ualbany mlax MLAX Game One Feb 10 (Fri) 6:00 PM Syracuse, N.Y. JMA Wireless Dome

[dslyank]

UA totally taken to school in every aspect of the game. SU steals best D2 goalkeeper in the country off portal. He frustrates UA early and then SUs top rated recruit class in the country gets its mojo and totally takes over. God I hate the transfer portal 

Now UA has to rebound from a whopping by an unranked team and face second seed Cornell. 
Can UA get its mojo back or is their pre-season excitement all a hoax???

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by dslyank

[AlbanyFan2018]

58 minutes ago, nysteve661 said:

Another UA sport that has deteriorated under Benson's watch.  When does it end?  There is a better AD out there somewhere, please President Rodriguez, find him/her.

I'm no fan of Benson, but this isn't on him. I have said it before, the program started to go downhill when Gleason left. He was the perfect complement to Coach Marr. The bigger problem is Maloney. The defense has been a train wreck since he joined the staff. Many have said it before, but time to go outside the family to build out the coaching staff.

[AlbanyFan2018]

19 minutes ago, dslyank said:

UA totally taken to school in every aspect of the game. SU steals best D2 goalkeeper in the country off portal. He frustrates UA early and then SUs top rated recruit class in the country gets its mojo and totally takes over. God I hate the transfer portal 

Now UA has to rebound from a whopping by an unranked team and face second seed Cornell. 
Can UA get its mojo back or is their pre-season excitement all a hoax???

 

It was even worse in person. Such a terrible performance, and having to listen to the case fans all night long. I didn't make any of the scrimmages, but based upon what I was hearing it sounded like we were going to be better. I'll reserve judgment for another game or two, but I am not optimistic.

[jimbo]

8 hours ago, AlbanyFan2018 said:

I'm no fan of Benson, but this isn't on him. I have said it before, the program started to go downhill when Gleason left. He was the perfect complement to Coach Marr. The bigger problem is Maloney. The defense has been a train wreck since he joined the staff. Many have said it before, but time to go outside the family to build out the coaching staff.

Does Marr operate autonomously? So Benson, Cegles and Carr can’t see that either? They can’t sit him down and say that a change needs to be made? If that’s the case as you say, then it’s one more indication that our athletic department is asleep at the wheel. And that’s not a good thing. IMHO. 

[AlbanyFan2018]

 

1 hour ago, jimbo said:

Does Marr operate autonomously? So Benson, Cegles and Carr can’t see that either? They can’t sit him down and say that a change needs to be made? If that’s the case as you say, then it’s one more indication that our athletic department is asleep at the wheel. And that’s not a good thing. IMHO. 

I honestly have no idea. Where I do fault the athletic administration and others have beaten this drum as well is that the university and administration didn't properly take advantage of the great run to further elevate the program.  There was a minor locker room upgrade, but I think UA had the opportunity to become the Gonzaga of college lacrosse, and for whatever reason there wasn't a major effort to do something like that. The $10 million dollar elephant is the lack of a proper indoor facility, but all of us know that isn't happening anytime soon.

I can't say this with 100% certainty, but I don't think there has ever been an assistant coach(except maybe when we moved to Di) where the assistants were not former players of Coach Marr. That can work at times, but at the end of the day he was still your coach and IMO and from what I saw and heard it can create an unusual dynamic which isn't always the best.

If I had to bet I would say Coach Marr has earned and does have a lot of autonomy, but the seat should be getting hot. The  defense has been a travesty the last five years or so. They have looked lost and looked even more lost last night, and I was really shocked at the lineup. I was surprised at the number of freshmen once again who got significant playing time last night. That speaks to what has and hasn't been going on with recruiting. Tough to go into the Dome with a bunch of freshmen playing who also were not top 100 recruits. 

 

[AlbanyFan2018]

One last thought and I'll shut up. It is just hard to watch and just disappointing. Football is still king I guess, but men's lacrosse was our marquee program in terms of results and national recognition and to see where it has fallen just makes me sick to my stomach.  Someone has to take a hard look at what isn't working.

[dslyank]

There were a lot of breakdowns for us but a lot of positives as well. 

Scott usually not lost for words; but for the life of me, I did not see any "positives."??????

I missed the game live, illness in the family {glad I missed it & illness is OK now.} From what I saw of the scrimmages, particularly the lcc game; a lot of mis-communication because of numerous combinations & line-up changes. These pre-season experiments are of course all part of every program and of course necessary. But at some point, players got to get use to working with a certain attack team, middies that know each other, and most importantly the defense has to be in sync with each other. The last few years this pre-season experimenting seemed to go TOO long into the season; and unfortunately last night to me it was very evident, lines of attack & midfield were very much influx STILL. Defense was so BAD overall, like there was no defense at all. Seemed to me, when UA was the train the first line stayed together, and if UA fell behind by a lot, the second line/ third would give them a rest; and  ultimately the first would get it together; and UA was never out of a game. Maybe, just don"t have the horses to be more stable [no pun intended]???

How can you go into the dome with no/little sense of who you are going to battle with or what you are up against???

Edited February 11, 2023 by dslyank

[dslyank]

I hope Scott is not depending on the tough schedule to skate through the AmEast. Getting beat up game in game out can have a demoralizing effect and also be a confidence shatter. IMHO last couple of years this has been the case; creating the opposite effect and causing UA’s AmEast failures as well.

Also for what it’s worth VT bounced back & beat a very tough BU. Merrimack is 3-0, including a win vs Hofstra (not sure if they are tournament eligible yet?). Bingo won big vs an “good” Marist team, and even NJIT gave a supposedly good lcc battle losing by 1 @ lcc.

Edited February 11, 2023 by dslyank

[HOF2013]

6 hours ago, dslyank said:

I hope Scott is not depending on the tough schedule to skate through the AmEast. Getting beat up game in game out can have a demoralizing effect and also be a confidence shatter. IMHO last couple of years this has been the case; creating the opposite effect and causing UA’s AmEast failures as well.

Also for what it’s worth VT bounced back & beat a very tough BU. Merrimack is 3-0, including a win vs Hofstra (not sure if they are tournament eligible yet?). Bingo won big vs an “good” Marist team, and even NJIT gave a supposedly good lcc battle losing by 1 @ lcc.

Marist got destroyed by Rutgers first game - about the same as our score 20-8 and Merrimack won against Holy Cross, LIU, Hofstra by 5 or 6 ea.  - none of them has won a game.  BU was good last year but graduated 13 Seniors - 6 were Attack. Who knows how many are on the team this year as Grads and if they got any good transfers .

Syracuse players and coaches said they did not play well against VT as did someone here who watched the game.  Their kids who scored 6 - 4 -4  aganist us had 1 each.  Our defense was awful......... 

Edited February 12, 2023 by HOF2013

[HOF2013]

On 2/10/2023 at 8:57 PM, dslyank said:

UA totally taken to school in every aspect of the game. SU steals best D2 goalkeeper in the country off portal. He frustrates UA early and then SUs top rated recruit class in the country gets its mojo and totally takes over. God I hate the transfer portal 

Now UA has to rebound from a whopping by an unranked team and face second seed Cornell. 
Can UA get its mojo back or is their pre-season excitement all a hoax???

 

Syracuse probably will jump in rankings and were not ranked becasue of last year. They will be soon...

[dslyank]

11 hours ago, HOF2013 said:

Marist got destroyed by Rutgers first game - about the same as our score 20-8 and Merrimack won against Holy Cross, LIU, Hofstra by 5 or 6 ea.  - none of them has won a game.  BU was good last yea

We all know the MAAC is lowly [Bob reminds us all the time.] But Marist supposedly is the best of the MAAC and Bingo beating them by 18-11 does say something + about Bingo. Hofstra never seems to be as good or bad as they are suppose to be, but has handled sbrook mostly so says something about Merrimack? And lcc is a senior & grad heavy team and for NJIT (who has 1 or 0 AmEast victories all time) to hang with them on lcc home field, even against a lowly maac, is a + indication. Add in Bryant beating an improving Providence program,  VT over a still rated BU, and UMBC is always tough; UA better start living up to  the pre-season hype quickly, because counting on an AmEast auto bid is NO automatic.

[cwdickens]

There were many unexpected results from the weekend.