented players like freshman Tatum Coffey of Toms River, N.J. 
The Gators were so dominant that they went ahead by ten goals with just under 13 minutes left, so the clock kept running.
http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/w-lacros/recaps/051912aab.html
(I also had caught most of Penn State's match last month at Ohio State via The BigTenNetwork.)  


But on Friday night, when I wanted to see the exciting Gators -only the second women's
team in history to make the Final Four in their third year of existence -matching UNC about 14 years ago- each time I tried, the server was down.


By the time I finally got online, the exciting double-overtime first game had already concluded, and it was just before the start of the rematch of last year's title on the same field where Kelly Amonte Hiller's talented Northwestern squad beat her alma mater, Maryland, to get revenge on the Terps for beating them in 2010's title match in Towson -which was only about the best womens lacrosse match I ever saw.



WLAX Final Four: A Comeback For The Ages. May 25, 2012.
http://youtu.be/dAfXJFqFPZI



Did Syracuse tamper with the lacrosse stick? May 25, 2012.
http://youtu.be/3WqQLUmDh_k



McManus: Syracuse sticks with it, tops Florida
May 26 2:37 AM ET 
By Jane McManus, ESPNNewYork.com
http://espn.go.com/espnw/college-sports/7972599/2012-ncaa-women-lacrosse-tournament-syracuse-orange-top-florida-gators-2ot-thriller


Syracuse upsets No. 1 Florida
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7973608/syracuse-upsets-no-1-florida-14-13-semis


Syracuse upsets No. 1 Florida 14-13 in semis
http://online.wsj.com/article/APbe6212bfe613422c90be1b423fa5f7d6.html



NU Athletics video: Lacrosse - NCAA Semifinal Highlights
http://youtu.be/ARTp5XobE04



NU Athletics video: Inside Wildcat Lacrosse Episode 10. Junior Midfielder Bea Conley fills viewers in on the week's preparations between last week's NCAA Quarterfinal victory over Duke and this week's Final Four tourney in Long Island. May 23, 2012.
http://youtu.be/goYHpn5huXM

Since I knew that the second game would be very close, my original plan had been to tape the last ten minutes of the Maryland-Northwestern match on my FLIP camera, and then email it to my sister and youngest niece in Maryland, so they could see how things ended, and even see if anyone they know from the Howard County/Baltimore area was involved in deciding the game.


Unfortunately, the breaks in the streaming were so egregious that while I went ahead and taped it, I chose not to send it because of the often 10-15 second delays.
Very, very frustrating.
I did decide, though, to save it on a DVD as proof of how bad the U-verse service has been.


Note to anybody who cares: when YouTube streamed concerts from Coachella, they were almost flawless, but for whatever reasons, when I've watched games via ESPN3's telecasts, not so much, even before the recent Internet connection problems.



Swedish House Mafia - Save The World, Live From Coachella, April 13, 2012
http://youtu.be/rYrFeo7efEY


When I watched Swedish House Mafia perform LIVE from Coachella last month around 2:15 a.m. or so my time here in Miami, there was maybe only one short flutter the whole time in their roughly 20-minute online performance that was shown. 


Back in March, Northwestern won on the road at Syracuse in overtime, 11-9.
http://youtu.be/1Ry7Mh6C5UE


Sunday night's final between Northwestern and Syracuse will be telecast LIVE at 8 p.m. on ESPNU, DirecTV Channel 208. 
See more at http://www.ncaa.com/sports/lacrosse-women/d1


-----
Did you know that even if you use the filters that AT&T provides for you for DSL 6.0 or U-Verse if you run both your house telephone phone and your Internet connection thru that phone line, i.e. "co-share," if some AT&T technician that you've never met doesn't type your original order in correctly, despite the fact that your phone number is right there and they could call if they had a question, you will be entered into the sytem as a "dry loop" -internet only- which will then adversely affect your speed and service and mean your speed isn't close to average, year-after-year?


Over five years later, I learned that lesson Friday afternoon when I finally reached a very friendly and knowledgeable AT&T rep who'd tell me the truth and think outside-the-box.
Yes, the sort of person that I have only been trying to find for years -as well as at Bank of America: someone who told me the truth about many things that I didn't know about.
I suspect they were only doing so since I mentioned that I was preparing to do the un-thinkable and actually go over to the Dark Side, and get my Internet service thru the company I loathe more than almost any other, COMCAST.


(Their terrible customer service record on the cable side in Arlington County, VA while I lived there for almost 15 years was legendary, one of the few D.C.-area legends that proved 100% accurate. Using the speed tests that YouTube has embedded with videos, COMCAST is nearly twice as fast in HB as what I currently have with AT&T.)


Did you know that it's AT&T's policy NOT to dispatch someone to check the lines in your neighborhood if you live in the Southeast United States, without first sending someone to a customer's home or business, even if they can tell on their computers at their HQ that the problem is affecting lots of their customers in a given geographical area?
It's true.


(Earlier this week an AT&T rep told me that 26% of their customers in my area were having the same problem I was having, but they still wouldn't just dispatch them to see what the problem was!)


For years I, like perhaps most of you reading this, have assumed that when I or someone else in the neighborhood called-up AT&T to report a problem with the server, help was being sent to check it out.
It wasn't.


Not unless they were willing to risk a $55 service charge if the problem was inside of their house, that is, after they were willing to hang around the house for 4-5 hours waiting for someone to show up.
And again, they already know that the problem ISN'T you.
So why the pretense?

Breaking News: USA Field Hockey earns spot at 2012 London Olympics with 4-2 upset win over #1 Argentina in Finals at Pan Am Games in Guadalajara

Breaking News: USA Field Hockey earns spot at 2012 London Olympics with a 4-2 upset win over #1 Argentina in Finals at Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

I found out via the UVA Field Hockey Twitter account shortly after 8 p.m. tonight while watching Game Seven of the World Series:

uvafieldhockey Virginia Hockey

Congrats to @USAFieldHockey who just punched a ticket to London with a 4-2 win over world No. 1 Argentina! Well done Paige & Michelle!

(I tried to take a screen shot of it but it was too faint to post here.)

Paige Selenski (Virginia), Shannon Taylor (Syracuse), Katie O'Donnell (Maryland) and Michelle Vittese (Virginia) scored for the underdog American squad.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/28/sports/s171739D13.DTL

http://espn.go.com/espnw/pan-am-games/

Rachel Dawson's blog from Pan Am Games:

http://espn.go.com/espnw/7119544

http://twitter.com/intent/user?screen_name=uvafieldhockey

More soon on the upcoming Field Hockey conference tourneys which start next week, inc. the always tough ACC tourney in College Park that members of my FH-loving family may be attending at some point.

2011 ACC Field Hockey Championship at College Park, Maryland.

Thursday Nov. 3rd & Sunday Nov. 6th

http://www.theacc.com/sports/w-fieldh/acc-w-fieldh-body.html

http://www.theacc.com/championships/11-acc-field-hockey-championship.html

No. 2 UVA at No. 1 Syracuse Mens Lacrosse tonight on ESPNU at 6 p.m.; plus, will Lacey Myers show-up?; UVA to retire Yeardley Love's number Sunday

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=6173759

Well, it's not like I wasn't already looking forward to this exciting match tonight between UVA and Syracuse on ESPNU, ever since I got a good look two weekends ago during their Lacrosse Preview show and saw the schedule of televised matches this Spring.
http://espn.go.com/lacrosse/

That schedule will, apparently, include two Womens matches.
Last year I saw a lot of Northwestern's matches, but when Maryland came back to beat Northwestern in the title game at Towson, that was easily one of the most exciting things I saw all year.

Frankly, to me, it was MUCH more exciting than the Auburn-Oregon BCS Title Game in Phoenix this past January.

-----
Baltimore Sun
Syracuse, UVa. gear up for 'game of the year'
By Edward Lee, The Baltimore Sun
5:44 p.m. EST, March 3, 2011

It doesn't have the levels of hysteria generated when the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers clash or when the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees meet, but the series between Syracuse and Virginia has been gaining steam in the sport of lacrosse.

That's why Friday night's contest at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., is already being called the game of the 2011 season, and it's only early March.

Read the rest of the article at:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/lacrosse/bs-sp-lax-feature-0304-20110303,0,4756447.story

But, the Internet being what it is, more than a few people who say they are fans of Syracuse student Lacey Myers, the subject of my July 21st, 2010 post, one of my most popular posts here ever -at one point earlier this week, 13 consecutive people from around the world came by the blog to look at that story on her and her well-publicized media forays on MTV and Channel 4 in England, which I had the links to- sent me emails
asking a question I can't possibly answer.

Say hello to Lacey Myers, one of "The World's Richest Teenagers" as seen on Channel 4 (U.K.) and MTV's Lacey Land. C'est la vie.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/say-hello-to-lacey-myers-one-of-worlds.html

I honestly have no idea one way or the other whether or not she will be at the Carrier Dome Friday night, rooting on her team.

But I will definitely know if she gets shown on TV, since even if I wasn't going to be watching the match anyway, some of you have pledged to let me know.
Again, as I've already written some of you, I appreciate it, but I'll be able to see for myself, so please save yourself an email and just watch the action on the field.

University of Virgina Mens Lacrosse homepage:
http://www.virginiasports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17800&SPID=10601&SPSID=88761

Syracuse Mens Lacrosse homepage:
http://suathletics.syr.edu/index.aspx?path=mlacrosse

FYI: The Maryland at Duke Mens match on Saturday at 1 pm will be streaming LIVE on ESPN3. I caught some of the Georgetown at Maryland match over the weekend.
http://espn.go.com/espn3/index/_/sport/lacrosse

Back in mid-February, on my birthday actually, I heard the news from some friends in the Mid-Atlantic that UVA was planning to retire Yeardley Love's number before their home game against Penn State.

Well, that emotional day for her family and friends is fast approaching.

Friday night, #5 UVA hosts defending NCAA champion and #1 Maryland, and Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Klockner Stadium, the ceremony takes place, so you can pretty well expect to see some media coverage of that event on Sunday and Monday, esp. on ESPN, which for a change, actually covered that tragedy and the weeks of following the team with a certain amount of class, instead of their usual pomposity.
Yeardley Love was #1.

As some of you may recall me having mentioned previously, I saw UVA's game in Evanston at Northwestern on The BigTenNetwork the same weekend that the Northwestern home
match against the first-year Florida Gators was also supposed to be telecast, but instead, the Gators match wound-up being an online P-P-V.

That was the very same weekend before Yeardley Love was murdered once she and the rest of her teammates got back to Charlottesville.

For whatever reason, once the news about that tragedy became public, The BigTenNetwork pulled the encore showing they has scheduled for that UVA-Northwestern match, and instead, showed some meaningless softball game.

The CBS-owned network collectively put their head in the sand rather than utilize their "experts" and resources to actually bring some perspective to fans on the tragedy.
I really expected much better from them.

------

The Baltimore Sun's Lacrosse blog:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/lacrosse/blog/

http://www.umterps.com/sports/w-lacros/md-w-lacros-body.html

http://www.virginiasports.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=10605&DB_OEM_ID=17800

http://www.gatorzone.com/lacrosse/

http://nusports.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/nw-w-lacros-body.html

Say hello to Lacey Myers, one of "The World's Richest Teenagers" as seen on Channel 4 (U.K.) and MTV's Lacey Land. C'est la vie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwWulWyLLXE
Mark Dolan embarks on a quest to find the world's richest teenagers.
Is the silver-spoon life such a wonderful thing after all?

Above, Dolan with the then-17-year old Lacey Myers, of Ashland, Ohio, who as you'll see from the clip's I've assembled here, is living EXTRA LARGE, as a result of how much Americans spend annually on their pets via Pet Brands, Inc., an American company with excellent products, great client services and a very good reputation. Lacey's father, Martin "Marty" Myers, is the company CEO.

Just further proof, as if needed, that if you give people a quality product they need at a price they can afford, you can make some money, too.
There's nothing mysterious about it and certainly no need to apologize for that success.

And really, is Lacey's ability to genuinely enjoy herself, as a result of her father's hard work, really all that different than depictions of how the rich lived in turn-of-the-century New York in real life, or as depicted in well-known novels by novelist Edith Wharton, with extravagant yachts, summers in old castles in Europe with royalty... and no personal income tax?
There just wasn't any incriminating video, 24/7 Internet or TMZ back then, is all.

C'est la vie.

The World's Richest Teenager | Who's to Blame? More with Lacey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyYrzurRisY

Catch up on 4oD: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worlds-and-me/4od

For more information on this TV show, see:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worlds-and-me and
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worlds-and-me/pictures/richest-teenager/6a986ac8-d7c6-42d2-8666-837c527f4962


Here's an earlier story on Lacey from a few years ago getting the MTV My Super Sweet 16 treatment. Her only regret was that "she couldn't keep the party going."
http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/3204672

She was only 16 then, and to my mind, at least, sounds like about a million or so teenage girls in cities all across the country, ESPECIALLY here in South Florida, so what are you going to do, put her on trial for enjoying herself, rather than being frugal or a bookworm?

Or am I the only person still alive who remembers the many over-the-top stories on local Miami TV stations in the 1970's and '80's, with giddy TV reporters going on-and-on about well-to-do South Florida parents renting out the Orange Bowl for their son's bar mitzvah?

Frankly, it was actually starting to become a fairly regular thing, and while I remember thinking at the time as as a kid growing-up down here that it seemed a bit over-the-top, and not something anyone I knew might do, I suppose if I'd been a friend of the birthday boy and been invited, I'd have have been pretty psyched, so who's to judge these things, anyhow?

Besides, it wasn't my money, after all, so why should I begrudge someone else doing what they want to do, or what their parents want to do, and enjoy vicariously?

If any part of the country should understand Lacey Myers, it's here in South Florida.
Older versions of fun-loving Lacey keep its hotels and night clubs busy and turning a profit in very uncertain economic times.

Welcome to the full episode of the Lacey Land fantasy bash from January 28, 2008.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/my-super-sweet-16-season-6-ep-8-lacey-lacey-land-party/1580256/playlist.jhtml

My Super Sweet 16 - MTV Shows

When I last watched it, this video featured the recent Cotton Fabric of Our Lives TV ads I recently posted about featuring singers Leona Lewis and Colbie Caillat, but it may change by the time you watch it.

See other Fabric of Our Lives commercials from the series at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CottonFabricOfMyLife

The World's Richest Teenager - High Flyer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neZ65AKMrZE


http://www.channel4.com/news/

Last I heard, Lacey had left for Syracuse University, alma mater of one of my former housemates in Arlington, Peter Gaudioso, who was then an intern for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and a future Seton Hall Law School grad.

Peter, a devout fan of the Orange, was one of my housemates in Arlington when my IU Hoosiers beat Syracuse on a last-second Keith Smart shot in the 1991 NCAA Basketball title game, and is now a practicing attorney in New Jersey, and can no doubt still weave a Thomas Jefferson quote or anecdote into a conversation better than anyone north of Charlottesville and UVA.

From a distance, I suppose it would be too much to hope that Lacey turns out to be a Syracuse Lacrosse fan, and will actually be showing-up for their games that will be televised by ESPNU in the spring.
Still, it would be nice to see her up in the stands showing her support during a telecast.

Unless that happens, though, I suspect that we've all seen the last of Lacey for a while, as she'll probably be living a more below-the-radar existence, living the college life she's probably looked forward to enjoying for years while growing-up in Ohio, just like I and all my friends did as well here in South Florida once upon a time, eager to leave the Sunshine State in the rear view mirror and get on with our lives.
In my case, the beautiful rolling hills of Bloomington, Indiana.

Something to smile about: NCAA Women's Lacrosse Final Four Weekend in Bawlmer, Hon

NCAA Women's Lacrosse Final Four, Johnny Unitas Stadium,
Towson, Md. -Home of the Tigers

Friday on CBS College Sports, DirecTV Channel 613
5:30 p.m. #1 Maryland (20-1) vs. Syracuse (15-6)
8:00 p.m. #2 Northwestern (19-1) vs. #3 North Carolina (17-2)
Sunday on CBS College Sports, 5:30 p.m. Division I Championship

I'm pretty sure that Maryland will win the first game since I've seen Georgetown play Syracuse twice in the past few weeks, including for the Big East title two weeks ago where they beat the Orange, so I'm mostly waiting for the second game and here's why.

The Terps lost to the Tar Heels in last year's Semifinals which was brutal for Terp fans to take since many really thought they'd do the Field Hockey & Lacrosse double-championship thing -again.

But it didn't happen, though they could at least take solace in the Wildcats beating UNC in the final, for their fifth straight NCAA title.

The Tar Heels beat the Terps in the NCAA Field Hockey championship in November, scoring the winning goal with just 11 seconds left.
More brutality for Turtle fans!

Back on April 18th, I watched the Tar Heels' huge victory at beautiful Lakeside Park in Evanston on The BigTenNetwork, their first live Women's Lacrosse telecast since the network started, and what a match to start with. http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/recaps/041810aaa.html

As I've previously mentioned here, that was only THE single best women's lacrosse match I've ever seen, and was keyed in no small part by the elusive Megan Bosica, #2 for the Tar Heels. http://tarheelblue.cstv.com/sports/w-lacros/unc-w-lacros-body.html

Megan's from perennial lacrosse power Mt. Hebron in Howard County, MD, where my sister's family lives, one of the real traditional lacrosse and field hockey hot houses on the East Coast that exports talent to teams all over the country.
My two oldest nieces played field hockey for Glenelg, playing in the state championship game for their division three times in five years.

Bosica's ability to find a hole in the defense or pass like a laser-beam reminded me of Isiah Thomas going thru the lane for the Hoosiers, once-upon-a-time, always getting that second defender to follow him, leaving someone wide-open for the pass.
She's uncanny and never stops hustling!

I'll have some comments about the Men's NCAA Semifinals at M&T Stadium on Saturday morning.


You're not really surprised, are you, that the geniuses over at the Miami Herald's Sports section didn't even bother to list these NCAA Women's Semifinal matches in the paper today?
It's par for the course at one of the WORST-designed and edited sports sections in the entire country.

They're the same geniuses who had nothing in the paper about the UEFA Champions League title game the day before it was played.
Yeah, that's normal at newspapers that think they've got something to brag about.

See for yourself:On TV / Radio Today
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/28/1652417/on-tv-radio-today.html