Holy Cross Replaces Hofstra
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OrangeXtreme
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Can't believe Desko and Wildhack didn't pursue Brent's councel on this.
orange79
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Really.
We have a bona fide lacrosse expert like Brent locally and we don't take advantage of that????
#FireWildhack
OrangeXtreme
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Really.
We have a bona fide lacrosse expert like Brent locally and we don't take advantage of that????
#FireWildhack
Brent's only 5'2.
Would have loved to see Cuse play Lehigh. Would have been a great game. But the rest of the ACC has been tuning up on meatballs all season, so it’s smart for Cuse to work out its lingering issues against a weak opponent and not risk a second OOC loss.
DoctahLexus
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Out of respect for Griffin Cook, Desko would accept Brent's counsel.
CuseAlum87
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I wanted Lehigh as well, but more importantly I wanted a game for this weekend. If it was to be Lehigh, then so be it. I'm fine with Holy Cross.
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Want Hiltz to let it rip against HC - gotta get more goals than O'Neill 
laxobserver
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To play devil's advocate, wouldn't playing a stronger opponent in Lehigh be a lot better to help you work out any lingering issues? I'm not sure that a team like Holy Cross will expose anything. A team like Lehigh, however, would help you learn a lot more about your team prior to playing Duke. I wouldn't be super concerned about another OOC loss. Even a loss could have more long term value than a Holy Cross win.
DoctahLexus
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That is pretty much how I feel about the situation the more I think about it. Not sure if it is Desko just hyper focused on our one game against Duke on the road. I would understand, since the ball is entirely in our court, that you ideally want more time to prep for a team of Lehigh's caliber/don't want another tough test right as the Duke game is coming up, but even when it's a team like Holy Cross you can't just completely look past them. That is a recipe for playing down to the competition.
Maybe he is just satisfied with the amount of opportunities to play elite teams with the 6 team ACC schedule (but as you say there is a lot to gain with a quality out of conference win). Maybe there is just some other angle or wrinkle in the situation that lead to us playing HC. That may be the most likely reason. Really hoping someone asks him about it at the next press conference. Boeheim would probably get offended at a question like that but Desko is very chill with the press.
JeremyCuse
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Well SU is 4 games into the season having played 3 games against top 25 teams in Army, UVA, and Vermont. I think its pretty clear where/what the issues are. Not sure you need a game against Lehigh to know that we need FOGO depth, work on defending picks and the two man game and more consistency from the 2nd line and Chase.
agree completely. I watched the BU game. HC is a step below Stonybrook. The quality of this game as preparation for Duke is arguable. Hell, win it anyway!
HtownOrange
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We went from no game to playing a game. I see no major issues. Lehigh would have been a good game but that did not happen. Holy Cross is in the lacrosse team's crossbars, that is what I care about.
Desko has a little experience in scheduling for Memorial day appearances and we don't know the specific details of why Lehigh did not happen and Holy Cross did. I'm not going to worry about it. Happy to have a game to watch. Happier still because the COVID crap has been beat once again.
Go Orange!
Desko has a little experience in scheduling for Memorial day appearances and we don't know the specific details of why Lehigh did not happen and Holy Cross did. I'm not going to worry about it. Happy to have a game to watch. Happier still because the COVID crap has been beat once again.
Go Orange!
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I agree with the decision to play HC. We have had 3 intense games - 2 with top 10 teams and one with UVM now ranked inside the top 20. We DO NOT need injuries from playing a high tempo physical game against Lehigh. And we need Phaup confident and focused rather than being beaten by Lehigh's FOGO.
Powellfan
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We can go back and forth all day about this. Initially I was excited to play Lehigh, but I’ve come to the opposite conclusion as DoctorLex and am glad the games not happening. The rest of the schedule is brutal, with Utah the only game you could consider easy (and they played Denver to a one goal ball game). Albany is no cakewalk. And of course they play two juggernauts in UNC and Duke, with three games I think will be toss ups against Notre Dame and UVA (despite the first matchup). Ultimately at the end of the season I don’t think it’s going to matter if Cuse would have played Lehigh in terms of strength of schedule.
This team could lose their last five acc games which would give them six for the year. They can’t have a losing record and get into the tournament. I don’t know if they get in with a 6-6 record but I know they don’t if they take a big risk and lose to Lehigh and worst case scenario plays out. I know there are those who will say that if you beat Lehigh and go 6-6 that would make a better resume, but at this point I’d rather have the win.
Not sure where things will fall with records and such, but preseason SU was due to play 6 games against top 10 teams. Maryland right now is on schedule to play a grand total of 2 (Rutgers x2). If it comes down to tournament selection/seeding the opportunity to play good teams won’t be an issue.
Scheduling Holy Cross isn’t ideal, I agree. Most likely this game should be over by the third quarter. But risking it against Lehigh I don’t believe was worth it. It would have been interesting to see the face-off battle for a number of reasons, would Phaup had a good game and built his confidence? Would the opposite have happened? Maybe it would have been good for Desko to be forced to go to option C or D in case Phaup and Varello faltered. But really other than that I don’t see the upside.
Irony is that I think Hofstra would have been the perfect opponent for SU, as they are right in that middle ground of a team you can’t take for granted but also a team that Syracuse should be favored against. But in a season like this beggars can’t be choosers. Holy Cross was the right but not exciting call.
This team could lose their last five acc games which would give them six for the year. They can’t have a losing record and get into the tournament. I don’t know if they get in with a 6-6 record but I know they don’t if they take a big risk and lose to Lehigh and worst case scenario plays out. I know there are those who will say that if you beat Lehigh and go 6-6 that would make a better resume, but at this point I’d rather have the win.
Not sure where things will fall with records and such, but preseason SU was due to play 6 games against top 10 teams. Maryland right now is on schedule to play a grand total of 2 (Rutgers x2). If it comes down to tournament selection/seeding the opportunity to play good teams won’t be an issue.
Scheduling Holy Cross isn’t ideal, I agree. Most likely this game should be over by the third quarter. But risking it against Lehigh I don’t believe was worth it. It would have been interesting to see the face-off battle for a number of reasons, would Phaup had a good game and built his confidence? Would the opposite have happened? Maybe it would have been good for Desko to be forced to go to option C or D in case Phaup and Varello faltered. But really other than that I don’t see the upside.
Irony is that I think Hofstra would have been the perfect opponent for SU, as they are right in that middle ground of a team you can’t take for granted but also a team that Syracuse should be favored against. But in a season like this beggars can’t be choosers. Holy Cross was the right but not exciting call.
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CuseAlum87
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Syracuse may have been in talks with Holy Cross during the whole Lehigh twitter explosion thing and would have been poor form to pull the plug on them to get Lehigh. Who knows? I am just happy they have a game this weekend before traveling to Duke.
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I will make one final comment and then go back into my corner. We are currently 1-0 in the ACC.
I would like to think we can win at least 2 out of the remaining 5 ACC games just based on probabilities.
That would give us a record of 3-3 in the ACC and 8-4 overall assuming we win remainder of OOC games. I think that is a reasonable position.
SkyTopBus44
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Why didn't Duke schedule Lehigh? Kevin Cassese is an alumnus of Duke and a legendary player. Danowski wouldn't throw him a bone? They have a weekend off?
