JeremyCuse
Renowned lacrosse analyst
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Not much time today so will try and keep this quick.
Great game last Sat vs a red hot UVA squad. Holding that offense to 9 goals, 2 of which came directly off FOGO wins and another 2 on man ups is very impressive. Thought the defense did an excellent job on UVA's midfield as they were completely a non factor which is a great sign for the SSDMs as most of their mids are converted attackmen including Duenkel who had an early goal and then nothing. Fig and Dwan did a great job on the MIllions, they certainly still go theirs but holding McCabe to only 1 goal on 10+ shots is impressive. I also thought the defense and overall the team/staff did a nice job of burning clock in the 4th qtr and really shortened the game. Offensively I think we need a better plan when we do finally initiate late. If your just gonna take a bad shot or try and force it to the crease were better off just throwing into the corner and getting set up.
I thought offensively it was key to get a nice depth of scoring including multiple pole goals and the Johnny quick G off the faceoff. This team still grinds to a halt in the six on six sometimes so it's imperative we push transition when we can. Rhoa is really starting to feel and while he does take a fair # of shots, I think this O needs it so no concerns on my end. I will say we need to find a way to get get Finn and Bear more involved. They have a combined 3 goals the last 2 games. It has to be more if this team is gonna get back to memorial weekend. We have to find away be it more 2 man game with Joey or picking him free to get Finn looks. With Bear he is starting to draw the pole more, we need to pick him free and invert him at times. Get him on the move.
Faceoffs remain a concern. UVA has a very solid 3 headed monster and we know Greenspan has given Mullen issues in the past. Angelo was only 2 for 5 but again he came in and got a few wins, that's what we need. I still feel wing play is a major and I mean major issue. Greenspan caused a lot of GB scrums and we lost almost all of them. If Johnny or Angelo didn't win it to themselves we were in trouble about 85% of the time. The fact that this is still in issue in Mid April is a major red flag.
Onto Colgate - The main issue with Gate is that 10 man and their overall hair on fire style. I was encouraged with how well we did clearing last week. UVA runs a darn good 10 man and their ride overall is nasty. Cuse's logn pole ability to score from deep I think worked here as UVA on a number of occasions was in almost a 9.5 ride with the goalie hedging but not fully committed. Cuse did a nice job of bringing up Joey or Finn to come and get a pass near midfield to help on clears which even Tiffany mentioned. You rarely saw an SU ssdm or long pole try and punt return it through 3 dudes. Sat will be another huge test. Gate has really started to fine tune that 10 man. There opponents have turned it over 23, 19, 18, and 19 times in their last 4 games. As March noted Gate also clears in a very odd manner making it difficult to incorporate a tough ride against them.
SU is gonna need to keep turnovers to under 15, if it creeps up past that things will get dicey.
Gates staff has done a nice job turning thing around. They looked like a hot mess halfway through the season but have 4 straight victories including two impressive ones over BU and Navy. They have also shown they can win a high scoring game (16-15 Navy) and a low scoring (9-7 Lehigh). Offensively as Powell noted in his post they are very attack heavy Drouin leads the away who is a seasoned vet and can get hot in a hurry. The 3 attacken have 40, 39 and 31 pts respectively with the next highest guy at 14. This could be a game where we see a repeat of Maryland and Chuck K is dropped down to Close as he matches up better with smaller quicker attackmen then Beck. Gate will push transition and try and cause chaos wherever possible so Jimmy will need to be on his game. Syracuse needs to be careful they don't get lulled into looking ahead to ND because this offense will take advantage big time. I agree with Powell I think Drouin will almost assuredly draw Fig. I am not as sure on the 2nd matchup. Quinson has really come on as a scorer he leads the team in goals and had 4 pts vs Lehigh, 7 against Navy and 3 vs BU. However, he is not much of an assist man. Fowler the 3rd attackmen has 14 goals and 17 assists. If Cuse drops Chuck K down, I could see them putting Dwan on Fowler to force Gate to be an even more heavy unassisted team then they already are (see Powells post about Gates lack of assists. Should SU play it straight Dwan will certainly mark Quinson. A huge chunk of the scoring goes through those two guys, if SU can win those matchups Gate will struggle to score.
From a Cuse O standpoint Gate's D style is taylor made for what we wanna do. Gate usually doesn't guard behind the Cage and as one would expect Joey has absolutely feasted on the matchup. Joey dropped 11 pts last year and that was with Finn out. He had 9 pts two years ago. Hiltz had two monster games as well so he will be missed in this matchup. Gate's coach is no dummy have to imagine they will have a new wrinkle or 2 defensively. They play this zone/hybrid D that can at times cause a bunch of issues (see their game last week vs Lehigh) but it's also a horrible matchup for this Syracuse team. Finn, Leo, Rhoa, Hottle could all be in for big games ditto Tucker and the shooters on the 2nd line. Lehrman is a solid goalie, he's over 50% for the year but has struggled against the better teams on the schedule - 45% Penn State, 40% UVA, 48% Harvard , 46% Navy. Still he has only been below 40% once all season and was 58% BU and has been at 65% the last two games. Curious to see if Gate still refuses to cover behind the cage and how they try and defend Joey. SU assuming they aren't throwing the ball all over the place or having massive issues with the 10 man should be able to generate quality looks. Gate's defense has improved from the beginning of the season and holding BU to only 12 goals is notable. That said they have given up 18, 19 and 17 goals to PSU UVA and Harvard and 15 to Navy thought they did win that game 16-15.
If your looking for concerns in this game beyond the obvious 10 man I would refer you to last years game. Cuse was up 7 with 10 mins left in the third and with 2:30 left in the game we were clinging to a 2 pt lead. Gate is not going to go away if they get down 4 or 5 goals and with that 10 man and that style they are a team who can get on a run quickly. SU has also struggled with penalties, 8 in last years game alone. Gate will at times play extremely physical (see the Horse collar tackle back in 24) and the games have a tendency to get very chippy. Now the Connor bros are gone and Gate is averaging just under 4 penalties a game while its opponents have been called for just over 4 so perhaps it wont be as flag filled this year. Irregardless Cuse has to limit the amount of penalties, 8 last year was beyond absurd. Again Gate is a solid team, the concern here is we see a return to the SU team we saw in the 4th qtr vs Denver and the UNC game where we are hounded by sloppy play and bad decisions.
Now the good news. It's hard to see this team losing on Senior Day in the Dome. Certainly this game is no gimmie as I have outlined above but SU matches up very well offensively and Johnny should certainly rebound from last week. Gate while one of the best at turning teams over also has it's own issues with turnovers. They turn it over nearly 20 times a game, that is a staggering #. This is where Syracuse needs to take advantage and even out any issues with the 10 man, Gate will present opportunities for fast breaks that Syracuse needs to take advantage of, if the looks are there. Gate is gonna score some points but there's no reason SU can't drop at minium 16 goals tomorrow if not more.
Great game last Sat vs a red hot UVA squad. Holding that offense to 9 goals, 2 of which came directly off FOGO wins and another 2 on man ups is very impressive. Thought the defense did an excellent job on UVA's midfield as they were completely a non factor which is a great sign for the SSDMs as most of their mids are converted attackmen including Duenkel who had an early goal and then nothing. Fig and Dwan did a great job on the MIllions, they certainly still go theirs but holding McCabe to only 1 goal on 10+ shots is impressive. I also thought the defense and overall the team/staff did a nice job of burning clock in the 4th qtr and really shortened the game. Offensively I think we need a better plan when we do finally initiate late. If your just gonna take a bad shot or try and force it to the crease were better off just throwing into the corner and getting set up.
I thought offensively it was key to get a nice depth of scoring including multiple pole goals and the Johnny quick G off the faceoff. This team still grinds to a halt in the six on six sometimes so it's imperative we push transition when we can. Rhoa is really starting to feel and while he does take a fair # of shots, I think this O needs it so no concerns on my end. I will say we need to find a way to get get Finn and Bear more involved. They have a combined 3 goals the last 2 games. It has to be more if this team is gonna get back to memorial weekend. We have to find away be it more 2 man game with Joey or picking him free to get Finn looks. With Bear he is starting to draw the pole more, we need to pick him free and invert him at times. Get him on the move.
Faceoffs remain a concern. UVA has a very solid 3 headed monster and we know Greenspan has given Mullen issues in the past. Angelo was only 2 for 5 but again he came in and got a few wins, that's what we need. I still feel wing play is a major and I mean major issue. Greenspan caused a lot of GB scrums and we lost almost all of them. If Johnny or Angelo didn't win it to themselves we were in trouble about 85% of the time. The fact that this is still in issue in Mid April is a major red flag.
Onto Colgate - The main issue with Gate is that 10 man and their overall hair on fire style. I was encouraged with how well we did clearing last week. UVA runs a darn good 10 man and their ride overall is nasty. Cuse's logn pole ability to score from deep I think worked here as UVA on a number of occasions was in almost a 9.5 ride with the goalie hedging but not fully committed. Cuse did a nice job of bringing up Joey or Finn to come and get a pass near midfield to help on clears which even Tiffany mentioned. You rarely saw an SU ssdm or long pole try and punt return it through 3 dudes. Sat will be another huge test. Gate has really started to fine tune that 10 man. There opponents have turned it over 23, 19, 18, and 19 times in their last 4 games. As March noted Gate also clears in a very odd manner making it difficult to incorporate a tough ride against them.
SU is gonna need to keep turnovers to under 15, if it creeps up past that things will get dicey.
Gates staff has done a nice job turning thing around. They looked like a hot mess halfway through the season but have 4 straight victories including two impressive ones over BU and Navy. They have also shown they can win a high scoring game (16-15 Navy) and a low scoring (9-7 Lehigh). Offensively as Powell noted in his post they are very attack heavy Drouin leads the away who is a seasoned vet and can get hot in a hurry. The 3 attacken have 40, 39 and 31 pts respectively with the next highest guy at 14. This could be a game where we see a repeat of Maryland and Chuck K is dropped down to Close as he matches up better with smaller quicker attackmen then Beck. Gate will push transition and try and cause chaos wherever possible so Jimmy will need to be on his game. Syracuse needs to be careful they don't get lulled into looking ahead to ND because this offense will take advantage big time. I agree with Powell I think Drouin will almost assuredly draw Fig. I am not as sure on the 2nd matchup. Quinson has really come on as a scorer he leads the team in goals and had 4 pts vs Lehigh, 7 against Navy and 3 vs BU. However, he is not much of an assist man. Fowler the 3rd attackmen has 14 goals and 17 assists. If Cuse drops Chuck K down, I could see them putting Dwan on Fowler to force Gate to be an even more heavy unassisted team then they already are (see Powells post about Gates lack of assists. Should SU play it straight Dwan will certainly mark Quinson. A huge chunk of the scoring goes through those two guys, if SU can win those matchups Gate will struggle to score.
From a Cuse O standpoint Gate's D style is taylor made for what we wanna do. Gate usually doesn't guard behind the Cage and as one would expect Joey has absolutely feasted on the matchup. Joey dropped 11 pts last year and that was with Finn out. He had 9 pts two years ago. Hiltz had two monster games as well so he will be missed in this matchup. Gate's coach is no dummy have to imagine they will have a new wrinkle or 2 defensively. They play this zone/hybrid D that can at times cause a bunch of issues (see their game last week vs Lehigh) but it's also a horrible matchup for this Syracuse team. Finn, Leo, Rhoa, Hottle could all be in for big games ditto Tucker and the shooters on the 2nd line. Lehrman is a solid goalie, he's over 50% for the year but has struggled against the better teams on the schedule - 45% Penn State, 40% UVA, 48% Harvard , 46% Navy. Still he has only been below 40% once all season and was 58% BU and has been at 65% the last two games. Curious to see if Gate still refuses to cover behind the cage and how they try and defend Joey. SU assuming they aren't throwing the ball all over the place or having massive issues with the 10 man should be able to generate quality looks. Gate's defense has improved from the beginning of the season and holding BU to only 12 goals is notable. That said they have given up 18, 19 and 17 goals to PSU UVA and Harvard and 15 to Navy thought they did win that game 16-15.
If your looking for concerns in this game beyond the obvious 10 man I would refer you to last years game. Cuse was up 7 with 10 mins left in the third and with 2:30 left in the game we were clinging to a 2 pt lead. Gate is not going to go away if they get down 4 or 5 goals and with that 10 man and that style they are a team who can get on a run quickly. SU has also struggled with penalties, 8 in last years game alone. Gate will at times play extremely physical (see the Horse collar tackle back in 24) and the games have a tendency to get very chippy. Now the Connor bros are gone and Gate is averaging just under 4 penalties a game while its opponents have been called for just over 4 so perhaps it wont be as flag filled this year. Irregardless Cuse has to limit the amount of penalties, 8 last year was beyond absurd. Again Gate is a solid team, the concern here is we see a return to the SU team we saw in the 4th qtr vs Denver and the UNC game where we are hounded by sloppy play and bad decisions.
Now the good news. It's hard to see this team losing on Senior Day in the Dome. Certainly this game is no gimmie as I have outlined above but SU matches up very well offensively and Johnny should certainly rebound from last week. Gate while one of the best at turning teams over also has it's own issues with turnovers. They turn it over nearly 20 times a game, that is a staggering #. This is where Syracuse needs to take advantage and even out any issues with the 10 man, Gate will present opportunities for fast breaks that Syracuse needs to take advantage of, if the looks are there. Gate is gonna score some points but there's no reason SU can't drop at minium 16 goals tomorrow if not more.
