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Message: [QUOTE="JeremyCuse, post: 5041850, member: 43"] Excellent job as usual, think you did a good job breaking down the matchups so I'll try and give some additional thoughts outside that. I will say that I think the defensive matchups are a bit unclear here. McGovern is the one QB type guy out there but Duffy and Petro are dominating the shots. I wonder if SU goes with Dwan on Duffy and Fig on McGovern and then Kol/Caccamo on Petro. My bigger concern is that the D has really struggled to stop the "known" guys the last few games. Yes Kirst and Long did a lot of damage in transition and man up (Long especially) but if you look at the Hobart game, their two top guys in Patterson and Datellas did a bunch of damage and the same thing happened vs Cornell. SU was better against ND and the Kavanaughs but we can't afford for Duffy and Petro to have 10 pts combined much less a repeat of Longs who had10 on his own. My overall biggest issue is that this team showed me the flaws vs Cornell that we saw the first 2 years under Gait that I had hoped we had gotten past. Undisciplined play, bizarre decisions (stalling 5 on 5 so they could get 20+ seconds on a man up and then have to take a panicked shot because the shot clock was gone), complete inability to solve a 10 man ride despite it being a major problem 2 years ago, last year and earlier this season, and just an overall inability to avoid turnovers when they simply can't happen (nursing a 1 goal lead late or in OT or when a team puts up a remote fight on the ride. Syracuse is better then UNC and its a game they should win. I also thought the same vs Cornell vs Army etc. The good news is when the team was in a must win situation earlier in the year the team responded Hop in a neutral site game. The downside for Sat is that I am not sure the staff or team will learn from the mistakes last week. It's tough to say that but in year 3 under Gait we shouldn't be having multiple unsportsmanlike penalties letting Cornell backing in the game and another costing SU 2 mins of locked in 6 on 5. The officiating was also horrendous but you can't have 9 mins of penalties or whatever it was and your OC getting tossed in the 1st quarter. I also can't get over that in year 3 we still look like we've never seen a 10 man ride before and just continue to play right into it by either passing into the sideline/sub box or trying to go 1 on 3 right up the middle. I know practicing against a 10 man isn't a major priority to start the year in January, but its April and we still look lost, at what point are we going to address this? Petro's not a huge 10 man guy but I suspect we will see it early and often Sat and I fear it will go as well as it did last year against UNC. I don't mean to sound overly down on this team because their are a lot of positives, Kohn had a great bounce back game, Mark had a bunch of ridiculous saves, Stevens getting those 2 gbs in OT off the faceoff were huge and the O had an incredible 1st half. That said undisciplined play, turnovers, and has Quint astutely pointed out today in his article poise and game management have been issues that have haunted this team all year and a lot of that I put back on Gait and the staff. As DMVCuse pointed out this team offensively at times can't tell the different from up 6-1 over ALbany in the 1st quarter to up 1 with 3min left vs Cornell. I don't need a btb pass to Thomson who then has to try a twister shot. How about just putting the ball in the back of the net? UNC has struggled against most top 10 teams defenses save for Army and I think were seeing that Army has a lot more issues then initially thought. Wombach the kid from upstate (who nearly went to SU) will definitely be a problem but SU even at its worse has been closed to 50% at the X against the best of the best so I think we should be able to battle close to 50%. Biggest issue is as Powell noted how does this team come out? Is it clear they want to atone for the Cornell debale or is it more of the 2nd half of that game where the play is sloppy, were turning the ball over left and right and we look disinterested. If you wanna be treated like a top 5 team I think this is a game where you need to see SU hitting on all cylinders winning similarly to how UVA did last week. Getting down 5-2 early in the 2nd quarter or getting up 6-1 and then before you know it's 6-6 and that sloppy play is back to me is a real bad sign on where the team is at right now . SU can clinch not only an ACC tourney appearance Sat but most likely an NCAA tourney appearance with a win. It's year 3 of the rebuild, no more excuses, get the W. [/QUOTE]

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