Time to Draw the Curtain on the Desko Era

[OrangeinBoston]

Years of bad recruiting, couldn't recognize a good FOGO guy if one hit him over the head with a two-by-four (don't kid yourself, Williams fell into his lap), no clue about defense in this era. It's time for a change.

 

[kirbivore]

Years of bad recruiting, couldn't recognize a good FOGO guy if one hit him over the head with a two-by-four (don't kid yourself, Williams fell into his lap), no clue about defense in this era. It's time for a change.

The days of elite HS talent only playing in NY and Maryland with only a handful of dominant programs scooping these kids up is gone. The sport has expanded so much and SU can't hoard elite kids for Desko to play roll the ball out. Need a new coach for this new landscape.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Who do you hire?

Tierney isn't leaving Denver.
Petro isn't leaving Hopkins.
Pressler isn't leaving Bryant.

We're not getting Danowski or Breschi or Tillman, and I'm not sure anyone would want Starsia.

So who's left ... someone who's never won on the big stage before?

Do you want to trust the program to someone who doesn't "get" Syracuse LAX? It'll be GRob all over again.

 

[cuseguy]

Gary Gait.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Who do you hire?

Tierney isn't leaving Denver.
Petro isn't leaving Hopkins.
Pressler isn't leaving Bryant.

We're not getting Danowski or Breschi or Tillman, and I'm not sure anyone would want Starsia.

So who's left ... someone who's never won on the big stage before?

Do you want to trust the program to someone who doesn't "get" Syracuse LAX? It'll be GRob all over again.

I get it. There are only a half-dozen dinosaurs truly qualified to coach SU lacrosse. OK. So, when they all croak, we are truly screwed.

 

[cuseguy]

We're probably headed for a few Final Four-less years followed by two Final Four-less years.

If SU is okay with that, I guess Desko stays.

But I doubt the fan base is okay with that.

 

[Whitey23]

In house: Donahue
Outside: Chuck Wilbur? Alberici? Two names with upstate connections. Not that many hot names out there that I can think of.

 

[W'boro'Cuse315]

Gary Gait.

Keep in mind that he's most likely coaching the women as long as his daughter plays & she's a Soph. eligibility-wise.

 

[Whitey23]

Help us. Gary. You're our only hope.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Gary Gait.

Good regular season.

Flames out in the tournament.

 

[cuseguy]

Keep in mind that he's most likely coaching the women as long as his daughter plays & she's a Soph. eligibility-wise.

Just throwing it out there.

 

[jr4750]

Who do you hire?

Tierney isn't leaving Denver.
Petro isn't leaving Hopkins.
Pressler isn't leaving Bryant.

We're not getting Danowski or Breschi or Tillman, and I'm not sure anyone would want Starsia.

So who's left ... someone who's never won on the big stage before?

Do you want to trust the program to someone who doesn't "get" Syracuse LAX? It'll be GRob all over again.

just curious OX why would Pressler leave Bryant? I know he feels he "owes" them because they gave him an opportunity when he needed it, but to coach Syracuse, be in the big time again? I think he would at least listen, very closely. Guy can coach, sign me up for that hire right now.

 

[ForCuseSake]

The days of elite HS talent only playing in NY and Maryland with only a handful of dominant programs scooping these kids up is gone. The sport has expanded so much and SU can't hoard elite kids for Desko to play roll the ball out. Need a new coach for this new landscape.

I agree with much of what you post but I think Desko has fared well enough pulling in talent from non traditional hotbeds.

We've had players like Mullins, Schoonmaker, Salcido etc. from far and wide and while they're physically gifted they haven't had the same quality of coaching at the youth, club or HS level that the NY & MD players get.

This shows in an overall poor lax IQ for the team (especially on D) over the past four years.

There are exceptions to my theory (i.e. #22) but it's hard to argue when you see players struggle with poor on field decisions and see them from OH, NJ, etc.

 

[newmexicuse]

No question the lax landscape is changing.

Bottom line - we no longer have elite talent compared to other programs. It seems recruiting is at least two years in advance, so to get the superstar kid becomes more of a crapshoot. Even high level transfers are good players, butgenerally not the superstars. This year we have Donahue trying to be a setup man instead of a closer because we have nobody else to be the consistent setup man. So that makes our O out of kilter.

The D effort against ND was unacceptable.

I am not sold on Desko one way or the other, but was it his fault that Williams suddenly couldn't win a 4th quarter or OT faceoff against Duke or Hopkins ? Is it Desko's fault that our "next likely" superstar (Evans) just didn't turn out to be much more than average at the collegiate level ?

The expansion of the sport means that FFs & NCs will be harder to get.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

just curious OX why would Pressler leave Bryant? I know he feels he "owes" them because they gave him an opportunity when he needed it, but to coach Syracuse, be in the big time again? I think he would at least listen, very closely. Guy can coach, sign me up for that hire right now.

He was interviewed for 60 Minutes a while ago, and he said that he was now a Bryant "lifer" because they were the only school that gave him a chance. He's turned down other offers already.

 

[jr4750]

He was interviewed for 60 Minutes a while ago, and he said that he was now a Bryant "lifer" because they were the only school that gave him a chance. He's turned down other offers already.

I hear that. He's definitely a guy I would at least give a call to though. Kinda scary that there is not a lot of names out there. Perhaps bring in one of the former alumni who are coaching at a lower level and hope they can grow into the job. A little scary truthfully.

 

[retro44]

Who do you hire?

Tierney isn't leaving Denver.
Petro isn't leaving Hopkins.
Pressler isn't leaving Bryant.

We're not getting Danowski or Breschi or Tillman, and I'm not sure anyone would want Starsia.

So who's left ... someone who's never won on the big stage before?

Do you want to trust the program to someone who doesn't "get" Syracuse LAX? It'll be GRob all over again.

Who do you keep should be the bigger question.

Desko is no longer an option and I have felt that way for a while. There is so much god given talent is this state,and yet he wants to bring in players from very weak areas based on recommendations. It's like Florida State,Miami and Florida in football all saying we will only take 2-3 players a year in state and instead recruit Wyoming and the Dakotas to bring high school football in those states up on par with the rest of the country. Those coaches would run out of town if they really tried that.
There is just way too many great high school players in this state to keep ignoring if you want to win.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Who do you keep should be the bigger question.

Desko is no longer an option and I have felt that way for a while. There is so much god given talent is this state,and yet he wants to bring in players from very weak areas based on recommendations. It's like Florida State,Miami and Florida in football all saying we will only take 2-3 players a year in state and instead recruit Wyoming and the Dakotas to bring high school football in those states up on par with the rest of the country. Those coaches would run out of town if they really tried that.
There is just way too many great high school players in this state to keep ignoring if you want to win.

God given talent?

Upstate NY Recruiting...

Top 100 Class of 2016 recruits...
12. Jamie Trimboli from Victor committed to SU
14. Connors (Pittsford) to UVa
35. Willard (Caz) to Penn State
47. Ierlan (Victor) to Albany
84. Maloney (Victor) to Cornell
88. Ford (Webster) to Fairfield

Top 100 Class of 2017...
3. Lucas Quinn from Nisky committed to SU
18. Olmstead (Corning) to Loyola
36. Barker (Pittsford) to Ohio State

Top 50 Class of 2018...
46. Russell (Pittsford) to UVa

Not a lot of talent coming out of Sec 2-6 anymore. And Downstate / LI has always been wide open territory. SU gets a few kids, but so does everyone else. Nobody really has a lock on it.

 

[retro44]

There are 19 out of state players on the current roster (more on other roster lists) and i can count on one hand on how many get minutes during a close game.

Look at past classes too. Of the top 100 kids you posted only one has picked SU and we lost kids to fairfield,pennst. albany !!!! Ignoring L.I. TOP RATED KIDS?

5 out of our top 6 scorers this year are N.Y. kids and 3 are local kids. Can't beat those facts.

 

[OttosDad]

All I'm going to say is this, When Alabama football starts to struggle, it doesn't matter if they win 9 or 10 game (that is struggling for Bama), they evaluate the coaching staff and the state of the program. We were the Bama Football of lacrosse Coyle certainly needs to take a long hard look at what has happened over the past 3 weeks. Two OT losses, when they have blown 4 goal leads, and then one of the worst losses in program history on a weekend when you schedule 100 year anniversary of the program. Not a good look. And Coyle is not familiar with lacrosse, could be dangerous for the program. I will hold out faith, and its not so much that they are losing games, but its more the way they have lost those games.

Will say I was very impressed with Evans yesterday, the lone encouraging thing I saw.

 

[JeremyCuse]

Who do you hire?

Tierney isn't leaving Denver.
Petro isn't leaving Hopkins.
Pressler isn't leaving Bryant.

We're not getting Danowski or Breschi or Tillman, and I'm not sure anyone would want Starsia.

So who's left ... someone who's never won on the big stage before?

Do you want to trust the program to someone who doesn't "get" Syracuse LAX? It'll be GRob all over again.

Extreme you know I almost always echo your thoughts but this list is wrong in many respsects.

Tierney is an elder statesmen hes probably retired within the next 5 years and hes never coming to SU for a variety of reasons.
Petro is an even worse fit, his style would never work at Syracuse and I doubt there would be interest on either side if both were looking its a horrible fit.

Danowski is the only coach clearly above Desko, Breschi has done nothing at UNC with arguably more talent and Tillman is an awful fit for SU with his slow down four corners offense.

I disagree with your thoughts on Pressler, if SU or another top end school really went after him hard I believe he would jump after a little arm twisting. However, much like Tillman Pressler is not a great fit for SU, his Bryant teams have been a mess offensively and have been really bad this past year and this year. Its only a matter of time before Pressler leaves Bryant for another job as hes reached the ceiling on the type of player he can get there.

If Syracuse ultimately decided to make a HC change their many options. A guy like Shea at Yale could be someone at the top of the list along with a young coach at one of the upcoming schools and a list of more experienced guys like Danowski, Deluca, Donahue (in house move), the OCC HC etc. I don't think SU is at the point of making a move yet but if they did they certainly will have no limit of interested candidates. The argument that SU cant make a move because of a potential Grob situation is a silly argument one I can't believe the AD or Syverud share.

 

[OttosDad]

Good regular season.

Flames out in the tournament.

Hardly agree with that. Hasn't won it all, but has made 3 or 4 final fours.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

There are 19 out of state players on the current roster (more on other roster lists) and i can count on one hand on how many get minutes during a close game.

Look at past classes too. Of the top 100 kids you posted only one has picked SU and we lost kids to fairfield,pennst. albany !!!! Ignoring L.I. TOP RATED KIDS?

5 out of our top 6 scorers this year are N.Y. kids and 3 are local kids. Can't beat those facts.

If 5 of our top 6 scorers are from NY, then I guess we haven't totally given up on NY kids after all. But there doesn't appear to be anyone as talented as Nims/Hardy/Abbott/White on a Sec 3 roster this year.

Know where LI's top rated recruit is going? Yale. How do you talk a kid out of an Ivy education? Especially if his grades are good enough for him to get a full academic scholarship.

Of all these kids you said we "lost" ... how many did we offer a partial scholarship to and they turned us down because they couldn't afford close to a $40,000 tuition bill?

How many did we truly ignore?

If you could provide a list of all the kids we chased after and didn't get and all the kids you claim we never bothered to contact, that would be appreciated.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

If Syracuse ultimately decided to make a HC change their many options. A guy like Shea at Yale could be someone at the top of the list along with a young coach at one of the upcoming schools and a list of more experienced guys like Danowski, Deluca, Donahue (in house move), the OCC HC etc. I don't think SU is at the point of making a move yet but if they did they certainly will have no limit of interested candidates. The argument that SU cant make a move because of a potential Grob situation is a silly argument one I can't believe the AD or Syverud share.

If things get so bad that we have to get rid of Desko, then we might get a total house cleaning. The only way that Donahue gets the job would be if Desko "steps down" for personal reasons and we can keep the rest of the staff.

Wilbur from OCC is interesting, but can he recruit with the higher academic standards?

 

[OttosDad]

If 5 of our top 6 scorers are from NY, then I guess we haven't totally given up on NY kids after all. But there doesn't appear to be anyone as talented as Nims/Hardy/Abbott/White on a Sec 3 roster this year.

Know where LI's top rated recruit is going? Yale. How do you talk a kid out of an Ivy education? Especially if his grades are good enough for him to get a full academic scholarship.

Of all these kids you said we "lost" ... how many did we offer a partial scholarship to and they turned us down because they couldn't afford close to a $40,000 tuition bill?

How many did we truly ignore?

If you could provide a list of all the kids we chased after and didn't get and all the kids you claim we never bothered to contact, that would be appreciated.

This is fair, but why were they so effective at getting the Nims', Abbott's, Hardy's to come here if they are still paying a 40,000 tuition bill. I just think that we are over thinking this. Desko is clearly either recruiting poorly, or he is recruiting fine and not developing the players to the level they need to be at.