Some Thoughts on our tourney draw

[JeremyCuse]

It's already been noted multiple times but again Syracuse clearly was under-seeded by this tourney committee, Marquette and Loyola ahead of SU is laughable but at this point it is what it is.

From an SU standpoint I think the actual opponents we drew were fairy favorable. SU knows Albany like the back of its hand and I think they may matchup very well. Not saying Albany couldn't win because they absolutely could but it's hard to see where SU isn't stronger in most areas save for goalie. As far as Maryland they are an excellent team and the #1 seed for a reason but in a choice between Denver, ND and them I am probably taking Maryland slightly over ND, (no desire to see Denver). Not going to get to much into Maryland as I don't want a repeat of 2014 on Sunday but that would be a very interesting game.

As for the Albany game a few quick points that I will expand on later in the week.

Riordan is Albany's best player by far and a dame good goalie. His history against SU however, is not great. He was part of that win as a Frosh against us but he has been peppered badly by SU the 3 games since that time and especially the last two years where SU scored in the high double digits fairly easily. If the game is close late or god forbid SU somehow lost I would put my money on it being due to Riordan standing on his head and giving SU a ton of trouble. If he isn't on his game it's hard to see Albany winning. He will probably need upwards of 15+ saves if Albany is going to have a shot.

From Syracuse's perspective there's a lot of potential advantages at least on paper. The biggest one obviously being at the faceoff X. Albany's true frosh faceoff guy Ornstein showed some flashes against Williams after he got Ambushed in the first half and is a big kid with some skill. He actually had a few dominant performances the last few weeks and holds the #1 and 2 spots for most wins in a game 25 and 26 respectively, in Div 1. The problem for Albany is that he did that against poor faceoff guys and teams who had no answer. Last Thursday against Harford and their top end faceoff guy Ornstein and Albany was annhiliated as Hartford won 20-24 with Ornstein going 0-4 and last years starter Connor Russel back from injury going 1-5. The guy who took the most faceoffs Troy Reh was 3-13 and I believe he is the third option guy on the depth chart. Albany is likely to try and throw each guy at Williams and hope they can catch lightning in a bottle and or wear Ben down over the course of a game. It's not hard to think that Ben will be at least be at 60% when the guy from Hartford was just at 83%. Give Albany credit though despite that huge disparity they only lost by 1 in OT so they will be prepared for a big discrepancy at the X.

Defensively for Syracuse I think the matchups from the first matchup will probably be the same. Mellen on Fields, Mullins on Reh, McDermott on Oakes, and Firman on Maloney. Albany is going to need its midfield to really have a productive game as Mellen and Mullins were all over Fields and Reh in the first game and while Fields will likely breakthrough for a few goals this time It's difficult to see either Reh or Fields having a monster game. Albany's other problem is that Oakes has struggled against SU the last few years as he is pure finisher at this point and his lack of ability to dodge or create his own shot is the type of player McDermott covers best. Again not saying Albany can't surprise and have a good offensive game but again I think SU matches up extremely well. Will get into it more in my preview but I do see one potential issue for SU in this game that involves Molloy and a let down game.

Offensively for SU there are a lot of positives which I will touch on in my preview so let me look at it the other way here. Biggest concern in this game from an offensive standpoint for the Orange is depth scoring, Evans, and Dejoe. I list depth of scoring because outside of the top 6 its hard to know from game to game if SU will get anything from the second or third mid line. Obviously the second and third mid lines had a field day against Colgate but will that translate into confidence for the rest of the season or do the two back up lines revert back to their struggles? Its' going to be critical that SU get some scoring form outside the top 6 especially if they advance past Albany. If I was Desko I would scrap the third line and use a second line that rotates in Westin, Lane, Carlin, Piroli and whosever practicing better between Simmons and McKinney both of whom have been underwhelming the past month. Would love to see Piroli get some run on the second mid line, really could open things up as he is as close to 100% as he has been since the Siena game.

I will leave the other two listed for the actual preview but again it comes down to consistency, SU is going to need one of Evans and Dejoe to bring some scoring in the tourney, if both of them are off and or Evans is really struggling this offense could start to struggle like we saw for large stretches in the middle of the season.

Will get more in depth on each issue later in the week.

 

[JoshT]

**Full disclosure, I am a UAlbany lacrosse fan (but SU football season ticket holder) and will be for the first time in my life wearing opposing teams colors into the Dome**

The faceoff situation is going to be what ends Albany's run prematurely this year. We have no answer to any team with a successful face off specialist. You brought up the Hartford game - it was brutal to watch. While UA made it go to OT, the fact is that if SU won 80%+ of faceoffs against UA that day the game would have been over by the 3rd quarter.

My hope is that Blaze plays lights out but I think he is going to be facing too much offense due to the X disparity and Albany will be going home early, which is a disappointment after the past few years. Syracuse getting under seeded has hurt UA most of all.

 

[ThruWayWest]

One factor to consider is the amount of Albany fans who will make it into the Dome. It always feels like our crowd is kind of complacent for the first round games in the Dome. Perhaps because it is a Sunday night after graduation and it is really out of our control. Fans always seem to come out for Albany which is encouraging. Last year we played on a week night in the regular season and there was a big crowd. I am hopeful that there will be more in attendance. Colgate was kind of a weak crowd...i guess most assumed that we would roll and we did.

 

[JeremyCuse]

One factor to consider is the amount of Albany fans who will make it into the Dome. It always feels like our crowd is kind of complacent for the first round games in the Dome. Perhaps because it is a Sunday night after graduation and it is really out of our control. Fans always seem to come out for Albany which is encouraging. Last year we played on a week night in the regular season and there was a big crowd. I am hopeful that there will be more in attendance. Colgate was kind of a weak crowd...i guess most assumed that we would roll and we did.

With the Thompson brothers finally gone the overall Albany crowd size should be down from what it has been the last few years or would have been if Lyle was still on the team for this type of game. If I remember correctly from the first matchup in Feb Albany brought in a decent sized crowd but nothing outrageous or out of the norm for a school that close. I don't think the crowd will play a big role either way to be honest.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

If I remember correctly from the first matchup in Feb Albany brought in a decent sized crowd but nothing outrageous or out of the norm for a school that close. I don't think the crowd will play a big role either way to be honest.

4,388.

There were 2,555 for Marist last year, and 2,139 for Bryant the year before.

Sunday Nights are for diehards only. The rest watch on TV.

 

[JeremyCuse]

4,388.

There were 2,555 for Marist last year, and 2,139 for Bryant the year before.

Sunday Nights are for diehards only. The rest watch on TV.

Agreed and to be honest after the Army and Albany upsets (of which I attended both in person) I am leaning toward keeping my but at home as well. Walking out of that dome after an upset loss was hard enough once, I'd rather not a risk third time even though I like SU to win Sunday by a decent margin.

 

[ThruWayWest]

Agreed and to be honest after the Army and Albany upsets (of which I attended both in person) I am leaning toward keeping my but at home as well. Walking out of that dome after an upset loss was hard enough once, I'd rather not a risk third time even though I like SU to win Sunday by a decent margin.

A few years ago, I missed the Bryant game because I thought it was a guaranteed win. Felt like my absence was a factor in the loss so I went to Marist. Will be at Albany. This is my third year living in the area so fortunately I missed some of the other debacles in person.

Maybe the original Albany game felt like it had a larger crowd because it was in February. ND had the largest crowd of the year and we know what happened. Maybe there is no correlation after all.

 

[laxsummit]

It's already been noted multiple times but again Syracuse clearly was under-seeded by this tourney committee, Marquette and Loyola ahead of SU is laughable but at this point it is what it is.

From an SU standpoint I think the actual opponents we drew were fairy favorable. SU knows Albany like the back of its hand and I think they may matchup very well. Not saying Albany couldn't win because they absolutely could but it's hard to see where SU isn't stronger in most areas save for goalie. As far as Maryland they are an excellent team and the #1 seed for a reason but in a choice between Denver, ND and them I am probably taking Maryland slightly over ND, (no desire to see Denver). Not going to get to much into Maryland as I don't want a repeat of 2014 on Sunday but that would be a very interesting game.

As for the Albany game a few quick points that I will expand on later in the week.

Riordan is Albany's best player by far and a dame good goalie. His history against SU however, is not great. He was part of that win as a Frosh against us but he has been peppered badly by SU the 3 games since that time and especially the last two years where SU scored in the high double digits fairly easily. If the game is close late or god forbid SU somehow lost I would put my money on it being due to Riordan standing on his head and giving SU a ton of trouble. If he isn't on his game it's hard to see Albany winning. He will probably need upwards of 15+ saves if Albany is going to have a shot.

From Syracuse's perspective there's a lot of potential advantages at least on paper. The biggest one obviously being at the faceoff X. Albany's true frosh faceoff guy Ornstein showed some flashes against Williams after he got Ambushed in the first half and is a big kid with some skill. He actually had a few dominant performances the last few weeks and holds the #1 and 2 spots for most wins in a game 25 and 26 respectively, in Div 1. The problem for Albany is that he did that against poor faceoff guys and teams who had no answer. Last Thursday against Harford and their top end faceoff guy Ornstein and Albany was annhiliated as Hartford won 20-24 with Ornstein going 0-4 and last years starter Connor Russel back from injury going 1-5. The guy who took the most faceoffs Troy Reh was 3-13 and I believe he is the third option guy on the depth chart. Albany is likely to try and throw each guy at Williams and hope they can catch lightning in a bottle and or wear Ben down over the course of a game. It's not hard to think that Ben will be at least be at 60% when the guy from Hartford was just at 83%. Give Albany credit though despite that huge disparity they only lost by 1 in OT so they will be prepared for a big discrepancy at the X.

Defensively for Syracuse I think the matchups from the first matchup will probably be the same. Mellen on Fields, Mullins on Reh, McDermott on Oakes, and Firman on Maloney. Albany is going to need its midfield to really have a productive game as Mellen and Mullins were all over Fields and Reh in the first game and while Fields will likely breakthrough for a few goals this time It's difficult to see either Reh or Fields having a monster game. Albany's other problem is that Oakes has struggled against SU the last few years as he is pure finisher at this point and his lack of ability to dodge or create his own shot is the type of player McDermott covers best. Again not saying Albany can't surprise and have a good offensive game but again I think SU matches up extremely well. Will get into it more in my preview but I do see one potential issue for SU in this game that involves Molloy and a let down game.

Offensively for SU there are a lot of positives which I will touch on in my preview so let me look at it the other way here. Biggest concern in this game from an offensive standpoint for the Orange is depth scoring, Evans, and Dejoe. I list depth of scoring because outside of the top 6 its hard to know from game to game if SU will get anything from the second or third mid line. Obviously the second and third mid lines had a field day against Colgate but will that translate into confidence for the rest of the season or do the two back up lines revert back to their struggles? Its' going to be critical that SU get some scoring form outside the top 6 especially if they advance past Albany. If I was Desko I would scrap the third line and use a second line that rotates in Westin, Lane, Carlin, Piroli and whosever practicing better between Simmons and McKinney both of whom have been underwhelming the past month. Would love to see Piroli get some run on the second mid line, really could open things up as he is as close to 100% as he has been since the Siena game.

I will leave the other two listed for the actual preview but again it comes down to consistency, SU is going to need one of Evans and Dejoe to bring some scoring in the tourney, if both of them are off and or Evans is really struggling this offense could start to struggle like we saw for large stretches in the middle of the season.

Will get more in depth on each issue later in the week.

Thx for great preview. Like what I read and hope to read your preview of a Maryland matchup. Off topic but Colgate really fell hard this year. My guess would be they graduated their leads and the lower classes were not all that.

 

[jr4750]

good preview Jeremy. The two things you wrote that I agree with the most and worry me the most are

• Molloy's inexperience catching up. He's been awesome, but can he continue it through MDW? If we get down a few, can he make a few big stops to fire us up?
• Evans going back to his early season, "I need to do this myself form." Think given the relative inexperience in our midfield and attack, in their post season resumes, if they are tight early, and we get down a few, will most of the younger guys defer, and force Dylan or JE to try and do it themselves. Even Mariano has never played in a post season before. Our top scorers just haven't been in position to make a big play with the season on the line. That inexperience definitely comes into play in May. We saw how that hurt us in some games this year as well. Dylan will be hounded late in the 4th and in any potential OT game. Someone else may have to make something out of nothing. Who will it be?

 

[RoysRunts]

My Biggest concern is Graduation Day and it's effect (As always when this game is played) 1st round in the dome..