AlbanyFan2018

Your recipe for success is a good as any for sure, especially the defense not letting possessions getting deep into the shot clock. The start at Stony Brook really surprised me, especially after we got the first goal. I forget about Marr's show on the radio and would have loved to have heard what he had to say, and 104.5 doesn't seem to archive most of the interviews.

Win or go home on Thursday. We know UVM is going to come off the bus in a zone defense. In the losses against UVM and Stony Brook, we had what looked like a comfortable lead and every time we could have shut the door we failed. We came off the bus at Stony Brook without a lot of passion and gave up ten in the first half. The 2019 Danes don't have any margin for error. I wonder what the offensive mix will look like on Thursday? Jones had a tough outing against UVM last time how do we address that on Thursday?

GREAT POST! That really does sum up the season. I think all of us have been waiting for the switch to flip and the Dane Train is back and rolling down the tracks, but it just hasn't happened, and I think we would be foolish to think it will. Especially, as you said with the constant rotation on offense. I need to go back and look at the stat lines, but it seems like we ran into a lot of hot goalies this year which has led to a lot of frustration on offense. It all started with the fall which we don't need to dwell on at this point, and some other injuries which set them back. The defense has looked great at times, Yale, second half on Friday night, and awful at times, ridiculous slides, poor communication and as you said some minor adjustments but pretty much the same core group the whole season. On one hand I can understand why Coach Marr didn't go to a$$ kicking mode and rebuild mode, especially since the AE was so weak and despite an overall poor season THEY still can make the tournament. That makes the case for not hitting the rebuild button. You do see some fundamental flaws that have to be addressed as the coaches assess what did and didn't happen this year, and skills that have to be improved over the summer and next fall. 1) commitment to a FOGO person/system 2) X attackmen - we don't seem to have one or he isn't playing 3) shooting accuracy from all positions, especially middies who can step down and rip from 12-15 yards 4) transition LSM - looking back Troy Reh might have been one of the greatest hidden gems UA has ever recruited 5) have to get bigger at defensive middie - while the defense struggled at times the weak point was other teams exploiting the short stick match up

Geez, what a long, long, wet night. Almost too much to process. I couldn't believe the poor start and giving up ten goals in the first half. Totally agree on the lethargic offense, and I just don't understand once again the revolving door on offense. It was good to see Davis back out there, but after not playing at all there his, where was Ramierez? I don't think he saw the field. Tough nights for Tehoka and especially Patterson. Man Jacob has to show up. The face off is confusing. Jonsey got off to a good start and the freshmen actually did a good job, and would have won a few more had the wings supported him. He's definitely the most effective if we have to go to the long pole, but just don't support moving away from Jones unless he gets banged up or needs a break. I really thought Nate should have gotten a quick yank at first to maybe give us a spark. We have had these bad runs this year, and just don't have the offensive firepower to come back. Only gave up two goals in the second half, and the momentum was in our favor big time when the storm hit, but can't give up 10 to anyone in a half and expect to win given where we are this year. And to think I have to go back to Stony Brook next week makes me sick.

Anybody catch Marr on the radio today?

I finally let myself watch the replay. Other than that mini run we gave up in the mid to late second quarter we saw Great Dane lacrosse on Friday night. A few observations - The dilemma of where to play Tehoka continues, but given where we are in the season and how we can score I think you keep him at midfield, especially with the injury to Alex. I don't understand the mix at attack. Don't know what the story is, but Ramirez needs to be either first line offensive middie or get a lot more time. He seems to be the only middie who can get to the alley and will pull the trigger. Worst case scenario he has the speed to beat his man and get the defense moving. Have to set some plays to get Sean's hands free and get him going. We will go no where if Sean isn't putting 2-3 in the net every game going forward. Defensive midfield continues to be the weakness. Not going to mention any names, and again know Alex's injury shortens the bench, but one guy in particular has been a liability all season. Bradley and Goldsmith have been pretty solid. They seem to be the two go to guys with Jack Burgmaster, but I think you have to be a bit careful of his minutes. Noah Taylor needs to finish his last season strong. The man down defense experiment needs to end. You can't put guys who will never play defense for a whole host of reasons against top tier teams. I love the concept, but we don't have the margin for error that we have had in past years. Bottom line is we need our 4 or 5 best buys out there all the time, period. Don't know what to say about the face off. I don't understand how you give up so easily on a guy who has had a 55% season, which other than the two year TD era, has to be one of the top percentages in Dane history. Before TD we went on and on, about if we only had a guy who could win 40%-50%. Well we have a guy who is better than that, and we continually take a dump on him. No idea what the story is with Altamari, but there has to be something. The coaches didn't even give him a shot. Not saying it is justified or not, but just don't get the philosophy. Other than Flip battling, none of the other poles have done much if anything. If you are going to give the freshmen pole a shot, you need to let him take more than one. Clearly the coaches thought they had something by letting him be the next guy in, and then they go away from him as well. Whatever we do, we need a plan and not run for the hills the first second it doesn't work.

The playoff run starts Friday for sure. My only request is this week the coaching staff has to settle on an offensive group for better or for worse and roll with it.

Completely agree. We had our fair share of good looks despite Yale’s goalie making some great saves. Hard to win when Eccles and Tehoka get shut out. I couldn’t see where that crease violation was that would have made it 6-4. Yale made it 8-3 and there wasn’t enough firepower to rally again,

Just back from the agree. Totally agree about giving up on the face off’s. Defense played outstanding. Offense is just a mess.

I am going to remain optimistic that we keep TD in the 65% range which would be below his season average, but to expect much better than that would be unrealistic. My bigger concern against Yale is our off ball defense, and keeping the Yale scorers from getting point blank looks at Nate.

TD is so much more athletic than Jones that even if Jones is able to get the clamp he'll have a hard time getting to open space. The problem with putting a pole out there against TD is that not only is he the best FOGO in the country, starting to look like the best ever, but if the pole can't get on him and force him back it will give Yale an unsettled situation which has been our biggest defensive weakness. Jones and Altamari have to go after TD hard, but clean and make them 50/50 ground balls somehow.

We heard a lot last year about how well Jonesy did against TD in practices, and I guess we'll see on Friday. Hopefully, his knee is feeling better.

While there may be hiccups to me that is our best combination for long term success. I know Davis wasn't dressed for a few games, but don't know his current status.

Part of what UMBC was able to do, and we have seen the something similar the last few games as Patterson has been kind of quiet, is that it is easy to double him because our other two guys at attack just are not a threat. There has to be a better combination or we have to invert our middies to me defense start to rotate and switch. Laffin is an amazing crease finisher, and if he gets his hands free is a threat to score, but he isn't going to scare anyone dodging. I like Casey's hustle, but I don't think he has beaten anyone dodging all season. Every time Patterson gets the ball, defenses are doubling him hard which is why his scoring is down and turnovers are up. The dilemma of moving Tehoka back to attack is that we will then have very little production from the midfield. I am hopeful that Eccles will find his shot as he did against Harvard, but without he and Tehoka up top who can consistently hit an outside shot and force an opposing defense out of a zone? A guy or two have had good games with a goal or two, but no one stands out to me as a consistent scoring threat from the midfield, and with no other dodging threats, it allows defense to put Patterson in a lot of tough spots. We have seen some confusing rotations this year. The best ball movement was against Cornell. I think we have to live or die with Yunker starting. I don't see the Casey, Laffin, Patterson trio as much of a threat. I have no problem with Mitch at attack as the off ball guy, finisher which is a great roll for him. Alex Burgmaster has a really good outside shot and I don't know why he wasn't given more opportunities there, but now with him being injured that isn't an option.

Totally agree on Nanticoke. It takes too long to get him out on the field as a middie most of the time, and we are wasting 20-30 seconds on most possessions. With our starting attack we have no one who can dodge consistently, and Patterson is much more effective from up top IMO. Overall I thought it was another mediocre performance.

I saw that as well, and IL just goes with whoever is in first place at the time. Whoever wins the AE tournament will be in the play in game and that is based upon the two lowest rated RPI conferences. I imagine it will come down to the MAAC and AE this year, but not sure where the NEC is, but they appear to be stronger overall.

Yunker has clearly been the biggest positive surprise among the freshmen class, and should be in the starting rotation. The combination of Laffin, Patterson, and Casey IMO just isn't a good complementary group. In that group you really don't have a quarterback or point guard of the offense. Ramirez hasn't played a lot. He started the season seeing some action, then disappeared, then reinserted. IMO he needs to work on his shooting as do all of the middies, but he has a good burst and energy and can get a defense moving. McComber started off with a lot of buzz, but quickly disappeared and IMO based upon game situations that was probably the right call, but we all just found it odd that after zero playing time in a long time, he is in the game very early, makes a good play, and then never sees the field again. Just a very bizarre way to coach a team and leads to a lot of frustration. I am not sure if Ramirez got back in the game either, but if he did it was very little.

We don't have much in the way of zone busting midfielders so we will struggle against zones unless Eccles gets on fire or they can find ways to free up Laffin or maybe Tehoka for shots. I think we scored six goals in 6 v 6 situation which isn't going to cut it. Perla played the whole game. They have been spelling Dhluy a bit with Kozar who played some in the first half. Not sure, but think Dhluy has been fighting an injury all season.

I'll have to force myself to watch the game on the web site. Our little section at the game was yelling have to beat the zone most of the 2nd half, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to when UMBC switched into, but based upon the score at the end of the first quarter makes sense. Not surprising that we are also terrible at man up's this year, and once again blew a two man up opportunity last night. I agree that I would come out and pretty much stay in a zone defense all game long against us. Our only real zone buster is having a tough time shooting this year, and I think last night he must have gone 2-15 or something like that. It sounded like the team did have a great week of practice leading into the game, and are still very much engaged, but it sure doesn't show up on the field. Just read Kelly's article on the game, and if I hear, "we can play so much better," I am going to lose it. After 11 games I don't think we can play much better. I do agree with the comment above about the playing pattern of certain players, and I know it frustrates the heck out of the players. The rhyme and reason of who plays and when doesn't make sense, and there is a lot of frustration simmering under the surface.

I agree that I would be shocked to see this team quit. I just don't understand the same mistakes being made over and over. There has to be a player or two we haven't seen who is hungry and ready to step up.

Are they going to lay down and call it quits or come out fighting?

So true. It is a face off unit and too many times Jones tries to pinch and pop. Just get it out.

He did get injured at Harvard, and it didn't look great, but he bounced back against Hartford. It could be more serious than any of us knows. I too heard Altamari was highly recruited and was a late flip to Albany from maybe Delaware?? but sure seems like the coaches have given up on him. It is hard to just go out for one face off. Whether any of them can get it done or not, you need 3-5 draws to figure out what the other guy is doing, but there were times yesterday where the UVM FOGO had the ball out before our guys even moved.

No disrespect to the guys on the team now or in the past, but other than TD, Coach Marr has never recruited well at FOGO.

Wow, I had to leave the post game tailgate I was so upset. I can't recall, even the UMBC game last year, when I have seen an Albany team play with so little passion, hustle, and discipline as I just saw today. And I am going to add on so poorly coached. I don't want to say anything I will regret and want to stand by my commitment to not say anything negative about a player so i'll just shut up and see if this team can come prepared to play next week.