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Lacrosse 2017-2018 a look ahead


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It probably is too soon & too painful; but some have mentioned Nanticoke & some have asked questions already about the future. So I thought I'd get this stared and it kind of goes along with the "destination topic".

 

Nanticoke gives us the size and strength to lean on someone and back them down and score. I think we lacked this type of player this year [as good as Connor is, he just does not have the size or weight {what is he 165-185.}]

 

Both Eccles & Burgmaster have brothers' committed for next year {according to a parent both are as good as their siblings--of course that is what a parent would say?}

 

We have two commits from Yorktown Heights (Marr's high school) who are supposed to be scoring machines @ a traditionally strong high school program. {Kyle Casey was listed @ 6'4"--maybe bigger now?}

 

I have not done any research on any other 2017-18 committs. So please anyone who knows more feel free to submitt and also add to those mentioned!

 

So with what we got coming back, although I am in great pain; I am very optimistic about the future!

 

ALL & OTHER OPINIONS WELCOMED.

 

 

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We lost a good 2017 pole to Michigan and a really athletic middie to Cornell who is now doing a PG year and as a 2018.

 

I've seen Tehoka in person and he has Lyle's stick skills with the body of Miles. I would think he is penciled in as a starter and either Patterson or Reh gets bumped up to play the 4th attack a la Drake from the midfield. If I had to bet Reh stays at attack since he and Fields have developed so much chemistry.

 

I haven't seen the guys from Yorktown or the younger brothers. IIRC the younger Burgmaster did really well at Maverik Showtime, committed to Colgate and then switched to Albany. Ramos is a very good goalie. I can't add anything on the poles.

 

I've seen most of the 2018's, and I'm not sure there is a superstar but it is a very strong group.

 

I'm waiting to see Coach Thomson tap the Hill/Canadian market and there are two tournaments this summer where a lot of future Danes will be playing together.

Edited by AlbanyFan2018
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IMO still need the classic X attackmen. I'm not sure if any of the other guys coming in next year fit that mold or not.

I'm still a relative lax newbie. Could you elaborate? Do you consider Nanticoke a classic attackman? Who is or was recently a classic in your mind...from UA that is?
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I'll try my best.

 

As great as Lyle is/was the ball stalled in his stick, and in big games there was a lot of watching by the other attackmen.

 

Fields is a pretty special player having gone from finisher his freshmen season to scorer and feeder this year.

 

Right now Laffin and Patterson, and to a lesser degree Reh need someone to feed them.

 

It will be very interesting to see how Tehoka meshes with Fields next year because they are both high volume ball in their sticks players. Tehoka has the bull sort of strength that Miles had but in most instances isn't going to beat his defender from X. His game will remind you of Miles backing people down or shooting off a pass coupled with insane stick skills.

 

But if you could pair Connor and Tehoka with a very slick X attackmen like Jordan Wolf, Marcus Holman, Bitter,etc., Albany would be lethal on offense. The guys I mentioned aren't super easy to find for sure, but if Albany has or gets a guy who can get the defense spinning off the initial dodge I think Fields can have an even more amazing year.

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IMG is on ESPNU now

Although IMG lost in OT, Nanticoke was quite the show. Two playoff games, 12 goals. He does seem to do a lot from behind the net and seems to be able to bull himself in and fire from point-blank range. And this is against top level competition at the prep level. Big 10 or ACC defenders will be able to run him off that move, I think, but if he is as good a passer as they say he should be able to find one of the other attacks. It will be interesting to see who plays point guard or whatever they call it in lax.
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Your last point is my question and it will be very interesting to see how Coach Thomson integrates Nanticoke into the offense. I'm not smart enough to know, but my one concern and is that Connor and Tehoka excel with the ball in their stick as the guy. There is no question that Connor will be the main guy and I hope there can be a lot of complentary synergy.

 

My guess would be that Tehoka has the inside track as th 3rd attackmen which will bump Laffin and Patterson. Of the two Patterson seems to have the skills to fill Drake's shoes, but I haven't seen his outside shot.

 

Big shoes to fill with the graduation of Osika. McClancy, Eagan, Eccles, and Burgmaster are back, but Osika's ability to go to the cage and also hit the alley dodge shot will be hard to replace. He really developed into a special player.

 

The defense improved, but the Maryland game showed we still have work to do in order to consistently compete with the top of the Big10 and ACC when things are not going well at the Face-Off.

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I'll try my best.

As great as Lyle is/was the ball stalled in his stick, and in big games there was a lot of watching by the other attackmen.

Fields is a pretty special player having gone from finisher his freshmen season to scorer and feeder this year.

Right now Laffin and Patterson, and to a lesser degree Reh need someone to feed them.

It will be very interesting to see how Tehoka meshes with Fields next year because they are both high volume ball in their sticks players. Tehoka has the bull sort of strength that Miles had but in most instances isn't going to beat his defender from X. His game will remind you of Miles backing people down or shooting off a pass coupled with insane stick skills.

But if you could pair Connor and Tehoka with a very slick X attackmen like Jordan Wolf, Marcus Holman, Bitter,etc., Albany would be lethal on offense. The guys I mentioned aren't super easy to find for sure, but if Albany has or gets a guy who can get the defense spinning off the initial dodge I think Fields can have an even more amazing year.

I guess I am still fuzzy on this. Is it a matter of player style or ability or size or speed or athleticism? Both Fields and Nanticoke seem to do their best work up close and personal. So if we had a player who was more pure attack and able to dodge and shoot from long range that would be more effective? Because they would be causing the defense to shift or slide in the cutter's direction?

 

Much of the final results of the tourneys comes down to overall athleticism and skills, supported by superior coaching and analysis for in game adjustments. Did everyone see and hear the segment in Monday's game where they talked about UM having multiple angle video from a source that allows them to analyze on the fly on the sideline tablets? Does UA have that? When apparently average FO players, supported by exceptional wing play, can nullify the advantage of three of the top four FO men in the country, that's coaching, adjustments and athletes. Yes, it does make a difference that UM has 14 Under Armour all Americans vs one for UA.

Edited by jimbo
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I'll try my best.

As great as Lyle is/was the ball stalled in his stick, and in big games there was a lot of watching by the other attackmen.

Fields is a pretty special player having gone from finisher his freshmen season to scorer and feeder this year.

Right now Laffin and Patterson, and to a lesser degree Reh need someone to feed them.

It will be very interesting to see how Tehoka meshes with Fields next year because they are both high volume ball in their sticks players. Tehoka has the bull sort of strength that Miles had but in most instances isn't going to beat his defender from X. His game will remind you of Miles backing people down or shooting off a pass coupled with insane stick skills.

But if you could pair Connor and Tehoka with a very slick X attackmen like Jordan Wolf, Marcus Holman, Bitter,etc., Albany would be lethal on offense. The guys I mentioned aren't super easy to find for sure, but if Albany has or gets a guy who can get the defense spinning off the initial dodge I think Fields can have an even more amazing year.

I guess I am still fuzzy on this. Is it a matter of player style or ability or size or speed or athleticism? Both Fields and Nanticoke seem to do their best work up close and personal. So if we had a player who was more pure attack and able to dodge and shoot from long range that would be more effective? Because they would be causing the defense to shift or slide in the cutter's direction?

 

Much of the final results of the tourneys comes down to overall athleticism and skills, supported by superior coaching and analysis for in game adjustments. Did everyone see and hear the segment in Monday's game where they talked about UM having multiple angle video from a source that allows them to analyze on the fly on the sideline tablets? Does UA have that? When apparently average FO players, supported by exceptional wing play, can nullify the advantage of three of the top four FO men in the country, that's coaching, adjustments and athletes. Yes, it does make a difference that UM has 14 Under Armour all Americans vs one for UA.

 

 

This is a stat worth analyzing. Talent, size, athleticism all matter.

 

How would we compare UA lacrosse to Denver lacrosse.... more or less been in D1 the same amount of time.

Denver has success in ice hockey, but nothing else to mention.

 

What brought Denver into being a powerhouse like the rest of the top five or so? Is the only reason Tierney?

Does the university itself play into the draw of elite athletes? Facilities? Geographic location?

 

After watching what happened this year, I'm not sure this was our best team.... what do we need to do

to get over the quarterfinal hump?

 

Do we give ourselves too much praise? Are we really only a top 10 team? The final 6 quarters we played looked very weak,

playing competition that's considered the top dogs of the nation.

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I'm not sure what the final poll looks like, or the rpi.... and I don't care right now.

But...

 

I can fathom why teams like Maryland, Syracuse, Ohio State, Duke, Notre Dame, Penn State, North Carolina,

Virginia, etc... get to the championship. All teams normally in the top 10.... they all possess elite athletic programs, in big name

athletic conferences. FBS football. Final Four type basketball.

 

Although there are a handful of reasons to choose which school to go to for a recruit... all of the above mentioned

schools have elite status and prestige... how many times do top recruits bypass those schools to go to Albany?

 

I've always been on the side of continual growth and movement upward. That includes conference affiliation and facility expansion.

We could be the Florida State, UNC, UCLA, LSU, etc.. of NYS. Buffalo will never be! Probably no state school in ny will ever be..

NY sucks when it comes to recognizing the importance of collegiate athletics and what it does for its state universities and the degrees of its alumni.

Edited by uofalbany
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Great conversation.

 

As I've said before as a relative newbie to SUNY schools I don't know where the institutional support is and what if anything UAlbany can do resource wise to further invest and grow the program.

 

My impression having had a kid recently in the recruiting process is that despite the recent success with the Thompson's and now after that more could be done to raise the overall profile of the lacrosse program and more importantly the academic opportunities at UAlbany.

 

Denver's model is Colorado, California and Canada, and having looked at Denver it is an OK academic school and as a private school is very expensive. IMO Albany is a much greater value.

 

Albany has the built in NY advantage with a large in state pool to draw from, has had success with Canada but not to the degree as DU, and Albany in recent years has recruited fewer national kids than say DU. The facilities at DU are good but not great in comparison to Albany especially if you compare Barton to Casey. Fallon is definitely inferior to Barton. Albany's other advantage is the Native American lacrosse community. Albany has several very talented players in the 2017 and 2018 classes, and had two nice contributors this year as freshmen from the Native community.

 

Albany has always been less aggressive on the recruiting front, especially when it came to chasing early recruits, and as far as I can tell hasn't landed any of the big time local talent which still seems to go to Syracuse or ACC schools. Just looking at the 2017 and 2018 recruiting classes you are seeing kids from different areas and different schools on the lists.

 

The coaching staff has done an amazing job finding and developing the diamonds in the rough. Maybe better then any other program I can think of, but I agree that Albany has to get bigger and faster at some positions to get over the hump.

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I'll try my best.

As great as Lyle is/was the ball stalled in his stick, and in big games there was a lot of watching by the other attackmen.

Fields is a pretty special player having gone from finisher his freshmen season to scorer and feeder this year.

Right now Laffin and Patterson, and to a lesser degree Reh need someone to feed them.

It will be very interesting to see how Tehoka meshes with Fields next year because they are both high volume ball in their sticks players. Tehoka has the bull sort of strength that Miles had but in most instances isn't going to beat his defender from X. His game will remind you of Miles backing people down or shooting off a pass coupled with insane stick skills.

But if you could pair Connor and Tehoka with a very slick X attackmen like Jordan Wolf, Marcus Holman, Bitter,etc., Albany would be lethal on offense. The guys I mentioned aren't super easy to find for sure, but if Albany has or gets a guy who can get the defense spinning off the initial dodge I think Fields can have an even more amazing year.

I guess I am still fuzzy on this. Is it a matter of player style or ability or size or speed or athleticism? Both Fields and Nanticoke seem to do their best work up close and personal. So if we had a player who was more pure attack and able to dodge and shoot from long range that would be more effective? Because they would be causing the defense to shift or slide in the cutter's direction?

Much of the final results of the tourneys comes down to overall athleticism and skills, supported by superior coaching and analysis for in game adjustments. Did everyone see and hear the segment in Monday's game where they talked about UM having multiple angle video from a source that allows them to analyze on the fly on the sideline tablets? Does UA have that? When apparently average FO players, supported by exceptional wing play, can nullify the advantage of three of the top four FO men in the country, that's coaching, adjustments and athletes. Yes, it does make a difference that UM has 14 Under Armour all Americans vs one for UA.

After the UNC game I came away saying wow, Albany really hung with Carolina athletically with one or two exceptions. When Carolina made their run that was pretty evident and even more so in the Maryland game.

 

My question with Fields and Nanticoke will be are they complementary players or as the ESPN guys always say Alpah male attackmen?? I'm not smart enough to know how their skills will complement one another, but with both of them out there it is a dual threat that will demand a lot of attention.

 

In a perfect world you have an offense that can attack a defense from multiple spots on the field. McClancy can dodge and shoot from up top. Eccles has a great shot but is more of a shoot off of a feed than getting his own shot. It looked like Burgmaster's role changed a bit this year so someone is going to have to add to the 12-15 yard scoring threat to hit that $iena Osika made against UNC.

 

Reh can definitely go from X, but it seems as if he is most effective off ball as is the case with Laffin. Patterson has some nice quickness and it will be interesting to see how he is used going forward. I don't know if it was the injury or if he hit the freshmen wall, but he was less effective towards the end of the season.

 

I could almost see Connor and Tehoka in similar roles as Lyle and Conor were when Connor was a freshman.

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