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11 minutes ago, HOF2013 said:

I am certain that we do NOT know a lot of what is going on behind the scenes.  Which is why I asked quietly about a couple of things.  Bottom line is he thinks we are out of season for lacrosse.  IMy response was I am not sure that matters since other schools are doing it.  You are correct.  With our success we NEED to run with it.

No doubt we don't have half a clue as to what is going on behind the scenes. I am obviously very biased, and completely understand that resources need to be allocated to the primary, in-season sports, but that kind of mind set is going to keep us labeled as a mid-major. Take a look at what Jacksonville is doing right now. They have had zero success, but have an aggressive young head coach from up the road, and are trying to make lacrosse a premier sport. We have had the success, but for whatever reason don't want to capitalize on it.

I have been involved with fund raising, and I know from experience that it is hard to get people to commit when there isn't visibility into what is going on.

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5 hours ago, AlbanyFan2018 said:

I am not holding my breath that Desko would play Albany on the road, but looks like we should get Yale, Maryland, and Harvard at home this year

Benson basically said it is a done deal, just haven't signed the final papers.

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With practice starting next week maybe we'll get a few nuggets. 

A lot of teams are already in full grind mode. I know I find the way Coach Marr does business a tad frustrating at times, but there is a method to his madness. The guys are not worn out, and love the game. You can't say that at most programs.  Only thing I can report is that early team morale seems really high and they are anxious to get after it.

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I'm as frustrated as you about all of that and at least I get drips and drabs. I really think the point of view that lacrosse is out of season therefore we say very little to anything about it is a very short sighted view of the world. You see other programs aggressively marketing and keeping alums and fans appraised of what is going on. I don't know enough to say whether that is just Coach Marr being Coach Marr or if it is more of athletic department deal.

The alumni game is supposed to be on the 6th and fall ball on the 13th.

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Since getting any official information is harder than breaking into Fort Knox I am going to throw out some things that will be interesting to see during the alumni and fall ball games.

- how if at all do things change with the new rules

- goalie should be a good competitor between Nate, Jason, and Will. I don't think we'll see a drop off

- face off. We have two FOGO's on the roster. I know there was a lot of support in the stands for Jonesy and I have never really seen Anthony take many draws. No matter how you slice it this is probably the biggest unknown going into the fall. I'm really surprised the staff didn't make a late push on either a transfer or an incoming FOGO once they knew TD was most likely leaving.

- attack unit. Saying losing Connor is a big deal would be the understatement of the year, but the silver lining I guess is that when the team made the run Connor wasn't Connor. His presence was still huge, but his effectiveness was so limited it at least gave other guys and the staff a window into the post Connor era. The attack rotation will be the most interesting thing to look for in the fall. There is a lot of talent, but no real obvious quarterback based upon what I have seen. In the mix is Tehoka, Jakob, Davis, Mitch, and incoming freshmen McComber.  Davis seemed to fill the Fields role of playing behind the cage, but when he had the chance, while he is quick and has the potential the offense didn't click. I am hopeful he can make the next step when given more opportunities. 

It is tough to put a lot on any freshmen, but I was surprised other than the bull dodges just how limited Tehoka was in dodging and causing slides. If I had to guess right now I would say it will be Tehoka, Jakob, and Davis at attack with McComber playing the 4th attack coming in from the box. It will be interesting to see if Jakob does play down low all the time how effective he is against a long pole.

Middies - who fills the McClancy role?? His ability to invert was big, but with the shot clock I think overall we will see less inverting in college lacrosse, and there will be more of a premium on unsettled situations and the guy who can hit the 10-15 yard shot. We have the Burgmaster's back, Sean Eccles, Ron John who I always thought should have seen the field more and always looked really good, but never quite went off, and then a bunch of guys who have the potential to step up. I thought we would see more of Ramierz and Schwab last year and those would be two guys as well as Noah Taylor who saw the field a lot last year. There are a lot of good options, but someone will have to lift their offensive production big time to fill McClancy's void.

Defense - The defense should be solid again, but needs to show they can win match ups against the big boys which is where the team has fallen short in its losses to Maryland and Yale. Dhuly and Perla should anchor the defense and I would imagine Filipowski will be the other starter at close with Sean Gleason pushing. No idea what will happen at LSM. Of the returners maybe Spahr has the inside track, but that would be the position where we may see one of the freshmen pushing for significant playing time. We were very susceptible on defense to be attacked by teams with good middies (Denver, Yale twice) so it will be interesting to see how Maloney as the new DC adapts to the new rules and any changes he makes. We have some bigger bodies to throw in the mix, but are they ready??

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2018,

THANKS for your thoughts and "throwing out things." Seems like that is all we can do for now with no info coming from UAlbanySports.com etc.

I would keep Jakob @ the 4 where he seems most comfortable and seems to beat any shortie he is up against. Maybe pair Mitch (Laffin) with Tehoka. They played together @IMG and he did look good freshman year; even though he was a non-entity last year?? Agree, need to see more of Ron John (seemed to get at least a point or two in all of his world cup games this summer.) Noah has been an enigma since year one.  Came pretty highly touted, played a lot in fall ball each year and in winter scrimmages; but disappears during the regular season. Maybe his senior year will be a break-out!  Liked Schwab's toughness and attitude @ Umass last year. I was @ the game and I am pretty sure he played the role of enforcer and took the major penalty when Umass started getting chippy.  Anyhow, keep sending thoughts!!!!!!!!!!

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1 hour ago, dslyank said:

2018,

THANKS for your thoughts and "throwing out things." Seems like that is all we can do for now with no info coming from UAlbanySports.com etc.

I would keep Jakob @ the 4 where he seems most comfortable and seems to beat any shortie he is up against. Maybe pair Mitch (Laffin) with Tehoka. They played together @IMG and he did look good freshman year; even though he was a non-entity last year?? Agree, need to see more of Ron John (seemed to get at least a point or two in all of his world cup games this summer.) Noah has been an enigma since year one.  Came pretty highly touted, played a lot in fall ball each year and in winter scrimmages; but disappears during the regular season. Maybe his senior year will be a break-out!  Liked Schwab's toughness and attitude @ Umass last year. I was @ the game and I am pretty sure he played the role of enforcer and took the major penalty when Umass started getting chippy.  Anyhow, keep sending thoughts!!!!!!!!!!

Schwab was the guy who laid out the UMAss player after the cheap shot on TD? That was a beauty. 

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1 hour ago, dslyank said:

2018,

THANKS for your thoughts and "throwing out things." Seems like that is all we can do for now with no info coming from UAlbanySports.com etc.

I would keep Jakob @ the 4 where he seems most comfortable and seems to beat any shortie he is up against. Maybe pair Mitch (Laffin) with Tehoka. They played together @IMG and he did look good freshman year; even though he was a non-entity last year?? Agree, need to see more of Ron John (seemed to get at least a point or two in all of his world cup games this summer.) Noah has been an enigma since year one.  Came pretty highly touted, played a lot in fall ball each year and in winter scrimmages; but disappears during the regular season. Maybe his senior year will be a break-out!  Liked Schwab's toughness and attitude @ Umass last year. I was @ the game and I am pretty sure he played the role of enforcer and took the major penalty when Umass started getting chippy.  Anyhow, keep sending thoughts!!!!!!!!!!

I agree on Jakob at the 4th attack. I think the question will be which attackmen is going to get the defense spinning in a one minute shot clock world? When he was healthy Connor could do that. I haven't seen Mitch this year so I don't know if he has gotten fitter. Right now he is a great off ball/ man-up sniper, but doesn't really have any real dodging ability. Tehoka is a bull dodger, but I am not sure how effective that will be when a defense knows it only has one minute to defend. It may bail us out late in a shot clock. We need to have three guys down low that demand a long pole so Jakob can attack the shorty. That will be one of the interesting things to look for in the alumni and fall games.

McComber in a lot of ways reminds me of Bennett Drake in his great senior season and McComber can create separation with with his great stick work. Then you have Davis who jumped in at X when Connor was out. So I think between those guys you have your 4 attackmen. It just depends on who can be the QB, and how the rest of the unit is put together. 

I would have bet money that Peter would have been the impact freshmen at the midfield position. There is a lot of potential in the sophomore group with Alex and Chris getting a lot of playing time last year, and a few others who have an opportunity this year. 

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Weird thought? I know he is listed as a middie but what about Kyle Casey @ quarterback. At 6'4" he gets a good look @ things from behind the net; and I may have imagined it but when he did get minutes last year he seemed to be coming from behind the net. I might be wrong but I think both his goals came on wrap arounds??

The more I look at it; this years sophomore class (especially @ mid and attack) seems loaded???? I wonder if the high expectations and pressures of last year is the reason we did not see them much as freshman. Given the chance to play, this group may really shine. Here's hoping anyhow????

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Great post, and I want to say you are right about Kyle's goals coming from wrap arounds from GLE. He is a really intriguing player. I don't know what kind of feeder Kyle is and his ability to dodge with his head up. That's one of the many things that made Lyle and Connor such special players. 

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1 minute ago, jimbo said:

Apropos to nothing....last Friday at the state fair in Syracuse I saw an older Native American gentleman in a wheelchair wearing a UA Lax T-shirt. Refreshing sight in a sea of orange!

Awesome!!!

 

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Upstate lacrosse constantly has news about Syracuse and Cornell.  This is what pisses me off .  Where the hell is Marr promoting UA?????  Time to start promoting UA!!!

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