#1/1/2 Notre Dame @ #4/4/1 Syracuse

[IrishLax]

7 PM Saturday on ESPNU. Syracuse is the best team in the land and has the #1 RPI with only one loss. Whoever wins this game is a lock for the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament. If Notre Dame loses this game and also loses to UNC in the last week of the season they will likely clock in somewhere around a #4/#5 seed.

No. 1 Notre Dame At No. 4 Syracuse On Saturday Night - University of Notre Dame Official Athletics Site

Should be a hard fought and defensive game. I'm expecting something around 8-7 if the Irish win.

 

[IrishLax]

Two articles on the ESPN affiliate:
Hype Reaches Boiling Point as Two Powers — Notre Dame and Syracuse — Collide in Dome | InsideLacrosse.com
Quint Kessenich: Notre Dame-Syracuse Has Game of the Year Potential | InsideLacrosse.com

 

[IrishLax]

And the preview video: Notre Dame vs. Syracuse Preview - Inside Lacrosse Videos

30.5 hours until faceoff.

 

[NDLacrosse]

I'm going!!!! LEEEGGGGOOOOOO! So pumped

 

[NDIrishlover3]

I am going to have to tape this game but I can't wait to watch it! hopefully it will prove all the ND lax haters wrong and show that we are legit

 

[IrishLax]

I'm going!!!! LEEEGGGGOOOOOO! So pumped

Nice! Should be an awesome atmosphere. Almost made the trip up myself... one of my really good family friends is a freshman and backup goalie at 'Cuse and his family is road tripping it from VA today. Sadly, work commitments got in the way.

Also, short little video with Trevor Laws talking lacrosse. Always cracks me up how intelligent Notre Dame players in the NFL sound compared to guys like Cam Newton who can't even conjugate correctly. NFL's Trevor Laws Talks ND Lax - Inside Lacrosse Videos.

 

[IrishLax]

Faceoff in 5 minutes for all of you with ESPNU!

 

[TerryTate]

Delbarton representing.

 

[RallySonsOfND]

Any updates for the people who don't have ESPNU?

GO IRISH!

 

[IrishLax]

6-3 Syracuse. Our goalie is playing awful (25% save percentage) whereas 'Cuse has their goalie stopping near 80%.

 

[PapaIrish37]

Galloway is the best big time G in College Lax (all time winningest in Division 1 history) and a great kid.

Grew up outside of Syracuse. One of my two best friend's in the whole world's son is a RS Frosh close D for the 'cuse. Gets a fair amount of PT. Before moving back to Phila our oldest two went to Syracuse CBA with Jovan Miller.

Tough to pick sides in this one. Must have been a great atmosphere (announced crowd 14,751).

SU 11- 8 Final.

Could definitely see a rematch come Memorial Day Weekend.

 

[Old Man Mike]

I don't know enough to comment but [intuitively] losing to the alleged best team in the country 11-8 in their place sounds pretty promising to me. My crystal ball sees a championship for ND. ND lacrosse will be our next name up in lights.

 

[IrishLax]

I don't know enough to comment but [intuitively] losing to the alleged best team in the country 11-8 in their place sounds pretty promising to me. My crystal ball sees a championship for ND. ND lacrosse will be our next name up in lights.

It's promising because our offense played well enough to score ~12 against a VERY good defense. It is disappointing because:

• We showed we have a weakness clearing the ball against the off ride.
• Syracuse has the answer for our defense... just like they did last year... and that ticks me off
• John Kemp took a huge step back in his sensational rookie campaign in the cage

As long as we don't draw Syracuse in May we will be fine. Like all sports, matchups often dictate who wins and who loses... and Syracuse matches up incredibly with our team. They have an insane inside finisher in Keough and our team doesn't change our defensive system to match that threat. It's kinda like the Tampa 2 defense in football... very vanilla and very effective with the right personnel (which is what we have) but there are certain players/schemes that can beat it. When you have a guy that can catch and shoot in traffic on the inside like Keough (his through the legs shot was sick) it makes it hard to slide early like we want to. If we slide early and the 2nd slide doesn't get there they can throw a nifty pass backside and we get beat. If we don't slide early then we give up low angle shots from ~6-8 yards which their guys have the accuracy to finish.

Oh well, a lot of teaching moments from this game. Our RPI should stick at #2. If we beat UNC we lock up a top 3 seed... probably get Detroit Mercy in the first round.

 

[IrishLax]

Galloway is the best big time G in College Lax (all time winningest in Division 1 history) and a great kid.

Grew up outside of Syracuse. One of my two best friend's in the whole world's son is a RS Frosh close D for the 'cuse. Gets a fair amount of PT. Before moving back to Phila our oldest two went to Syracuse CBA with Jovan Miller.

Tough to pick sides in this one. Must have been a great atmosphere (announced crowd 14,751).

SU 11- 8 Final.

Could definitely see a rematch come Memorial Day Weekend.

All spot on. I pull for Syracuse as my #2 team... have a family friend and know a couple people on the current team. They are without a doubt the best team in the country and would have beaten Cornell had Lade and others not gone down with injury. Hoping they end up on the other side of the bracket and we can march through some overrated ACC teams and Hopkins on the way to the finals.

 

[NDLacrosse]

Got back at 1 am from 'Cuse.
Probably a good smack in the head.
I think ND was reading too many press clippings and needed a wake up call right before the tourney
- Kind of great scheduling to play two top 10 teams in syracuse and north carolina right before the ncaa tournament instead of coasting in.

 

[IrishLax]

Got back at 1 am from 'Cuse.
Probably a good smack in the head.
I think ND was reading too many press clippings and needed a wake up call right before the tourney
- Kind of great scheduling to play two top 10 teams in syracuse and north carolina right before the ncaa tournament instead of coasting in.

Yup, believe it or not the 2009 Notre Dame team was more talented than both last year's team and this year's team... but because we coasted to 15-0 on the season and blew out everyone we came into our first round playoff game confident and then made more mental mistakes/unforced errors than I had seen us make all year for no apparent reason. Last year, because we lost so many close ones and also one some big games we knew what we needed to do to win, stuck to our identity and rode it all the way to the championship.

This year I think is a blend of the two... the loss is good because it gives us tape on how to defend a team like Syracuse that basically tries to draw the crease high to make it a long slide to defend the midfield alley dodge. They also employed a lot of rollback/skip passing to get the defense moving and find a gap for Keogh inside. North Carolina, on the other hand, has lots of great 1v1 dodgers and will pose a completely different type of threat... and they will also probably try to mix in a little Syracuse because of how effective they were on national TV. Going to be a fun game to watch next Saturday.