JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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- Aug 15, 2011
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First off an outstanding win on Tuesday night, will try and post about the game in another thread but that was exactly the performance this team needed. Shooting % needs to improve but just about everything else was on point. The Defense and Faceoff guys especially were locked in. Bomber on groundballs was the best I have seen since Joel White. A very very impressive performance. It's games like that why John Desko is still the coach of this team.
As for UNC, this game is bigger then people realize for a few reasons.
1. With SU at 1-2 in the ACC a loss on Saturday would put us in a real bad spot. We would be locked into the 4/5 game and unless UNC beats ND on the road next Saturday and Duke beats UVA tomorrow were looking at a first round matchup with the Blue Devils. I can't speak for most on this board but I have to believe just about all of us would prefer to miss the 4/5 game if at all possible. An SU win on Sat guarantees us at worst the 3 seed and we can get as high as the 2 depending on how things break.
2. For as much goodwill as SU earned itself with the win against Cornell on Tuesday a loss against UNC would muddy the tourney waters all over again. SU would still be in really good shape to make the tourney itself but the thoughts of a good/high seed and a home game are probably out the window unless SU wins a game or two in the ACC tourney that would have to start as I noted above against either ND or Duke. It also puts pressure on SU to blow out Navy the following week on the road who will be playing with nothing to lose.
SU doesn't need to pay lights out tomorrow but if we can get anything close to the kind of defensive effort tomorrow that we had against Cornell and avoid turning the ball over like were Hobart this is a game we should be able to win and win by a few goals. UNC is obviously an improved team from earlier in the year and even a few weeks ago when Maryland dusted them and the game was over at half. That said they are still a relatively young team who turns the ball over a ton and commits a lot of penalties. Their frosh goalie has looked impressive the last few weeks and SU will need to improve it shooting %, especially from Trimbo and Curry but SU defensively is locked in right now and I hope that continues. Very interested to see how SU decides to match up defensively.
As for UNC, this game is bigger then people realize for a few reasons.
1. With SU at 1-2 in the ACC a loss on Saturday would put us in a real bad spot. We would be locked into the 4/5 game and unless UNC beats ND on the road next Saturday and Duke beats UVA tomorrow were looking at a first round matchup with the Blue Devils. I can't speak for most on this board but I have to believe just about all of us would prefer to miss the 4/5 game if at all possible. An SU win on Sat guarantees us at worst the 3 seed and we can get as high as the 2 depending on how things break.
2. For as much goodwill as SU earned itself with the win against Cornell on Tuesday a loss against UNC would muddy the tourney waters all over again. SU would still be in really good shape to make the tourney itself but the thoughts of a good/high seed and a home game are probably out the window unless SU wins a game or two in the ACC tourney that would have to start as I noted above against either ND or Duke. It also puts pressure on SU to blow out Navy the following week on the road who will be playing with nothing to lose.
SU doesn't need to pay lights out tomorrow but if we can get anything close to the kind of defensive effort tomorrow that we had against Cornell and avoid turning the ball over like were Hobart this is a game we should be able to win and win by a few goals. UNC is obviously an improved team from earlier in the year and even a few weeks ago when Maryland dusted them and the game was over at half. That said they are still a relatively young team who turns the ball over a ton and commits a lot of penalties. Their frosh goalie has looked impressive the last few weeks and SU will need to improve it shooting %, especially from Trimbo and Curry but SU defensively is locked in right now and I hope that continues. Very interested to see how SU decides to match up defensively.