AlbanyFan2018

Given the success over the last five plus years, anything less than not qualifying for the NCAA's should be considered as falling short, but it is going to get harder and harder to do that as teh rest of the AE catches up or has caught up, and our ability to schedule and beat teams which would give us an at large resume. Towson this year is a good role model for UA. They made the final four I want to say two years ago, fell off last year, and were a sixth seed this year and would have received an at large big if they hadn't won the CAA. Academically Towson and UA are probably more academically similar in terms of overall profile, both are in lacrosse hotbeds. Having been to both campuses several times I might give Towson a slight overall nod in terms of the whole package but it is close. We've just about flogged the pony to death about what did or didn't happen this year, and I still don't know the whys and why nots. Overall I think it was a perfect storm of events from a vastly new staff, major hits to graduation, injuries in the fall, and it never came together. I'm worried about our facilities on a national level, but not so much within the AE. I think i mentioned this in a very old recruiting topic, but UA has to do a better job of selling its academic strengths. In recent years Coach Marr really delegated a lot of the recruiting to his assistants. I think Maloney will be great on the recruiting trail, but with an overall younger staff he'll need to get more engaged. We have a very good rising senior class which I think will lead the way during the off season.

I think you nailed it. I would say it was more of a security blanket for the staff than the players. The coaches knew we could start or stop a run. It just stressed things in a way that no one was ready for IMO despite having all summer and fall to figure out how to move forward.

Lot of good thoughts and questions. I do think we have a lot of talent, not as good as in recent years, but to me it was the inability to find and stick with the right complementary players. For example, I never understood the attack of Laffin, Casey, and Patterson. Then we started the season with our traditional two way middie system, scrapped it for a bit, and then went back to it. This is making excuses, but it just was a messed up year. Starting with injuries, the ball just took weird bounces, and what not. We have to get more athletic in the middle of the field if we stick with the two way system. There are not a lot of guys who can play elite offense and defense and the ACC gets most of those guys.

I think the Maryland win over Towson was the only game where the team with the clearly superior FOGO lost. Woodall for Towson is great at winning the clamp, but not a stud with the ball either. Towson had a better plan for dealing with his athletic shortcomings by having him getting the ball to a wing player rather than trying to carry the ball. I can't recall how many times he whiffed trying to pick up a GB with a one hand. Even when our offense was really good I don't think it was every great in settled situations; pretty good, but not great. Just look at the loss last year to Yale in the semi's and to Maryland the year before in the quarter's. TD didn't have dominate games in either of them, and we got whacked. Sure there were other issues, but I think some of our offensive woes were present when the Dane Train was really humming. If I look at the teams who are still standing most of have elite or really good face off units. Penn St, Penn, Yale have All American FOGO's. Maryland and Notre Dame have good Face off units with solid FOGO's. Duke and UVA do it with what I would say elite athletes across the board, and Loyola on the shoulders of one of best to every play and a great goalie. I think more than anything this year's team had no identity. I think it started in the fall with Tehoka's absence, and I'm not sure he was ready or if he could carry the team. I love Jakob and he works really hard, but he is very quiet. When the offense couldn't gel in the fall and pre season, and without a dominant FOGO or face off unit to cover up the flaws, it was a mess offensively.

UMBC getting smacked bad.

Yep. During the Cuse Loyola game they put up a graphic when Spencer broke the all time assist record and it was a picture of Lyle and Connor. To have two players like that over the lifetime of a program would be pretty special, but to have them play together for a year, and for Connor to follow up Lyle and Miles was special. The precision just wasn't there with the exception of the Cornell game. There is a lot of new blood coming in next year, but upperclassmen lead teams to championships. A core group of Patterson, Nanticoke, Yunker, McComber, Diamond, Casey and Laffin. Some guys at the midfield position need to take the next step. We saw some nice things from Schwab, Bradley, Ramirez and Goldsmith at times. Alex Burgmaster needs to take the next step as an offensive player. He has a cannon for a shot. Need to see more of that in the future. The key from this group in improved consistency.

We do have a strength and conditioning program, but not to the degree of most top tier programs. Usually teams give players a very specific workout regimen over the summer, have run tests and what not, but at least recently at UA that hasn't been the case. It certainly didn't hurt over the great run, but think it would be good to instill a bit more discipline at times.

I think I saw it reported in the press as well or maybe a quote attributed to Coach Marr when he said something about having to practice inside which seems like a lame excuse because unlike in past years the team was able to practice and scrimmage in a full field facility. You would have thought that of all the teams in men's lacrosse UA would have been as ready as anyone which is why I would like to understand if the shot clock was an issue, then why? Even if teams didn't go into a full blown zone, just by packing it in a bit, our inability to score in transition this season and shoot effectively from the outside would certainly make it hard with defined period for each offensive possession. There are other teams with good offenses which struggled in man up situations, but in our case I do think there was a high correlation between the settled offensive struggles and what we saw in EMO's.

I know it was frustrating to all of us, but I have to think there were things none of us know about that were driving what looked like odd coaching decisions. It was a poor year, especially going from final four to first round exit in the conference tournament. I expected a down year, and early on thought we would be a mid teens sort of team, and this group had the talent to do that. I think Coach Marr will do a thoughtful, honest assessment and reading between the lines it sounds like it will start with a rigorous strength and conditioning program which the program has abandoned in recent years.

https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/05/07/marr-i-take-full-responsibility-for-ualbany-men-s-lacrosse-s-down-2019-season

Could be a very talented group and lots of bodies for sure. Lots of opportunities in the middle of the field and FOGO.

Thanks for digging up the videos!

Youngest Burgrmaster who decommited from UA now going to Notre Dame.

Agree. Of the questions I wish I could get answered is what was the deal with the ever changing offensive personnel.

I was lucky to catch Coach Marr on the radio while I was in the car. He came on early today. He was asked one really good question about Tehoka, and he had a few other things to say which were pretty interesting. He did say everything from the coaches on down will be evaluated before the team leaves for the summer and he alluded to summer strength and conditioning which really hasn't happened in an official way the last several years. He talked about a large freshmen class coming in and it is a big one. The one thing I have read and don't understand is the idea that we were unprepared for the shot clock. As a team that played fast before the shot clock I don't understand that. The biggest difference I saw this year is that we didn't score a lot of quick goals and were forced to play a lot of settled offense. Even in past years when the offense was really good we struggled at times when we were not scoring in transition or off of quick breaks from winning face off's clean. I need to look deeper into the numbers to see if they are apples to apples with the shot clock, and of course TD's dominance made the offense and defense look better than they may have otherwise been, and having watched Yale a few times this year the same is true with them. The offense was dismal. The man up speaks for itself.

I wish one of the local papers would do a deep dive on this past season, and Coach Marr is almost hyper positive to the point that we'll probably never hear anything from him of any real substance. Going from the Final Four to a 5-9 record shouldn't be acceptable which is why I would really like to hear from Coach Marr on where things went wrong and the commitment that this is a top tier program for the long haul. Looking at this year's NCAA tournament there is no North Carolina, no Denver, no Cornell, and you could argue that Hopkins and Maryland were on the thinnest of ice so it is a different era in men's lacrosse. Where and why did the Dane Train derail and can the coaches and players get it back on the tracks?

I hope we have some good ones in the pipeline. There may not be a position that is as big a leap as high school to college FOGO. Just about every D1 commit is in the 70% range so I will wait and see how they adapt to the college game. I am probably more excited about the incoming offensive talent. The 2019 class is huge and given how the season went if I were an offensive player I would be putting in a lot of extra time this summer in the gym and with my crosse.

Last I heard Sean was planning on graduating, but not sure how the season ending does or doesn't change his plans.

Forgot to mention the pass goal, the one that dropped in from Ramos's stick, and the rebound goal. That really is our season in a nutshell. There is a lot of young talent on this team. On top of the guys you mentioned, Swingruber was also hurt all season and Sands blew out his knee very early, although from what I saw and heard he was a work in progress. I do think Yunker and McComber will continue to develop, but as you said a lot of guys need to pump some serious iron this off season, and a lot of shooting needs to happen. I think I saw our shooting percentage was down around 26% this season which isn't going to get it done and it didn't. if I were in the log jam at attack I would spend all summer running, shooting, and working on my alley and split dodges and make an impact at midfield. The one thing I want to see this summer and fall is a recommitment to physical conditioning. As far as I know we are one of the few programs which doesn't give the team a dedicated strength program over the summer, and in recent history we have moved away from run tests. I need to research our commits, but I thought the FOGO was a 2020 unless they got someone late in the 2019 class, but we clearly need more competition at that position. Like you I am not a fan of the long pole FOGO, especially, if all they are going to do is stand there and the only HOPE is creating a turnover. Owen was clearly the best option with the long pole and wonder why it took so long for him to get a shot, but unless he turns into C.J. Costabile, we need a top tier, traditional FOGO. Jonesy has the skill, but just needs to work on his agility and ball handling this summer. Only thing I disagree on is Flip and Pat. Flip was playing out of position IMO. He is a big boy, and not a traditional LSM, but was forced into action. I want to say he led the team in caused turn overs.

Never to early for us great lacrosse minds to look ahead First I want to thank all of the seniors. While I know this isn't the way they wanted to go out, they never quit and were great leaders to the younger players. I thought Ramos and Weathersby played with a lot of grit, especially given the circumstances. Will hadn't played a game in two years and after Jones hurt his hand Owen took all of the face offs. I don't have any idea how the goalie situation happened. If I had to guess I would say that Nate and Jason are fairly similar in terms of styles, and with Will being a smaller, quicker lefty maybe it was a different, uxexpected look, and his strength from what I know is in clearing and getting transition going. I made myself watch the game again, and if the wings had been better getting gb's Weathersby would have been over fifty percent. In the age of specialization that is really good for a long pole. As far as Altamari, I heard that Anthony had something going on with his back and was in a lot of pain. I don't know if that is why he didn't play yesterday. I don't have any sense on Tehoka's status going forward. I would be really surprised if he doesn't finish out his four years at Albany. I think he has a lot he wants to prove if nothing else. To me the story of this season was the offensive revolving door, and that started in the fall with Tehoka's absence, and Laffin and Yunker's injuries. I don't know how or why Diamond was in and out of the lineup as much as he was. Yesterday's game showed why he should have been in the line up. He did have some sort of injury in the middle of the season, but at the beginning he was buried deep on the depth chart. Yunker and McComber were inserted at times, and Yunker looked the quaterback of the future and then he disappeared. The man up was just a disaster. Has a team ever been worse on 6 vs 4's? I'm not sure what to say about that other then that just shows the overall offensive woes other than the game against Cornell. Face off's going forward Jonesy and Altamari have to get better in space, but Jones is the clear number one. Again I don't know how much of Anthony's lack of playing was injury or not. Defense loses two starters in Perla and Dhuly and Gleason who played both close at times and on the wing. Attack next year will come from Patterson, Diamond, Tehoka, Laffin, Yunker, Casey, Cavallo, and McComber. So basically anyone who got minutes is back next year. I guess that's a good thing and hopefully a lot of work goes in this summer. Next year's freshmen class has some offensive talent. So there is going to be a lot of guys fighting it out. Hopefully it is a more productive and injury free fall. Midfield - I really expect one or two of the attack group to move to midfield. They are still looking for that Bennet Drake as the 4th guy out of the box. That guy didn't exist this year. Schwab, Bradley, Burgmaster, Ramierez, Goldsmith, and Ron John are the core group. I don't know if any of the incoming freshmen are potential middies. This looks like the biggest question mark. All and all the only players of real significance we are losing are Jack Burgmaster and Sean Eccles. That makes me optimistic for next season. If everyone is on board for the fall there really is no excuse for not having a major offensive rebound. On defense Kunz and Flip should anchor the close unit, and based upon what we saw Kozar is the next in line. Barrow. Spahr, and I would guess Hay are the LSM candidates. Overall I think Barrow had a solid season. I'm not sure what happened with Hay, but he went from being the top freshmen to not playing at all. I am counting on him to have a big rebound next season. I am guessing that Weathersby will be in the mix somewhere, and hopefully the FOGO situation gets more solid so that we are not using a lot of poles next season. I don't know anything about the incoming defensive freshmen. All three goalies are back. When you look at it the cupboard is very full so there is a lot to be optimistic about. Just about everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong this season. I had hoped that the team cold have overcome the graduation losses and transfer, but things got worse in the fall and never got much better.

I am willing to give Coach Marr a hall pass this year. Not many teams have the sort of depth to lose five All Americans, and have who is supposed to be your best player gone for the fall and lots of drama during the regular season. Where I am not as kind is with the offense and the revolving door. While I am close to the team, I don't know everything that is going on, so maybe a few guys were a bit more banged up or were having off the field or classroom issues, but in the last game all of a sudden Casey isn't playing, Diamond is in, Ramierez is sort of playing. Hard to win when you are 1-9 on man ups, Eccles is scoreless and Tehoka has one goal. It was a bizarre season, but I never felt the boys gave up. Some definite soul searching needs to happen over the off season. The conditioning program needs to to ramp up big time, and a lot of off season shooting.

Jonesy has a splint or soft cast on his wrist so he is done - Owen is doing a great job. Kind of surprise Altamari hasn't even gotten a shot

Looks like Jones is hurt. He has been icing his hand. Can't tell how bad it is.

quick update - not sure but looks like Siekierski is out - can't tell who is going to start

At Stony Brook. Let's go Danes!!!!!!!!