Can you give a preview of Syracuse? (Like Denver was all offense and that motion offense thing, and a weak defense) etc?
Certainly. I actually know three kids on the Syracuse team (family friend and the other two played with my little brother in high school) and on top of that have watched a number of their games this year.
Basically, Syracuse is plagued by the two greatest fatal flaws in lacrosse + a number of other minor issues. Those fatal flaws are poor goaltending and poor faceoffs. They are getting killed at the faceoff X this year. Just absolutely owned by about every team they play. The funniest part? They passed on a faceoff specialist in their last recruiting class... I know because another family friend was being recruited to be "their guy" but they opted to take another position player. Horrible faceoffs almost single handedly cost them a game against 3-9 Hobart.... that's how bad it is.
Their goaltending situation is only marginally better. They're replacing a multiple All-American this year (John Galloway) and are simply failing to do it. They've tried 3 different goalies this year and none of them have played well. Right now they're starting a true frosh who was a #1 recruit at his position but has been shaky at best so far in his career. Still, he's capable of getting hot because he has that kind of talent.
More than anything, it is the above flaws that are killing their defense. They're forcing their defense to play too many possessions and letting in too many bad shots. But they're also not playing great man-to-man... their zone defense is pretty good when they run it... but they're rarely in a situation to use it. If they can get a lead and go to a zone against us, we might be in trouble... but that's unlikely. They also replaced some really talented individual defenders (Joel White and John Lade) and the lack of great individual cover guys/their leadership and experience has hurt them.
Their offense is struggling because they lack stars. Syracuse is a team that has always had star players who are initiators and playmakers with the ball in their stick. Even if they aren't scoring, they're creating offense. Think Steve Nash... you let him shoot, and he's deadly accurate... you make him pass, he gets assists or creates scoring opportunities for his teammates.
This Syracuse team doesn't have a Steve Nash. They have some very talented finishers, especially the coaches son Tim Desko. ND's #1 concern will be keeping him from catching the ball in a position to shoot. Syracuse's best dodger is probably Tommy Palasek... and he's very average. None of their middies wow you. Derek Maltz is a player attack who can really shoot the ball, but also isn't a creator. The biggest challenge for ND will be not giving up shots they usually assume Kemp will save... because Syracuse will make us pay. Here is some of Desko's handiwork:
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So basically, they're going to try to have Palasek or one of their middies initiate... and then either jam the ball inside to Desko or set up Maltz for outside shots. They don't run anything fancy. They're not creative. They're a very straight forward team that tries to pass the ball into scoring positions. As long as Kemp doesn't have an off day and we win 1v1 matchups on defense, we'll be able to shut them down... but that sounds easier said than done. While this is the same team that just lost 10-8 to Georgetown, they also scored 19 goals on Rutgers the week before.
