IL Preseason Media Poll

[Powellfan]

Syracuse at 12.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[JeremyCuse]

Syracuse at 12.

Seems reasonable

 

[Powellfan]

Not surprising. Confirms the Orange will have a tall task in front of them this season.

 

[Powellfan]

 

[Powellfan]

Syracuse not at all in Terry Foy’s Top 20.

 

[Powellfan]

 

[JustSayin]

Syracuse not at all in Terry Foy’s Top 20.

Interesting ... I'd like to learn the rationale for this ranking. Why 3 Ivys in the top 9 when they haven't played in over a year? No 'Cuse? JHU at 20? I understand maybe some teams have an excellent incoming freshman class and are getting some pretty transfers, but Highpoint, UDel and OSU and no 'Cuse? Yikes! I'm hoping this isn't indicative of reality.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Interesting ... I'd like to learn the rationale for this ranking. Why 3 Ivys in the top 9 when they haven't played in over a year? No 'Cuse? JHU at 20? I understand maybe some teams have an excellent incoming freshman class and are getting some pretty transfers, but Highpoint, UDel and OSU and no 'Cuse? Yikes! I'm hoping this isn't indicative of reality.

It ain’t. I will put aside arguing our case compared to high point and Del as sometimes the best of the SoCon and CAA can compete, but there is just zero zilch argument for OSU above us.

Finish the year 0-3 getting walloped by MD and even failing to beat their fellow bottom feeders of the big 10, losing to Penn State and then michigan by a solid margin. They lost their best offensive player (yes Jack Myers got more points but Leclaire is a beast who drew massive attention all year) and a legendary impactful force in the middle of the field in Terefenko, along with other seniors. They lose a promising young starting middie to the transfer portal. All they bring in (I believe) are a transfer backup goalie from UNC, Caton Johnson, and a dII longpole. And they have one highly rated freshman longpole recruit. No coaching changes of any kind despite a prolonged stretch of mediocrity.

Just no argument for them being above cuse. It is either a purposeful edgy look-at-me decision or he knows somebody at the school. There is no argument for them being even a spot above Hopkins! Let alone who knows how many above Cuse.

 

[Zack80]

It ain’t. I will put aside arguing our case compared to high point and Del as sometimes the best of the SoCon and CAA can compete, but there is just zero zilch argument for OSU above us.

Finish the year 0-3 getting walloped by MD and even failing to beat their fellow bottom feeders of the big 10, losing to Penn State and then michigan by a solid margin. They lost their best offensive player (yes Jack Myers got more points but Leclaire is a beast who drew massive attention all year) and a legendary impactful force in the middle of the field in Terefenko, along with other seniors. They lose a promising young starting middie to the transfer portal. All they bring in (I believe) are a transfer backup goalie from UNC, Caton Johnson, and a dII longpole. And they have one highly rated freshman longpole recruit. No coaching changes of any kind despite a prolonged stretch of mediocrity.

Just no argument for them being above cuse. It is either a purposeful edgy look-at-me decision or he knows somebody at the school. There is no argument for them being even a spot above Hopkins! Let alone who knows how many above Cuse.

OSU also brings in 2 former Hobart players, Knox at attack and Blanchard at FO.

 

[DoctahLexus]

OSU also brings in 2 former Hobart players, Knox at attack and Blanchard at FO.

My mistake felt like I was forgetting someone. Don't think they are enough to make a difference in how I feel about it though.

 

[nyclax]

High Point at 16 is really bad. When are people going to stop with the High Point stuff. They had one relatively close high-scoring game against UNC early last season and apparently that's all anyone wants to remember. They didn't actually *beat* anyone last year and were very bad in 2020.

 

[Laxfanshutt]

I’m glad he didn’t rank them… i’m sure players are seeing this and it’s adding fuel to the fire!!! It’ll be nice seeing them play with a BIG chip on their shoulder!!!

 

[ivorytower]

Just a scrimmage but Cuse clearly had the best of it when they scrimmaged OSU.
Maybe Terry Fu likely incorporating schedules (Cuse and Hopkins have the two toughest ones ) projecting w/l records and incorrectly extrapolating a ranking. Or maybe it's just as he sees it . Dont matter , there are actual games to be played including jhu-osu and weekly rankings to unfold.

 

[ClvrUsrnm]

Who or what is a Terry Foy?

 

[DoctahLexus]

Said I would not get too peeved about anything pre season poll related, but found that surprisingly hard to do this time around. We just have too much talent still on the team to be casually left out of the top 20 and have teams that crash and burned on a whole other level last year above us. It's an attention seeking move from Mr. Foy, no matter what he claims otherwise.

 

[ivorytower]

Let it go Doc. Always found Foy writings and thoughts to be unbiased unlike College Crosse homers who have a clear anti-bias to Orange. Foy had to know that his list would raise eyebrows here but doubt it's clickbait as not his style. He's problably looking at the loss of Refhuss, Trimboli, Dearth and Porter and figuring those departures leaves too many holes to show against strong opponents give last years disasters . JHU did go 4-9 agaisnt a weaker schedule than usual after a coaching change and that may also figure into his projections . To be honest. Im more surprised at his low ranking of JHU this year who had clearly improved as season moved on and playing very well at year end . My expectations for Cuse are low especially at start but also believe Foy has discounted Cuse far too much. That 13-15 range seems appropriate.

 

[sholokov2]

Interesting ... I'd like to learn the rationale for this ranking. Why 3 Ivys in the top 9 when they haven't played in over a year? No 'Cuse? JHU at 20? I understand maybe some teams have an excellent incoming freshman class and are getting some pretty transfers, but Highpoint, UDel and OSU and no 'Cuse? Yikes! I'm hoping this isn't indicative of reality.

New goalie, old mediocre defensemen, too few good middies, suspect ssdms, suspect FOs, 2 new attacks, I'd say Foy is realistic.

 

[DoctahLexus]

We beat the national champs twice, both early and late in the season. We played Duke right down to the wire on the road despite losing 75% of the faceoffs. We cleaned up without any worries against solid teams from weaker conferences like UVM, Stony Brook, Albany, and Robert Morris. According to that lax reference guy, our offensive efficiency was top 10 in the nation and we also return more of our offensive production than any other ACC school. We have one of the most promising young players in the nation in Owen Hiltz and he is just getting started. If not for Brennan ONeill he would be the face of his recruiting class and he backed it up with his play last year. Not a massive haul in the portal but Caccamo from Yale was a highly rated recruit out of high school and is already a projected starter, along with solid improvement in goalie depth from Gavin.

I recognize there is list of cons about this team too, but we are simply not THAT bad. I worry how we stack up with the ACC, MD, and a couple other teams. To act like we are bad enough where we don't even belong in the tail end of the top 20 is silly, not realistic.

 

[ivorytower]

We beat the national champs twice, both early and late in the season. We played Duke right down to the wire on the road despite losing 75% of the faceoffs. We cleaned up without any worries against solid teams from weaker conferences like UVM, Stony Brook, Albany, and Robert Morris. According to that lax reference guy, our offensive efficiency was top 10 in the nation and we also return more of our offensive production than any other ACC school. We have one of the most promising young players in the nation in Owen Hiltz and he is just getting started. If not for Brennan ONeill he would be the face of his recruiting class and he backed it up with his play last year. Not a massive haul in the portal but Caccamo from Yale was a highly rated recruit out of high school and is already a projected starter, along with solid improvement in goalie depth from Gavin.

I recognize there is list of cons about this team too, but we are simply not THAT bad. I worry how we stack up with the ACC, MD, and a couple other teams. To act like we are bad eough where we don't even belong in the tail end of the top 20 is silly, not realistic.

I dont disagree with anything you said . Let the games begin so the dust can settle.

Team has a core of talent but it is not deep . Staying healthy will be one key. Hopefully Dr Hyde appears most often this year

 

[nyclax]

At the end of the day it was just one guy's opinion. Had the Orange been left off the IL media poll entirely, that'd be another story. But they are right there at #12 which is more than fair. College Crosse's ranking of #16 is a tad too low for my tastes but that's not unreasonable. They do have Cuse's former equipment manager voting with them.

In pro-Orange territory, LSN's Travis Eldridge (another alum) had them #9, which most people probably think is too high. Given the number of alums who vote in the IL poll it's tough to claim bias against the Orange in these things. They have more representation than any other school.

 

[Cuse All-In]

Let it go Doc. Always found Foy writings and thoughts to be unbiased unlike College Crosse homers who have a clear anti-bias to Orange. Foy had to know that his list would raise eyebrows here but doubt it's clickbait as not his style. He's problably looking at the loss of Refhuss, Trimboli, Dearth and Porter and figuring those departures leaves too many holes to show against strong opponents give last years disasters . JHU did go 4-9 agaisnt a weaker schedule than usual after a coaching change and that may also figure into his projections . To be honest. Im more surprised at his low ranking of JHU this year who had clearly improved as season moved on and playing very well at year end . My expectations for Cuse are low especially at start but also believe Foy has discounted Cuse far too much. That 13-15 range seems appropriate.

Well said. There are a lot of questions marks around Cuse. While the inconsistent defense, fogo, coaching and Scanlan got all the attention last year, the offense was also remarkably inconsistent. IMO, the offense has been mediocre for years in spite of great individual efforts from Rehfuss, Hiltz, Salcido, Mariano and the world's best midfield etc.) The Georgetown playoff game was a great example.

When you think about the question marks, I can understand the skeptics:

1. Can Gait bring new energy and rhythm to the offense? Do we even have the horses on offense? Is Dordevic effective at attack?
2. Can Phaup or others be more consistent at fogo? Does TD help?
3. Can Petro bring order out of chaos on defense? Is there even sufficient talent on D to cope with stronger teams?
4. Can a new goalie step up? Will inexperienced goalies struggle with confidence if 2 and 3 are not strong?

My own guess is that Cuse will be no lower than say 13 or 14. I think Gait is viewing this as a rebuilding year and if the team is as high as 10, that will be a bonus. What we are all hoping for is that the younger talent on the roster gets a chance to step up and surprise everyone.

Foy's list seems silly to me. I do think putting High Point, Delaware, Navy, Princeton, Penn and Cornell ahead of Cuse is ridiculous.

 

[wgdsr]

We beat the national champs twice, both early and late in the season. We played Duke right down to the wire on the road despite losing 75% of the faceoffs. We cleaned up without any worries against solid teams from weaker conferences like UVM, Stony Brook, Albany, and Robert Morris. According to that lax reference guy, our offensive efficiency was top 10 in the nation and we also return more of our offensive production than any other ACC school. We have one of the most promising young players in the nation in Owen Hiltz and he is just getting started. If not for Brennan ONeill he would be the face of his recruiting class and he backed it up with his play last year. Not a massive haul in the portal but Caccamo from Yale was a highly rated recruit out of high school and is already a projected starter, along with solid improvement in goalie depth from Gavin.

I recognize there is list of cons about this team too, but we are simply not THAT bad. I worry how we stack up with the ACC, MD, and a couple other teams. To act like we are bad enough where we don't even belong in the tail end of the top 20 is silly, not realistic.

just a point of clarification, but uva and notre dame return way more of their offensive production than cuse does. uva's around 75%, and notre dame probably above 80%. unc about the same as cuse from a % standpoint, but they scored much more.

cuse @ 58% returning or thereabouts. duke's in the mid 50's.

 

[DoctahLexus]

just a point of clarification, but uva and notre dame return way more of their offensive production than cuse does. uva's around 75%, and notre dame probably above 80%. unc about the same as cuse from a % standpoint, but they scored much more.

cuse @ 58% returning or thereabouts. duke's in the mid 50's.

My mistake was going by something he posted before ND released their roster.

 

[nyclax]

I feel like that has to be a mistake. How does a team that loses its top scorer and 3 of its top 7 return 90% of its offense? If it's not an error, I'd question whatever metric he's using to arrive at that conclusion.