So is Albany really good or Virginia not a top 5 team?

[Alsacs]

Huge win for the Orange NCAA resume.
My question is really does today basically show how good Albany actually is or is Virginia a tad overrated.
Or maybe it’s a mix of both.

I think Albany is just that good and the beat down they put on us was legit.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Huge win for the Orange NCAA resume.
My question is really does today basically show how good Albany actually is or is Virginia a tad overrated.
Or maybe it’s a mix of both.

I think Albany is just that good and the beat down they put on us was legit.

Albany has top 2 faceoff guy, when you have the ball for under 10 minutes through 3 quarters including a minute and a half in the third your going to get run most games unless your causing a boatload of turnovers or playing a garbage team. Albany is legit, Cornells goalie and D played outstanding today and even they couldn't overcome such a huge disparity at the X.

 

[creatorsgam]

Hard to tell the first week of March.

Like the fight game, styles can make matchups.

Albany is legit. UVA may be as well, just may line up better vs. them.

 

[SkyTopBus44]

In our Albany game there were so many shots that hit the pipe. A few of those go in we have a big of momentum. Who knows? Final score might have been closer. That said I agree with all that the face off discrepancy really crushed us.

 

[wvlax]

With all due respect I don't think Virginia is top 5 team.May not even be in the top 15. I think the Albany game was somewhat of a fluke. I believe their better than Cuse but the Cornell game proved their a little vulnerable. Turnovers, poor shot selection, and a hot goalie can negate a healthy face-off advantage. BTW Albany plays at Maryland this weekend in what could be the "game" of the year.

 

[Purple Haze]

With all due respect I don't think Virginia is top 5 team.May not even be in the top 15. I think the Albany game was somewhat of a fluke. I believe their better than Cuse but the Cornell game proved their a little vulnerable.BTW Albany plays at Maryland this weekend in what could be the "game" of the year.

I wouldn't say it was a fluke - watched it online this morning. Cornell had a great game plan and the interior defensive personnel to pull it off. Shut off TN for most of the game - in the odd moments he did get the ball they would double early and make him give it up. Then had the Pulver kid (brother played at Syracuse) man up against Fields and he did a fantastic job controlling him. Made Albany win the game from the midfield. It did look brutally cold which no doubt impacted the play and Albany looked especially sloppy - much like Cuse did against them. The obvious difference maker is TD Ierlan - kid is dominant. Packed on some muscle from last year but looks every bit as quick. The other kid I am really impressed with is Sean Eccles (Corcoran) - kid starting to remind me of Salcido (under sized but a great shooter).

Guessing Albany is going to struggle against Maryland - Tillman is such a good coach. He'll find a way to neutralize TD and they have the better matchups at the midfield. Should be a fun game.

As for Virginia - don't discount this win. They are young, but very well coached and have a lot of talent - maybe not #5 but they are a top 12 team. This was a huge win for Cuse with JH (better than their #18 ranking) and Duke (a legit top 5 team) looming.

 

[Newhouser]

I wouldn't say it was a fluke - watched it online this morning. Cornell had a great game plan and the interior defensive personnel to pull it off. Shut off TN for most of the game - in the odd moments he did get the ball they would double early and make him give it up. Then had the Pulver kid (brother played at Syracuse) man up against Fields and he did a fantastic job controlling him. Made Albany win the game from the midfield. It did look brutally cold which no doubt impacted the play and Albany looked especially sloppy - much like Cuse did against them. The obvious difference maker is TD Ierlan - kid is dominant. Packed on some muscle from last year but looks every bit as quick. The other kid I am really impressed with is Sean Eccles (Corcoran) - kid starting to remind me of Salcido (under sized but a great shooter).

Guessing Albany is going to struggle against Maryland - Tillman is such a good coach. He'll find a way to neutralize TD and they have the better matchups at the midfield. Should be a fun game.

As for Virginia - don't discount this win. They are young, but very well coached and have a lot of talent - maybe not #5 but they are a top 12 team. This was a huge win for Cuse with JH (better than their #18 ranking) and Duke (a legit top 5 team) looming.

why did Pulver choose Corrnell? His brother is on the roster here. I know he doesn't play but ...

 

[JeremyCuse]

With all due respect I don't think Virginia is top 5 team.May not even be in the top 15. I think the Albany game was somewhat of a fluke. I believe their better than Cuse but the Cornell game proved their a little vulnerable. Turnovers, poor shot selection, and a hot goalie can negate a healthy face-off advantage. BTW Albany plays at Maryland this weekend in what could be the "game" of the year.

Virginia losing Conrad in the 1st quarter was a massive blow. He is their glue guy. Plays O and D, man up, faceoff wing, etc. They have no one who can even come close to replacing him.

 

[JeremyCuse]

I wouldn't say it was a fluke - watched it online this morning. Cornell had a great game plan and the interior defensive personnel to pull it off. Shut off TN for most of the game - in the odd moments he did get the ball they would double early and make him give it up. Then had the Pulver kid (brother played at Syracuse) man up against Fields and he did a fantastic job controlling him. Made Albany win the game from the midfield. It did look brutally cold which no doubt impacted the play and Albany looked especially sloppy - much like Cuse did against them. The obvious difference maker is TD Ierlan - kid is dominant. Packed on some muscle from last year but looks every bit as quick. The other kid I am really impressed with is Sean Eccles (Corcoran) - kid starting to remind me of Salcido (under sized but a great shooter).

Guessing Albany is going to struggle against Maryland - Tillman is such a good coach. He'll find a way to neutralize TD and they have the better matchups at the midfield. Should be a fun game.

As for Virginia - don't discount this win. They are young, but very well coached and have a lot of talent - maybe not #5 but they are a top 12 team. This was a huge win for Cuse with JH (better than their #18 ranking) and Duke (a legit top 5 team) looming.

I thought Cornell did an excellent job defensively, just got let down by the enormous faceoff disparity, eventually Albany was going to break through. Eccles runs hot and cold, he buried those two shots late but he can also be wild so I think Cornell chose the lesser of two evils when they left him open and it burned them.

 

[Purple Haze]

why did Pulver choose Corrnell? His brother is on the roster here. I know he doesn't play but ...

My recollection is that the older Pulver was originally heading to Cortland but was a late recruit to Syracuse after having a great run in the high school playoffs (I believe FM went to the finals that year). I remember seeing I'm play against WG and he reminded me of Kevin Sheehan - just an absolute brute. But his style of play was never really a good fit for Syracuse (not really athletic enough). The younger brother was the more skilled of the two and I'm 99% sure he was offered by Syracuse. But he had a couple of Ivy offers and I would never blame a kid for taking that opportunity when presented.

 

[upperdeck]

How does any team almost beat the #1 winning 1 faceoff.. Thats just a crazy number to over come. Imagine if it was 40% Cornell probably wins by 4-5. And Cornell is not playing all that well and the X is killing them but you better keep the ball away or they will score.. One bad shot decision take, away from the upset.

 

[PhatOrange]

I think Albany is really good. Obviously their big test will be at Maryland but even if they lose they're still top 2. (Cornell played as good as they can play, they're trying to knock off #1. Albany was pretty poor and careless with the ball. I know Marr does not want to be the hunted and the vibe I got was players might be reading press clippings a bit too much.

I thought Syracuse was that bad. They're a whisker away from being 2-2 with their comeback escape over Army. But that was a great win. That last two games they've REALLY grown up. The UVA game was impressive UVA comeback not withstanding. On the road, Cuse was thoroughly dominating them. I think the game only got close because they took their foot off the gas and tried to get cute with some things like ill advised shots. (I understand Helmer's eyes were lighting up but you can' throw away clean 4v3 fastbreaks with crazy long pole shots from 15 yards out.) Anyhow, Syracuse's schedule doesn't let up but I'm pleasantly surprised at the last two games. youth movement.

 

[Orangelax]

How does any team almost beat the #1 winning 1 faceoff.. Thats just a crazy number to over come. Imagine if it was 40% Cornell probably wins by 4-5. And Cornell is not playing all that well and the X is killing them but you better keep the ball away or they will score.. One bad shot decision take, away from the upset.

Albany just got sloppy with Cornell. I agree with whoever said "they might be reading their own press clippings too much". Albany had 16 TO's against Cornell vs just 9 TO's against Cuse. The Cuse offense held the ball for less than 11 minutes over the first 3 quarters of offense combined. I'm not sure we would beat them today but I do believe the boys have grown up enough to give them a game.

 

[JeremyCuse]

I think Albany is really good. Obviously their big test will be at Maryland but even if they lose they're still top 2. (Cornell played as good as they can play, they're trying to knock off #1. Albany was pretty poor and careless with the ball. I know Marr does not want to be the hunted and the vibe I got was players might be reading press clippings a bit too much.

I thought Syracuse was that bad. They're a whisker away from being 2-2 with their comeback escape over Army. But that was a great win. That last two games they've REALLY grown up. The UVA game was impressive UVA comeback not withstanding. On the road, Cuse was thoroughly dominating them. I think the game only got close because they took their foot off the gas and tried to get cute with some things like ill advised shots. (I understand Helmer's eyes were lighting up but you can' throw away clean 4v3 fastbreaks with crazy long pole shots from 15 yards out.) Anyhow, Syracuse's schedule doesn't let up but I'm pleasantly surprised at the last two games. youth movement.

I agree with your post, SU got real sloppy in that 4th quarter You have the wrong player though on the fast break, Helmer is still out injured

 

[Orangelax]

I agree with your post, SU got real sloppy in that 4th quarter You have the wrong player though on the fast break, Helmer is still out injured

It was 10-5 and the momentum completely changed after Fusco threw the ball to the invisible man.

 

[JeremyCuse]

It was 10-5 and the momentum completely changed after Fusco threw the ball to the invisible man.

That was a horrific pass, should have been SU trying to clear up 10-5. Instead UVA got a goal in like 8 seconds. This team can't afford to make those type of mistakes with a work in progress offense.

 

[PhatOrange]

I agree with your post, SU got real sloppy in that 4th quarter You have the wrong player though on the fast break, Helmer is still out injured

you know what I meant. Whoever that pole was he wanted the hat trick but man that's a goal 99% of time if he gives it to the point man. Nonetheless, that was only 1 thing I picked out, I felt like with the lead they did some careless things (taking chances/bad shots) that you wouldn't do in a closer game. If they didn't get sloppy they win going away. learning tool.

 

[JeremyCuse]

you know what I meant. Whoever that pole was he wanted the hat trick but man that's a goal 99% of time if he gives it to the point man. Nonetheless, that was only 1 thing I picked out, I felt like with the lead they did some careless things (taking chances/bad shots) that you wouldn't do in a closer game. If they didn't get sloppy they win going away. learning tool.

No I did, just wanted to clarify. I think your talking about Kennedy, in all fairness I think he hit the post on that one. SU had several bad mistakes that cost them down the stretch as you pointed out. They gave up 2 goals on miscues within a minute after going up 5, that really hurt not only on the scoreboard but in the mood/momentum of the game. SU had some less then stellar offensive possessions after that as well. One of the third line middies (Romano) came in and took an ill advised shot as did Varello who won the draw clean on one of UVAs goals and came barreling down with a wide open net and missed the cage by a mile. The defense also started sliding like crazy to dodges from up top leaving D'Amario wide open twice. Dekso should have burned a timeout earlier to get everyone calmed down and re-set. Rehfuss got stoned on two looks late as well I believe including one where he got the ball all alone after a gb went awry from the guys fighting for it.

 

[laxsummit]

Disclaimer :did not see tape but gotta figure Cornell was up off solid win , had good game plan for Nanitoke and the hot goalie that day ( 19 saves) , Albany likely caught sleeping looking ahead to Maryland and their excellent goalie was uncharacteristically off. Cornell has a good offense when they have ball but the Albany team we saw emerged in last few minutes. Somewhat mute as lax world will find out soon enough how good Albany is with the Maryland game . Some bad remants linger from our loss to them but think it's clear we are a better team today than opening day and even the first half of Army game. Missing fall ball was downplayed but think it factored into slow start especially having a younger squad. UVA has loads of offensive talent, their "kids" last year scored 13 against us and they are year older and better n were further fortified by another good recruiting class and further along with Tiffany. Losing Conrad certainly hurt UVA but still plenty of Virginia talent on field so cant't downplay the effort on road. Cuse looked like the faster and more feisty team with the more organized offense. We obviously were unraveled some in the closing minutes but the final score distorts how well we played on both ends. Varello gets many fingers pointed when he struggles so should be given big thumbs up for his performance. He'll have another big challenge this week .Team still a work in progress but Quint may be right that Cuse flashes the potential to be a FF team in 19

 

[laxsummit]

you know what I meant. Whoever that pole was he wanted the hat trick but man that's a goal 99% of time if he gives it to the point man. Nonetheless, that was only 1 thing I picked out, I felt like with the lead they did some careless things (taking chances/bad shots) that you wouldn't do in a closer game. If they didn't get sloppy they win going away. learning tool.

Disagree,
he created space out of nothing for that wide open shot to be taken with a few seconds in qtr. He did the same on his two earlier goals where he saw opportunity , going past Aiken and then other defenders, I had no problem with the shot in question or the one he took that hit the post. Opponents will watch tape and now have to account for him which should open the field.

 

[PhatOrange]

Disagree,
he created space out of nothing for that wide open shot to be taken with a few seconds in qtr. He did the same on his two earlier goals where he saw opportunity , going past Aiken and then other defenders, I had no problem with the shot in question or the one he took that hit the post. Opponents will watch tape and now have to account for him which should open the field.

the one with a few seconds left in the quarter he should have passed it to the point man. that would've been a layup. i shrugged whatever because of the time but these are the little things.

i know poles want to shoot the ball and their eyes light up in that situation but unless they let him run right down the lane for a gimme i want the pole getting wide, drawing the slide and giving it up. you dont get too many traditional 4 v 3 fast breaks and you want to be scoring at 90% on those.

Maybe it wasn't as clean a fast break as I'm remembering 2 days later but I know at the time I felt the pole shouldve run the break and they missed an opportunity there.

 

[laxsummit]

the one with a few seconds left in the quarter he should have passed it to the point man. that would've been a layup. i shrugged whatever because of the time but these are the little things.

i know poles want to shoot the ball and their eyes light up in that situation but unless they let him run right down the lane for a gimme i want the pole getting wide, drawing the slide and giving it up. you dont get too many traditional 4 v 3 fast breaks and you want to be scoring at 90% on those.

Maybe it wasn't as clean a fast break as I'm remembering 2 days later but I know at the time I felt the pole shouldve run the break and they missed an opportunity there.

I was watching the game at the bar with a pro UVA crowd. Remember Kennedy picking up Aiken with about 20 secs to go in 3q, stonewalling his attempts to dodge from up top which led to an errant pass resulting in a ensuing fast break by us with seconds to go and a Virginia not collapsing until the last seconds with a shot that the goalie didn't see that just buzzed over. Maybe he could have passed at last second but dont think it increase our chances or had anything to do with self interest. We maintained possession n a pass into Kennedy was attempted at buzzer. The shot off pipe came on opening face-off of 4q. He attempted a pass to right wing that was tipped backwards, retrieved the gb and then blew right pass pole to hit post from about eight feet out. No way he shouldn't have taken that. We maintained possession and it was just twenty seconds into fourth with a comfortable lead. I loved the pace n pressure being applied by him and others and the Virginia continent was howling all game that someone needed to stick with him so there is the flip from the other side. Im a proponent of taking advantage when we have poles like Bomberry, Helmer, Fusco, Kennedy, DiPietro and Fernandez who like to push and last week I was yelling at TV when Kennedy bypassed a last second shot. Trimboli ws also got criticized last week for being aggressive but what I saw was a player trying to provide leadership to a team but simply having poor placement that is correctable. Perhaps too protective of our players but I also think this hoopla regarding Solomon is nonsense. We got a bunch of kids across the board competing despite some needed refinements that will come with more experience

 

[PhatOrange]

I was watching the game at the bar with a pro UVA crowd. Remember Kennedy picking up Aiken with about 20 secs to go in 3q, stonewalling his attempts to dodge from up top which led to an errant pass resulting in a ensuing fast break by us with seconds to go and a Virginia not collapsing until the last seconds with a shot that the goalie didn't see that just buzzed over. Maybe he could have passed at last second but dont think it increase our chances or had anything to do with self interest. We maintained possession n a pass into Kennedy was attempted at buzzer. The shot off pipe came on opening face-off of 4q. He attempted a pass to right wing that was tipped backwards, retrieved the gb and then blew right pass pole to hit post from about eight feet out. No way he shouldn't have taken that. We maintained possession and it was just twenty seconds into fourth with a comfortable lead. I loved the pace n pressure being applied by him and others and the Virginia continent was howling all game that someone needed to stick with him so there is the flip from the other side. Im a proponent of taking advantage when we have poles like Bomberry, Helmer, Fusco, Kennedy, DiPietro and Fernandez who like to push and last week I was yelling at TV when Kennedy bypassed a last second shot. Trimboli ws also got criticized last week for being aggressive but what I saw was a player trying to provide leadership to a team but simply having poor placement that is correctable. Perhaps too protective of our players but I also think this hoopla regarding Solomon is nonsense. We got a bunch of kids across the board competing despite some needed refinements that will come with more experience

Trimbo is fine, he just needs to recognize when to bounce a shot. Not showing he shoots hard enough to blow it by a goalie high so he needs to be creative. His shots are all shots for the taking though. Nothing forced.

Solomon; it is nonsense. I don't mind it at all and I love players who play like that. There's times to be humble and there's times to chirp and play with a chip on your shoulder. I don't like 'dirty' but I will never criticize lacrosse players for being aggressive and hitting hard. You don't want to draw a penalty, but getting in someones head, a little smack talk, face masks bumping, a little pushing and shoving, all part of the game I grew up with.