JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 40,499
- Like
- 50,712
Certainly no pushover by any stretch. Good coaching staff, solid defense and really good players at X, Mid and Attack.
Will dive more into it later in the week but wanted to get some general thoughts out.
I think Lehigh would have been the preferable opponent of the main 3 options but I think Towson is a better matchup for SU then St. Joes would have been (that 10 man and ride would have been a nightmare for this Cuse team).
Towson has a very solid offense but it clearly relies on DeMaio and Weissharr to carry a large chunk of the load or at least be the catalysts. If your Syracuse, taking those two out has to be paramount but it will be easier said then done especially with Weissharr. Demiao is the table setter but can also score (had 7 pts against UVA). He has 80 pts on the year (32,48). Only real issue for SU is do you put Figuerias or Dwan on him. Cuse D has been a bright spot most of the year but have had two poor performances in a row. They really need to get on track here and can't afford a repeat of the last two games. I think Figuerias probably gets the nod here. Obviously Olexxo will mark Weissharr, a very difficult matchup to say the least. SU will need to be cognizant of picks and attempts to force a switch to try and get Weissharr on a shortie. Weissharr is avery good player but is very much a volume shooter, he is not shy, at all.
Towson has more options beyond those two as Villagomez and Chop Robinson have 45 an 42 points on the year respectively and they run mostly attackmen on the midline with Weissharr. Towson also has some impressive wins including blowing out Navy, beating St. Joes by 8 early in the year and sweeping Delaware in 2 matchup.
Now I will say there are some pro SU things to consider in this matchup as well. Some of Towson's overall numbers are a bit skewed by how bad the CAA was this year. Outside of Delaware there wasn't much in the way of upper level or really even mediocre competition for Towson in conference. 5 of the 8 conference members were under .500 including Stony Brook who was 4-10, Monmouth 5-8 and Hofstra and Drexel who were both 6-9. Only two other teams were above .500, Delaware and Fairfield who went 8-7.
If you look at the "bigger" opponents on Towson's schedule your generally speaking of Hop, UVA, Loyola, along with Delaware twice and you can put St. Joes and Navy in their as well. 3 of the games were very early so I don't know how much you can take positive or negative but Towson did handle both St. Joes and Navy and win with lopsided scores. On the flipside they were blown out by Hop (again opening game so not sure you can extrapolate much) and UVA (final score deceiving) and lost 11-10 to Loyola. Two weeks ago Towson beat Delaware 11-10, 2 days ago they won 15-6 in a blow out. Constantinides has been very solid and is at 58% for the year. He was around 50% or under in all three losses on the year. His numers are interesting in that he tends to hover right around 53-55% for most games. He has a couple where he dominated - 16 of 21 vs MSM, 16 of 20 vs SB, 15-23 vs Drexel. But most games he is similar to his performance against St. Joes where he was 13 of 24 and the most recent game where he was 14-24 vs Delaware. Against Hop he was 5 of 9 and he was 15-30 vs UVA and 12 for 19 against Loyola. He does have a decent back up who is 40 for 70 on the year but not sure we will see much of him. Luke Downs their goalie has been solid and is at an impressive 56% on the year. Again though well under 50% against Hop, UVA but 50% or above against Navy, St. Joes and Delaware twice.
So what does this all mean. Well that's a good question. Perhaps little to nothing but in the two clear "peer" matchups Hop and UVA (acknowledging both were now played months ago) Towson was beat fairly soundly in both. Does that mean much for Sunday, hell no, but I also think you have to acknowledge SU didn't exactly draw Princeton or Michigan in the 1st round either. Towson clearly has the ability to win on Sunday but I also think this is a game where If SU plays at a B level or above they should carry the day. Again the issue to me is can SU play a consistent 4 quarters. They still have that 10-15 min stretch at some point each game where they just look lost in all phases. It's a bit disconcerting in a win or go home scenario. It's also hard to trust this team with any sort of lead in the 4th quarter for reasons that I think are fairly obvious. I worry a bit about SU's ability to again stop the "known" players. They struggled mightily to do that against UVA or Duke the last two games. Towson's not on that level but their not that far away either. Hard to get a great feel on this matchup as Towson hasn't played an upper level team in 2 months outside of a decent Delaware squad but its a tricky matchup for SU. SU doesn't need a final four run to have a successful year but they need to find away to win Sunday.
Will dive more into it later in the week but wanted to get some general thoughts out.
I think Lehigh would have been the preferable opponent of the main 3 options but I think Towson is a better matchup for SU then St. Joes would have been (that 10 man and ride would have been a nightmare for this Cuse team).
Towson has a very solid offense but it clearly relies on DeMaio and Weissharr to carry a large chunk of the load or at least be the catalysts. If your Syracuse, taking those two out has to be paramount but it will be easier said then done especially with Weissharr. Demiao is the table setter but can also score (had 7 pts against UVA). He has 80 pts on the year (32,48). Only real issue for SU is do you put Figuerias or Dwan on him. Cuse D has been a bright spot most of the year but have had two poor performances in a row. They really need to get on track here and can't afford a repeat of the last two games. I think Figuerias probably gets the nod here. Obviously Olexxo will mark Weissharr, a very difficult matchup to say the least. SU will need to be cognizant of picks and attempts to force a switch to try and get Weissharr on a shortie. Weissharr is avery good player but is very much a volume shooter, he is not shy, at all.
Towson has more options beyond those two as Villagomez and Chop Robinson have 45 an 42 points on the year respectively and they run mostly attackmen on the midline with Weissharr. Towson also has some impressive wins including blowing out Navy, beating St. Joes by 8 early in the year and sweeping Delaware in 2 matchup.
Now I will say there are some pro SU things to consider in this matchup as well. Some of Towson's overall numbers are a bit skewed by how bad the CAA was this year. Outside of Delaware there wasn't much in the way of upper level or really even mediocre competition for Towson in conference. 5 of the 8 conference members were under .500 including Stony Brook who was 4-10, Monmouth 5-8 and Hofstra and Drexel who were both 6-9. Only two other teams were above .500, Delaware and Fairfield who went 8-7.
If you look at the "bigger" opponents on Towson's schedule your generally speaking of Hop, UVA, Loyola, along with Delaware twice and you can put St. Joes and Navy in their as well. 3 of the games were very early so I don't know how much you can take positive or negative but Towson did handle both St. Joes and Navy and win with lopsided scores. On the flipside they were blown out by Hop (again opening game so not sure you can extrapolate much) and UVA (final score deceiving) and lost 11-10 to Loyola. Two weeks ago Towson beat Delaware 11-10, 2 days ago they won 15-6 in a blow out. Constantinides has been very solid and is at 58% for the year. He was around 50% or under in all three losses on the year. His numers are interesting in that he tends to hover right around 53-55% for most games. He has a couple where he dominated - 16 of 21 vs MSM, 16 of 20 vs SB, 15-23 vs Drexel. But most games he is similar to his performance against St. Joes where he was 13 of 24 and the most recent game where he was 14-24 vs Delaware. Against Hop he was 5 of 9 and he was 15-30 vs UVA and 12 for 19 against Loyola. He does have a decent back up who is 40 for 70 on the year but not sure we will see much of him. Luke Downs their goalie has been solid and is at an impressive 56% on the year. Again though well under 50% against Hop, UVA but 50% or above against Navy, St. Joes and Delaware twice.
So what does this all mean. Well that's a good question. Perhaps little to nothing but in the two clear "peer" matchups Hop and UVA (acknowledging both were now played months ago) Towson was beat fairly soundly in both. Does that mean much for Sunday, hell no, but I also think you have to acknowledge SU didn't exactly draw Princeton or Michigan in the 1st round either. Towson clearly has the ability to win on Sunday but I also think this is a game where If SU plays at a B level or above they should carry the day. Again the issue to me is can SU play a consistent 4 quarters. They still have that 10-15 min stretch at some point each game where they just look lost in all phases. It's a bit disconcerting in a win or go home scenario. It's also hard to trust this team with any sort of lead in the 4th quarter for reasons that I think are fairly obvious. I worry a bit about SU's ability to again stop the "known" players. They struggled mightily to do that against UVA or Duke the last two games. Towson's not on that level but their not that far away either. Hard to get a great feel on this matchup as Towson hasn't played an upper level team in 2 months outside of a decent Delaware squad but its a tricky matchup for SU. SU doesn't need a final four run to have a successful year but they need to find away to win Sunday.
