SU Lax pre-season thoughts - Upsides, Strengths, Concerns, predictions

[JeremyCuse]

Been meaning to get this out there for about a week now but just haven't had the time. Lots of good posters on the Lax board these days Woody, Roysrunts, outoftownie, wvlax, and several others, hope they add to this thread to give there thoughts. Used to love when Frontierlax would post here but hes been MIA for awhile, Woody if you see him on Laxpower give him a shout to come back over here and post again we would appreciate his thoughts.

Lots of positives for this years team but a few concerns so lets run through them first:

Schedule: The schedule as it looks right now on paper is ridiculous borderlining on absurd. If Cornell and JHU weren't in down modes this might have been the toughest schedule of all time for Syracuse and I dont think thats a stretch. The ACC is beyond loaded and while Cornell and JHU aren't at there normal strengths those games will be far from picnics especially with both on the road.
A few quick thoughts on the schedule: Like that were opening with Siena and closing with Gate, should be two fairly easy Wins and its always good to be able to get a win late in the year especially if the season didnt go as planned. Less then thrilled with how the entire schedule is laid out, Syracuse not having a home game between Feb 22 and March 29th is absolutely ludicrous. Terrible job by the ACC and Syracuse, the preason #1 ranked team should not have a schedule like that. This would be the equivalent of Alabama football not having a home game in October. Also not a big fan of playing St. Johns in Atlanta. I understand the reasons behind it but coming into the inaugral year of the ACC and the schedule as tough as it was I dont think this was the year to suddenly become the Lewis and Clark of the Lax world. To make matters worse this game has no television right now, bad job by the ACC.

Its going to sound like sour grapes but I also think we should have scrapped the Albany game this year. I know from mentioning this a few months ago that it would come off like SU is afraid to play them but with the schedule as difficult as it is does this team really need yet another game against an opponent who considers this there "super bowl". We already have a game like that in Hobart not sure we really needed another one here. If were were still in the BE I would have zero issue with playing Albany this year but adding Duke, UNC, Maryland, to an already loaded schedule (UVA, JHU, Cornell) seems like overkill at this point. Especially when the game is a lose/lose from Syracuse's standpoint as Albany's conference schedule is so weak we will get little credit for what most Lax people will think is Syracuse simply "righting" the ship against an inferior opponent (save for the Thompsons, great players for sure).

Other major issue as we all know is faceoffs. Unfortunately despite the coaching staff and the team spending more time practicing at the X then they have in years and years the results are still pretty much the same if not worse. I was a bit dissapointed to hear coach Desko say they really worked hard on the X this year when it has been a problem for the better part of at least 3+ years, really more like 4. Daddio again seems like the odds on favorite to take a majority of the draws (at least early in the year) which to me is surprising. Daddio is surely a hard worker but when push comes to shove hes simply been dominated by the upper level X guys ie Nardella, Croonquist (the Nova Guy), Fowler, the kid from Bryant, etc. I dont see that changing much this year, I am already dredding the duke game.

I had high hopes for Iacono but so far his numbers have been abysmal. Really hope its just some early jitters transitioning from JUCO to Div 1 because we really need some help there. Buhr is back from last years hiatus but he was pretty much in line with Daddios struggles so other then another body not sure what to really expect there if anything. The two guys I am most interested in are Paduda and Demarco. Paduda getting hurt was a big blow to the competition at the X, he was the guy who I think showed the most promise last year despite the fact he was so raw. An article on him early in the pre-season had my hopes up because he spent the entire summer at camps trying techniques and working at taking draws. Really interested to see what he brings this year, hopefully he plays against Siena. To me the dark horse guy who could get some PT by the middle of the year is Demarco, guy had a crazy win pct in high school and all though hes only taken 2 draws in the scrimmages is 2-2. Not much to go off for sure but love the potential and would like to see him take a few in game situations especially if were struggling.

Doing the positives in a second post so this thing doesnt get to big.

 

[WoodyUK]

Frontier lax is kinda busy nowadays doing it for money! Hahaha I'll give him a shout!

 

[OrangeinBoston]

To me the dark horse guy who could get some PT by the middle of the year is Demarco, guy had a crazy win pct in high school and all though hes only taken 2 draws in the scrimmages is 2-2. Not much to go off for sure but love the potential and would like to see him take a few in game situations especially if were struggling.

That fact that Demarco is 2 for 2 makes me wonder: Does Desko recognize a good FO guy when he sees one?

 

[WoodyUK]

Great thoughts on the sched our games are always tough but this year it's ridicules! It's a shame we lost Princeton! and really how long will we continue to play Albany for? PU have been on the schedule forever! I agree we should scrapped the Albany game! Agree also with St. John's what is the point especially after leaving the Big East!

I think all of us will get sick of talking about face offs but it is a huge part of the game and we have own championships through great face off men in the past we can't now turn out back on it and expect everyone to feel sorry for us! We need to get in with it and make the guys on the roster better, the problem is is that a lot of face off guys use the pinch and pop and this takes the wingmen out of the equation! Donahue just has to make them competitive!

We have some amazing talent on the hill this year and this time next week well be a little wiser! Face off or no face off we should win with offensive power like we did back in the day death by offence!

 

[JeremyCuse]

OK enough of the negatives concerns lets talk about the positive/strengths for a few minutes.

This offense is absolutely LOADED, so many weapons/options that its obscene how good the O could be. Guys like Westin, Dejoe, Walters, Jeff Desko, Daly, Henry, Gillis, and Salcido would be starting at most other programs or at least getting/seeing major minutes, here they can barely get on the field theres so much talent. Even with the loss of Daniello, Hatem, Dejohn and a few others this offense looks poised to be the best since some of the Powell brother teams in the early 2000's. There are so many options at attack and midfield that a starting attackmen in Ward was moved to Middie and hes not even starting. That my friends is not only depth its high end quality depth. Other schools would give there left nut for a chance to get there hands on guys that we cant even find playing time for and this isnt even taking into account getting Galasso back in the fold which will hopefully be by Albany.

To me the starting Attack is as follows:
Donahue Rice Maltz with Staats Galasso and Dylan Maltz as the next three.

Middies
Lecky, Loy, Staats with Schoonmaker, Dejoe, Walters, Evans (#1 recruit is on the second line, crazy depth) Westin, Forkin, Salcido and others. Syracuse could honestly run 4 mid lines without a problem.

Man up seems to be a good mix this year but im going to wait till Siena to know for sure who is on it.

Bottom line is that if Staats, Galasso, and Evans stay healthy this offense could put on some amazing pefromances this year. I can only imagine the nightmare D coordinators are going to be facing trying to stop Staats, Galasso, Donahue and Evans while also having to account for Lecky, Loy, Maltz, Rice etc. its just nuts.

Not going to spend to much time on the D side but its clear theres a ton of depth and quality options. Getting a healthy Mullins back is a huge help to go with great players like Young and Harris. Combine those guys with Grimm and Messina at short stick plus Firman, Manning, Palasek, Tait and others and you have All american talent and close D, LSM, and Short stick D. Again the depth there is just crazy.

Goalie situation is a bit unsettled again but both Lamo and Wardwell are experienced and have been through the wars. I am confident in whoever wins the battle plus Desko will have the ability to go the bullpen so to speak if the starter is really struggling. Personally I think Ferrigan is the Goalie of the future but at this point hes just to young.

Coaching will again be another strength with Desko at the helm and the rest of the staff your getting one of best put together staffs in America for Lacrosee. Not much gets by these guys (maybe faceoffs) and they do a great job making adjustments to the opponents and our strengths/weaknesses.

Will post a third installment with my final thoughts and predictions.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Frontier lax is kinda busy nowadays doing it for money! Hahaha I'll give him a shout!

Thanks Wooday wasn't aware of that. If you can say who is he working for?

 

[orange79]

Nice writeups, Jeremy. At least we won't have to worry about SOS when it comes time for the NCAA's.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Final Thoughts/Prediction(s)

Not going out on a limb when I say that if people can stay healthy this team should be on the cusp of grabbing a 1 or 2 seed in the tourney and making a return trip to Memorial day. Its hard to put that much pressure on a program before they have played 1 second of the regular season but anything but a final four appearance will be a dissapoint based on the amount of talent we have assembled (barring massive injuries).

Last year I thought Syracuse needed to take care of business against the "lesser opponents" to ensure a high NCAA bid and due to the fact we appeared to be underdodgs against UVA, Cornell, and JHU. Instead we lost to Hobart, Nova, and Albany but ended up sweeping UVA, Cornell, JHU and ND as well as the BE tourney.

This year with the difficulty of our schedule I think its clear we could easily drop a couple games especially when your playign the likes of Duke, UNC, UVA, Albany, etc. Based on that here are my must win games or at least games I feel Syracuse should/need to win:

2/16 Albany - Revenge game but more important is only the second game of the year and last before we hit conference schedule. A win here would go along way to cover any hiccups down the road against a team we should win (see hobart/Nova last year. It will also quiet down the Thompson fan bandwagon that feels Syracuse dropped the ball when they stopped recruiting Myles and Lyle.

2/22/14 Maryland - The terps lost a ton offensively to graduation and while there D is solid and they brought in probably a handful of stud frosh its going to take there O a little bit to get in sync. This is a game Syracuse needs to win with it being the last home game for a month and its inaugral ACC game. The win will also likely look better and better as the season progresses and those Maryland Frosh start to get acclamated to Div1.

03/8/14 St. Johns - Odd game being played in Atlanta with no television coverage at this point. With big games against Duke, UNC, JHU and others on the horizon after this game, its imperative Syracuse takes care of business here to again give themselves breathing if they drop a few against some of the big guns.

03/23 Duke - After a lot of success against Duke the few times we matched up the past decade we have now lost the last two against Danowski. We need to right the ship here. Fowler will be a pain in the ass for sure but Duke lost nearly all of there midfield and a good amount of O firepower. If we can keep faceoffs even remotely respectable I like our chances here. This is also a Cache game for NCAA tourney purposes.

04/08/ and 04/19 - Cornell and Hobart - I put these two together because there similar in where both teams are at this year. Cornell lost a ton from last years team and has little depth, should be a down year for the Big Red. This is a game Syracuse should be able to impose its will and hopefully win comfortably. Cornell still has talent but there breaking in a new staff and replacing a lot, Syracuse should roll here if I am being honest. Ditto for Hobart. I wasn't completely shocked we lost last year to them as we had been playing with fire 3 out of the four years prior to that by real close games despite the talent discrempancy. Last year we twice had 3 goal leads with the ball and we let Hobart come back. Credit to Hobart for the W but lets be honest the Syracuse game is there National Championship and they simply wanted it more. That being said dont expect a repeat this year. Hobart is replacing its coach most of its D and there guy at the X. Early results aren't great either they were dominated by Rutgers for most of there scrimmage last Saturday and are as bad at the X as we are. I also expect Desko to try and pour it on if he can, he doesn't like losing to Hobart.

All in all it should be another great year of Lacrosse on the hill. The home schedule could be better and less spaced out but it is what it is. Looking forward to seeing what we do at the X and if Galasso can ever get on the field. Not counting the ACC tourney im shooting for 11-2. Again to me the key is going to be Syracuse taking care of business against teams it should beat, with the ACC as tough as it consecutive losses can snowball like they did to UVA last year and before you know it you have 4-6 losses and in desperation mode for the tourney. Would really like to see Syracuse at 5-1 after the first six games.

 

[Cusejuicy]

Jeremy. Loved your posts. I'm not a real lax guy but love the game. One thing I can't understand is the scheduling issue. Sure it may be tough but we didn't get a pre- season ranking to play bunnies and after reading your positives we sound like we'll be hard for anyone to stop. Only caviat is as you pointed out, the X. Really hard to accept that Desko hasn't been able to snag a star there. It is not a new problem and has cost us wins the last few years. Also don't understand why we can't bring someone in to work with Daddio or send him to a camp or something to help him or the other X guys improve. Very frustrating. That's the real problem I see holding us back.

 

[im4cuse]

Definition of insanity. No change at the X. Really? JD says Daddio is best in practice. But who's he going against? Thinking this will be better is the triumph of hope over experience. Really disappointed we cannot fix this grotesque team flaw. All the studs on attack don't help when they spend 6o% of the game watching helplessly. Don't count on the D to bail them out either. It will take time to mesh and there's no one as good as Megill.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Jeremy. Loved your posts. I'm not a real lax guy but love the game. One thing I can't understand is the scheduling issue. Sure it may be tough but we didn't get a pre- season ranking to play bunnies and after reading your positives we sound like we'll be hard for anyone to stop. Only caviat is as you pointed out, the X. Really hard to accept that Desko hasn't been able to snag a star there. It is not a new problem and has cost us wins the last few years. Also don't understand why we can't bring someone in to work with Daddio or send him to a camp or something to help him or the other X guys improve. Very frustrating. That's the real problem I see holding us back.

Thanks for the comments Juicy. The schedule comes into play because the ACC is loaded and Syracuse traditionally plays an extremely difficult OOC including JHU, Cornell, Princeton, etc. While Princeton is off the schedule Albany is a monster and St. Johns has one of the most experienced and talented attack units in the country. The X issue could really come into play especially if it costs Syracuse a game or two early, combine that with games against Duke UNC UVA and things can quickly snowball. Now I think our talent will prevail but when your pre season #1 your looking to grab a top 1-3 seed not have 4-5 losses.

The faceoff issue has really been going for about 4 years now. We brought in Daddio and Buhr two really highly rated kids 4 years ago as the heir apparents to Danny Brennan, unfortunately Daddio's been mediocre at best and Buhr's been worse. What ended up killing Syracuse was that the next two years we only brought in one additional faceoff guy when we should have been stockpiling like were doing this year and the next two. So what ended up happening is three years ago we brought in no one, two years ago we brought in one guy (who subsequently transferred and torched us Saturday at Towson), and then we brought in a couple guys last year in Conroy and Paduda. The staff and Desko seem to realize the gravity of the issue but were now trying to play catch up and are struggling to get someone on the level of a Fowler, Nardella, Novas guy, etc. We now have numbers with guys like Iacono, Paduda, and Demarco and two more coming in next year both of whom are highly rated. We really need someone to develop this year because we could easily see Bryant in the first round again this year which could end up being another nightmare.

 

[wvlax]

Great posts Jeremy! I thinks its safe to say you bleed Syracuse lacrosse through and through! Agree with a lot of what you say above.

I'm not quite as optimistic, worried that this team has been reading over and over again about how great they are in the pre-season (just about everyone has them 1 or 2) but do agree at least on paper we should make a tournament run to Memorial Day weekend. That said, I think we'll even be better next year, perhaps lose just one game.

They may lose a few early on, as the coaching staff has to take some time in assembling/blending the talent on offense. Also, quite a few new faces on D with Mullins (although he did play 2 years ago), Palasek/Tait and short sticks with Grimm and Messina. I think that unit will get better as the season progresses but we may take some lumps early. The same is true on offense. Midfield has some new starters in Schoony and Lecky who are trying to replace JoJo and Luke. Think it will take some time for Schoony, Lecky, Staats, Galasso and others to get comfortable playing together and figuring out roles for each player but once that happens the sky is the limit! Read somewhere that Randy is a bigger/stronger version of Lyle Thompson. Wow!

Looks like nothing has change very much on face-offs, but hoping Paduda or DeMarco is the answer. I think we brought in Iacono to match up with Duke's Fowler.We maybe exposed more this year as ACC competition offers some real studs. Still got to remember as bad as we were on face-offs we still made it to the championship game last year. Looking forward to Siena game on Monday.