AlbanyFan2018

Stony Brook had a very young team last year, and I think they will give us a run and we play there this year in the final AE game. I don't think Vermont is the same without McKay, but they do have a solid goalie and FOGO, and that game is away as well.

I'm not sure yet, but I think I am confident in saying our path to the NCAA's this year is to win the AE tournament, and I wouldn't be shocked if we don't host it this year. We have one of the toughest out of conference schedules this year and I wouldn't be surprised if we start out 1-4 or 2-3 and then wind up with at worst the 2nd seed in the AE. This is going to be a season about getting better every game, and staying upbeat through what could be a tough start.

Yep, no transfers that are likely to make any sort of impact. No idea who the alleged impact transfer might have been, but that obviously didn't materialize. More than anything going to need a lot of development out of the offensive midfield this year to have another solid season.

Had a chance to bum someone's copy of the IL yearbook. Reader's Digest of what they had to say about the Danes. None of our units made their top 10, two preseason All Americans. I kind of find the ranking of 15th surprising given the overall narrative and how IL and their recruiting team disses our recruiting classes year in and year out. The breakdown is pretty much what most of us have been talking about across the board in terms of the projected starting lineup and key reserves.

Coach Marr interview is up on lax sports network.

i really expected Jakob to receive HM honors.

I'm surprised no pictures unless they decided not to play. One is a walk on, spacing on his name who I believe played as a freshmen at Cleveland State and the other is a pole who transferred from Hobart. Based upon what I saw in the fall games depth guys with the pole more likely to see the field, but wouldn't think he would challenge the starting trio.

Rutgers is the 26th at 2pm down in Jersey, then Colgate and Siena. I would take 3-2 or 4-1 for sure out of the gate. We'll see how the offense blends with Tehoka back and who emerges at the midfield. We seem stronger at attack, especially with Tehoka back which is why I would take a look at Jakob playing up top again to make sure we have our best scorers on the filed as much as possible. Just read the TU article where Coach Marr talks about to fifteen guys who haven't played much being an integral part of the team this year. One guy no one has mentioned who had a really good fall is Doug Goldsmith. He will be a mainstay at defensive middie this year. I'm still not sold on the goalie situation, but we shall see.

Agree, and that's why we'll probably need to refrain from hitting the panic button early on and the route to the tournament will be the AE tournament. I think I said a while back that this would be one of Coach Marr's biggest coaching challenges. Not only with what we lost to graduation, but also bringing in two new coaches. I heard someone talking about Albany recently and how it is a slow build to get to where the program has been the last 2-3 years in particular, and how we typically just can't reload every year. We have a really small roster compared to most teams. I think there is one or two guys on the team who are not on the roster yet. Looking at what we lost I was and am still surprised with ow small this freshmen class is. If Owen Hill comes next year, the 2019 class looks a lot like the class that just graduated in terms of offensive talent.

Will be an interesting and difficult first few games on the road to start the season. The team will definitely need the extra scrimmage this year. Fingers crossed that the weather cooperates so that they can have a productive preseason. UMass will be a top 20 team when they roll into town so 4/5 first games will be against ranked opponents with all of those teams being better than they were last year. The hope this year has to be that the team continues to build through the season, and if I had to predict we will need the AE tournament win to make the NCAA's this year.

Totally agree with you on the goalie situation. I saw all of the games and I didn't see anything for Siekierski to be the #1 and agree that Yoquinto probably looked better and would have liked to have seen him against the #1's.

Now that we know what the roster looks like thought it was time to start a new thread. Tehoka's return will be interesting. I don't think it will be without some speed bumps, but either way having him back is a major positive on offense that went from one of the best ever to pretty thin in one year. My guess it doesn't change much and that the attack will be Tehoka, Davis, and Jakob, but I think Merrick will have to figure out how does he get the the best 4-5 scorers on the field at one time despite who played where in the fall. I still think Jakob is much more effective up top because he gives us another mid range shooter, and more room to dodge. Mitch was having a very good fall before he got hurt and Cavallo had some nice moments at attack as well. The biggest question to me is quarterbacking the offense. Davis has the shiftiness to do it, but needs to be more decisive with his dodges to get things going. Tehoka is a bull dodger who needs to feel the double better this year and feed off of that, and Jakob is more the pure finisher of the three, but he definitely can get above GLE and hit that low angle lefty shot or toe drag and get in front of the cage. With Tehoka back, McComber and Mitch as well, probably become man up specialists, with McComber playing as one of the 4th attackmen out of the box. The primary shooting and scoring midfielders are Alex Burgmaster and Sean Eccles. This looks like the biggest unknown and question mark. Who else can be a consistent threat from the midfield? There are a number of candidates, but out of Noah Taylor, Jack Burgamster, Peter Schwab, Ashton Bradley, Chris Ryan, and Ron John we have to develop some outside shooting punch, and dodging ability so that defensives just can't sit on our attack. If the fall is any indication Jones and Altamari will split duties at FOGO unless one of them gets a really hot hand. The starting close defense has been locked in for a while with Dhluy, Perla, and Flip. I think we'll see more guys play down low with the shot clock as we press the action. I wasn't blown away with the goalie play in the fall ball games against Hopkins and Army. It seems like Siekierski has won the job, but seems like there should be more of a competition going on.

Tehoka is officially back and reenrolling for the spring semester.

I think it is still quiet on that front, and I don't think the other players know the final verdict, but reading the tea leaves my money is on him being back.

Danes come in at #15 in the Inside Lacrosse Face Off Yearbook. Seems about right to me with the losses and Tehoka's absence.

He's on there, #18. He didn't play in the fall games, but #11, Yunker had been playing really well and pushing for playing time at attack or the attack/middie position. I still think Tehoka will be back, but if not would bet the attack is Patterson, Diamond, and Laffin with Cavalo a close 4th, and McComber playing the 4th attack position. I caught an Inside Lacrosse podcast and Quint feels Albany is in the 8th - 13th range heading into the season. My guess is we come in at around 15th or so based upon the uncertainty of Tehoka's status and him fitting back in.

I guess that off season strength and conditioning program is really working

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We've had the schedule for a while now, but some of the game times were TBD so I am guessing it hasn't been released since there are still a few unknowns based upon TV. The Yale game at Casey is going to be worth the cost of season tickets alone. I know they started taking headshots so hopefully the updated roster with freshmen will be up soon. I haven't heard anything about Tehoka one way or another, but with the problems with the NLL, the MLL in chaos I can't imagine that he would not come back, but at this point I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing. I have never seen Albany publicize the NLI signings, but the 2019 class has some really good offensive talent. I think the offensive group will be much needed to replenish our offensive firepower.

My concern is that if the athletic department doesn't use the recent run of success to raise money, the program may slip back down the mountain. Albany, as far as lacrosse, goes is definitely way, way behind the vast majority of programs in terms of support and facilities. Even the guys just down the road did a major upgrade.

I haven't seen a public link yet. A lot of the games had TBD for times so I imagine that is why they are holding back form releasing it on the web site. The schedule looked almost exactly as last year and no new opponents with Canisius dropping and an extra pre season scrimmage against Rutgers.

I got nothing. No news as far as I know about Tehoka, but if you see his instagram he appears to be on a world tour of some sort. I don't know what number Ryan Smith is, but the only offensive freshmen who I think got significant time was McComber. I was told Yunker was having a very solid fall, but was injured and didn't get to play in any of the games. I think he was the only freshmen who had some sort of injury. Hay and Weathersby played a lot. I have seen the schedule and they added a scrimmage and dropped Canisius. The lacrosse instagram account is pretty active. I don't know much about it, but the stories disappear after a few days.

Maryland up at Albany March 9th 3pm!

I've had a number of friends ask me and still no idea if this is true or bad joke gone wrong. Not that Coach Marr listens to me, but he needs to sit down with the young man and give him a stern talking too, and clear this up one way or the other. This shows a total disrespect for his coaches, the program, and his teammates.

I follow him on instagram, but not on that facebook page. His original post does not say he is going pro, but it is lyrics from a song which could certainly lead one to jump to that conclusion. He does have a pretty sarcastic sense of humor, but who knows. Either way the Danes are moving forward. We only roll with the guys on the train!

I posted in the other thread that either the boys and coaches are toting the party line or no on honestly doesn't know. My only thought, and maybe I am looking for the silver lining, is that he worked to hard at IMG to become NCAA eligible that he would just walk away. We did see the youngest Staats go pro from OCC rather than transfer into a DI program. The Thompson's could have done that, but I do think the overall life experiences and legend they developed while at Albany has served them much better than if they had just gone pro, especially in a sport where going pro doesn't necessarily lead to riches. The guys who are really making it, which isn't many, do it through endorsements. I guess we won't know for sure until we know for sure.