JeremyCuse
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Went back and looked at my post/thoughts from the Original game vs Harvard back in February. I think most of the points still apply so I have note them again below:
Watched most of the Harvard/Gate game. Harvard definitely has some issues most of which are on defense. Gate absolutely punished them from the midfield, Drouin and Connor both Middies for Gate had 14 pts combined. Harvard actually shut down Jack Turner Gate's top attackmen who had 1 goal on 9 shots and no assists. Their Frosh goalie Stevenson actually had a very good 1st qtr or Gate probably would have hit 25 goals (no hyperbole).
They held up decently against the 10 man but it really hurt them in the 2nd half and they started turning it over wholesale. Still this is a tricky game for SU. The conditions will obviously be perfect and SU isn't much of a riding team much less a 10 man one.
From a preview perspective I don't think it's really anything complicated. Faceoffs and Defense will decide the outcome. Harvard's under 50% at the X and their back up Henehan is actually winning more 41% then the starter who's at a ghastly 38%. Mullen should hopefully be at least 55% on Saturday. I do agree with Powell that the lack of a solid backup emerging is concerning. I hope that as we get further into the year Angelo can be that guy but so far Richiusa still seems to have the #2 job.
Harvard defensively is coming off a really bad performance and this is matchup SU should be able to exploit. Key word is "should". Harvard didn't run a 10 man from what I saw but did ride pretty aggressively, SU hasn't seen much this year so far in aggressive rides, something to keep an eye out for on Saturday. Harvard's D did lose two players to ND and UNC respectively in the offseason but they still have a number of top 100 players seeing time. It's a bit perplexing on how much of a struggle it's been for them especially with Byrne as the HC. I agree there probably won't be much if any in the way of lineup changes but if this O is sluggish again early I hope the staff doesn't wait to make a move.
From an SU perspective this is likely the best offense they will have seen to date (no offense to Maryland). King is very good and his supporting cast is no joke. King had 6 pts against Gate and & vs Providence in the opener. Speidell had 5 goals against Gate and Malone is a very solid attackmen. They run two mid lines a lot like SU and Ip was running with the second team a lot vs Gate. Botkiss and Gaffney are the two mainstays on the first mid line. Matchups seem pretty clear, Fig on King, Dwan on Speidell and Grace on Malone. King is only 5'9 so this is more of a Fig matchup though if Riley struggles I think they will go with Dwan, hopefully we don't have to test that theory. Cuse defense has for the most part played really well this year so far and should be well rested and ready for this game. Need to make players other then King beat them for points, letting him go wild will not lead to a good outcome.
In retrospect I think most of the points myself and others raised that game ended up being accurate both good and bad. SU was able to win an absurd amount of faceoffs and the Offense for about a half was scoring pretty consistently. That said the concerns we had also came to fruition, Harvards ride caused a lot of problems and they used a group scoring effort to comeback and eventually win.
In the first game King only had 3 pts and if my memory is correct one of those goals was on a rebound or a fast break where Fig had no chance. Malone was the main problem with 5 pts including 4 goals. Botkiss who is an attackmen who runs ont he 1st mid line had 4 pts and two other middies had 2 goals as well. SU's midfield D was less then stellar. I suspect SU will run back Fig on King as Fig has been playing extremely well including a great job last weekend on Kavanaugh and McAdorey. I wonder if SU will put Dwan on Malone this time and Grace on Speidell. Harvards O was humming that day and it was by far McCool's worst performance since he took over the starting job. I watched a decent amount of the second half of the Princeton vs Harvard game last week and Princeton went zone in the 2nd half which caused Harvard all sorts of problems. Odierna tried this in the 2nd half of our game and it didn't really work. Curios to see if we try this again especially with Harvard not really having an outside Hammer type shooter.
You would anticipate that SU should have another big advantage at the X. Probably not to the level it did in the 1st game but I think 60%+ seems fairly realistic. Not sure what Harvard is gonna do to counter because vs Princeton McMeekin won 77% (17 of 22) and a few weeks ago against Cornell Cascadden won 79% (23 of 29). So clearly the issue hasn't gotten better as the season has rolled on. Jackson Henehan a Freshmen is essentially the #1 guy now and he's at 46% for the year. He was in the 40's versus Cornell and Princeton but won only 3 of 18 versus Mullen back in February.
Harvard's D has improved since the SU game but can still run hot and cold. They only gave up 11 to princeton last week which is a good sign for them but also gave up 10 to brown the week before and 20 to Cornell the week before that. Stevens is an excellent young goalie, SU will need to change up shot angles and locations and incorporate some bounce shots.
In the end I don't think the game plan here is to complicated. If Mullen is anywhere close to what he was in the first game SU's gonna have a lot of possessions. What it can't do is turn it over 14/15 times like it did the first game. Harvard rides extremely well despite not using a 10 man. SU has to be better with the ball and avoid a repeat of the prior game or the clearing issues it's had the last month or so. It clearly also needs a better game from Jimmy and the defense overall. Most of all I think it needs to avoid that long stretch where they are out of sorts on both ends that continues to plague them. Thought they did a much better job in the Acc tourney battling through when things went south but they also got help from Duke and ND with turnovers in the 2nd half. Hoping they carry over the success from last week into Sunday.
Watched most of the Harvard/Gate game. Harvard definitely has some issues most of which are on defense. Gate absolutely punished them from the midfield, Drouin and Connor both Middies for Gate had 14 pts combined. Harvard actually shut down Jack Turner Gate's top attackmen who had 1 goal on 9 shots and no assists. Their Frosh goalie Stevenson actually had a very good 1st qtr or Gate probably would have hit 25 goals (no hyperbole).
They held up decently against the 10 man but it really hurt them in the 2nd half and they started turning it over wholesale. Still this is a tricky game for SU. The conditions will obviously be perfect and SU isn't much of a riding team much less a 10 man one.
From a preview perspective I don't think it's really anything complicated. Faceoffs and Defense will decide the outcome. Harvard's under 50% at the X and their back up Henehan is actually winning more 41% then the starter who's at a ghastly 38%. Mullen should hopefully be at least 55% on Saturday. I do agree with Powell that the lack of a solid backup emerging is concerning. I hope that as we get further into the year Angelo can be that guy but so far Richiusa still seems to have the #2 job.
Harvard defensively is coming off a really bad performance and this is matchup SU should be able to exploit. Key word is "should". Harvard didn't run a 10 man from what I saw but did ride pretty aggressively, SU hasn't seen much this year so far in aggressive rides, something to keep an eye out for on Saturday. Harvard's D did lose two players to ND and UNC respectively in the offseason but they still have a number of top 100 players seeing time. It's a bit perplexing on how much of a struggle it's been for them especially with Byrne as the HC. I agree there probably won't be much if any in the way of lineup changes but if this O is sluggish again early I hope the staff doesn't wait to make a move.
From an SU perspective this is likely the best offense they will have seen to date (no offense to Maryland). King is very good and his supporting cast is no joke. King had 6 pts against Gate and & vs Providence in the opener. Speidell had 5 goals against Gate and Malone is a very solid attackmen. They run two mid lines a lot like SU and Ip was running with the second team a lot vs Gate. Botkiss and Gaffney are the two mainstays on the first mid line. Matchups seem pretty clear, Fig on King, Dwan on Speidell and Grace on Malone. King is only 5'9 so this is more of a Fig matchup though if Riley struggles I think they will go with Dwan, hopefully we don't have to test that theory. Cuse defense has for the most part played really well this year so far and should be well rested and ready for this game. Need to make players other then King beat them for points, letting him go wild will not lead to a good outcome.
In retrospect I think most of the points myself and others raised that game ended up being accurate both good and bad. SU was able to win an absurd amount of faceoffs and the Offense for about a half was scoring pretty consistently. That said the concerns we had also came to fruition, Harvards ride caused a lot of problems and they used a group scoring effort to comeback and eventually win.
In the first game King only had 3 pts and if my memory is correct one of those goals was on a rebound or a fast break where Fig had no chance. Malone was the main problem with 5 pts including 4 goals. Botkiss who is an attackmen who runs ont he 1st mid line had 4 pts and two other middies had 2 goals as well. SU's midfield D was less then stellar. I suspect SU will run back Fig on King as Fig has been playing extremely well including a great job last weekend on Kavanaugh and McAdorey. I wonder if SU will put Dwan on Malone this time and Grace on Speidell. Harvards O was humming that day and it was by far McCool's worst performance since he took over the starting job. I watched a decent amount of the second half of the Princeton vs Harvard game last week and Princeton went zone in the 2nd half which caused Harvard all sorts of problems. Odierna tried this in the 2nd half of our game and it didn't really work. Curios to see if we try this again especially with Harvard not really having an outside Hammer type shooter.
You would anticipate that SU should have another big advantage at the X. Probably not to the level it did in the 1st game but I think 60%+ seems fairly realistic. Not sure what Harvard is gonna do to counter because vs Princeton McMeekin won 77% (17 of 22) and a few weeks ago against Cornell Cascadden won 79% (23 of 29). So clearly the issue hasn't gotten better as the season has rolled on. Jackson Henehan a Freshmen is essentially the #1 guy now and he's at 46% for the year. He was in the 40's versus Cornell and Princeton but won only 3 of 18 versus Mullen back in February.
Harvard's D has improved since the SU game but can still run hot and cold. They only gave up 11 to princeton last week which is a good sign for them but also gave up 10 to brown the week before and 20 to Cornell the week before that. Stevens is an excellent young goalie, SU will need to change up shot angles and locations and incorporate some bounce shots.
In the end I don't think the game plan here is to complicated. If Mullen is anywhere close to what he was in the first game SU's gonna have a lot of possessions. What it can't do is turn it over 14/15 times like it did the first game. Harvard rides extremely well despite not using a 10 man. SU has to be better with the ball and avoid a repeat of the prior game or the clearing issues it's had the last month or so. It clearly also needs a better game from Jimmy and the defense overall. Most of all I think it needs to avoid that long stretch where they are out of sorts on both ends that continues to plague them. Thought they did a much better job in the Acc tourney battling through when things went south but they also got help from Duke and ND with turnovers in the 2nd half. Hoping they carry over the success from last week into Sunday.
