AlbanyFan2018

There is some more content on the lax network. A good interview with Jakob and some pre game stuff. It is a chilly morning in Philly, but the weather doesn't look like it should be a factor. Doesn't look like I'll need to break out the rain gear. If anyone is coming to the field it is a bit of a construction mess so give yourself plenty of time. Go Danes!

A buddy passed on an interview with Coach Marr on the lacrosse network, but couldn't get it to upload. It wasn't a very good interview with only a question or two about the Syracuse game and the upcoming game against Drexel. Coach Marr thought other than the 2nd quarter the defense played great so I wouldn't expect anything new. I hope he's right, but have been seeing the same mistakes for the last three years. If they play like they did against Syracuse, Drexel will put up a lot of goals.

https://dailygazette.com/article/2019/02/20/ualbany-men-s-lacrosse-not-an-instant-gratification-team-this-year

Times Union reporting Tehoka banged up. Not surprised after the beating he took last week. His role will be less carrying the ball. Not sure it ever should have been since he is so prone to getting double and even triple teamed. Might we see more of Diamond this week or more of the freshmen. I just don’t think Patterson has that in his tool box. I still think the biggest story from week one is that we win the face off battle, have very good goalie play and still gave up 13 goals. The defense is going to have to start playing like a veteran group until the offense finds its footing.

And Drexel lost to High Point in over time. Going to be a test on Saturday.

I was surrounded by Syracuse fans and when it looked like it was 3-1 us after their early goal they were all groaning here we go again. After thinking about it more I find it interesting and confusing why in a tough environment we didn’t see Diamond or a Chris Ryan. I couldn’t believe it when we had two freshmen at attack and one of them was way down on the depth chart in the scrimmages. I am almost ready to see some serious new blood on defense and especially defensive midfield.

Caught Coach Marr on 104.5 a while ago. After watching the game again I agree with him that it should have been 3-1 Albany with a chance to take the air out of the Dome, but instead was 2-2 and then 2-3. The defense did have a very good 3rd quarter, but overall after watching it and being able to watch certain plays over the defense wasn't good. I am not sure what he is seeing and I will admit I don't focus on that side of the ball all that much, but other than Dhuly and maybe Kunz, everyone else had a very mediocre game at best. We continue to manufacture offense for opposing teams.

Honestly no idea. I’ve never seen anything like it before. We all acknowledged that finding the right chemistry would be bumpy. As bad as the offense was and it was bad, the goalie covered up an even worse performance from the defense.

Other than Penn State and Loyola just about everyone looks flawed to some degree this year so no time to panic which is why what we saw yesterday was so shocking to me. Patterson was out there but quiet. Davis just didn’t play and seems to be way down on the depth chart. I thought we could be 1-3 or 1-4 out of the gate and still make the tournament with AE AQ, and this is still the case. Based upon what I saw other than Jones, Siekierski, and Dhluy every position is up for grabs.

Other than having to serve the coach’s penalty, I don’t think Ryan saw the field. You had guys seeing no minutes in the fall and pre season all of a sudden playing meaningful minutes and vice versa.

Not sure where to place the blame on the defense. I’ve seen the same guy make horrible slide decisions for three years now with two different defensive coordinators. Some guys have great on ball skills but not good in team schemes. I rarely see our close D guys getting physically beat, but I consistently see poor decision making which leads to a lot of offense for the other guys.

Goldsmith played a lot of defensive middie Laffin was injured Diamomd MIA

Dumbest coaching call of the entire game. Don’t know if that was Marr or Russell making that decision.

Just my opinion but I thought Barrow was one of the few guys that left it all out on the field. Same with Gleason. I can’t say the same about some others.

24-44 and we won the face off battle. Terrible effort by most of the team

Ironically two of the potential weaknesses were the only strengths last night - face off’s and goal tending. I think Jones won over 60% and our new goalie overall had a very good night. I think I said a while back that this would be the biggest coaching challenge Marr has had in a while and we’ll see how they respond. No adjustments and while I think the close defense played ok, once again the defensive scheme was a shambles. Who made the call to use a pole on face offs when our FOGO was winning and concede them the ball? How do you let number 1 for them repeatedly have open shots? How does Davis Diamond go from playing big minutes at attack to riding the pine? I am more concerned about the decision making and the obvious favoritism than I was over the outcome.

Lot of good comments from you guys. I want to watch the replay tomorrow to see how it looked on tv versus being there. I wasn’t too optimistic going in but it was worse than I hoped. Game balls go to Jones and Siekierski. They were our best players tonight. I heard several of the other parents talking about this, but the personnel tonight was just crazy. It was almost as if there has been no pre season practices. Guys who played good minutes last year and did well didn’t see the field. Laffin must have reinjured his ankle on the first or second play. No idea why Diamond didn’t play other than on man ups. Dhluy had a really nice game, but other than the 3rd quarter the defense was t good. If the goalie hasn’t bailed them out it would have been much worse. More crazy slides and leaving guys wide open to shoot. I’ll need to ask one of the defensive guys what is going on, but we were all screaming. I actually thought Barrow and Gleason were scrapping hard for ground balls. The offense was putrid plain and simple. This team wasn’t ready to play a game, and many of the personnel packages made little sense. Guys who didn’t play or played very little should have played more and vice versa. Having over 7 minutes in penalties is insane. I’ll reserve judgement until I see the improvement made next week.

We can agree to disagree on the impact and wanted to point out that part of TD’s decision was he wanted to pursue academic as well as athletic excellence and the practice structure is a detriment to guys shooting the moon on the field and in the classroom. Many of the challenging courses are not offered early evening.

I can tell you from direct knowledge that it is an issue. Definitely conflicts as you point out but morning practices makes it much worse.

https://www.alumni.albany.edu/s/1642/02-alumni/giving/index.aspx?sid=1642&gid=2&pgid=2388

I can't say about all, but most school practice later in the day. When you throw in lifting, treatment and practice it really impacts class choices and just about eliminates the ability to take a class before 1pm. That makes it tough.

I hear you on the loyalty front. There are some things which are not common knowledge to further reinforce your point of view. I will say that the one thing where I think TD, and others who want to take and have tried to take more challenging classes, the 10am practice schedule interferes with those players who are striving for academic excellence. There are and have been other players who are contemplating or have contemplated transferring to other schools because of the class and practice conflicts. I know that was part of TD's frustration.

i think TD had some legitimate gripes, and on some points he was off base. In the end it wasn't a good fit for him.

Two guys who have always impressed me on ground balls are Barrow, and Spahr in particular. Spahr was an amazing ground ball vacuum in high school and every chance he gets all he seems to do is get ground balls. I don't think he has the stature to be an every play LSM, but if we need to double pole I could see either of those guys out there with Gleason on the wings. Barrow is a little more rough and tumble and can mix it up more, but either way we need more physicality on the wings and in the middle of the field. To me Gleason is the clear #1 LSM and has earned it. I don't know why Barrow hasn't gotten more opportunities. I think there are 2-3 better options on the man down unit that would make it more productive as well, and I would put Spahr and Barrow on that list as well.