JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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- Aug 15, 2011
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I have debated posting this as I have been a Desko fan but this season has showed what most of us have known/thought for probably the last 5/6 years, its simply time for some fresh blood at the head of the program. Could it risk a mass exodus from the 2022 class that looks outstanding, yes, but I believe we have reached the end of the "but next year" rationalization for keeping the status quo.
Desko has kept the program more then competitive in the ACC and roughly a top 15 team each year but the post-season success has fallen off the cliff and it looks like the current regime has simply run out of answers. The lack of elite level recruiting has finally caught up and in the year of the super team we have been exposed. 4 blowout losses when the team wasn't competitive and the game was over by halftime is a damning indictment on how far the program has fallen. Blowout losses happen, once maybe twice a year but never like this. This SU team in the prime of the Desko era would have blasted ND on Sat after getting embarrassed earlier in the year, instead the game was over at half and we struggled to simply maintain possession without turning it over or winning a faceoff.
The problems we have are multiple and many are recurring issues that the fanbase has been screaming about for years. We have struggled with slides and off ball defense and the ability to defend the big little game for about a decade now and yet it's still an issue year after year after year. We still don't have an elite level attackmen despite Rehfuss having an outstanding year. Sowers, Gray and Kavanaugh are all top end attackmen that have carried there teams and have rarely been shut out or taken out of the game completely. We simply don't have a player like that on the roster and it shows. When ND's best defender took Rehfuss out of the game we had no answer. We tried to run the offense up top out of the midfield but after the first couple of possession ND adjusted and we had no answer. On the flipside defensively we again lack that elite lockdown defender. Were relying on a D3 transfer (a hell of a player by the way) to come in and be our #1 guy against an ACC featuring outside of Bernhardt the top attackmen in the nation. We put Wycokff in a no win situation and outside of Moore he has been beat up by Sowers, Kavanaugh, Gray, etc.
Personnel decisions continue to be baffling and often bizarre. As good as Phaup was against UVA last week it was clear by the end of the 1st quarter on Sat that he was going to struggle against ND's formidable duo. Yet we ran him out there until there was 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Why? Where was Varello where was Savage? Why did we sit on Savage's shirt for half the season, then burn it and then never have him see the field again? Why in a roster of a dozen plus midfielders are we running two converted attackmen on the 2nd line when of them (Ferris) is clearly not comfortable playing middie and the other (Cook) has been an offensive black hole. Where is Magnan, Fiorini, Lewis, Birtwistle etc. If the defense is continuing to struggle where are the other polls on the roster. Why have a roster of nearly 60 when half never play and you need to be Hiltz to play as a frosh. There are plenty of other examples but you get the point.
Just to many ongoing issues and questions that remain an issue year after year. Even the offense that was supposed to be the best since the champ teams of the late 2000's has grossly underperformed. The 1st midfield has been inconsistent with 2/3rds often MIA, Curry hasn't been close to a 1st team AA and we have struggled to get Hiltz invovled for long stretches and have completely abandoned him dodging. I am unclear at times what March is trying to do beyond initiating from up top with the middies or inverting or the occasional dodge from Rehfuss when he isn't drawing an elite defender. What happened to initiating form the wings, what happened to the crisp ball movement, where is the transition and fast break offense we saw make a bit of a comeback 2 years ago?
In the end the bottom line is 1 final four in 12 years, none in 7 years and soon to be 8 and a team that hasn't' been a post-season factor since 2013 or gotten out of the 1st round since 2017 and then promptly got blown out. The 2022 recruiting class offers a potential return to the SU of old but at this point do you a trust a 12-2 SU squad to get to the final four or is it more likely they get upset in the 1st round again. The fact that you have to hesitate to answer that question tells you all you need to know. I like John Desko he was/is a legend at SU but its clear to anyone being objective that his era has come to an end. SU can't wait till it completely falls apart like Hopkins, its' to make a change.
Desko has kept the program more then competitive in the ACC and roughly a top 15 team each year but the post-season success has fallen off the cliff and it looks like the current regime has simply run out of answers. The lack of elite level recruiting has finally caught up and in the year of the super team we have been exposed. 4 blowout losses when the team wasn't competitive and the game was over by halftime is a damning indictment on how far the program has fallen. Blowout losses happen, once maybe twice a year but never like this. This SU team in the prime of the Desko era would have blasted ND on Sat after getting embarrassed earlier in the year, instead the game was over at half and we struggled to simply maintain possession without turning it over or winning a faceoff.
The problems we have are multiple and many are recurring issues that the fanbase has been screaming about for years. We have struggled with slides and off ball defense and the ability to defend the big little game for about a decade now and yet it's still an issue year after year after year. We still don't have an elite level attackmen despite Rehfuss having an outstanding year. Sowers, Gray and Kavanaugh are all top end attackmen that have carried there teams and have rarely been shut out or taken out of the game completely. We simply don't have a player like that on the roster and it shows. When ND's best defender took Rehfuss out of the game we had no answer. We tried to run the offense up top out of the midfield but after the first couple of possession ND adjusted and we had no answer. On the flipside defensively we again lack that elite lockdown defender. Were relying on a D3 transfer (a hell of a player by the way) to come in and be our #1 guy against an ACC featuring outside of Bernhardt the top attackmen in the nation. We put Wycokff in a no win situation and outside of Moore he has been beat up by Sowers, Kavanaugh, Gray, etc.
Personnel decisions continue to be baffling and often bizarre. As good as Phaup was against UVA last week it was clear by the end of the 1st quarter on Sat that he was going to struggle against ND's formidable duo. Yet we ran him out there until there was 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Why? Where was Varello where was Savage? Why did we sit on Savage's shirt for half the season, then burn it and then never have him see the field again? Why in a roster of a dozen plus midfielders are we running two converted attackmen on the 2nd line when of them (Ferris) is clearly not comfortable playing middie and the other (Cook) has been an offensive black hole. Where is Magnan, Fiorini, Lewis, Birtwistle etc. If the defense is continuing to struggle where are the other polls on the roster. Why have a roster of nearly 60 when half never play and you need to be Hiltz to play as a frosh. There are plenty of other examples but you get the point.
Just to many ongoing issues and questions that remain an issue year after year. Even the offense that was supposed to be the best since the champ teams of the late 2000's has grossly underperformed. The 1st midfield has been inconsistent with 2/3rds often MIA, Curry hasn't been close to a 1st team AA and we have struggled to get Hiltz invovled for long stretches and have completely abandoned him dodging. I am unclear at times what March is trying to do beyond initiating from up top with the middies or inverting or the occasional dodge from Rehfuss when he isn't drawing an elite defender. What happened to initiating form the wings, what happened to the crisp ball movement, where is the transition and fast break offense we saw make a bit of a comeback 2 years ago?
In the end the bottom line is 1 final four in 12 years, none in 7 years and soon to be 8 and a team that hasn't' been a post-season factor since 2013 or gotten out of the 1st round since 2017 and then promptly got blown out. The 2022 recruiting class offers a potential return to the SU of old but at this point do you a trust a 12-2 SU squad to get to the final four or is it more likely they get upset in the 1st round again. The fact that you have to hesitate to answer that question tells you all you need to know. I like John Desko he was/is a legend at SU but its clear to anyone being objective that his era has come to an end. SU can't wait till it completely falls apart like Hopkins, its' to make a change.
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