Lacrosse Game 2

[dslyank]

Moving on to game two and starting a new and hopefully fresh start.

UMBC (4th in AmEast) beat Drexel (1st in caa) yesterday. Sorry that is all I got. Anyone know or hear anything about our missing players; or how UA plans to build/rebound/regroup, I loved to hear your thoughts/opinions!

[jimbo]

I have no insight beyond observation. Tough opponent and tough conditions right out of the box. They took it on the chin early, but battled back nice after two periods. After that, they pretty much collapsed. Clearly the talent and performance difference showed. I think they are going to have great trouble if they don’t clean up the turnovers in a hurry. Big Red had to deal with wind and cold too, so no excuses there. Some of their recruits, who were highly touted, have not lived up to the hype. Mccomber comes to mind, but there are others. Could be he’s been slowed by injuries...don’t know. Until some one steps up and becomes “the one to be feared”, the defenses won’t have to shade over or double up and open players will be fewer. The goalie HAS to get better with more experience...right? FO was 50%+ so no complaints there. I think Whitcomb has the skills and size to be a force and I’m really rooting for him. OK...enough rambling. 

[AlbanyFan2018]

22 minutes ago, jimbo said:

I have no insight beyond observation. Tough opponent and tough conditions right out of the box. They took it on the chin early, but battled back nice after two periods. After that, they pretty much collapsed. Clearly the talent and performance difference showed. I think they are going to have great trouble if they don’t clean up the turnovers in a hurry. Big Red had to deal with wind and cold too, so no excuses there. Some of their recruits, who were highly touted, have not lived up to the hype. Mccomber comes to mind, but there are others. Could be he’s been slowed by injuries...don’t know. Until some one steps up and becomes “the one to be feared”, the defenses won’t have to shade over or double up and open players will be fewer. The goalie HAS to get better with more experience...right? FO was 50%+ so no complaints there. I think Whitcomb has the skills and size to be a force and I’m really rooting for him. OK...enough rambling. 

I'm not one to question goalie play, especially with bad camera angles. Also, one of the things I learned along the way is that our defense will play to give up certain shots that the goalie is expected to save so a lot of times as fans, if we don't know the plan, it is hard to make heads or tails of save percentage numbers. That being said a sub 40% save rate with twenty five turnovers isn't going to beat anyone, even the guys down the road.

With Yunker not playing for whatever reason the offense currently doesn't have a quarterback which is pretty much what Coach Marr told us, and it isn't clear to me that we have a guy who can break down a defense so it is going to rely upon really crisp ball movement, possession advantage, pushing transition, and causing havoc around the field. 

The good news is against a decent Cornell face off unit, we won more than we lost without great wing play. Our FOGO won the ball a lot. No knock on Heller, but I would have bet money Ramos was going to start at goalie if for no other reason he is quick out of the net and can help push the ball. I wish I knew what was going on there, and don't know if Ramos is hurt again or if in the coaches opinion Heller is better at stopping the ball. 

As far as highly touted players not living up to the recruiting press all I can add is that the coaching staff IMHO doesn't have a great track record of player development. We had several guys who slipped through the cracks, and then the Thompson's who were generational talents, but I just haven't seen many guys get a lot bigger, faster, and stronger.  There has also been a current trend of moving on to different guys IMO. Now that could be to failures in recruiting. I don't know, but I just see a lot of spaghetti. As many of us have been moaning, how do you not figure out your team DNA in the fall and early pre-season?

 

[dslyank]

UA obviously out of top 30. VT stays about the same. UMBC added.

On a positive note UA had 11 different players hit the scoring column against Cornell. 8 assists on 8 goals. Good indication of balance and "team play." Without a stud it is going to be scoring by committee. And as 2018 says if Yunker comes back or someone else steps forward to quarterback the offense;  clean-up the unforced turnovers; and get the clear game working: IMHO the OFFENSE will be fine. Another reason, I am still optimistic about the offense is, UA scored plenty against BU, Marist, Colgate and Brown (for a ½) all who are off to good or at least OK starts. Don't want to temper my positivity, so I won't talk about the D.

Edited February 21, 2022 by dslyank

[UAalum72]

Scott on the radio today said Yunker is injured, won't be back until March

[AlbanyFan2018]

3 hours ago, UAalum72 said:

Scott on the radio today said Yunker is injured, won't be back until March

Darn, missed the show this morning. Thanks for the update!

[dslyank]

23 hours ago, UAalum72 said:

Scott on the radio today said Yunker is injured, won't be back until March

OK. At least we know why he is MIA; and IMHO when he returns, he could be the quarterback, just what the offense needs!

Scott say anything else hopeful/positive/interesting?

Edited February 22, 2022 by dslyank

[statefan]

1 hour ago, dslyank said:

 

Scott say anything else hopeful/positive/interesting?

I'll stick with interesting and try to separate what I recall from what I think it means:

We lost 6 of our top 8 scorers from last year.  Everyone on first offense is new to that role and very young.  He was asked about starting a freshman goalie and said that the goalie is a junior academically and a freshman eligibility-wise.  The goalie had trouble seeing the ball early in the game.  He was asked with a young team, what players does he lean on and said Tanner Hay on D and Yunker on O.  This was where he said that Yunker is injured.  He was asked about Drexel and gave what I usually call coachspeak.  He said his son Kyle is on the Drexel staff, so, no communication this week.  He was asked about the young players and praised Amos Whitcomb's play against Cornell.  He was asked about the America East and said that Vermont, Stony Brook and UMBC are very good and that the road to the NCAA runs through Vermont.  He mused that we were on top for a long stretch and said that now Vermont is in that position and it is a different mentality to be the underdog.

The remainder of this are my thoughts and should not be confused with actual fact.  I understood the comment about the goalie not seeing the ball and have heard it in past years where the field is surrounded by white snow drifts, the attacking team is wearing white and the ball is white, so, I can understand a first time goalie having trouble picking up the ball.  Also, I thought the answer regarding the goalie's eligibility was interesting and think there is at least a possibility that the decision is made because this goalie has 4 years of eligibility.  I might be wrong, but, I think a similar decision was made to start Blaze as a freshman, when there were older and more experienced back-ups in  the program.  I thought Keelan Seneca also played well against Cornell.

I saw this week's top 20 and that we play 5 of the top 14 teams in the country.  I watched Maryland @ Syracuse on Sunday and I see that the other Ivies on the schedule (Yale & Penn) are rated higher than Cornell.  Winning any of those games would be an enormous upset IMO.

[cwdickens]

 

•  

  FEB 26 (SAT) 12 P.M.

   

  DREXAL UNIVERSITY

   

  VS 

  UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY

  PHILADELPHIA, PA. VIDAS FIELD

  

  • FLOLIVE ($)
  •  
  • LIVE STATS
  •  
  • TICKETS

Edited February 23, 2022 by cwdickens

[Laxdawg20]

Drexel lost last night to Lafayette 13-11 so coming in 0-2.  

[dslyank]

Brown gave N.carolina all they could handle. Brown NO joke. IVY could very well be top conference in the country. Minimally second only to ACC.

[HOF2013]

Yong guys making big mistakes and a couple of seniors too...................................

Edited February 26, 2022 by HOF2013

[dslyank]

Did not see game; but followed on live stats. 21TO’s. 6 in crucial 4th qtr. Goalie only made 6 saves total & had 1 of the 4th to’s.  Good news 20 out of 30 on face offs. Got some scoring from freshman middies (Morgan, Decker, Prezzi (soph).)

Anyone at game or watched live, look for your thoughts 

Edited February 26, 2022 by dslyank

[AlbanyFan2018]

14 minutes ago, HOF2013 said:

Yong guys making big mistakes and a couple of seniors too...................................

Going to be a very long season, especially when we seem to found a very solid FOGO who had another very good game and still lost. I hope someone presses Scott on the use of players and what is going on with the defensive scheme/goalie situation. I think the save percentage was about 30% and to give up 14 goals with the possession advantage we had is got going to get it done.

[AlbanyFan2018]

2 minutes ago, dslyank said:

Did not see game; but followed on live stats. 22 TO’s. 5 in crucial 4th qtr. Goalie only made 6 saves total & had 1 of the 4th to’s.  Good news 20 out of 30 on face offs. Got some scoring from freshman middies (Morgan, Decker, Prezzi (soph).)

Anyone at game or watched live, look for your thoughts 

I watched it.  We wasted a big possession advantage, too many poor shots from a couple of guys, and the combination of defense and goalie play not good.