The Crease Dive's College Lacrosse Weekend Preview Featuring Current Pro And Former Penn State Goalie Austin Kaut
You have to be an absolute lunatic to be a goalie in any sport. But you have to be a special breed of lunatic to voluntarily be a goalie playing field lacrosse. All you’re wearing is a chest protector, a cup, a pair of gloves, a helmet and then you have your stick. Your arms? Completely exposed. The lower half of your body besides the cup? Completely exposed. Meanwhile, you have guys slinging which essentially becomes a rubber bullet toward you at speeds of over 100mph.
Austin Kaut is one of those lunatics. And he’s one of the best lunatics on the planet after being an MLL All Star last year and was up for the Goalie of the Year award. I was lucky enough to play with Austin from 4th grade through high school, but then his lacrosse career took a bit of a different path than mine did after then. He went on to Penn State to be a 4x All American and now he’s one of the best goalies in professional lacrosse. So I figured we’ve waited long enough to get a goalie on the podcast, and it only felt right for him to be the first. Especially considering his Penn State Nittany Lions are currently ranked #1 in the nation. So if you want to get a look inside the mind of what kind of lunatic it takes to become a professional lacrosse goalie, here’s the interview for you. We talk about what it’s like being a lacrosse player on Penn State’s campus, who are the best guys to get #InOne with at the bar after the game, and where I rank on the list of the best players he’s ever gotten a chance to play with.
Download/Subscribe/Listen to this week’s episode right here on iTunes
And while I have you here, we might as well throw it back to the time I went 1v1 against Kaut in a goalie challenge. It didn’t quite go my way that day, but it rarely ever has against him.
College Lacrosse Weekend Preview
We have a fully loaded schedule of some premium games to watch this weekend, so I’m going to keep these relatively short. But yeah, I understand there is college basketball on all weekend and there’s also The Players going on. But make sure you up your data plan and get these streams going as well because there is going to be some damn good lacrosse that you won’t want to miss this weekend. I’m predicting at least 40,000 goals to be scored. Long weekend for goalies ahead of us.
#5 Towson @ #2 Duke | Saturday, 1pm | ESPN+ | Line: Duke -2
The two teams that have knocked off Loyola this season going head-to-head. Towson is fresh off of getting shit pumped by Cornell, and Duke was able to take care of Utah this week but it was a 7-7 game at halftime. I think the thing that really separates Duke from a lot of teams is how versatile they are offensively. They have guys who can bring the high heat from range. They have guys who can shake their defenders up top and then bury down low. They have feeders. They have inside finishers. And I mean they’re obviously not the only team in the nation that have guys who can score in plenty of different ways, but I think they’re the most multidimensional of them all. Combine that with the fact that their defense has held their opponents to single digit goals in 5 of their last 6 games, and I like Duke in this one.
#3 Cornell @ #4 Yale | Saturday, 1pm | ESPN News | Line: Yale -2
Cornell had an up and down weekend last week. They got worked pretty hard against Penn State on Friday night. But then on Sunday? Clarke Petterson and the boys came out buzzin’ against #1 Towson. Petterson put up 8 goals on the day. 8 goals against the top ranked team in the nation. What an animal.
Now even though this game will feature two of the biggest weapons in college lacrosse with Jeff Teat and Clarke Petterson, the biggest difference maker anytime Yale is playing a lacrosse game this year could end up being TD Ierlan. Cornell was on the giving and the receiving end of some ass kickings last weekend. I don’t think that’ll be the case this week and I think this is a game that’ll come down to the wire. And considering there should be about 30 goals scored in this game, that means more and more faceoffs for TD and more chances for him to make an impact on this game.
It’ll also be interesting to see who gets the start in cage for Cornell. I’d love to see Chayse Ierlan in net for the Big Red so we can really play up that brother v brother narrative. Either way, my heart says Cornell so that’s what I’m going with in this one.
Navy @ #8 Loyola | Saturday, 1pm | Stadium | Line: Loyola -4
Here’s a little rule of thumb–if you have a game scheduled against Loyola on a weekend, you might as well not even get off the bus. In their 3 weekend games so far this season, they’ve put up 17, 18 and 19 goals. All of those games were wins. But when Loyola is playing in the middle of the week, they’re vulnerable and we’ve seen them go down twice already to Towson and Duke.
Considering Navy has the unfortunate reality of playing against Weekend Loyola tomorrow, this one is going to be all Pat Spencer and the Greyhounds.
#15 Rutgers @ #13 Syracuse | Saturday, 1pm | ESPN+ | Line: Syracuse -2
I’ll be honest. I’m not super interested in this game or anything. Rutgers is just never a team that really does it for me. Until they turn the corner and prove that they’re a program that can consistently beat some of the traditional powerhouses, it’ll be tough for me to buy in on them.
With that being said, this will be Syracuse’s SIXTH (6th) home game to start the season. And they still have one more to go after this. The Orange are starting off the season with 7 straight home games. They haven’t even looked at a bus yet this season. I mean it’s pretty eco-friendly of them to not have to travel or anything like that. But how does this happen? How is that legal?
#7 Notre Dame @ #12 Virginia | Saturday, 3pm | ESPN+ | Line: Notre Dame -1.5
Each of Virginia’s last 4 games have been decided by 1 goal. They had a 13-14 loss to High Point a month ago while High Point was in full blown wagon mode. After that, they put up back-to-back overtime wins against Princeton and Syracuse. And then last week they came back in the 4th quarter to hold off a Brown upset 14-13. So they’re 3-1 in those 1-goal games and I guess the Cardiac Cuse torch can be passed on to the Cardiac Cavs.
But even though they’re winning the majority of those 1-goal games, the thing that this shows me is that they just don’t have the ability right now to actually put teams away. And Notre Dame isn’t a team that you want to let hang around right now. They’re coming off of wins against Maryland and Denver right now. They’re figuring themselves out offensively without Ryder Garnsey right now. And their defense has held their opponents to single digits in 3 of their first 4 games. They might not be the prettiest team in the world right now but they’re a bunch of grinders.
I think I’m leaning more towards Notre Dame in this game but considering it’s a home game for Virginia, their shooters should be feeling pretty comfortable tomorrow. So if they start to find the back of the net early and often tomorrow, then the Cavs come out on top. But if they let Notre Dame hang around and this is a back-and-forth game all day? Give me the Irish.
#11 Denver @ #9 Ohio State | ****CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER****
Other Games To Watch:
- Drexel @ Georgetown. Saturday, 12pm
- Villanova @ Maryland. Saturday, 3pm
- Utah @ UMass. Sunday, 12pm
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Jordie’s Picks
Gotta be honest. I really haven’t been able to get a feel for this college lacrosse season yet. It’s been non-stop chaos since February 1st. So Jordie’s Picks have been struggling mightily lately. So this is what I’m riding with this weekend but at this point, anybody’s guess is as good as mine. Can’t even fake confidence in these picks right now.
- Loyola -4 over Navy. Weekend Loyola rules.
- Army -3.5 over Holy Cross. At least some of the Troops have to cover this week.
- Cornell +2 v Yale. You don’t get rich betting against Jeff Teat
- Virginia +1.5 v Notre Dame. This will be a 1-goal game.
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