AlbanyFan2018

Thanks for that link. And I thought we bickered sometimes on our board. Oh my, the Syracuse fans already have a for sale sign in front of Desko's house after the first game.

I could see us getting to 9-4 or 10-3 if we can get 50/50 on face offs. The offense without the ball a ton was good in the tune up games. i just caught Coach Marr on the radio. He said they are still exploring Patterson at attack or midfield. i thought he was a little generous on the face off wins in the scrimmages. Sounds like Altamari has the nod heading into Syracuse.

What does everyone think? I am going 8-5 with one loss in the AE. I saw a tweet from the Gazette that Coach Marr said he was very happy with the top 25, but that we needed more depth. IMO that is pretty good depth given that most teams play less than 25 guys during a game. I think we have very good depth at attack, so so at midfield. I would have said 6-7 deep on defense, but not sure where the defense stands. They did hold Rutgers to 4-5 goals in the first half, and played reasonably well against Colgate. I'm not super excited about the man down defense. I've always liked that Albany has gotten more guys involved, but it looks like a bit of a liability this year. It looks like Tehoka has more pep in his step this year. He looks as big as ever, but quicker. I would go with Laffin ahead of Yunker at attack. Laffin has the best hands on the team, and has come up big in big games before. I would like to see him get a chance to start. Face off and the face off unit looks like a work in progress. Hopefully Dhluy is 100% healthy now. I like the trio of him, Flip, and Perla, but need to see better team defense and better slide decisions. I don't understand Gleason giving up as many rotations at LSM as he did in the fall. I really like Spahr's ground ball skills, but don't know why he hasn't gotten more opportunities. To over achieve, offense will have to very efficient due to fewer possessions, and defense/goalie will have to make improvements throughout the season.

I wasn't able to make it to Colgate, but got a pretty good debrief from a few of the parents. In light of Colgate's win over Syracuse it puts a few things in perspective. I would say ground balls and face off's by Colgate made it a close game, and Colgate was amazing on ground balls last night against Syracuse and did pretty well on face off's. The scrimmage was supposedly very physical and fast paced. It wound up being a tie after four quarters and Albany won the bonus quarter. We had a few key guys nicked up who didn't play or played very little. The team apparently played better against Rutgers the week before.

I heard it was really cold, windy, and quite of the few guys were sick. Good to get through all of the scrimmages with just about everyone healthy. I guess some takeaways from the first week is that is going to be a crazy season, and the key is going to improve throughout the season. I thought defense was going to be a relative strength but have to say I am a bit underwhelmed, but haven't heard what the rotation looked like.

Wasn't able to make it down so watching the Colgate - Syracuse game. Still early but based upon the start 3-0 Colgate, won every face off, and look as athletic as Syracuse - good data point for the team.

Going to try and make it if I can get off of work early enough. Anyone make it to the meet and greet tonight?

I thought they Yale or Maryland game might be picked up. Rutgers seems to be the darling team this year. All of the AE games are on ESPN+ this season, and the game against Drexel is on the lax sports network which is now free. I guess our only chance to be on national TV this year will be if the team makes the AE finals which ESPNU broadcasts.

Siena scrimmage has been moved to Friday 5pm at Casey.

Very true. I forgot they were a week ahead of us. Still interesting that McComber didn't see a bit more time. I'll have to go back and check but I think Altamari was one of the top ranked FOGO's coming out of high school, and I think committed somewhere else and came to UA very late in the process. I do think that you have to give one of them the nod because there are so many adjustments that need to take place as the competing FOGO's battle during a game. Hard to get into a rhythm if you keep swapping out. However, as you said have to win the ground balls.

Great point/question on the face off situation. In theory given how much physical abuse face off guys take, having two who can share the load to some extent is a good thing. However, each face off guy does things differently which can impact how the wings position themselves and the whole strategy of are you running to hole every time to start a break, trying to get a contested ground ball most of the time, or are you helping to create space for you face off guy so he can get a clean exit with the ball. I didn't hear anyone say that Tehoka took a face off which I think would have been a sign of Coach Marr being desperate. Did any poles try to face off and/or did we try to double pole the wings? Notre Dame double poles a lot, but they have great LSM's, but the downside of that is if the opposing FOGO wins it clean you are exposed on defense with the fast break. I would think we have an athletic long pole who is able to take face off's and at least be a bit more disruptive if we had to go that route. Either way we need to get better as a face off unit, because Syracuse got the better of Irelan yesterday.

Awesome report! I hadn't heard that Ron John didn't play, and no clue if he was sick or injured, and he is one of the middies that has to take a leap this year. I had a chance to get a further debrief after they watched film and the consensus is that it was more the entire face off unit, and the theme of the day was have to want ground balls. I would expect some more tinkering. You are never going to hear me talk negative about any of the guys, but there have been some interesting depth chart changes which I don't understand based upon the fall and a week or so of practice, because the guys who got a lot of interesting run (unless there were injuries or disciplinary issues) didn't impress. I too am surprised to hear that McComber played very little, but I did confirm that was the case. Thanks again to everyone who took notes!

Thanks for the in person updates. I just got off the phone with one of the other parents and what he said pretty much jibed with your comments. His main points were that the shot clock wasn’t a big deal, but the pace at times felt faster than it needed to be. Goalie play play across the board was actually pretty good. Lots of poor defense gave up some easy looks and several man down goals. Face offs were bad but as you said more about ground balls. He said wing play overall was really poor. Offense looked very good at times, but he felt little midfield production and as you said got sloppy at times. Dhluy was banged up and didn’t play much and the other freshmen pole is also hurt but did play late and made several big plays which led to goals. But overall defense struggled, especially two d middies and one starting pole who continues to make poor slides. He felt Filipowski easily had the best game among the poles. He said it was all tied after four quarters, and our third quarter was terrible, but we won the extra quarter by 3-4 goals. He said overall some strange combination of players with some of what he felt and others were better options didn’t play as much. He didn’t know if those guys were hurt or if they wanted to see some other things?? But biggest takeaway and I just got a text from the kid was that ground balls were a disaster and that kept Colgate in it for the most part.

We were told 969 Watervliet Shaker Road in the latest team email. That was a correction to what we previously heard. Enjoy the game!

Sounds like a lot of interesting things to check out at the scrimmage tomorrow night. If Tehoka is already working into the face off mix that can't be a ringing endorsement to what Altamari and Jones showed in the Rutgers. Hopefully those that get to see the scrimmage will also be able to weigh in on how the attack is gelling and who and how they are mixing in the 4th attackmen out of the box. Take good notes!

According to the tweets he has in the past.

Lot of good quotes from practice today form Michael Kelly of the Gazette: Starting attack looks like Laffin, Patterson, and Tehoka with a strong push from Yunker Tehoka taking some faceoff's Sounds like the team has a healthy chip on their shoulder

Here's the other clip where lax sports network is dogging the Danes. https://www.laxsportsnetwork.com/videos/rings-for-runner-ups

I've written a letter that I haven't sent yet. There is another clip of them going off a bit on UA for the ring ceremony on Saturday before the basketball game. What gets me fired up is that there have been maybe 4-5 other teams who have been as consistent at Albany of the last 5+ years, and to my knowledge I think we have had one top 20 recruiting class. In the class that just graduated, other than Conner Fields, no one had any clue who McClancy was, the Reh's, J.D. Kluck, Simms. I can go on and on, but UA never gets any respect. That's why I am pulling for this year's team more than any other. The lacrosse world is ready, almost hoping we lay an egg this year. I still think it could be a rough start, but believe from what I am hearing that they'll be standing tall at the end of the season.

More bulletin board material https://www.laxsportsnetwork.com/videos/ncaa-mens-is-albany-in-a-good-place https://www.laxsportsnetwork.com/videos/is-tehoka-the-next-connor-fields

That was the address we were given on the team email.

Thanks. I changed my schedule twice and now that it is back in Albany on Friday I won't be able to go. 636 Albany Shaker Road, Albany, NY

The lost their best player, Ian McKay.

Colgate scrimmage is now back in Albany on Friday night at the bubble in Colonie.

The media is having a love fest with Vermont, but I still think the second best team might be Stony Brook.