Powellfan
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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- Jul 16, 2014
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I thought it might be best if we stopped wallowing in the loathing of Friday night and move on to the next game. I know it may seem like the season is already over, but truth be told there are still 11 regular season games on the schedule. Syracuse does in fact have talent and they can still get their act together. I'll try and take a look at different facets of the team after one game and see how things can move forward against the Great Danes.
Defense - Certainly not a good showing, though there were some bright spots. A good amount of the early goals were scored on back up SSDMs (Murphy gave up at least two, Barlow another), and offensive middies. Bomberry no doubt had a very bad game, and on paper he matches up well with Nanticoke, but how can you trust him at this point? He remains an enigma to me after a very solid sophomore campaign (on the positive side he remains the teams' best groundball player by a wide margin). So who does cover Nanticoke? I don't know - Mellen played very well on the much larger Cleveland after being switched, but Nanticoke is much more physical. Bump Kennedy? I don't know but I think it's the biggest question of the game. Clearing the ball also was atrocious, which is bothersome because they had been practicing indoors all preseason - how does that happen? On the good side, I thought Porter played a very good game - didn't see the passing ability of Madonna or Galloway, but seemed composed and made big stops. Also the starting short stick duo of Dearth and Helmer played well. Overall unit has some concerning problems (they are still half sliding!), but also still has Mellen and Kennedy, which gives me hope for a turnaround.
Face-off - First and foremost, groundball play was really bad. Varello didn't help his cause much, but Kennedy and Dearth were just out of synch. The most maddening thing is watching the opening battle, and see Dearth bend down with one hand on his stick and completely out-run it. He did this to a maddening degree last year and I don't know why the coaches haven't gotten to him yet about this. Nice to see Phaup come in and steady to ship (especially by winning to himself). Bright side might be that the schedule might not have many truly elite FOGOS and Albany and Army look like they might be below average at this spot. Again, they can turn things around here but its frustrating to see the same issues come up again and again.
Offense - Well, what can you say after that performance? Not many good things. Offense looked like it was moving the ball early - Lipka and Voigt were set up right on the door step, but the Colgate goalie made some big stops. But then things digressed with hero ball and the "clogged toilet" motion offense, no one moved, guys took easy to save shots, or shots that weren't even close to the target. Have to hope that maybe Rhefuss was injured and that things will open up but that was rough. Frustrating to see Trimboli beleive in himself a little too much and take long distance shots that must have looked like beach balls to the Colgate keeper. Cook looked promising but stage seemed to overwhelm him. I think it might be beneficial for him to only focus on playing attack right now and not take shifts at midfield. I think Desko is too concerned about getting short stick matchups. And a year after playing too many guys, it felt like he wasn't playing enough. The second line just seemed to consist of rotating Lucas Quinn and Solomon or Cook in with members of the first line. What happened to Buttermore and Carlin? Hurt, suspended? I do think the first line should play significantly more than they did last year, but it seemed to swing too much to that side against Colgate. Hope the Orange are better prepared against Albany - they have a lot of new starters on defense - but SU needs to worry less about matchups and more on finishing plays. I also never would have imagined Syracuse to struggle with a shot clock, but they never seemed to look comfortable, either wasting time or rushing the ball. Colgate looked to have a plan whereas Syracuse seemed like they were making things up as they went along. The years of playing slowdown ball the last few years look to have taken a toll.
In conclusion I think every facet of the Orange has real issues, but the offense seems to be the most concerning thing. Better execution, better game planning, all of it needs work right now. A leader needs to emerge and make things happen. There really is no excuse for the offense to struggle like this, every player save Cook saw significant playing time last year. Things can still turn around but I think the coaches really need to step up and develop an identity. They can't rely on a game changer but if they play as a unit they can be very good - the talent is there, they just have to utilize it. If they all try and play as individuals they won't get very far.
Defense - Certainly not a good showing, though there were some bright spots. A good amount of the early goals were scored on back up SSDMs (Murphy gave up at least two, Barlow another), and offensive middies. Bomberry no doubt had a very bad game, and on paper he matches up well with Nanticoke, but how can you trust him at this point? He remains an enigma to me after a very solid sophomore campaign (on the positive side he remains the teams' best groundball player by a wide margin). So who does cover Nanticoke? I don't know - Mellen played very well on the much larger Cleveland after being switched, but Nanticoke is much more physical. Bump Kennedy? I don't know but I think it's the biggest question of the game. Clearing the ball also was atrocious, which is bothersome because they had been practicing indoors all preseason - how does that happen? On the good side, I thought Porter played a very good game - didn't see the passing ability of Madonna or Galloway, but seemed composed and made big stops. Also the starting short stick duo of Dearth and Helmer played well. Overall unit has some concerning problems (they are still half sliding!), but also still has Mellen and Kennedy, which gives me hope for a turnaround.
Face-off - First and foremost, groundball play was really bad. Varello didn't help his cause much, but Kennedy and Dearth were just out of synch. The most maddening thing is watching the opening battle, and see Dearth bend down with one hand on his stick and completely out-run it. He did this to a maddening degree last year and I don't know why the coaches haven't gotten to him yet about this. Nice to see Phaup come in and steady to ship (especially by winning to himself). Bright side might be that the schedule might not have many truly elite FOGOS and Albany and Army look like they might be below average at this spot. Again, they can turn things around here but its frustrating to see the same issues come up again and again.
Offense - Well, what can you say after that performance? Not many good things. Offense looked like it was moving the ball early - Lipka and Voigt were set up right on the door step, but the Colgate goalie made some big stops. But then things digressed with hero ball and the "clogged toilet" motion offense, no one moved, guys took easy to save shots, or shots that weren't even close to the target. Have to hope that maybe Rhefuss was injured and that things will open up but that was rough. Frustrating to see Trimboli beleive in himself a little too much and take long distance shots that must have looked like beach balls to the Colgate keeper. Cook looked promising but stage seemed to overwhelm him. I think it might be beneficial for him to only focus on playing attack right now and not take shifts at midfield. I think Desko is too concerned about getting short stick matchups. And a year after playing too many guys, it felt like he wasn't playing enough. The second line just seemed to consist of rotating Lucas Quinn and Solomon or Cook in with members of the first line. What happened to Buttermore and Carlin? Hurt, suspended? I do think the first line should play significantly more than they did last year, but it seemed to swing too much to that side against Colgate. Hope the Orange are better prepared against Albany - they have a lot of new starters on defense - but SU needs to worry less about matchups and more on finishing plays. I also never would have imagined Syracuse to struggle with a shot clock, but they never seemed to look comfortable, either wasting time or rushing the ball. Colgate looked to have a plan whereas Syracuse seemed like they were making things up as they went along. The years of playing slowdown ball the last few years look to have taken a toll.
In conclusion I think every facet of the Orange has real issues, but the offense seems to be the most concerning thing. Better execution, better game planning, all of it needs work right now. A leader needs to emerge and make things happen. There really is no excuse for the offense to struggle like this, every player save Cook saw significant playing time last year. Things can still turn around but I think the coaches really need to step up and develop an identity. They can't rely on a game changer but if they play as a unit they can be very good - the talent is there, they just have to utilize it. If they all try and play as individuals they won't get very far.