AlbanyFan2018

Agree. Thinking back to the Syracuse game I don't know if Fields's was shut down or if he was supposed to be more of a distributor as he was in the scrimmages. It hurt to watch that one again, but he didn't seem to be nearly as aggressive as he has been the last two games, but the competition wasn't the same. If he keeps on the attack Eccles, Burgmaster, Osika, and Drake are going to get a ton of good looks from 10-12 yards. Need to make teams pay when they go for the early double.

I don't know what has happened to UMass lacrosse since Will Many graduated but it is too bad. While the shots didn't go in during the first quarter I really liked the way we were attacking from different spots on the field. It was only a matter of time before the shots started to fall which happened in the second quarter. TD was strong but if he didn't win the ball relatively cleanly in most instances our wing guys were not in position to make a play on the ball. It may be that the coaching staff is confident enough in TD's abilities that the wing's aren't as aggressive in the scrum, but there was at least one instance where the ball came the wrong way and we gave up an easy fast break. Zellen made one really nice play where he boxed out the opposing wing to allow TD to clean up a ground ball. The third quarter was a mess. On this team I always felt that Drake would be the 1A or second option, and great to see him have a big day. When I see some of our middies always shoot underhand and not putting the ball on the cage I can hear all of my old lacrosse coaches cringing. My only other nitpick today is I would like to see our middies dodge with more authority. Close defenders had a strong day, but not sure if UMass was the strongest of tests. And Connor Fields is having a special year.

Most of those turnovers were over and backs. The camera angle wasn't good enough to really see what was going on with those passes.

I am going to stick to my theme of looking for areas of improvement from game game early in the season. Today and Saturday are two big trap games against winless opponents. Offensively still looking for production from Reh, Patterson, et al, as primary initiators rather than finishing off assists from Fields. We are going to need the guy who can get it done against the 2nd or 3rd pole against the Maryland's of the world and to secure the automatic qualifier. Man Up offense percentage. I believe we are under 30%. Transition goals either off of clean face off wins or through our two way middie play. Kyle McClancy had a huge freshmen year, didn't shoot much last year, and has a nice coast to coast goal in each game. Would love to see that continue and someone else step up as we have seen in past years. Flex our muscles at the dot with TD and Zach, and continue to work better as a Face-Off unit. JD just keep on doing what you are doing! Hard to say too much about the defense since so much of it is scheme dependent and it is less clear to me what the scheme is as opposed to the offense. It looks like the 3rd close spot is still up for grabs between Kluck and Perla. At least to my semi untrained eye it looks like we are sliding very early, too early in a lot of instances and JD has been making the stops. I guess the reason I am being so nitpicking is that this is probably the most complete team Albany has had in conjunction with the NCAA field being as wide open as ever. Every team seems to have a flaw and if the Danes continue to improve which they did from game one to game two, it could be a special season. Beat UMass!

I agree with you.

https://laxallstars.com/2017-d1-lacrosse-done-gone-crazy-poll/ Some interesting takes on the Danes. My concern about the third attack position and having someone other then Fields being able to initiate was talked about by one of the guys who ranked Albany at #14.

USILA poll has the Danes at #9

http://www.insidelacrosse.com/league/di/polls/17 Actually not too surprised that Albany even with a pretty impressive victory dropped in the media poll. Stay hungry, get better, and take care of business this week!

I wasn't able to see either of the scrimmages, but it did sound like Patterson lit it up in both of them and Fields was much more of a feeder. I know Coach Marr likes to run the 4 attackmen with one coming out of the box which seems to be mostly Drake and then 2 to 3 pairs of two way middies. I agree with you regarding Patterson which as the previous poster said these next two games while not gimmes are big ones to work out a few more of the kinks. After 4-5 games you are what you are to a large degree so would love to see Patterson get back to how he was playing during the preseason.

Wing play could be better and Irelan was called for one or two violations when he couldn't get the ball out of the back of his stick. IMO the defense didn't play as well as the score might indicate. JD made a lot of great saves on some pretty soft defense which gave Drexel some really good looks. Defense and GB's will have to improve against the upper echelon teams. Great to see Fields put a lot in the goal, but the third attack spot wasn't as productive as it needs to be going forward. You saw Thomson cycling through more players. That needs to be ironed out. Liked the switch by Gleason to Perla in at close defense. He is much stronger at GLE and not getting beat topside.

JD again saves the day

3rd pole for Albany needs to tighten up.

Agree on the win and want to see some better coverage of the team from the Albany SID and local media outlets.

Agree, that's why I am very excited with this new series with Maryland and Yale.

I actually thought I knew the faceoff rules until yesterday. TD got tripped and pushed a lot and the Danes didn't get any of those calls. I think Williams only won three or so clean and none was he was able to pinch and pop and come out on a fast break. I just rewatched the game and in another thread I said I thought we might have been too deliberate but after watching we just stopped shooting and Malloy made some really nice saves, we threw the ball away a few too many times, and missed a couple of close on opportunities. I would like to see Connor get the ball more off a pick and then create rather than at X, and after watching again I really don't like how we did and didn't use the timeout at the end of the game.

Some more thoughts on the Syracuse and questions moving forward. I wonder how much Merrick has been influenced by working with Matt Brown on the Canadian teams or if the game plan was to play a slower paced game. I thought that strategy really hurst on the last possession of the first half and what led to the timer on during the last possession of the game and the eventual turnover. Defense played well, but didn't understand some of the slides which led to wide open looks and the passive play on the last play of the game, especially on Mariano. Why wasn't our number one defender not on him? Wing play on faceoff's has to get better. It sounded like Field's was much more of a distributor during the scrimmages. He is too good of a shooter not to be taking a few more shots and I think he is much more effective getting the ball and dodging off of a pass rather than the ball starting with him, and Reh has to be more active. This one hurt but so many positives to take away. It is always tough to play your first game against a top tea, who has a game under their belt.

FaceOff's IMO are about the entire rope unit and our wings just didn't get it done tonight.

I thought it was more about the wing play. Irelan had the ball and either couldn't get the ball out of the back of his stick or our wing guys were not in there on the scrum.

Hated the timeout and not calling one on the last possession before we got the timer on and then just made another silly turnover. I am not smart enough to figure out the game plan but was surprised at how deliberate Albany was on offense and how in crunch time I would have expected to see the ball in Fields' stick. Overall the defense played well and JD was terrific in his first start, but saw too many unnecessary slides, and need to shore up the last defensive position. Did they put a long pole in Zellen's hands?

Interview with Coach Marr http://1045theteam.com/ualbany-lacrosse-coach-scott-marr-joins-levack-and-goz/

We could have hosted Cuse last year in the NCAA's if we had won the AE tournament. This seems like the deepest team Albany has ever had, and thank goodness Coach Marr finally decided to make recruiting a top notch FOGO a priority. Not to take anything away from Zach, because he improved big time throughout the season and had a strong first half in the NCAA's against Syracuse. I am not sure if it is going to happen tomorrow, but if Albany can consistently win 60% of the face-off's this could be a big year for the Danes. This is the second year post Lyle Thompson and watching the interview with Coach Thomson you get the sense that while you can never replace a Lyle and Myle's Thompson, this may be an overall better offensive team with the greater depth and ball movement.