JPompo6

Oh no - That's terrible. I had the same exact break in January 2018 and 16 months later it is still very much touch and go. Granted, I am pushing 30, but I can say that this is a serious blow. Good luck and I hope for a speedy and full recovery

The compensation discussion has been had before so I will re-share the truth, which can be verified from looking in the NYS database. For the last few years the budget for total compensation of the Men's Lacrosse program has been consistent at the 285k level. 2017 for instance: HC: Marr $185,000 DC: Gleason $64,000 (Associate HC) OC: Thomson $46,000 Now, Marr's pay is the same but Merrick got a bump to $76,000, which leaves the compensation looking like: HC: Marr $185,000 OC: Thomson $76,000 (Associate HC) AC: Maloney $_____? At the same budget level as the 4 previous years, Maloney would only be able to make $24,000 which obviously isn't possible. They got a budget raise approved and pay the kid around 52k a year. 52k doesn't buy you much but it should buy you more than JM. I don't mean to be an A**, but it is 100% true. For comparrison sake, I will also prove that this is an AD issue as much as it is Marr going back to his good ole' boys mentality that rand him a-foul back in my day. Stony Brook 2018 Coaching Staff Nagle: $228,000 Gibson: $ 75,000 Kline: $41,000 (3 year assistant as UMass Lowell prior to joining SB @ 41k)

The following will be available for FREE when you attend the UAlbany Great Dane Tailgate: Beverages: Beer Wine Soda/Juice/Coffe/ Misc. NA Drinks Food: Pizza Wings Hummus & Vegetables Location: Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel 801 University Ave., Syracuse

The #14-ranked UAlbany Men's lacrosse team will take on #10 Syracuse on Saturday February 16 at the Carrier Dome, Syracuse. Before the game, join fellow UAlbany alumni and friends for some refreshments at Sitrus on the Hill in Sheraton University Syracuse Hotel. Pregame event is free but registration is required. https://www.alumni.albany.edu/s/1642/bp19/interior.aspx?sid=1642&gid=2&pgid=2440&cid=6150&ecid=6150&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=6108 I will be hosting this event so I hope to see yall there --- I promise we will have plenty of Purple & Yellow Decor to drown out the orange and blue of the "Sitrus". Feel free to shoot me a private message if you have any questions.

Not all schools are fully funded (i.e 12.6 scholarship level). That is the maximum number a team can extend, but some schools do not have a budget for that many. I recall at one point there was a laxpower thread that listed the believed number of scholarships at each school. Thankfully UA and most schools are fully funded but some of the schools that traditionally have not been very competitive have a lack of scholarships as a very large reason for that. As far as the locker room is concerned, they had a major renovation in 2007 that included very nice wooden lockers for each player, I am kind of suprised they are looking to redo them again, however having been inside the Syracuse facilities I have seen how nice they can be— Cuse even has a custom ventilation system in each locker for the player’s gloves. If UA is going to upgrade, I would prefer them to take their time and do some serious fundraising to build a new facility. Something like Galloway’s got under construction at J’ville would be a definite boost to recruiting. Player’s spend a ton of time in the locker/film room, the quality of them really matters. https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2018/05/16/1-8-million-lacrosse-facility-coming-to.html

Just a little info on the coaching staff. The biggest reason why we have the staff that we do is the lack of funding for what amounts to the 2nd assistant. I won't get into specifics but you can see what I mean if you look up the salaries on SeeThroughNY. Merrick getting bumped up to what Liam was making essentially made it impossible to attract a seasoned DC. I would have loved to see them get Craig McDonald, who is the current DC at UMass, but I am sure he is making more than 40K which is about all we had to offer. I am very nervous about this team on defense now. I hope Maloney does great things and there are numerous examples of young people doing amazing things in the coaching ranks -- look at OU's football coach Lincoln Riley. However, unless they add to the budget for the assistants we won't be able to attract anyone with a lot of experience.

I wasn't trying to say it was a 1:1 match, I am simply saying Marr tends to err on the side of "He gave us 2 great years". I don't think it has been mentioned here yet but TD wanted to leave after his freshman year, and Marr asked him to stick it out one more year and if he still wasn't happy then he could go. Despite him not being highly recruited and all of that jazz, at the end of the day it wasn't the right fit for the kid. It is no different than a company hiring a kid fresh out of college, giving him a signing bonus, training and all that and the kid leaves because he got a better job offer or whatever. As far as my person situation, and there are two sides to every story but essentially we started 0-5 and Marr called me into his office and said "We need to light a fire under this team so you are going to be suspended for the next 3 games until we start our conference play." I said, "Truck no" and took the position that it was up to him to realize how ridiculous that was and despite the captains lobbying for my return he did not budge. There is more to the story on Marr's end as to what he was going through off the field but I won't speak to that. During my time at Albany, my freshman year I experienced the type of program that is described today, during my soph and junior years it was much closer to what you would think of Hopkins. A lot of negative reinforcement, a lot of running as punishment, and a lot of discipline..which coming from a life of playing West Genesee lax year round, didn't really phase me but it definitiely put a negative vibe around the team. As far as why I transferred to St. Rose...I was going to head to Syracuse with Cometti however they were offering 50% scholarship and I was graduating with my accounting degree and heading to grad school for my MBA so I opted to go play for Liam Gleason at St Rose who was just starting their program. Liam went back to UA before St Rose had their first practice but by that time I was comfortable with my decision. With 25 freshman and myself as a 5th year, we went 8-8 in the hardest conference in d2 and beat a top 10 team... which as you can tell is something I am proud of.

So is Liam a quitter and all that for going to Siena? As far as welcoming TD back, I think you may be unaware of the program Scott runs. I am not sure if any of yall know this but I left the team during my Junior year due to a very low point in the UA program I dont really need to get into, but UA wasnt always so positive lets leave it at that. Marr and myself were on the worst terms possible as I left when I was a starter on a team that was 0-5 and after i left lost to stony brook 15-0. I ended up playing on St Rose’s first team and after my season ended, I met with Scott and his wife and we expressed a mutual regret for what went down and the convo ended with a hug and I have been welcomed in the fam ever since.

@dslyank I can appreciate where you're coming from. It certainly would be nice if he at least explained to the coaching staff why he made the choice he did just for the sake of internal quality review. I have read it here a few times and it is 100% true that if people think that the players at Yale or Johns Hopkins don't engage in the kind of risky behavior that can impact a season they are sadly mistaken. Look at the NCAA survey on substance abuse..... Men's D1 lacrosse leads all sports in all ADMITTED usage of hard drugs, alcohol, and pot. Each school tends to have their own blend of issues but they all have issues none the less. It is very common for players to get the itch to transfer after their sophomore season. In fact, it seemed like everyone I knew was "considering" transferring that summer for one reason or the next and I am not referring to UA players only. One of my good friends was a 2 year starter on a back to back national championship lacrosse team and even he said he wanted to transfer...... At the end of the day I suppose we can be grateful that other than Seth leaving early, we haven't lost too many players and none until TD have been lost to "poaching." If you look at other mid-major programs, they lose players all the time to kids who felt they should have been more highly recruited and weren't.

I (hopefully) speak for the vast majority of UAlbany Lacrosse Alumni when I say — Thank you, T.D., for two outstanding years of service. The marked improvement of the “rope”/ face-off unit made it possible for all of us to finally answer the question “Can you imagine how good they’d be if they could win a face-off?” I wish you all of the best with everything your future will bring......, I assume you will be reading this in the next couple of days. If you want to play some indoor lacrosse at Shove Park this summer(west genny), get in touch with me on twitter @jpompo6 Good Luck- except when affecting UA In any way!

I am heading to Albany tonight, F'boro by morning. I am pumped. #UA #UKNOW! tsss

spot on. I guarentee DU's wings are very athletic, so it will come down to who has the better chemistry of the two rope units.

Anyone want to carpool? I live in Cuse but could drive to said carpool. Denver doesn't scare me the way they should. People forget they were going to be a 3 seed before losing to GTown.

Okay- taking bets on the percetnage of faceoffs won by TD this weekend? I think it can go anywhere from 0-60%. And I say that very seriously, Baptiste is the best FOGO in the WORLD. he is on team USA. I hope TD schools him though.

DO I REMEMBER THE NOTRE DAME GAME???? I remember exactly where I was when that game was played. I happened to be at a bachelor party on the Thousand Islands and to this day it still kills me that we lost that game. If you recall the sequence when we were clinging to the 1 goal lead and we made 2 saves, then they hit a pipe, and the ball shot all the way up to near midfield on the fly right into the stick of one of our middies and he ran down and scored. I thought that was the break we needed to seal the deal. Then of course there was Ty hitting the goalies facemask from 10 yars with 10 seconds to play. ugh. I think I despise Notre Dame more than any other team. When we played them in 2008 they were the biggest bunch of AH's going. We lost that game by 1 goal as part of our 0-5 start vs top 10 teams

I expect CF to get the start. I can't say I have inside information....but maybe I do..... or maybe I am hoping my fellow West Genny Alum Chemotti sees this and forms his game plan around it. Either way, Albany is going to win 80% of the face-offs, and when they do, I hope they run the offense I called for (and got) in the most recent games. The dodge down the alley, pass to the 4 man, set a (moving) screen is a deadly play and we see it work 2-4 times a game for goals. Not to look to next season, but how amazing would it be in Tehoka undergoes a body transformation ala Miles and develops that little extra quickness to get out of the instant double he faces. My prediction for the near term: CF starts and has 4-5 points in a 13-6 Albany win vs the Spiders. ND dispatches a Denver team who isn't playing their best ball right now. CF's knee gets the medical attention needed to play 1 game at 90% (there are medical treatments that allow for this from talking to my brother who is an orthopedist) SUNY makes their first final four in a suprsingly defensive battle vd ND -- 9-7.

Also - 16 goals on 15 assists, exactly how our offense should work. The only unassisted goal of the day was when Ierlan got Protesto stuck on D and smoked him for a goal. Also - back to my "4 Dodge" comment. Inserting Ron Jon has been a great move. By my account he had 3 dodges that produced goals - 2 assists and 1 goal. Solid work out of him. With the emergence of advanced statistics in sports, I would love to see something that shows how productive a players initial dodges are. Kind of like the QBR in football, you get a certain amount of points in your dodge generates a slide, more if you generate an direct goal whether by direct assist or goal. Some of the best midfielders don't get the credit they deserve because they are the setup guy.

Not quoting myself for any reason other than this is what happened against Hartford and it is IMO the blueprint to the most success.

I wasn't saying that. I think we can agree that there have been some glaring issues that go under the rug because we keep winning. As much as I realllllllyyy don't like Quint, he has been right that the AE schedule makes it hard to get better. That is why I am happy we played Yale and under tough circumstances. I think even with a healthy Fields we would have lost. Yale is playing GREAT right now. They are so under rated it isn't funny. 6 guys taken in the MLL draft speaks to that. I just wanted to get ahead of the "THIS SEASON IS OVER" talk. I agree with you on another point.... put Fields in one of those braces you see lineman where and stick him on the crease.

^^^^ UALBANY hahah that is too good.

Wow.... not to be critical of other posters but it was 1 really bad game. A game where one of the best players in the history of college lacrosse goes down with and injury in the first quarter and one in which we faced one of two face off men who is about as skilled as ours but stronger. If we have to play Denver or Yale in the first round, yes we might be done for. That is not going to happen. Maybe in the second if the committee hates us as much as I think. The thing I am most concerned about is the fact that the staff has had 4 years to figure out the ten man ride going back to the collapse against Notre Dame in the Qfinals and somehow seems to still be perplexed. I have heard to connor will be able to play in some capacity when we need him. He might be moved to an off ball position, like he was suppose to be doing against Yale, but he will be playing none the less. In future games against all teams not named DU and Yale, this is how I expect the game to go. TD wins the vast majority of face-off's, we tone down the offense a bit and use the 4 dodge (wing dodge) and use the initial dodge and pick/roll to generate a slide then sling it to the opposite high mid who now has a clear 1-1 and see what happens. The more "cautious" offense leads to less time on D which allows them to play harder for longer. If you think our D is the problem, it isn't.... Stone is one of the best UA has EVER had, if not the best. Our D gives up goals because they get worn down and aren't as tuned in due to the reliance on our offense to score a ton of goals. I would hope that the guy getting paid the big bucks gets the clearing situation figured out in a hurry. That's my POV.....

SO a few remarks both past and present. 1. I am not sure why our man-up unit is so poor so far this year, we usually have a great unit which is a result of great shooters, excellent vision (esp. by Fields up top) and well schemed patterns designed by Merrick. It doesn't look like they are in a funk, but maybe they (coaches) believe they are talented enough to just freelance, which against top D1 teams with good DC's is never the case. I know a lot of coaches are NOT big on the whole "flip/fake flip" thing, however from my POV, if you run a F/FF at the top of the set, it forces the top defender to guess which guy has it, forcing a rotation without the ball traveling an inch. That is very valuable. I'm no coach but I have at least a dozen man-up looks in the ole thinker that generate multiple options, not the one hitter types. Additionally, when it is a 30 second penalty, why do 95% of teams waste 24 seconds throwing the ball around the outside, it makes no sense to me even if you do have a great 6-6 offense like the Danes. 2. I still feel like this teams greatest asset outside Fields is the fact that teams have to put a SSDM on either Patterson or McClancy. It showed up big time in the UMD game and in a prior post I did an analysis of output by those 2 based on type of defender. I think LaxFilmRoom would be proud. McClancy does not get anywhere near the credit he deserves but it will show on draft night when I guarantee he will be a top 10 selection. His stamina is ridiculous. Does anyone know what the current team does for conditioning? Is it strictly by doing high tempo drills or does Scotty still make them get on the end-line for "4-stops"? Also- which team will be the first to put a shorty on Reh and get toasted for doing so? My guess -- UVM. 3. Jared Bernhardt for UMD is scary good & if he and his coaches ever figure that out, watch out for UMD (and I hate UMD). He is so quick and fast he toasts every D guy on him, but for some reason they get away from him. I.E. game vs UA, he scored the 1st goal unassisted on a simple run from X, but they never got it back to him in that spot. 4. I give Nanticoke a pass. I recall Scotty always giving freshman the same pep talk about how Fr. year is a roller coaster and how you have to try to manage the highs and lows. UMD had a great D guy smothering him all game and it looked like he got a minor knee injury on that first dodge.... 5. Speaking of. I LOVED that set they ran multiple times in the first quarter where they brought Fields or Tehoka out top and put 5 along GLE. While you can't run it multiple times in a row, I hope they keep sprinkling it in because both of them can draw that slide easily and have their head up looking at 5 v 4. 6. Someone tell Reh I love him. He gets lost in the shuffle but I know he will be good for 3-4 games of 4 goals +, especially when UA faces lesser competition that try throwing junk defenses at them. Woooo that's all I have. Thanks for reading. Thoughts & opinions always welcomed.

W O W ....... yay

Maryland's D is really really good. UA's D can't solv Connor Kellys throwback passes.

I really liked the opening set with fields dodging into a 1-4..... But don't do it 4 times in a row, mix things up a bit!