Stony Brook Game Preview (3/19/22, 3pm) | Syracusefan.com

Stony Brook Game Preview (3/19/22, 3pm)

Powellfan

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The Orange try and get back to their winning ways against Stony Brook after a dissapointing loss to Johns Hopkins last week. The Seawolves come in at 4-2 with wins against Fairfield, Robert Morris, LIU and St Johns. Their two losses were close ones against Rutgers (17-16) and Brown (10-7). This would obviously be a devastating loss for the Orange and the schedule doesn't get any easier from here on out.

The questions surrounding this game for me aren't so much focused on Stony Brook, but rather will Syracuse make any significant changes to their scheme or personnel after a dissapointing 2-4 start to the season? Most of the posters on this board have been frustrated with an offense that is overly reliant on two players. The defense is still making bad slides and getting beat on substitution games. On offense I am curious if some of the younger players get more playing time going forward, especially Tyler Cordes and Mateo Corsi who have combined for 11 points despite not getting much playing time. With a tough start the season it seemed like the coaches started out in desperation mode, running the first midfield almost every shift and having Dordevic and Curry take almost every shot. Now that the team is really in desperation mode, do they change things up and try something new, or double down on what has already been a losing strategy? I don't agree with it, but I can see the rational in putting Curry out for every shift, but it doesn't make sense to me why they would put Quinn and Cook out there as well for every shift.

For the last two games Mikey Berkman has been drawing a short stick - despite that fact he's only averaged four shots a game and has three goals. Can the coaching staff better exploit that matchup, and if not, get someone else in there who can? Berkman has done a nice job this season filling in on short notice for Owen Hiltz, but I think the coaches need to do a better job of taking what the defense gives them. I understand not wanting to rotate players every five minutes as you need to establish chemistry, but there has to be a better balance. There are a lot of guys on the bench right now, Birtwistle, Tenaglia, Ferris, Buttermore - are they all hurt? It's confusing to me why none of these guys are playing. On paper the offense doesn't look that bad, averaging 14 goals a game, but take away the opening blowout win against Holy Cross and the number is a dismal 11.8.

Possessions have been easier to come by this year with Jakob Phaup playing really well so far (winning 60%), but it looks like he'll have his hands full with Renz Conlon from Stony Brook - he has a 62% winning percentage so far this season. The SB goalie is only saving the ball at a 52% clip so that seems like an edge for the Orange to hopefully exploit.

The defense looked better last game against Hopkins, but there are a lot of caveats to that performance that I won't spell out in this post. There were still a lot of bad slides and mental mistakes that date back to the last few years. To my eyes it looks like Carter Rice and Brendan Aviles have looked strong at SSDM this season, but it seems like other defenses are really attacking the other short sticks this season, no matter who they are. Whether it's one of the backups or an offensive midfielder who got caught on defense, a lot of the bad slides the long poles take are because those shorties are getting beat. Not sure what needs to be done to fix that, but whatever they are doing now isn't it. Landon Clary returned to the lineup last week which was good to see, but Max Rosa was out which wasn't. Curious who starts in net this week for the Orange, but it almost doesn't matter much as neither are saving above 50%. It's not all their fault of course but both are closer to 40% than they are to 50%. That's really not going to cut at the DI level.

The Seawolves bring a dangerous offense to the field, but their scoring is a little top heavy with their top four guys doing most of it (81 out of 115 points). Grant Murphy has been covering the opposing teams lefty attackman this season, so that would mean he draws the Dylan Pallonetti matchup. Curious if that holds as he's their best shooter with 16 goals this year, who has also taken twice as many shots as the next leading shooter (70 to 39). I imagine Brett Kennedy will draw Michigan transfer Kevin Mack, who leads the team in assists with 12 (Pallonetti also has 10 assists). The other two top scorers are midfielders with 18 and 17 points so I'll be interested to see if Syracuse double poles that unit.

I think the Orange should win this game but who knows given the the results so far this season. Does Syracuse have fight in them? They will need at as the playoffs basically start now. This seems like the only game they have left that gives them any wiggle room to try something new. Will they? I'm of course very interested in the score, but also am very very interested in how they get there.
 
Stony Brook can score, almost beat Rutgers last week and they quietly have a solid FOGO in Renz Conlon who comes in 6th nationally in faceoff percentage albeit against a meh schedule. Haven't seen the betting line yet but my guess is it's going to be a true tossup. Must win for the Orange if they have any hope of still finishing at least .500.
 
First in-depth interview I've seen with Gait in a few weeks, minus the press conferences. A few interesting tidbits -

-Asked the status of Hiltz, Gait says its looks like it will be a redshirt year based on what doctors are saying but its still up in the air.

-Sounds like they might try some new faces at attack in place of Berkman.

-And what might be most interesting of all, this one's for your Jeremey - he admits that if he had to do it over again they would not have made the schedule so challenging. In his words they would have focused on teams that would allow them to build chemistry. He said they built the schedule in the summer before getting a look at the team. I am speculating but that's probably why they didn't want to hit the transfer portal either. Kudos to Gait for admitting a mistake (at least in the eyes of many of us). Curious to see what sort of adjustments he makes next year but to me at least he's showing a willingness to adjust which is a good thing. A lot of these schedule deals are two years so teams can get a home and home.

 
First in-depth interview I've seen with Gait in a few weeks, minus the press conferences. A few interesting tidbits -

-Asked the status of Hiltz, Gait says its looks like it will be a redshirt year based on what doctors are saying but its still up in the air.

-Sounds like they might try some new faces at attack in place of Berkman.

-And what might be most interesting of all, this one's for your Jeremey - he admits that if he had to do it over again they would not have made the schedule so challenging. In his words they would have focused on teams that would allow them to build chemistry. He said they built the schedule in the summer before getting a look at the team. I am speculating but that's probably why they didn't want to hit the transfer portal either. Kudos to Gait for admitting a mistake (at least in the eyes of many of us). Curious to see what sort of adjustments he makes next year but to me at least he's showing a willingness to adjust which is a good thing. A lot of these schedule deals are two years so teams can get a home and home.


Thanks for the recap Powell, really good to hear that Gait recognizes they made a mistake or two and will adjust versus doubling down.

Ya know its frustrating from a fan standpoint when multiple people who follow a program can see an issue long before the staff does. I thought it was clear from Day 1 that even with Hiltz that scheduling like your Maryland or Loyola (Sr laden team with Final 4 aspirations) probably wasn't the greatest of ideas when it clearly was going to be a rebuilding year. There was zero need to play Maryland this year and we should have told Army or Cornell we were taking a one year hiatus. An OOC of Cornell, Hobart, @Hopkins, @SB @ Albany and then 2 cupcakes would have been fine when you consider your already playing the #1 team in the Country twice in UVA plus ND twice (although they are struggling a bit) plus Duke and UNC. I don't think you needed to be Quint Kessenich or have to see the players in the fall to know that scheduling Maryland and a mid week Army game after UVA the prior weekend was probably a less then stellar idea for this team especially after you basically ignored the portal.

The personnel decisions have also been a bit baffling. Clearly Berkman can play at this level but he gets exposed playing 60 min as a starter. At worst he should have been in a rotation, ditto for Cook who I think now has 4 goals (the entire year) including 1 in his last 3 games despite playing a boatload of minutes. How guys like Cordes, Corsi, Birtwistle (if healthy) aren't seeing more time is unexplainable. The defense does appear to be getting somewhat better so I am a bit encouraged their but even with them your seeing a lot of the same mistakes and the goalie flip flop isn't helping at all.
 
Stony Brook 17, UMass Lowell 9

 
Stony Brook 17, UMass Lowell 9


It was closer than it should have been early on. 4-4 at one point.
 
The Orange try and get back to their winning ways against Stony Brook after a dissapointing loss to Johns Hopkins last week. The Seawolves come in at 4-2 with wins against Fairfield, Robert Morris, LIU and St Johns. Their two losses were close ones against Rutgers (17-16) and Brown (10-7). This would obviously be a devastating loss for the Orange and the schedule doesn't get any easier from here on out.

The questions surrounding this game for me aren't so much focused on Stony Brook, but rather will Syracuse make any significant changes to their scheme or personnel after a dissapointing 2-4 start to the season? Most of the posters on this board have been frustrated with an offense that is overly reliant on two players. The defense is still making bad slides and getting beat on substitution games. On offense I am curious if some of the younger players get more playing time going forward, especially Tyler Cordes and Mateo Corsi who have combined for 11 points despite not getting much playing time. With a tough start the season it seemed like the coaches started out in desperation mode, running the first midfield almost every shift and having Dordevic and Curry take almost every shot. Now that the team is really in desperation mode, do they change things up and try something new, or double down on what has already been a losing strategy? I don't agree with it, but I can see the rational in putting Curry out for every shift, but it doesn't make sense to me why they would put Quinn and Cook out there as well for every shift.

For the last two games Mikey Berkman has been drawing a short stick - despite that fact he's only averaged four shots a game and has three goals. Can the coaching staff better exploit that matchup, and if not, get someone else in there who can? Berkman has done a nice job this season filling in on short notice for Owen Hiltz, but I think the coaches need to do a better job of taking what the defense gives them. I understand not wanting to rotate players every five minutes as you need to establish chemistry, but there has to be a better balance. There are a lot of guys on the bench right now, Birtwistle, Tenaglia, Ferris, Buttermore - are they all hurt? It's confusing to me why none of these guys are playing. On paper the offense doesn't look that bad, averaging 14 goals a game, but take away the opening blowout win against Holy Cross and the number is a dismal 11.8.

Possessions have been easier to come by this year with Jakob Phaup playing really well so far (winning 60%), but it looks like he'll have his hands full with Renz Conlon from Stony Brook - he has a 62% winning percentage so far this season. The SB goalie is only saving the ball at a 52% clip so that seems like an edge for the Orange to hopefully exploit.

The defense looked better last game against Hopkins, but there are a lot of caveats to that performance that I won't spell out in this post. There were still a lot of bad slides and mental mistakes that date back to the last few years. To my eyes it looks like Carter Rice and Brendan Aviles have looked strong at SSDM this season, but it seems like other defenses are really attacking the other short sticks this season, no matter who they are. Whether it's one of the backups or an offensive midfielder who got caught on defense, a lot of the bad slides the long poles take are because those shorties are getting beat. Not sure what needs to be done to fix that, but whatever they are doing now isn't it. Landon Clary returned to the lineup last week which was good to see, but Max Rosa was out which wasn't. Curious who starts in net this week for the Orange, but it almost doesn't matter much as neither are saving above 50%. It's not all their fault of course but both are closer to 40% than they are to 50%. That's really not going to cut at the DI level.

The Seawolves bring a dangerous offense to the field, but their scoring is a little top heavy with their top four guys doing most of it (81 out of 115 points). Grant Murphy has been covering the opposing teams lefty attackman this season, so that would mean he draws the Dylan Pallonetti matchup. Curious if that holds as he's their best shooter with 16 goals this year, who has also taken twice as many shots as the next leading shooter (70 to 39). I imagine Brett Kennedy will draw Michigan transfer Kevin Mack, who leads the team in assists with 12 (Pallonetti also has 10 assists). The other two top scorers are midfielders with 18 and 17 points so I'll be interested to see if Syracuse double poles that unit.

I think the Orange should win this game but who knows given the the results so far this season. Does Syracuse have fight in them? They will need at as the playoffs basically start now. This seems like the only game they have left that gives them any wiggle room to try something new. Will they? I'm of course very interested in the score, but also am very very interested in how they get there.
Great overview !!
 

Well done interview, I thought he asked a lot of the same questions we would. March has some "non-answers" in there but he makes some good points. My takeaways:

-Sounds like Cordes and Corsi will see more time going forward. Will beleive it when I see it but its good to hear.

-March puts a lot of the struggles on Hiltz being out, and it sounds like there has been other injuries - Buttermore still dealing with his knee and it sounds like Tenaglia was due to get more playing time last week but was hurt.

-March points to the fact that Dordevic and Seebold changed positions as reasons why the unit may be struggling - Seebold was a high school attackman but I see his point a bit. I was expecting Seebold to be a little more "refined" in his dodging. He doesn't look totally comfortable close to the goal with his back to the goalie. He has no issues posting up, but when it comes to shooting it doesn't look like he totally trusts himself. The move to midfield probably hindered his development there.

-He gives Cook credit for "hockey assists" within the offense and a high lacrosse IQ. I think he lets him off the hook a bit but probably doesn't do him any good to be hung out to dry with the media.

-The biggest takeaway I had was from the below quote, when asked if he had the right personnel -

“I think the biggest thing is whenever you come into a place and you want to run a newer system, you have to recruit for it, and you have to have guys who are going to play in that system and balance. We have great players here at Syracuse, and we can put them in different spots, but the overall depth of lefties and righties and guys with the skillset that I’m looking for, I think we’ll start to see those guys arrive. It’s not that we don’t have some of those guys now. It’s more of the overall depth of the actual roster.”

This response harkens back to Gait bringing up next year's freshmen in his pre-Hopkins PC. March is careful to still defend his players that are currently on the roster. It does seem like the lefty-righty balance has been harder to find than maybe we are considering. Hiltz is the teams best lefty and Dordevic has not only been asked to play attack, but also move to the left side of the offense. That can't be easy.

Anyways, I think its fair for us to be upset about the state of the team right now, but it's at least refreshing to hear from the coaches that they get it. Hopefully things start to improve against Stony Brook.
 
Well done interview, I thought he asked a lot of the same questions we would. March has some "non-answers" in there but he makes some good points. My takeaways:

-Sounds like Cordes and Corsi will see more time going forward. Will beleive it when I see it but its good to hear.

-March puts a lot of the struggles on Hiltz being out, and it sounds like there has been other injuries - Buttermore still dealing with his knee and it sounds like Tenaglia was due to get more playing time last week but was hurt.

-March points to the fact that Dordevic and Seebold changed positions as reasons why the unit may be struggling - Seebold was a high school attackman but I see his point a bit. I was expecting Seebold to be a little more "refined" in his dodging. He doesn't look totally comfortable close to the goal with his back to the goalie. He has no issues posting up, but when it comes to shooting it doesn't look like he totally trusts himself. The move to midfield probably hindered his development there.

-He gives Cook credit for "hockey assists" within the offense and a high lacrosse IQ. I think he lets him off the hook a bit but probably doesn't do him any good to be hung out to dry with the media.

-The biggest takeaway I had was from the below quote, when asked if he had the right personnel -

“I think the biggest thing is whenever you come into a place and you want to run a newer system, you have to recruit for it, and you have to have guys who are going to play in that system and balance. We have great players here at Syracuse, and we can put them in different spots, but the overall depth of lefties and righties and guys with the skillset that I’m looking for, I think we’ll start to see those guys arrive. It’s not that we don’t have some of those guys now. It’s more of the overall depth of the actual roster.”

This response harkens back to Gait bringing up next year's freshmen in his pre-Hopkins PC. March is careful to still defend his players that are currently on the roster. It does seem like the lefty-righty balance has been harder to find than maybe we are considering. Hiltz is the teams best lefty and Dordevic has not only been asked to play attack, but also move to the left side of the offense. That can't be easy.

Anyways, I think its fair for us to be upset about the state of the team right now, but it's at least refreshing to hear from the coaches that they get it. Hopefully things start to improve against Stony Brook.
Cordes may actually be our best passer. Has made some really nice skip passes when given the opportunity and would have more assists if guys could finish. He is a lefty too. Do they ever try him on the left side on attack? Tenaglia and Buttermore still dealing with injury is a major bummer, but at least it explains some of the lineup choices.
 
Cordes may actually be our best passer. Has made some really nice skip passes when given the opportunity and would have more assists if guys could finish. He is a lefty too. Do they ever try him on the left side on attack? Tenaglia and Buttermore still dealing with injury is a major bummer, but at least it explains some of the lineup choices.
hate to sound like a broken record but no mention of Birtwistle...I thought he showed well in his limited playing time and can be another asset on attack. To JC's point, he must be hurt but doesn't sound like March mentioned him when discussing injuries.
 
hate to sound like a broken record but no mention of Birtwistle...I thought he showed well in his limited playing time and can be another asset on attack. To JC's point, he must be hurt but doesn't sound like March mentioned him when discussing injuries.
Someone may have mentioned that he is struggling with injury still as well. Believe we did not even see him in the hobart game.
 
Well done interview, I thought he asked a lot of the same questions we would. March has some "non-answers" in there but he makes some good points. My takeaways:

-Sounds like Cordes and Corsi will see more time going forward. Will beleive it when I see it but its good to hear.

-March puts a lot of the struggles on Hiltz being out, and it sounds like there has been other injuries - Buttermore still dealing with his knee and it sounds like Tenaglia was due to get more playing time last week but was hurt.

-March points to the fact that Dordevic and Seebold changed positions as reasons why the unit may be struggling - Seebold was a high school attackman but I see his point a bit. I was expecting Seebold to be a little more "refined" in his dodging. He doesn't look totally comfortable close to the goal with his back to the goalie. He has no issues posting up, but when it comes to shooting it doesn't look like he totally trusts himself. The move to midfield probably hindered his development there.

-He gives Cook credit for "hockey assists" within the offense and a high lacrosse IQ. I think he lets him off the hook a bit but probably doesn't do him any good to be hung out to dry with the media.

-The biggest takeaway I had was from the below quote, when asked if he had the right personnel -

“I think the biggest thing is whenever you come into a place and you want to run a newer system, you have to recruit for it, and you have to have guys who are going to play in that system and balance. We have great players here at Syracuse, and we can put them in different spots, but the overall depth of lefties and righties and guys with the skillset that I’m looking for, I think we’ll start to see those guys arrive. It’s not that we don’t have some of those guys now. It’s more of the overall depth of the actual roster.”

This response harkens back to Gait bringing up next year's freshmen in his pre-Hopkins PC. March is careful to still defend his players that are currently on the roster. It does seem like the lefty-righty balance has been harder to find than maybe we are considering. Hiltz is the teams best lefty and Dordevic has not only been asked to play attack, but also move to the left side of the offense. That can't be easy.

Anyways, I think its fair for us to be upset about the state of the team right now, but it's at least refreshing to hear from the coaches that they get it. Hopefully things start to improve against Stony Brook.
Okay, tell me this. How can SU have great players who don't have the skill set he's looking for? Maybe he wanted less than great players who can do what he wants. Or great players who do not do what he wants but win games anyway. Until the coaches learn how to analyze the team without slyly demeaning them, they should stop generalizing about the quality of their players. Just stop it.
 
Cordes may actually be our best passer. Has made some really nice skip passes when given the opportunity and would have more assists if guys could finish. He is a lefty too. Do they ever try him on the left side on attack? Tenaglia and Buttermore still dealing with injury is a major bummer, but at least it explains some of the lineup choices.
I really like firorni as a passer, I can’t remember the game, it may have been Hobart or Army, but he had a beautiful feed on the man up to someone on the crease for an easy goal.
I think he’d get more run if he was more of a threat to score.
 
long island has long been fertile lacrosse hunting grounds. don't show any weakness. destroy them.
 

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