JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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First off nice job by the Marist AD the feed for the game was pretty good and except for one issue it worked great the entire time I was watching. I also liked the set up of Marist's stadium as they had like a hill/burm that people could sit and watch the game on the far sidelines, seemed like a nice place to watch a game. Overall I was impressed with Marist, very free flowing offensively and the exact opposite of the Byrant stall as long as we can bore you to death offense. Here are some general thoughts I took from the game.
Kudos the Marist defense for only giving up 6 goals but my god is Bryant's offense a trainwreck. I know Pressler is a great coach but I have no idea what kind of offense he is trying to run there. Bryant's entire strategy appeared to be to pass it around and isolation dodge to nowhere until right before the officials appeared ready to put the timer on and then rip a shot from 15-18 yards. The fact that Bryant somehow got 6 goals is a small miracle. I dont know what Pressler's long term plans are but if he has any visions of Bryant ever truly competing ala Albany he needs to do something about that terrible offensive system they have. A bad first quarter basically cost them the game which is mindboggling to me especially when your talking about how quick teams can usually score at the Div 1 level. Trying to white knuckle every game to an 8-7 or 9-8 score isnt a strategy thats going to work against the upper echelon of Div 1 on any sort of consistent basis.
Again not to take anything away from Marists defense but its hard to get a read on how good they are watching this game because not only is Bryant's offense more of a slow down tempo then Maryland they somehow can' t hold onto the ball at all. Bryant had 19 turnovers last night 75% of which were unforced. It was ridicoulous some of the turnovers they had last night. Simple passes were dropped, missed, thrown into the stands etc it was embarrassing. Marist on the other hand only had 7 turnovers. They looked to me to be playing a lot of zone against Bryant which was a good call with Bryant's offensive woes. Marists Goalie Scarcello had 14 stops and looked pretty good. He did seem to struggle with shots on the run/dodge that were placed high, Perhaps a good sign for Lecky.
Offensively Marist has several players putting up big numbers. There offense appears to be mostly generated from the attack as the three leading scorers are all attackmen. They do have two midfielders who are within 1 and 2 goals of the third leading scorrer but Radin and Recor appear to be the main options with Recor being the main assist man.
The biggest thing I took away from watching the second half ( I didn't see the first half) was that Bryant's inability to generate any sort of offensive cost them the game. Marist led 5-2 after the 1st quarter and then scored 5 goals the rest of the game, 3 in the entire second half as the game was 7-2 at half. Faceoff situation was eerily similar Marist was 5-8 in the 1st quarter and then went 2-12 the remainder of the game. Bryant was also 0-5 on the man up which again seemed to have a lot to do with Bryant showing zero sense of urgency and simply throwing the ball around the perimeter. I watched Bryant have two one minute man ups and not take a shot. Kudos to Marist for their man down defense but when a team is leisurely passing it around its not hard to defend.
From a Syracuse perspective I think getting Marist over Bryant is still plus despite Byrant's offense being pretty poor. The Marist/Bryant game was basically won in the first quarter and Marist just played out the string for the remaineder of the game. Bryant pretty much outplayed them from the second quarter on in every statistic besides turnovers. Massa dominating for 3 quarters tells me that Williams should be in a for a big game, not as dominant as Colgate but certainly 60% or better. Marist also hasn't played anyone near Syracuse's level this year, the closest team would probably be Brown, a team they lost to by one goal 16-15. Marist has some nice players but I think much like the virgina and duke games earlier this year Syracuse can ambush them early. You get the feeling that playing the Dome, national tv, the crowd etc may have them a bit shell shocked to start. Assuming SU doesn't come out flat now that they dont get the rematch with Bryant I wouldnt be surprised if SU went on a little bit of a run early.
I will have some additional thoughts in my preview that should be out by Saturday morning but I think with Marist playing an uptempo style this is a much better style game for SU to play then Bryant's slow down offense and mix and match zone defense.
Kudos the Marist defense for only giving up 6 goals but my god is Bryant's offense a trainwreck. I know Pressler is a great coach but I have no idea what kind of offense he is trying to run there. Bryant's entire strategy appeared to be to pass it around and isolation dodge to nowhere until right before the officials appeared ready to put the timer on and then rip a shot from 15-18 yards. The fact that Bryant somehow got 6 goals is a small miracle. I dont know what Pressler's long term plans are but if he has any visions of Bryant ever truly competing ala Albany he needs to do something about that terrible offensive system they have. A bad first quarter basically cost them the game which is mindboggling to me especially when your talking about how quick teams can usually score at the Div 1 level. Trying to white knuckle every game to an 8-7 or 9-8 score isnt a strategy thats going to work against the upper echelon of Div 1 on any sort of consistent basis.
Again not to take anything away from Marists defense but its hard to get a read on how good they are watching this game because not only is Bryant's offense more of a slow down tempo then Maryland they somehow can' t hold onto the ball at all. Bryant had 19 turnovers last night 75% of which were unforced. It was ridicoulous some of the turnovers they had last night. Simple passes were dropped, missed, thrown into the stands etc it was embarrassing. Marist on the other hand only had 7 turnovers. They looked to me to be playing a lot of zone against Bryant which was a good call with Bryant's offensive woes. Marists Goalie Scarcello had 14 stops and looked pretty good. He did seem to struggle with shots on the run/dodge that were placed high, Perhaps a good sign for Lecky.
Offensively Marist has several players putting up big numbers. There offense appears to be mostly generated from the attack as the three leading scorers are all attackmen. They do have two midfielders who are within 1 and 2 goals of the third leading scorrer but Radin and Recor appear to be the main options with Recor being the main assist man.
The biggest thing I took away from watching the second half ( I didn't see the first half) was that Bryant's inability to generate any sort of offensive cost them the game. Marist led 5-2 after the 1st quarter and then scored 5 goals the rest of the game, 3 in the entire second half as the game was 7-2 at half. Faceoff situation was eerily similar Marist was 5-8 in the 1st quarter and then went 2-12 the remainder of the game. Bryant was also 0-5 on the man up which again seemed to have a lot to do with Bryant showing zero sense of urgency and simply throwing the ball around the perimeter. I watched Bryant have two one minute man ups and not take a shot. Kudos to Marist for their man down defense but when a team is leisurely passing it around its not hard to defend.
From a Syracuse perspective I think getting Marist over Bryant is still plus despite Byrant's offense being pretty poor. The Marist/Bryant game was basically won in the first quarter and Marist just played out the string for the remaineder of the game. Bryant pretty much outplayed them from the second quarter on in every statistic besides turnovers. Massa dominating for 3 quarters tells me that Williams should be in a for a big game, not as dominant as Colgate but certainly 60% or better. Marist also hasn't played anyone near Syracuse's level this year, the closest team would probably be Brown, a team they lost to by one goal 16-15. Marist has some nice players but I think much like the virgina and duke games earlier this year Syracuse can ambush them early. You get the feeling that playing the Dome, national tv, the crowd etc may have them a bit shell shocked to start. Assuming SU doesn't come out flat now that they dont get the rematch with Bryant I wouldnt be surprised if SU went on a little bit of a run early.
I will have some additional thoughts in my preview that should be out by Saturday morning but I think with Marist playing an uptempo style this is a much better style game for SU to play then Bryant's slow down offense and mix and match zone defense.
