UNC Fires Lacrosse Coach Who Lost In NCAA Tournament

Haus, 46, compiled a 58-52 record in his eight years at UNC following two as head coach of Johns Hopkins, which went to the NCAA semifinals both seasons.”Obviously, we’re not at the level we would like to be,” UNC athletic director Dick Baddour said Tuesday. At the same time, Baddour made it clear that the Tar Heels should be competing for the national championship.

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37 Responses to UNC Fires Lacrosse Coach Who Lost In NCAA Tournament

  1. MattN 05/29/2008 at 10:01 AM #

    UNC at it’s best could be no better than Duke and John Hopkins on a day-to-day basis.

    Signed
    Lee Fowler

  2. whitefang 05/29/2008 at 10:07 AM #

    Noah,
    Lacrosse is just a few years old as a HS sport in my area of western NC, but is really big in parts of Virginia at the HS level if you call that the south. The one and only lacrosse game I have attended was this years UVa-Duke game at Virginia. A friend there bought tics and invited us up. It was totally sold out with standing room only in a pretty decent sized stadium. In fact I know so little about lacrosse and could not get in the stands or any nearer the field in the SRO area than 5 or 6 back, that we stayed for all of 5 minutes before going back to the tailgate for more beverage. Had 2 extra tickets that we sold on the way out to a couple out of a large begging crowd.
    I was frankly shocked.

  3. packpigskinfan23 05/29/2008 at 12:13 PM #

    Noah, the #1 team in the country for the past 4 years(minus one in the middle due to an over-zealous DA) has been from Durham. Isn’t that the South?

    WhiteFang- I was in that “large begging crowd” for a bit of time and was lucky enough to get a ticket. I didnt go to pull for a team… I went to for the love of a sport that is not available where I am. I really wish it was. I really want to play and NCSU’s club team, but working at UPS kills all social life.

    Sorry for taking the thread off topic- but I completely see why UNC made this move. They have MULTIPLE Championships in Lacrosse. Their coach has not been able to bring them back to that level, and they feel they should be there.

    My only question is why havent we heard the media rip UNC about firing a coach that gets them to the Tourney, and how they cant possible compete with UVA and Duke?!

  4. Noah 05/29/2008 at 1:10 PM #

    Noah, the #1 team in the country for the past 4 years(minus one in the middle due to an over-zealous DA) has been from Durham. Isn’t that the South?

    Is Dook in the south? Umm…no. Ever been to Dook? It’s South South Jersey.

  5. packpigskinfan23 05/29/2008 at 1:24 PM #

    muahaha. point taken.

  6. choppack1 05/29/2008 at 2:28 PM #

    Regarding this decision – I figured that this would be an issue when I saw it in the WS Journal the other day. If you are a sports fan who follows our situation and other schools, the message is impossible to ignore.

    One thing we shouldn’t forget is that there could be other underlying issues which facilitated this decision too. For example, Iowa State and Cincy didn’t dump their most successful recent coaches for what happened on the court. I’m not saying that this happened here – only that there are lots of other factors that could force an ADs hand.

    As far as lacrosse -looks like an interesting and physical game. It’s huge in the NE and getting bigger in the Carolinas. However, and I’m sure folks will take it the wrong way – I kind of look at it like I look at soccer for a lot of folks – it’s very popular because it’s a sport a kid from a certain demographic who is not really tall, fast and has great leaping ability can play – and end up playing at a much higher level. (This doesn’t mean that the kid can be out of shape – to play at a higher level he can’t be. It just means that if the kid is in good shape, he has a better shot at playing this sport in high school and even college if he sticks to it.)

  7. Wulfpack 05/29/2008 at 3:12 PM #

    You must be extremely fast to play lacrosse, especially as a middie. The amount of running in that game is insane. Lacrosse is going to be extremely popular in the Carolinas in another 10 years. It has already grown at a very fast rate.

    Don’t go telling ‘Cuse lacrosse is a lower level divison I sport.

  8. goalielax 05/30/2008 at 3:13 AM #

    yeah, those non-athletes that play lacrosse

    like, um, Jim Brown…yes that Jim Brown…he once said “I’d rather play lacrosse six days a week and football on the seventh.”

    Anyway, when I was coming up in NC, lacrosse was in about a dozen and a half schools. I played on a HS club team in Greensboro and got recruited to play in college. There are now 76 high school boy’s lacrosse teams in North Carolina, 46 in Georgia, 121 in Florida, 25 in South Carolina, and so on. Oh, and California has almost 200 HS teams. All said and done, there are nearly 3000 high schools with full-fledged varsity programs on the boy’s side nationwide. I guess my point is that Lax hasn’t been a NE prep school sport for a while now.

    Northwestern Women’s Lax won the NCAA title again this year.

    Ohio State and Denver both made the NCAA tourney on the Men’s side.

  9. BLUE SUCKS 05/30/2008 at 8:12 AM #

    War the day when STATE too fires our “s-t-r-u-g-g-l-i-n-g” coaches who lose in the NCAA Tournament!

  10. choppack1 05/30/2008 at 9:32 AM #

    Wolfpack or goalie – where did I say that you didn’t have to be a good athlete. As a matter of fact, I even mentioned that you had to be in good shape.

    However, when you play a sport only a certain % of the population plays, well, your chances are much better at succeeding in that sport than if a much higher % played it.

  11. Wulfpack 05/30/2008 at 10:42 AM #

    ^”…it’s very popular because it’s a sport a kid from a certain demographic who is not really tall, fast and has great leaping ability can play – and end up playing at a much higher level.”

    Chop, kind of sounds like you are saying you don’t have to be a great athlete to play lax. And what kind of demographic are you implying? It is a game that is being played everywhere nowadays, just as you can grow up playing ice hockey in Raleigh.

    There are much fewer college lacrosse programs out there, so a high school lacrosse player’s chances are limited at the next level. You must be exceptional to play D-1 lacrosse, just as you must be exceptional to play D-1 football or basketball. It works both ways…

  12. packpigskinfan23 05/30/2008 at 12:08 PM #

    I think Wulfpack’s got you on that one choppack. Have you ever seen these guys who play lax? Most look like the could be nasty CB’s, WR’s, or even LBers! They are athletic freaks with the likes of hockey players, soccer defenders, and many of the skilled positions in football. I believe it was John Hopkins attacker who was being pressured persistently by their football coach to come in as QB, but decided to just stick to lax. Sure they aren’t a Div I program, but I am sure he could compete for a job at a lower level Div I school just the same…

    hmmm… maybe we need to give him a call?!

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