One of the many reasons why lacrosse is the sport of the future is because of the way they do their collegiate drafts. Instead of waiting until a player’s college career is over and making them declare for the draft, players get drafted during their senior season. Then once their senior year is over, they can hop right into a pro lineup. Guys like Ryan Conrad were winning a National Championship with Virginia on Memorial Day and then the following weekend they were making their pro debut on June 1 with the Atlas. Then you’ve got a kid like Tim Troutner from High Point. His year got started with a couple of big time upsets against Duke and Virginia in February. Continued to play his whole senior season. And now he’s been starting every week between the pipes for the Redwoods. He year got started in February and here he is 7 and a half months later still going. Imagine if Zion finished up his year at Duke last year and then was immediately able to jump into the Pelicans’ lineup. Or if Tua finishes up at Bama this year and then was able to hop right into Miami’s offense the next week. Just something for the other sports to think about while they continue to try to catch up to lacrosse.

Anyway, we had Tim Troutner on this week’s episode of The Crease Dive. He’s got a big time tilt this weekend against Chaos in the PLL Semifinal. The winner of this game goes on to play the Whipsnakes next weekend in Philly for the championship. 4-year starter at High Point, Rookie of the Year nominee in the PLL, and now a chance to play for a championship with one more win tomorrow. Not a bad 7 or so months for the kid.

We also talked about some details for the Live Show at the PLL Championship, got into some draft talk, and previewed this weekend’s games at Red Bull Arena.

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Weekend Preview // Red Bull Arena

Semifinal: Redwoods vs Chaos // Saturday, 5pm // NBCSN

The Chowse are 2-0 against the Redwoods so far this year. But one of those losses was before Jules Heningburg got traded to the Woods so does that really even count? The 2nd win featured one of the nastiest goals of the year/history of lacrosse from Connor Fields though so that’s good enough to count for 2. You take Garrett Epple to the rack, trip him up behind the cage and then dunk on Troutner one-handed like that? You are now the owner/GM of the Redwoods.

The only issue is that all of these teams are evenly matched. So being able to beat the same team twice in a year is going to be hard enough, let alone going for the 3peat. It’s going to be more of a mental game more than anything tomorrow. So considering the Redwoods have revenge on the mind and they looked like an absolute machine last week against the Archers? I’d put the Chaos on upset alert here. Unless they just start dropping bombs from Two Land. Once the bomb squad gets going, it’s damn near impossible to catch up. So we’ll see what happens. Either the twos will be flowing, or we’ll get a good ol’ fashion revenge tour.

Jordie’s Pick: Redwoods keep rolling.

Loser’s Bracket Semi: Archers vs Chrome // Saturday, 8pm // NBC Sports Gold

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again–I don’t care about the loser’s bracket. I went into it with an open mind but it’s really hard to buy into a game that really doesn’t have that much significance. Now part of the issue is that this upcoming 2020 draft class is so stacked. Guys like Grant Ament, Michael Sowers, TD Ierlan, Jeff Teat, Dox Aitken, etc. etc. At this point I’d almost rather not have the 1st overall pick because there are too many studs to choose from. I’d rather have pick 3 or 4 and let a couple of those names drop off the board first to make the decision easier for myself. All of those guys are franchise altering talents. It’s the most stacked draft class we’ve seen in a while.

So for this game tomorrow night? I’d try to throw it if I were the Archers or Chrome. There’s no need to play for the 1st overall draft pick next week. Just throw this game tomorrow night, then you get to just chill next weekend without a game, and you’re still going to end up drafting a stud. Sounds like the best case scenario to me. So whoever likes to have the most fun is going to end up losing this game tomorrow. That’s my prediction.

Now go out there and have yourselves a weekend. Only one more left after this.

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