Maryland Gameday...

[ClvrUsrnm]

Wing play was for the most part atrocious on Saturday and that was with Richusa so I don't know how that could get worse.

I am unsure what you mean by "he can't run". He's a D1 FOGO on a partial scholarship who had pretty good #s in high school. Do you mean he's not athletic and will struggle if he wins the draw and has to run around with it? That's an area SU needs to work on overall as Richusa I think on 3 occasions actually won the faceoff and then proceeded to absolutely panic and throw the ball away.

The not athletic part, yes. Not ACC level, anyway.

 

[r1las]

Kyle says MD got approx 17 extra possessions due to FO's.

Named Luke Wierman his POTG.

Can't argue.

Lost 24-7 on faceoffs at still lost to one of the best in the country by 3. Syracuse can beat anyone in the country in time but staff needs to get faceoff act together. Understanding you don't need to win the all. I believe 50/50 would be good enough to win games. Gait said the kid did real good the first three games. Got tired Holy Cross. I went to all three games. I didn't believe the kid did that good. But even still if he was tired and you as a coach didn't try someone else thats on you. Oh yeah you did try someone else at the end of the Holy Cross game. He won two out of four. I'm not saying #1 kid shouldn't stay #1 he just needs some more time. But please try different guy once or twice. He might get killed. So what. You are know.

 

[r1las]

I wasn’t there, but I agree.

Didn't see game just listened. You can't expect defense to play tough when the ball is on their end the whole game. I believe it was 3-0 and Su had ball once for 5 seconds. Way to much for defense to guard. I believe D actually did good overall.

 

[JeremyCuse]

The not athletic part, yes. Not ACC level, anyway.

That's problematic for sure but there are a lot of FOGO's out there who aren't athletic, guys like Lasalla and a few others are the exception not the rule. Obviously you can't teach athleticism but if he can win the clamp and direct the ball that's 90% of the battle.

 

[DoctahLexus]

Finally someone was gracious enough to share the game. The youtube crew does the lords work sometimes. Watch it now if you can because who knows how long it will be up. Just some thoughts on the D since that what I was looking at seemingly 95% of the game.

-The D got punched in the mouth early but I thought it looked really solid for most of the second half in 6 on 6. The one true rough patch was the tail end of the 2nd quarter where they both had the ball the whole time and were running Murphy and Long out of the box. For some reason during that stretch and even some times in the 1st quarter we were seemingly not putting a long stick on Murphy by choice. Not 100% positive it was intentional, but if it was then that is a serious head scratcher choice. Burned us a bunch in the second quarter dodging against a short stick. No idea why we would allow that. He is their best offensive player. To me thats obvious even if he struggled against Loyola.

-Thought ssdm play was actually solid on everyone outside of Murphy and Long. Second half we tightened the screws and also made sure to put the pole on Murphy. Liked the improvement from the D in 6 on 6, even when MD had so many opportunities. Saw how MD could be beatable if you contain the main dodging threats properly and not be so quick to slide. D got better from the challenge and it will help them going forward.

-Only other serious problem was man down. Yes MD has a good unit/scheme but they were getting looks almost instantly. It was rough from start to finish. If not for Mark they would have scored on nearly every opportunity. Simply has to be better. Guys fighting over who is supposed to be where after the other team scores in two seconds is not a good look. It happened last year too.

Overall I liked a lot of what I saw from the D given the barrage of possessions they had to face. Second half settled D was legitimately encouraging at times. That score could have been a lot uglier though if not for Will Mark. We needed him out there.

Just going to add to this with some of the thoughts and stuff I wrote down on the offense and other areas while watching the full game yesterday.

-We were allergic to possessing the ball on Saturday. Both in getting the ball to the offense and then often rushing a look or doing something dumb and immediately losing it when the offense did get the ball. Richiusa had three turnovers yesterday as others have mentioned. Maybe someone who knows more about how stats on face offs are kept can correct me, but I believe that means in effect the faceoff disparity was essentially 27 to 4 instead of 24 to 7, since we immediately lost the ball on three that we won. Just complete and total domination there.

-Offense did not get a real quality settled set going until there was 6 minutes left in the first quarter. Would have had one earlier but Leo had a freshman moment trying to pass it to Spallina with Makar right on him. With an offense that is still lacking experience, that possession disparity is a recipe for feeling the heat and rushing things.

-After the disaster start we actually did begin to generate some solid looks. The first quarter goal was a slightly unsettled situation but still a good cut and feed from Spallina and Leo. Spallina with about 4 mins left blew a quality scoring chance after he got the ball at x from Leo and beat a slightly hung up Makar around the left side of the goal, but he got to fancy with an unnecessary btb attempt. It was the right move on the one he scored later, but sometimes I just want to see him put it in his left and bury coming around GLE. Had plenty of room to do that there. He needs to learn when to keep it simple. You are from Long Island not Peterborough. Pretty sure our team btb success rate is like 1 for 28 this season.

- They were sliding to Spallina in the 1st half but I think he only went at Makar maybe 3 or 4 times the whole game. One he held him behind GLE, but on three of those he got above GLE and they slid. One Dolan saved a shot from Simmons on the wing. One we did not do enough to get open on the back side. Thought it was interesting that they did not leave him on the island with Makar and felt the need to slide. That was certainly not the Vermont or UAlbany method.

-One of our best offensive possessions was actually the one that ended with the loose ball goal that Hiltz had to make it 3-2 MD. Spallina gets to 5x5, they send a slide from behind him, but as we know Spallina has eyes in the back of his head and passes it to Hiltz up top once the slide sneaks towards his back. Hiltz immediately zips a pass in to an open Thomson on the doorstep (his man was sliding to Spallina) but he unfortunately doesnt handle properly. We get it back off the ground and then Simmons draws a lot of attention dodging on a short stick. His backdoor pass gets tipped but Hiltz still has time to grab it and score.

-I liked that Hiltz didn't shy away from the Zappitello match up in the first half. Took him from up top and missed an alley shot wide left. Not the greatest angle on the shot, but with Hiltz's shooting ability even that is one you would rather not give up as a defense. Then he took him inside from GLE and could have either scored or drawn a push in the back penalty if not for a well timed check from Zap as he hung his stick. Hiltz also had a good skip pass in the second half when matched up against an lsm. Drew a slide and then hit Spallina down low but he couldn't finish. Good to see him showing some aggression on O. He is our best offensive weapon.

-Could go on, but one bright spot is that there was a lot to like from all six of our starting middies (aside from a rough day for Thomson who had an LSM on him most of the game). We were finding success against their short sticks all day. Even a nice goal from cook against an LSM. Everyone in the top 6 registered a point. That is something that will hopefully improve going forward. Defenses will have to rotate to the mids or face consequences. MD was very slow to slide to mids, testing their ability as dodgers, and we made them pay multiple times.

 

[Cuse All-In]

Just going to add to this with some of the thoughts and stuff I wrote down on the offense and other areas while watching the full game yesterday.

-We were allergic to possessing the ball on Saturday. Both in getting the ball to the offense and then often rushing a look or doing something dumb and immediately losing it when the offense did get the ball. Richiusa had three turnovers yesterday as others have mentioned. Maybe someone who knows more about how stats on face offs are kept can correct me, but I believe that means in effect the faceoff disparity was essentially 27 to 4 instead of 24 to 7, since we immediately lost the ball on three that we won. Just complete and total domination there.

-Offense did not get a real quality settled set going until there was 6 minutes left in the first quarter. Would have had one earlier but Leo had a freshman moment trying to pass it to Spallina with Makar right on him. With an offense that is still lacking experience, that possession disparity is a recipe for feeling the heat and rushing things.

-After the disaster start we actually did begin to generate some solid looks. The first quarter goal was a slightly unsettled situation but still a good cut and feed from Spallina and Leo. Spallina with about 4 mins left blew a quality scoring chance after he got the ball at x from Leo and beat a slightly hung up Makar around the left side of the goal, but he got to fancy with an unnecessary btb attempt. It was the right move on the one he scored later, but sometimes I just want to see him put it in his left and bury coming around GLE. Had plenty of room to do that there. He needs to learn when to keep it simple. You are from Long Island not Peterborough. Pretty sure our team btb success rate is like 1 for 28 this season.

- They were sliding to Spallina in the 1st half but I think he only went at Makar maybe 3 or 4 times the whole game. One he held him behind GLE, but on three of those he got above GLE and they slid. One Dolan saved a shot from Simmons on the wing. One we did not do enough to get open on the back side. Thought it was interesting that they did not leave him on the island with Makar and felt the need to slide. That was certainly not the Vermont or UAlbany method.

-One of our best offensive possessions was actually the one that ended with the loose ball goal that Hiltz had to make it 3-2 MD. Spallina gets to 5x5, they send a slide from behind him, but as we know Spallina has eyes in the back of his head and passes it to Hiltz up top once the slide sneaks towards his back. Hiltz immediately zips a pass in to an open Thomson on the doorstep (his man was sliding to Spallina) but he unfortunately doesnt handle properly. We get it back off the ground and then Simmons draws a lot of attention dodging on a short stick. His backdoor pass gets tipped but Hiltz still has time to grab it and score.

-I liked that Hiltz didn't shy away from the Zappitello match up in the first half. Took him from up top and missed an alley shot wide left. Not the greatest angle on the shot, but with Hiltz's shooting ability even that is one you would rather not give up as a defense. Then he took him inside from GLE and could have either scored or drawn a push in the back penalty if not for a well timed check from Zap as he hung his stick. Hiltz also had a good skip pass in the second half when matched up against an lsm. Drew a slide and then hit Spallina down low but he couldn't finish. Good to see him showing some aggression on O. He is our best offensive weapon.

-Could go on, but one bright spot is that there was a lot to like from all six of our starting middies (aside from a rough day for Thomson who had an LSM on him most of the game). We were finding success against their short sticks all day. Even a nice goal from cook against an LSM. Everyone in the top 6 registered a point. That is something that will hopefully improve going forward. Defenses will have to rotate to the mids or face consequences. MD was very slow to slide to mids, testing their ability as dodgers, and we made them pay multiple times.

I feel bad for Richiusa. He came here from I believe playing for only 1 year in the MAAC - its a huge adjustment let alone the fogo position which is so challenging mentally and physically. Fogo recruitment has been a glaring weakness going back to Desko and crew. Richiusa should not have to be the guy in his first year here.

 

[FloridaCuse]

A replay of the game will be shown on the Big Ten Network this Friday morning at 9am on "B1G Plus Encore".

 

[AD31]

A replay of the game will be shown on the Big Ten Network this Friday morning at 9am on "B1G Plus Encore".

It's up on YouTube now if you want to watch it.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OrangeXtreme]

 

[OttosDad]

How do you know there isn't another option if no one else is tried. Even if that other guy gets beat what do you lose trying.

Oh I totally agree. I harken back to 2013 when there were long stretches that Daddio was bad, Desko would put Brian Megill on FO and just say “go take the ball when the opponent wins the clamp.” I don’t see why Olexo hasn’t taken a couple draws.

 

[CrazyPeople]

Oh I totally agree. I harken back to 2013 when there were long stretches that Daddio was bad, Desko would put Brian Megill on FO and just say “go take the ball when the opponent wins the clamp.” I don’t see why Olexo hasn’t taken a couple draws.

This isnt 2013, that doesn't work anymore. You very rarely see a pole out there anymore at any level. FO guys are too good, stick technology has changed so much. They can simply put it wherever they want. Worst care scenario is they are out the front because poles are too slow to react.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

This isnt 2013, that doesn't work anymore. You very rarely see a pole out there anymore at any level. FO guys are too good, stick technology has changed so much. They can simply put it wherever they want. Worst care scenario is they are out the front because poles are too slow to react.

We did this against Bryant years ago.

Concede the face off and keep the FOGO from getting a quick goal.

 

[ClvrUsrnm]

Oh I totally agree. I harken back to 2013 when there were long stretches that Daddio was bad, Desko would put Brian Megill on FO and just say “go take the ball when the opponent wins the clamp.” I don’t see why Olexo hasn’t taken a couple draws.

Haven’t the rules also changed that the first move has to be to try to win the draw? If that’s a college rule now (it’s definitely a HS rule), you can’t just stand up and smash the FOGOs hands or crack him in the chest as your first move.

 

[CrazyPeople]

We did this against Bryant years ago.

Concede the face off and keep the FOGO from getting a quick goal.

Right, but you are 100% conceding the face off

 

[OttosDad]

This isnt 2013, that doesn't work anymore. You very rarely see a pole out there anymore at any level. FO guys are too good, stick technology has changed so much. They can simply put it wherever they want. Worst care scenario is they are out the front because poles are too slow to react.

Again, unless it’s against the rules, could it have hurt to try this Saturday?

I really don’t mean to kill the kid but Richiusa was just clearly overmatched. He was a deer in the headlights

 

[JeremyCuse]

Again, unless it’s against the rules, could it have hurt to try this Saturday?

I really don’t mean to kill the kid but Richiusa was just clearly overmatched. He was a deer in the headlights

A long pole should always be the last option, if you have three back up FOGO's roll with them first and see if one of them catches lightning in a bottle. Gibbs should have taken multiple draws and Fine given a shot as well.

 

[AD31]

A long pole should always be the last option, if you have three back up FOGO's roll with them first and see if one of them catches lightning in a bottle. Gibbs should have taken multiple draws and Fine given a shot as well.

Yeah I mean why waste a roster spot if ur not giving a kid a chance to play. I remember the Yale vs St Joseph's game last yr where Zach Cole dominated Yale's Fogo in the first half so 2nd half Shay put his backup in who didn't take many draws all yr and he actually won over 50% the 2nd half. Now the starter is most likely a better Fogo but sometimes changing it up works. Even two yrs ago Jake Murphy took some face offs for LIU and during the tournament game with St Joseph's Cole was dominating so Murphy started taking some and won 4 out of 8. He's not even a FOGO just can do it if needed and I guess just changing it up threw Cole off some. Its worth a shot when ur FOGO is getting beat so bad and the other FOGO is placing the ball wherever he wants. That's why I agree the wing play has to be better but also they didn't get a lot of chances this game. Weirman was in complete control and was sending that ball wherever he wanted to. Even give that walk on Lamonico a shot. I loved his HS highlights he's short but looks strong and tough. Never know maybe he could have battled for a few wins.

 

[Cuse All-In]

Yeah I mean why waste a roster spot if ur not giving a kid a chance to play. I remember the Yale vs St Joseph's game last yr where Zach Cole dominated Yale's Fogo in the first half so 2nd half Shay put his backup in who didn't take many draws all yr and he actually won over 50% the 2nd half. Now the starter is most likely a better Fogo but sometimes changing it up works. Even two yrs ago Jake Murphy took some face offs for LIU and during the tournament game with St Joseph's Cole was dominating so Murphy started taking some and won 4 out of 8. He's not even a FOGO just can do it if needed and I guess just changing it up threw Cole off some. Its worth a shot when ur FOGO is getting beat so bad and the other FOGO is placing the ball wherever he wants. That's why I agree the wing play has to be better but also they didn't get a lot of chances this game. Weirman was in complete control and was sending that ball wherever he wanted to. Even give that walk on Lamonico a shot. I loved his HS highlights he's short but looks strong and tough. Never know maybe he could have battled for a few wins.

Desko was terrible for overplaying the starting fogo - I get preserving redshirt status in some cases but it is usually not justified. I remember the game at Duke back in 2021 - we fell behind in the first half by losing almost all the face-offs and Desko refused to play the backups. We mounted a great comeback and just fell short - we would have won had he mixed things up. And it was a huge game in determining our playoff position, confidence etc.

 

[CrazyPeople]

Desko was terrible for overplaying the starting fogo - I get preserving redshirt status in some cases but it is usually not justified. I remember the game at Duke back in 2021 - we fell behind in the first half by losing almost all the face-offs and Desko refused to play the backups. We mounted a great comeback and just fell short - we would have won had he mixed things up. And it was a huge game in determining our playoff position, confidence etc.

Wrong. Phaup was terrible to start that game and then they went Danny Varello who was marginally better. But they split duties in most of 2019, 2020 and 2021.

In 2021 the options were:
Nate Garlow - how many face offs did he end up winning at Richmond last year?
Luke Telago - how many face offs is he currently taking at Jacksonville?
Jack Savage - transferring to play club.

 

[Cuse All-In]

Wrong. Phaup was terrible to start that game and then they went Danny Varello who was marginally better. But they split duties in most of 2019, 2020 and 2021.

In 2021 the options were:
Nate Garlow - how many face offs did he end up winning at Richmond last year?
Luke Telago - how many face offs is he currently taking at Jacksonville?
Jack Savage - transferring to play club.

I hear you but I still think he should have gone to Varello earlier (1st qtr) and then down the depth chart. Just my opinion. If I remember, he rode Ben Williams pretty hard too.

 

[cuselaxss26]

One thing must add also as i wasn’t a fogo (in my day wasn’t really a thing yet just was two way middie who was taught and very good at faceoffs) is when actually give someone else shot can’t let them take one n if lose then go right back to same old guy. Sometimes may take new person few draws get going. So would say not only try someone diff but give them few chances maby 3 in row see how does if beat all 3 try someone else n just keep switching if non works. Some fogos like first couple draws to read their opponent to see what they attack with so they know how to counter or change to something else. The one and only FO gibbs took in maryland game he won clamp and popped it out forward just first ball then got check losing it. That was it tho didn’t take another one prob cause he lost but can’t expect someone coming in cold just start winning or battling gotta give them few tries not saying has to be 10 but say least 3-5 at first. Fogo is very different spot man sometimes the best fogo dominating top guys can go against someone from lower end school and get bested by that lower school guy all cause his technique, style or few things. So def agree gotta switch it up. Worst case still not winning then least have lsm only just right at whistle head straight to D zone so no fast break or anything while the short d mid heads to Fo x. l do miss days when could just push dude from start without going for ball first. Also mean sometimes hard to see that close what our fogos doing if always trying to clamp ball instead of trying a sweep,rake, or even jam. Sometimes when someone beating ya to clamp easy if good at rake can help wonders. But also agree if dude clamps it then forgo it n just start stick checking him as he trying get ball out or pop it up but gotta react fast for that.

 

[cuselaxss26]

Ment to say gibbs seem to miss ball when he popped it forward before got check. I do know he won clamp n popped it forward which prob was cause weirdman had someone new vs him. All rules changes were suppose to limit tie ups n limit domination they say grant doesn’t seem helping in that aspect. I always said if really wanna stop from one guy dominating then make rule like a pitch count. So then teams have to manage their top guy plus use other guys which means more people get playing time and chance. I don’t know something like can’t take more then 15-25 faceoffs or whatever number in a single game for one guy. That would maby balance it out at times when top guy not in as close or hit his total number. Will never happen but just saying. Also so sorry for my long post.

 

[CrazyPeople]

I hear you but I still think he should have gone to Varello earlier (1st qtr) and then down the depth chart. Just my opinion. If I remember, he rode Ben Williams pretty hard too.

I disagree but that's ok. In that game Varello took his first face-off at 5-5 with 11:40ish remaining in the 2nd quarter.

I think most coaches believe that the guy you see winning face offs in practice is eventually going to win a couple. It's hard to know when exactly to pull the plug. Especially when you know the guys behind him are considerably weaker.

 

[Cuse All-In]

I disagree but that's ok. In that game Varello took his first face-off at 5-5 with 11:40ish remaining in the 2nd quarter.

I think most coaches believe that the guy you see winning face offs in practice is eventually going to win a couple. It's hard to know when exactly to pull the plug. Especially when you know the guys behind him are considerably weaker.

You make a compelling case.