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[QUOTE="Orangello, post: 2200080, member: 597"]
I am less concerned with the offense next year then I am with the defense. This year's defense was never elite and a weak link IMHO constantly putting us in 4-6 goal holes early. The offense could bail them out and/or they played differently in the second half of a lot of games until we ran out of rope yesterday. At LSD We lose Firman but get back Mellen so consider that a wash but I thought Cunningham played poorly up and down all year, and Fusco and Helmer are serviceable but not elite defenders. I still think SSDM is the real problem with this D. We lose Gillis and Ciferi but Gillis was abused all day yesterday. Paolo will be missed as he gave 110% effort out there. I am not sold on Dearth as he was exposed in the Colgate, UNC, Yale games. I expect Simmons to possibly get bumped down to this group next year assuming he's willing to do it because of the logjam at mid next year given all of the options coming in. It is no coincidence that all of the teams making this year's Final 4 were in the top 20 in team defense (Towson #3, OSU #9, Denver #13 and UMD #16).   We were #27. That's not going to cut it. We need to get back to the aggressive physical shut down defenses we have seen from Cuse in the past. This group played way too passive in the first half of games and did not consistently bring intensity each and every game. This has to change going forward.
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