2014 NCAA Lacrosse Open Thread

[IrishLax]

Thoughts on the game today LAX????

Well, with Syracuse coming off an embarrassing 14 goal loss to Duke, I really expect them to bounce back hard. I'm sure they spent tons of time this week coming up with a faceoff strategy to mitigate Liam O'Connor as best they can.

Their offense, which is mostly attack driven with efficient shooting, will be tough to stop if they can possess the ball. Shane Doss is really not making many saves in goal right now. The Syracuse offense has been very good all season. In the Carrier Dome, they also always have a huge advantage with sight lines. And Randy Staats should be full go for them.

Their defense, on the other hand, has been varying levels of horrible. It's been a combination of poor 1v1 defending with even worse communication and off-ball defense. As they lose faceoffs they become very vulnerable to big runs that have doomed them against Virginia, Duke, and Maryland. The way you beat them is the same way we pulled away from Virginia and Ohio State.

What I expect to see today is either:
1. A matchup zone where they take away Kavanagh and try to play a zone behind that.
2. A straight backer zone of some sort where they try to force us to beat them with ball movement.
3. Man-to-man where they double every time Kavanagh touches the ball.

Last year, they played basically "no slide" defense against ND and it worked amazingly, but I don't think they go with that this year. The two teams that have had success against ND are PSU and Denver... both threw junk defenses and zones at us.

If ND wins today, it will be on the back of Liam O'Connor and secondary scorers (Doyle, Perkovic, Marlatt, etc.). I think they also need, at minimum, a 50% save day from Shane Doss.

My prediction is that Syracuse has a bounce back game and wins 12-7.

 

[irishrb]

Just got in and am going to watch the game.....
YUCK to your prediction!!! Very good analysis though. I appreciate your knowledge here.
I think ND starts off S-L-O-W....especially with 2 away games in one week. I think Liam will pick it up in the second half and ND takes over to win 10-8.
Off to watch what happens....GO IRISH!!1

 

[Kaneyoufeelit]

This shit is bananas

 

[Folsteam_Ahead]

Goaltending was tough to watch today.

 

[IrishLax]

Honestly, pretty horrible officiating and I think that had a big impact. Especially on faceoffs. The cadence was ridiculous, and Daddio was violating all day, rarely got called. 15-9 in faceoffs in their favor was unimaginable at the start of the game. I personally counted at least 4 obvious violations/fouls that did not get called. And then there was the possession where O'Connor got fouled by 4 different guys with no flag. Wtf? Plus O'Hara got called for a perfectly clean hit, and Kavanagh got the strangest illegal body check call I've ever seen.

The secondary scoring stepped up, especially as Syracuse was throwing shield slides and even quick triples at Kavanagh. The off ball movement needs to be better in those scenarios, and Kavanagh needs to recognize when they're throwing junk at him and get the ball out of his stick quicker. They basically played no slide except to Kavanagh, who they came to super quick. There should've been guys open on the crease or to the adjacent.

Also, Matt Landis got owned 1v1 way too much. Just got beat soundly 3 or 4 times by dodges.

 

[irishrb]

Honestly, pretty horrible officiating and I think that had a big impact. Especially on faceoffs. The cadence was ridiculous, and Daddio was violating all day, rarely got called. 15-9 in faceoffs in their favor was unimaginable at the start of the game. I personally counted at least 4 obvious violations/fouls that did not get called. And then there was the possession where O'Connor got fouled by 4 different guys with no flag. Wtf? Plus O'Hara got called for a perfectly clean hit, and Kavanagh got the strangest illegal body check call I've ever seen.

The secondary scoring stepped up, especially as Syracuse was throwing shield slides and even quick triples at Kavanagh. The off ball movement needs to be better in those scenarios, and Kavanagh needs to recognize when they're throwing junk at him and get the ball out of his stick quicker. They basically played no slide except to Kavanagh, who they came to super quick. There should've been guys open on the crease or to the adjacent.

Also, Matt Landis got owned 1v1 way too much. Just got beat soundly 3 or 4 times by dodges.

Thank you. I am still in the learning stages of lacrosse, and rarely complain about officiating, but I was complaining about this the whole game. That game drove me freaking crazy as I really think ND is the better team.

 

[IrishLax]

ND at #7/#8 in the polls. They were #7/#7 last week. So basically no movement down for the loss.

The PSU loss really stings right now. One of Michigan-esque black magic games. The Nittany Lions have absolutely gone in the tank since then. We also didn't schedule enough creampuffs this year to boost record. Attribute this to conference uncertainty, but we only play 12 regular season games. Maryland plays 13, Duke 15, UNC 13, Virginia 14, Syracuse 13 for comparison.

As such, we probably need to run the table against remaining "easy" teams to make the playoffs:
-Robert Morris. Should be a very easy game.
-#18 Army... 6-3 with one goal losses to #12 UMASS, #2 Loyola, and Rutgers. One of the best defensive teams in the land, bad stylist matchup for ND... could be a VERY tough game. They've dominated the lesser teams on their schedule. This is a serious landmine.
-Marquette. Another team we should smack in the face.

If we win those 3, we should finish the year no worse than 7-6 and make the playoffs. If we drop any one of those, then we have to win at least one of:
-#3 Duke (coin flip)
-#4 Maryland (sizable underdog... bad matchup)
-First round ACC tournament game (could be anyone)

If we lose all 3 hard games + an easy game then we finish sub .500 and wouldn't be eligible for the tournament. The best news is that we get Army AFTER the ACC tournament so we'd know coming into that game whether it is do or die.

 

[irishrb]

THANKS LAX. My boys and I were just trying to figure out their playoff chances after their dumb loss to the cuse. This teams deserves to make the playoffs. HOPEFULLY they win their 3 non ACC games and get in. I almost prefer that they lose to DUKE and then smash their balls in the playoffs! Either way, we're looking forward to, and really hoping for, a strong finish......
We're still annoyed with the game from this past weekend!

 

[irishrb]

Big game for the Irish today. I HATE Duke in lacrosse. They have totally been the pain in Notre Dame's side. Part of me wonders if they would be better off losing today, hopefully still getting in the tournament, and then ripping them up!

 

[IrishLax]

Going to miss the game today... GF's fam in town so will be out and about with them in the city. Last 4 games I haven't watched in their entirety we've lost.

On paper, Duke's aggressive D and lack of junk defenses bodes well for ND. They also are reliant on dodging (rather than a ball-movement or motion) for their offense with is something we defend well. On paper I think it's a coin flip where we win 12-11. With me cursing the team not watching the game, I bet we get dominated on faceoffs and lose 11-8. Both the on-ball and off-ball defense hasn't been great recently, and I'm doubtful Shane Doss can stand on his head. Offense will need to show up.

 

[irishrb]

In town with the GF's family or at home watching ND LAX....come on LAX, you better set the standard now or you'll have a long road ahead of you....
Hopefully the cuse didn't expose some of Liam's weaknesses on faceoffs and he comes prepared to battle....
My gut tells me ND loses this game....12-8. Based on the history of these two teams though, it would make sense for ND to win like 10-8.
I guess if you average those two out it's 10-9 duke...
Either way, I'm anxious to see how they look today.
BTW....What's going on with Marlatt? Last year he was quite aggressive bouncing the mid range shots in pretty successfully.

 

[IrishLax]

In town with the GF's family or at home watching ND LAX....come on LAX, you better set the standard now or you'll have a long road ahead of you....
Hopefully the cuse didn't expose some of Liam's weaknesses on faceoffs and he comes prepared to battle....
My gut tells me ND loses this game....12-8. Based on the history of these two teams though, it would make sense for ND to win like 10-8.
I guess if you average those two out it's 10-9 duke...
Either way, I'm anxious to see how they look today.
BTW....What's going on with Marlatt? Last year he was quite aggressive bouncing the mid range shots in pretty successfully.

Teams have been taking him away. They've been putting the pole on him 100% of the time and then sliding quick to him because Perkovic isn't really a dodging threat (and doesn't have the same overpowering shot with his left as he does with his right). Trevor Bosco is getting the shortie and is the primary dodging threat accordingly.

Last year, Foley was a big dodging/scoring threat on 1s so teams couldn't go all out to stop Marlatt (although they started to later in the season once they realized Will Corrigan wasn't a scoring threat). Not really the case this year... Bosco is scoring a lot of unassisted goals, but he's not a dominant player by any measure. The offense is currently being run through the attack with the standard offense right now basically being Doyle/Kavanagh as the initiators, Scioscia as the interior finisher, Marlatt/Perkovic as your step down shooters, and Bosco as your initiator up top to restart the rotations.

The 2s line isn't getting much production right now. You've got Ossello who is a really solid all-around player with a decent shot. Then Cotter/Corrigan as facilitators who have actually both been playing decently so far. What I'm disappointed in is that Jack Doyle doesn't get more runs. He's a big, physical player who would bring an entirely different complexion to that line. Pridemore, who I think was supposed to be a primary dodging threat, really hasn't been productive at all as a first year player.

 

[Monk McGinn]

C'mon boy,time to step it up. Anytime we can smack Duke in the mouth
makes for a good day.

 

[NDinL.A.]

Wow....that was an ass-kicking. 15-7 Duke, and it was 12-3 after 3 periods. Kavanaugh held scoreless (did he even play?). Yikes...

 

[IrishLax]

Wow....that was an ass-kicking. 15-7 Duke, and it was 12-3 after 3 periods. Kavanaugh held scoreless (did he even play?). Yikes...

Well this'll be fun to watch back on the DVR...

Other scores of note today:
-Penn State lost to Drexel in OT. The loss to the Nittany Lions very well might break our NCAA leading consecutive tournament streak. In retrospect, it's just a joke that we lost that game. Classic "Michigan" style loss.
-Loyola survived Navy in 2OT. They are the most overrated team ever.

 

[Monk McGinn]

Wow....that was an ass-kicking. 15-7 Duke, and it was 12-3 after 3 periods. Kavanaugh held scoreless (did he even play?). Yikes...

Yeah,embarrassing. Not sure whats up with Kavanaugh.

 

[IrishLax]

Got to watch the replay. Honestly, not nearly as bad as I thought. Duke is really, really good. A couple of their goals were just indefensible. Jordan Wolf is insane. Might be best player in the country. And Deemer Class has improved from a "meh" player to dominant All-American level scorer since the start of the season.

1st half easily could've been a tie game. Their goalie made 6 saves with 2 goals allowed as we missed a number of great scoring chances. Our man-up offense was not good enough and did not capitalize on Duke mistakes how it should've. We got outplayed, but only marginally.

The 3rd quarter was probably the worst quarter of lacrosse I've seen us play in a very long time. The wheels came off the bus entirely. Our D is really bad, both on-ball and off-ball. They lose guys regularly and leave slam dunk goals open on the backside. individually, O'Hara plays decent but the other guys are getting dusted 1v1 way too easily. And we always used to play a very aggressive early slide-and-recover style D... I'm not seeing that. The help is late or isn't there at all, and then shockingly even without quick slides guys are wide open in shooting positions all over the field. Jack Near is playing really well, but none of the other guys are consistent enough on-ball and off-ball in midfield D.

Also, in general... way too many fouls. WAY too many. And the goalies are not playing at the level we've been used to with Kemp->Rodgers->Kemp. Let in about 4 goals that should be saves every time. On the season, our best goalie is saving 49% (47th in the country). In years past, we've been looking at save percentages around 65%. The difference between 50% and 65% when you give up 20 SOG a game is 7 goals allowed (top 5 in the country every year, should be a win just about every game) or 10 goals allowed (outside the top 30, probably win about half your games depending on your offensive output).

This team is not designed and never will be design to win 16-15 type games. The staff has two games and a couple weeks to circle the wagons and try to fix the issues before Maryland. But I'm not really sure how you fix talent deficiency if there is one.

 

[irishrb]

New week, new game, new focus...
So it's been a couple of frustrating games for the Irish...One they really could have won against cuse, and one they were basically shut down against Duke....
No way to watch the game today so they will probably light Marquette up. Frustrating that it can't be seen but hopefully they come ready to play and make a statement that they are still hungry and want to finish the year on a strong note!
I don't know anything about Marquette other than their record, and common opponents that ND played, indicate the ND should smoke this team.

 

[IrishLax]

1-1 after 1Q. ND with 0 saves, Marq with 3. Slow game so far per the stats... bunch of stall warnings.

 

[IrishLax]

4-2 at halftime. ND has 1 save, Marq has 5. The slowed down game is helping Marq with possession/defense but I think it's also hurting their scoring.

 

[IrishLax]

Marq made a change at the faceoff X and their new guy is killing it. We still have only one save, while Marq has scored four 3Q goals. ND leads by 1.

 

[IrishLax]

ND leads 9-6 heading into the 4th. Trevor Brosco has 3 goals, Kavanagh has 3 assists.

 

[IrishLax]

FINAL: ND 12 MARQ 7.

Kavanagh held without a goal for 3rd straight game, but tallied 3 assists. Marlatt and Brosco both scored 3.

Shane Doss with another rough outing... 7 goals allowed, 5 saves. Had only 1 save through first 70% of the game.

 

[irishrb]

Caught the game on Gamecast....which sucks but is better than nothing. Did you actually watch the game? It looked like Doss was sucking it up.
I was glad to see Marlatt get more involved with the offense. It's obvious people other than Kavanaugh are going to have to score for ND to have any chance of being successful this year.

 

[Monk McGinn]

Doss has looked shakey in every game I seen,he makes me nervous.
The ACC is freakin brutal. Maryland is up next right?

 

[IrishLax]

Doss has looked shakey in every game I seen,he makes me nervous.
The ACC is freakin brutal. Maryland is up next right?

Yeah, got a game today against Robert Morris (same time as Blue-Gold game) and then Maryland next week. I honestly don't even know if we'll score 7 against Maryland, their possession style and defense is ridiculously effective in keeping the score down.

Game today will be broadcast on UND. Dunno why they couldn't have put it before or after the spring game (Ohio State actually plays theirs in their football stadium before their game today). So I'll be going multi-screen.

 

[irishrb]

Yeah, got a game today against Robert Morris (same time as Blue-Gold game) and then Maryland next week. I honestly don't even know if we'll score 7 against Maryland, their possession style and defense is ridiculously effective in keeping the score down.

Game today will be broadcast on UND. Dunno why they couldn't have put it before or after the spring game (Ohio State actually plays theirs in their football stadium before their game today). So I'll be going multi-screen.

Seriously, what the heck. That has to be the poorest scheduling error ever. Their lacrosse program deserves better than that!
They should roll today....right?

 

[IrishLax]

Seriously, what the heck. That has to be the poorest scheduling error ever. Their lacrosse program deserves better than that!
They should roll today....right?

Yeah, stylistically this will be on paper our easiest game of the season. Will be surprising if they get above 8 and we stay below 12.

 

[IrishLax]

15-5 final. ND was up 14-3 heading into the 4th and emptied the bench for the entire 4Q.

ND will need to win one of the remaining three games to make the tournament by virtue of being above .500... should be doable but they will all be against ranked teams.

 

[IrishLax]

Second half of Hopkins vs Maryland underway. Hopkins shockingly in control 5-1. A win for the Blue Jays would be VERY bad for ND. Game on ESPNU.