North Carolina Game Thread...

[DoctahLexus]

Phaup/Varello have gone up against some very solid face off units and held their own, most notably Hopkins, Hobart, UVA, and Duke. However I have never seen Phaup get beat so convincingly on the clamp like he was early against UNC. It was to the point where you have to wonder if he was dealing with some nagging injury issues. Especially when Varello came in and basically dominated despite not fully getting the best of a unit on his own once this year. Then again I remember the same thing happening against Hopkins when Phaup went against Narewski, who is actually the lesser of Hopkins 2 FOGOs percentage wise. Best case scenario it is a certain style of FOGO play that he struggles with that Varello conveniently does well against. For my money Phaup is one of the best in the nation at everything about face offs besides the initial clamp (running speed/athleticism, exits, groundballs in traffic, protecting the ball after getting the GB and finding the open man, avoiding false starts and other violations). His percentage, which is 5th in the nation, reflects that. Also as a fun fact: If Towson doesn’t make the Tourney than Yale is the only team that is ahead of us in overall percentage of faceoffs won as a team (they are in 1st). We are in 10th with Penn and Maryland close behind at 11th and 12th. Penn St is 15th. We indeed do have a very effective 2 headed monster.

 

[MD Cuse Fan]

Phaup/Varello have gone up against some very solid face off units and held their own, most notably Hopkins, Hobart, UVA, and Duke. However I have never seen Phaup get beat so convincingly on the clamp like he was early against UNC. It was to the point where you have to wonder if he was dealing with some nagging injury issues. Especially when Varello came in and basically dominated despite not fully getting the best of a unit on his own once this year. Then again I remember the same thing happening against Hopkins when Phaup went against Narewski, who is actually the lesser of Hopkins 2 FOGOs percentage wise. Best case scenario it is a certain style of FOGO play that he struggles with that Varello conveniently does well against. For my money Phaup is one of the best in the nation at everything about face offs besides the initial clamp (running speed/athleticism, exits, groundballs in traffic, protecting the ball after getting the GB and finding the open man, avoiding false starts and other violations). His percentage, which is 5th in the nation, reflects that. Also as a fun fact: If Towson doesn’t make the Tourney than Yale is the only team that is ahead of us in overall percentage of faceoffs won as a team (they are in 1st). We are in 10th with Penn and Maryland close behind at 11th and 12th. Penn St is 15th. We indeed do have a very effective 2 headed monster.

He very well could be, I thought he got roughed up some in the Cornell game and there have been other games that's been the case as well which is usually the norm for that position. That's why I'm glad they've mixed Varello back in there lately and he certainly doesn't look like he's lost his confidence.

I would have never guessed Penn State is not ranked in the top ten for face-off percentage. Outside of Ierlan, Arceri is probably considered the next best guy in the country.

 

[Powellfan]

Yep, different fogo matchups result in different outcomes. Face-off game has been a huge plus so far. Phaup and Varello have done the job against a number of good fogos to date but have yet to face the prime. Yale, Penn, Maryland, Penn State going to be in NCCA and maybe Towson as well . Could face any in NCAA, have faith they'll hold their own.. Do recall Varello giving Ierlan a good battle in winter scrimmage

Believe this team is unselfish despite the low assist totals. I always liken lax to hoops, many good b-ball offenses try to exploit mismatches if their players have one on one skills. Cuse has several and believe that is why assists are lower than most. Like to hear thoughts from others on this.

Man down % are not as high as last year while man up has been very efficient. The former is probably some reversion to mean off high number. It is still a good unit. Attack sticks really shine on man up

Good post IT. The way I interpret the Orange offense is a group of good but not great dodgers who are all pretty capable of setting up their own shot, but who also will look to their teammates first. I think most other defenses realize that their approach to Syracuse is to force them to shot in isolated positions. These last few weeks I have been surprised by the fact that so many goals have been unassisted. I didn't like that fact at first but I think they are taking what defenses are giving them. If a team isn't going to slide then SU has to score unassisted goals.

Also a good number of goals have been in transition and in broken play situations these last few weeks, most of that chaos has been created by the Syracuse offense creating turnovers.

I agree that they are unselfish though - take the intercepted pass by Voigt against UNC - the number one goal scorer on the team and the "finisher" of the offense picks off a pass and has a pretty open shot, but instead looks for his teammate for a door-stop shot which leads to a goal. If a player like Voigt who's mentality is shoot first is still looking for teammates in situations like that, I definitely think that encourages the rest of the team to be unselfish and share the ball.

 

[DoctahLexus]

He very well could be, I thought he got roughed up some in the Cornell game and there have been other games that's been the case as well which is usually the norm for that position. That's why I'm glad they've mixed Varello back in there lately and he certainly doesn't look like he's lost his confidence.

I would have never guessed Penn State is not ranked in the top ten for face-off percentage. Outside of Ierlan, Arceri is probably considered the next best guy in the country.

He is very slightly overrated. Still great but not nearly on the level of Ierlan and Woodal at Towson. There are 2 or 3 other FOGOs who could have got the third team AA spot over him.