UNC Gameday...

[CuseNHouse]

Putting all the unforced errors aside , we had a pretty healthy debate earlier in the season about McCool - he is a solid goalie, but he's is not elite. They won't do it, but Ipp deserves a start. Personally I would roll with him. He is a far more athletic goalie with better decision making, faster hands and gets the ball out quick in transition. Johnny also has good numbers but he's been a head case all season . How many times is he going to jump ? We need both Jimmy and Johnny to be beyond good, they need to be elite on the biggest stages- I'm afraid we just don't have a Galloway or Cercy here. additionally Our D semed to seemed to be making great strides but they have regressed, the last two games have not been good defensively . Next week is really critical to see if our key pieces and system can bounce back. UVA has been all over the place but ramping fast, a clean game and win would restore some confidence - a loss would be real trouble

 

[PhatOrange]

Any chance CUSE goes with Ippoliti at any point? McCools % is good for about 17th nationally at 54.2. He's wildly inconsistent and something just seems off. I don't think he sees the ball very well and seems to guess a lot. I love the energy and communication Ipp seems to bring back there. Could be a spark they need I don't know.

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Any chance CUSE goes with Ippoliti at any point? McCools % is good for about 17th nationally at 54.2. He's wildly inconsistent and something just seems off. I love energy and communication Ipp seems to bring back there.​

Maybe coach-speak, but Gait said McCool is their goalie. That being said, I wouldn't be shocked if McCool looks shaky against Virginia early on, that he gets pulled in favor of Ippoliti.

 

[MD Cuse Fan]

Any chance CUSE goes with Ippoliti at any point? McCools % is good for about 17th nationally at 54.2. He's wildly inconsistent and something just seems off. I don't think he sees the ball very well and seems to guess a lot. I love the energy and communication Ipp seems to bring back there. Could be a spark they need I don't know.

I was a little surprised they made the switch yesterday, if only because it felt like UNC was just getting too many easy looks with their hands free but I will say when Ippoliti has gotten some runs he def doesn't look overwhelmed and I really like how quickly he looks to get the ball upfield after a save.

 

[cuselaxss26]

i went back n watched highlights. Any time joey spallina was in middle they made sure to have two guys on him at all times. 3 goals scored with joey inside. Yes he had nothing to do with play but he drew enough cover to open other guys. Specially when joey n someone else was there whole D was worried bout joey. We did not do this much or exploit it. That’s on pat march. Ur the OC that is what u have to see n adjust to. Also there were so many open passes for open looks n guys just did not see them or make the pass. 1-5 on emo is pathetic for this group. Rhoa is most of our man up goals but he has got be able to feed the ball. As few times it come to him for a shot Geb was cutting towards him with more then enough steps for good look. Rhoa is great but i was never huge fan of him on emo cause of his passing or vision.

 

[FloridaCuse]

i went back n watched highlights. Any time joey spallina was in middle they made sure to have two guys on him at all times. 3 goals scored with joey inside. Yes he had nothing to do with play but he drew enough cover to open other guys. Specially when joey n someone else was there whole D was worried bout joey. We did not do this much or exploit it. That’s on pat march. Ur the OC that is what u have to see n adjust to. Also there were so many open passes for open looks n guys just did not see them or make the pass. 1-5 on emo is pathetic for this group. Rhoa is most of our man up goals but he has got be able to feed the ball. As few times it come to him for a shot Geb was cutting towards him with more then enough steps for good look. Rhoa is great but i was never huge fan of him on emo cause of his passing or vision.

If I recall correctly I think posters have said on here in the past that March doesn't make many adjustments during a game. Is that true?

 

[SUlax88-09]

The ups and downs of sports. So much excitement to start the season (especially because we’ve been waiting for this senior year of our best recruiting class since our last #1 recruiting class repeated with national championships in ‘08 and ‘09), and then we got beaten down at the start of that Princeton game. Then we went on a nice 6 game win streak and built up the excitement again, but we just got deflated again by North Carolina. The close loss to Harvard happens, but to get dominated by Princeton and North Carolina (the 2 best teams in the nation) is a bad sign. We got beat in all phases of the game (offense, defense, goalie play, and face-offs). Just a demoralizing game.

Offense- Leo was great and Rhoa had some good shots, but that’s about it. Against the 2 best teams in the country, Spallina has 0 points (which has long been the valid criticism against him). Anderson is now drawing a pole, and he couldn’t do anything. Anderson is drawing a pole because they put a SSDM on Thomson, which should be such an embarrassment to an attackman. Same old story and achilles heel of Gait’s Syracuse teams is that we can’t win a 1 on 1 matchup.

Defense- Figueiras was great, but that’s about all. Beck had a rough game. Hahn shouldn’t be playing SSDM. McCool has been great this season but he obviously struggled against North Carolina (and Princeton), but I think his defense let him down. Ip has always been a great back up for us (I feel badly for the kid because he could start on most college teams). Mullen’s violations are very annoying (in addition to his missed ground balls)

Misc- Sorry to say this, but the groundskeeper at North Carolina should be fired. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many players slip and fall in a non-wet field… ever

Losses happen, but getting dominated by a better team is deflating, especially when we have aspirations for a national championship. This is not our ‘09 team… I think North Carolina is going to win a few chips in these next few years

 

[FloridaCuse]

The ups and downs of sports. So much excitement to start the season (especially because we’ve been waiting for this senior year of our best recruiting class since our last #1 recruiting class repeated with national championships in ‘08 and ‘09), and then we got beaten down at the start of that Princeton game. Then we went on a nice 6 game win streak and built up the excitement again, but we just got deflated again by North Carolina. The close loss to Harvard happens, but to get dominated by Princeton and North Carolina (the 2 best teams in the nation) is a bad sign. We got beat in all phases of the game. Just a demoralizing game.

Offense- Leo was great and Rhoa had some good shots, but that’s about it. Against the 2 best teams in the country, Spallina has 0 points (which has long been the valid criticism against him). Anderson is now drawing a pole, and he couldn’t do anything. Anderson is drawing a pole because they put a SSDM on Thomson, which should be such an embarrassment to an attackman. Same old story and achilles heel of Gait’s Syracuse teams is that we can’t win a 1 on 1 matchup.

Defense- Figuerias was great, but that’s about all. Beck had a rough game. Hahn shouldn’t be playing SSDM. McCool has been great this season but he obviously struggled against North Carolina (and Princeton), but I think his defense let him down. Ip has always been a great back up for us (I feel badly for the kid because he could start on most college teams). Mullen’s violations are very annoying (in addition to his missed ground balls)

Misc- Sorry to say this, but the groundskeeper at North Carolina should be fired. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many players slip and fall in a non-wet field… ever

Losses happen, but getting dominated by a better team is deflating, especially when we have aspirations for a national championship. This is not our ‘09 team… I think North Carolina is going to win a few chips in these next few years

Good summary. I'll add this -- even in most of our wins (except maybe the first 3) we haven't looked like a championship team. Mullen violations, missed GBs, multiple offsides, letting teams back into it (e.g., Denver). To me how they played yesterday wasn't a lot different then how we played in our latest wins; we just met a better team and got exposed.

 

[Dinkyspond]

The Axe article notes that the outdoors, grass surface was a factor. Are the grass lacrosse practice fields not in good shape or ready to be practiced on for an early April game outdoors on grass? That seemed to be what GG implied.

 

[Bayside44]

I’m sick of this more prestigious degree BS. Your career is what you make of it. No one gives a shi_ where you went to school. The only thing that matters is what you produce. Thank you.

Mom and dad want to walk around wearing Duke and ND gear, get their son into a financial gig with alumni of those schools. That's most of it. The lax is almost secondary.

 

[DMVCuseLax]

Joey took 3 shots yesterday. March has to do a better job of having a plan when Joey is being double teamed. We have been out schemed in the Princeton and UNC game.

 

[FloridaCuse]

The Axe article notes that the outdoors, grass surface was a factor. Are the grass lacrosse practice fields not in good shape or ready to be practiced on for an early April game outdoors on grass? That seemed to be what GG implied.

That was Gary's excuse in the post-game presser: we haven't played on grass and we haven't practiced on grass. A number of us commented that is Gary again not taking responsibility.

Daily Orange Staff Writer:

 

[DMVCuseLax]

I've been saying we need to get the cleats situation figured out. This isn't the first game that our guys have been slipping on a grass field. We did the same thing at UVA last year. Cuse equipment managers need to have a meet with Nike and get it figured out. With that said that was a small part of our struggles yesterday.

 

[SUlax88-09]

The field was very slippery, but it affected both teams equally. Some of our only 1 on 1 wins and goals were actually the result of North Carolina defenders slipping. I think their field was an embarrassment, but it was not a significant factor in why we lost

 

[OrangeinBoston]

Plenty of blame to go around, but especially on all three coaches: Gait for not figuring out how to practice on grass (that's why we have airplanes), March for being clueless about what to do when Spallina is a no-show, Odierna for not keeping Dwan on Pietramala wherever he went.