Schooling Schooler: Nick Loses His Innocence

by Jac Coyne | Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff | Coyne Archive | Twitter

'Schooling Schooler' is a Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association pick 'em competition between LMO's Jac Coyne and Nick Schooler, a current marine biology Master’s candidate at UC Santa Barbara as well as a former All-American and two-time national champion for the Gauchos. Coyne and Schooler will be picking five games from the MCLA every week during the course of the season.

There’s a scene early in Goodfellas when a young Henry Hill was picked up from the court house by Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) after Hill was pinched for selling stolen cigarettes.

Conway brings Hill back to the gangster’s hideaway and is met by a group of mobsters celebrating his first arrest, slapping him on the back for this wise guy right of passage.

I feel kind of like Conway with Nick in the role of Hill after what transpired last week.

You see, our boy Nick received his first hate mail.

For anyone in the journalism business, especially on the web, getting critical letters and email are a fact of life. Some of it is warranted, like when you make a mistake or someone needs a clarification. Then you’ll have the really boring emails from people who think they know what they’re talking about, but are out in left field.

And then there are the juicy ones; the poison pen emails comprised of nothing but ad hominem barbs because the sender didn’t like the premise of your argument or just doesn't like you. You don’t worry about it too much because you understand the person would never say it to your face and is just hiding behind a screen name or email address.

Still, it’s a shock to the system, especially when you receive your first one.

Nicky received his first nastygram last week. So he’s no longer that guy sitting in the marine biology lab giving his thoughts on the MCLA. He’s a grizzled vet who has officially lost his web innocence.

With that said, Schooler couldn’t gain any ground this week as we both posted 3-2 marks. He was this close to slashing my intimidating three-game lead down to one, but my main man Mickey-Miles and the LaxCats pulled out the win over Utah in extra time. After four weeks, I’m running at a 14-6 clip while Nick is staving off the .500 mark at 11-9.

On to the games…

No. 4 Dayton (2-0) at No. 2 Davenport (5-0), 8 p.m., Friday
COYNE: Uh, oh. A Division II game. Initially I was going to save these for when I was down because Schooler loathes the second division, but this isn’t just a pick ‘em competition; it’s a learning experience. And Nick needs to step outside that insulated D-I world and see what else is out there. Also, this game is one of the more anticipated match-ups in the MCLA’s junior circuit.

Davenport has already handled four semi-tournament contenders with relative ease so far while Dayton scrambled for a pair of one-goal victories. The difference in this one – and it’s something we saw this past weekend with Simon Fraser – is the Flyers have been off for a month. Dayton’s last game was on Feb. 13, and it’s difficult to quickly ratchet up the competition level, especially against an elite opponent. I’m going with the Panthers by four.

SCHOOLER: These are not your average D-II teams. I could easily see them playing and competing in D-I. Obviously they wouldn't beat Michigan, ASU or Chapman, but I could see them competing against the likes of Virginia Tech, Michigan State and Texas State. So I'll take this seriously. Dayton has a lot of past success and put up a good fight against Michigan State in a scrimmage. Davenport has put together a very impressive schedule and has not had any trouble against the competition this year. So I'm going with Davenport in this one.

No. 4 Colorado State (5-0) at No. 3 Arizona State (3-1), 2 p.m. MT, Saturday
COYNE: I think most people are reading way too much into Arizona State’s one-goal loss to Michigan. While the Sun Devils transition game is probably the deadliest in the MCLA, there are holes in the defense and the set offense is predictable. Meanwhile, all Colorado State is doing is hammering top flight opponents on a consistent basis.

The bottom line is ASU is a finesse team and the Rams are a bunch of grinders. I’ll take the latter every time. Taking into consideration the travel, it will be another close game, but it will be CSU up at the end, 14-12.

SCHOOLER: CSU is on a bit of a hot streak. They have taken on every challenge that has been brought their way. They took down Texas when the Longhorns were beginning to look like a legit program. They exposed Lindenwood for what they really are. They knocked Simon Fraser out of the top 10. And they handled a UNH team that embarrassed Colorado.

But that same fate will not be befall ASU. With Eric Nelson and all three of the Westfall brothers leading this team, they will not lose a game for the rest of the season (except against UCSB).

No. 13 Simon Fraser (1-2) at No. 9 Michigan State (2-1), 12 p.m., Sunday
COYNE: I think we’re about to see the Clansmen’s second scheduling mistake in two weeks. They headed to Colorado after a month layoff and were stifled last weekend. This weekend, SFU did not make Michigan State schedule a game on Friday night or Saturday, giving the Spartans a huge competitive advantage.

As it stands now, Sparty gets a chance to scout the Friday game against Michigan, put in some wrinkles on Saturday, and then wait for SFU – who will likely be gassed after giving everything they had to beat the champs on Friday. The thing is, MSU would have been enough trouble for the Clan even without the rest advantage, especially on the road. The Clansmen probably weren’t expecting to be 0-2 in D-I competition at this point, but now the schedule raises a lot of concerns. I’ve got to go with State, 11-8.

SCHOOLER: I have to give Simon Fraser props for finally putting together a real schedule. Eight of their first nine games are against top 10 teams. If they lose them all, they could still be ranked in the top 10. Out of those eight games, I see this as their best chance to win one. The Clan had a nice wake-up call last week in Colorado. Jac got sucked into the hype and picked them to win. I was above that. It's time for the Canadians to turn it up a notch. SFU wins this game, no problem.

Coyne’s Pick
Oregon State (5-1) at Washington (3-3), 1 p.m. PT, Saturday
COYNE: Along with giving Division II a shot, Nick also needs to branch out a little bit from the power conferences of his day. While Simon Fraser had its bubble burst this past weekend in Colorado and the jury is still out on Oregon (and will be until March 20), the PNCLL is unquestionably an up-and-coming league with loads of potential. While not at the rate of some of the larger western states (Texas, California), Oregon and Washington are pumping out quality players.

It’s because of this that one could argue that both the Beavers and Huskies should be better than they are, but since they are hovering around the same level this game won’t be an easy call. I’ve gone back and forth on this one, and I’m going with U-dub in overtime, 13-12.

SCHOOLER: I can work with D-II games, but two teams that are not even ranked? Who cares, but I guess I'll have to give it a try. They seem to be pretty evenly matched despite their records. I have a few friends who played at Washington. They are all telling me to pick Oregon State, so I'll do the opposite. I'm going with the Huskies. Jac is trying to trick me in some way here, so I hope I don't fall for this one.

Schooler’s Pick
No. 6 Florida State (8-1) at No. 10 Cal Poly (4-2), 7 p.m. PT, Friday
SCHOOLER: I think “shell-shocked” is the way that Cal Poly coach Marc Lea put it. That was in reference to the Mustangs’ triple-overtime loss to the Gators last Friday night. After the game winning goal, the Florida team decided to celebrate its victory by gathering the whole team and coaching staff and doing the Gator chomp in front of all the Cal Poly fans.

Let's just say that the Mustang fans will not be as nice to a Florida team this time around. SLO is the only place that I have seen a female fan make a grown man cry. He must have been very self-conscious about his chicken legs. The eleventh man really comes into play at Cal Poly, so the truculent (it was the word of the day on my calendar) Mustangs will keep this close and sneak away with a victory.

COYNE: This will be the first time Florida State has played in front of a rowdy crowd, right? Californians think they invented lacrosse heckling, but I'm pretty sure the 'Noles will be able to handle it. And maybe they'll even dish out a Tomahawk Chop after they win, 14-11.

Previous Schooling Schoolers
Weekend of Feb. 13
Weekend of Feb. 20
Weekend of Feb. 27
Weekend of March 3