IL Face-Off Yearbook Preseason Poll

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

The Syracuse men's lacrosse team is ranked ninth in the 2018 Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook to begin the season.

'Cuse checks in as the third-ranked team in the ACC, behind No. 1 Duke and No. 5 Notre Dame. Syracuse will begin the year with a squad that returns 17 players who saw action in 10-or-more games last season, including six players from its top of the depth chart last year.

The full preseason poll is available here: Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Yearbook.

Orange Rank 9th in IL Preseason Poll

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[CreaseRat]

I dont get the love for Notre Dame. I see them taking a big step backwards this year. The loss of Doss, Epple, and Perkovic will lead to question marks at goalie, shut down pole and midfield threat. The attack will be good with Garnsey and Wynne.

I see them finishing 4th or 5th in the ACC

 

[ohmilax34]

I dont get the love for Notre Dame. I see them taking a big step backwards this year. The loss of Doss, Epple, and Perkovic will lead to question marks at goalie, shut down pole and midfield threat. The attack will be good with Garnsey and Wynne.

I see them finishing 4th or 5th in the ACC

I disagree. I think they have plenty of midfield talent and Perkovic seemed overrated. I think they will plug in defensemen and a goalie pretty easily, because they seem to recruit and develop those guys well. John Sexton is a returning 1st team AA. Improving at face offs seems like an important challenge for them.

 

[SkyTopBus44]

I disagree. I think they have plenty of midfield talent and Perkovic seemed overrated. I think they will plug in defensemen and a goalie pretty easily, because they seem to recruit and develop those guys well. John s e xton is a returning 1st team AA. Improving at face offs seems like an important challenge for them.

Sergio Perkovic

• Three-Time First Team USILA All-American (2015, 2016, 2017)
• Three-Time All-ACC selection (2015, 2016, 2017)
• Finished career ranked sixth in program history for career goals (111) and 12th in points (134)
  
• Most goals scored by a midfielder in Notre Dame history

Overrrated? Maybe as a passer but hard to argue with his scoring.

 

[Zack80]

Sergio Perkovic

• Three-Time First Team USILA All-American (2015, 2016, 2017)
• Three-Time All-ACC selection (2015, 2016, 2017)
• Finished career ranked sixth in program history for career goals (111) and 12th in points (134)
  
• Most goals scored by a midfielder in Notre Dame history

Overrrated? Maybe as a passer but hard to argue with his scoring.

In the end, ND is only replacing what Perkovic did last season:
Perkovic had 23g, 9a, 32 pts in 14 games last Spring, which are very good numbers, especially considering ND's slow style of play.
Notre Dame is returning 5 of their top 6 scorers: Garnsey, Wynne, Gleason, Collins, and Costabile, and meanwhile brings in 2 highly ranked recruits: Conor Morin and Michael Drake. What if one of those two freshmen is an impact freshman, he could perhaps match Perkovic's numbers.

 

[JeremyCuse]

In the end, ND is only replacing what Perkovic did last season:
Perkovic had 23g, 9a, 32 pts in 14 games last Spring, which are very good numbers, especially considering ND's slow style of play.
Notre Dame is returning 5 of their top 6 scorers: Garnsey, Wynne, Gleason, Collins, and Costabile, and meanwhile brings in 2 highly ranked recruits: Conor Morin and Michael Drake. What if one of those two freshmen is an impact freshman, he could perhaps match Perkovic's numbers.

Perkovic ran hot and cold his last two seasons at ND some of which was added attention from all of the hype and some of it was he simply struggled at times especially with accuracy. ND's problem is likely to be that with Perkovic gone teams are going to spend extra attention on the attack especially Garnsey as Wynne is more of an inside finisher (though a dame good one).

The bigger concern for ND is the loss of Epple, Doss and I believe another defender as well. Plus there are still major concerns about their faceoff guy though they do a really good job in mucking it up and utilizing their wings. This years ND team looks a lot like the last 5 or 6, plenty good enough to make a deep tourney run but they have some significant D question marks they usually don't have (SSDM seems solid) and to me theres definitely some ? marks on offense at especially at the midfield.

 

[ohmilax34]

Perkovic sometimes stayed at attack, at least during his junior year. I don't think his shooting percentage was good.

 

[CreaseRat]

Perkovic sometimes stayed at attack, at least during his junior year. I don't think his shooting percentage was good.

If you don’t think Perkovic’s presence on the field allowed others to take advantage of matchups, you shouldn’t be watching the game. It doesn’t matter that his numbers were down last year, he was their #1 option. Taking him off the field puts pressure on other guys to step up and I just don’t see it happening and certainly don’t think they’ll be in the top 5 after the middle of March when conference play starts


Do you think Salcido is overrated based on his numbers and shooting percentage last year?

 

[Zack80]

If you don’t think Perkovic’s presence on the field allowed others to take advantage of matchups, you shouldn’t be watching the game. It doesn’t matter that his numbers were down last year, he was their #1 option. Taking him off the field puts pressure on other guys to step up and I just don’t see it happening and certainly don’t think they’ll be in the top 5 after the middle of March when conference play starts

I have been following the game for a number of years, and it usually seems that when a top team loses just one starter to graduation on the offense, unless perhaps he was a great player, their offense usually improves. 5 of ND's top 6 scorers will return and they have another year of experience under their belts along with being used to each other's game. I believe 3 of those top 5 were underclassmen last year, with Costabile being a freshman. Further a top team like ND usually has some guys waiting their turn on the bench, and then you add in the 2 top 20 recruits I mention above. All in all, I think ND's offense probably should be better this Spring.

I think replacing Doss in goal along with Epple is the bigger problem for ND.