SUNY 2024

[richard]

Yesterday was was the first time I had watched Potsdam since the SLU game. They are not the same old Potsdam. I was impressed with their sticks. The ball moved crisply and with purpose. Great win. Good luck vs Geneseo.

[shouldofbeenbetter]

Great day for Potsdam lacrosse people, present and past.
The players wanted and it showed on the field.
Great game planning by Coach B and staff, I think they will need the
same game plan going into Saturdays Championship game.
Ball control with high percentage shots.
I have to say- it was an all out team victory, Fantastic goalie play,
good defense, aggresssive on the ground balls with really good shooting.

[Leonard Washington]

Great day for Potsdam lacrosse people, present and past.
The players wanted and it showed on the field.
Great game planning by Coach B and staff, I think they will need the
same game plan going into Saturdays Championship game.
Ball control with high percentage shots.
I have to say- it was an all out team victory, Fantastic goalie play,
good defense, aggresssive on the ground balls with really good shooting.

+1

Going to be a tough battle on Saturday. Anything can happen, especially if Thompson gets hot. I still believe Geneseo takes this one around a score of 14 to 7

[GoBears]

Congratulations to Potsdam. I'll be cheering for you on Saturday. Geneseo looks very strong right now, but you have a real chance.

Coach Rogers - I hope you're recruiting. Wow, the Cortland offense has no punch. I've been watching Cortland lax since 79-80. This is by far the weakest offense I've ever seen at Cortland. Team faceoff unit came in around 47% for the year. Ouch.

Ground balls were an issue all season. I know people like to say it's a "heart stat," but it says more about baseline talent. The more talented teams usually win the ground ball battle. I'll say it right now - Potsdam had more talent on the field than Cortland. This result was not a fluke.

Is Potsdam the new Platty? They have the best goalie in the league by far, and he's only a sophomore. The Bears will lose an excellent midfielder, but his brother put up 52 points and will return in 2025. Lots of young talent. This reminds me of Kavanagh taking over Plattsburgh. It's not difficult to imagine Potsdam as the team to beat in 2025. And hey, maybe they'll beat Geneseo this year. Wouldn't that be something for recruiting?

It’s funny as an Alumni that’s my thought too, and if Coach B can capture some recruiting success from this season they should be able to keep the train moving forward! We missed a super talented kid in Rowisonkies Barnes who unfortunately missed all season with a leg injury, but he should be able to help lift some of the weight P Walsh leaves behind graduating as an instant impact player.

I’m curious if Berk is working on getting any of the Salmon River boys home from OCC.. not sure where any of those guys are committed yet that are sophomores

[Leonard Washington]

I’m curious if Berk is working on getting any of the Salmon River boys home from OCC.. not sure where any of those guys are committed yet that are sophomores

Yes he is, along with a couple of other JUCO and transfers.

[dp68]

It’s funny as an Alumni that’s my thought too, and if Coach B can capture some recruiting success from this season they should be able to keep the train moving forward! We missed a super talented kid in Rowisonkies Barnes who unfortunately missed all season with a leg injury, but he should be able to help lift some of the weight P Walsh leaves behind graduating as an instant impact player.

I’m curious if Berk is working on getting any of the Salmon River boys home from OCC.. not sure where any of those guys are committed yet that are sophomores

We're both thinking along the same lines re: community college transfers. As a Cortland fan, I have no idea what sorts of relationships Rogers has with the various CC's in the region. Since he recruited at SU for so long, I assume he has many.

Berkman has been around for a long time and has the Salisbury pedigree, so I assume he's hitting the CC market hard. It's weird how Potsdam suddenly caught fire. What is he doing different from previous years? Does he have a new assistant who excels as a recruiter? Berkman has always been a strong X's and O's guy, but suddenly he has the talent to make everything work.

The Platty situation was different because Kavanagh was a pretty new commodity when he built that program. Berkman seems similarly talented, but the team languished for many years.

I'm curious what you see as an alum. Something obviously changed to bring these kids into the fold.

[GoBears]

I’m curious if Berk is working on getting any of the Salmon River boys home from OCC.. not sure where any of those guys are committed yet that are sophomores

Yes he is, along with a couple of other JUCO and transfers.

I figured as much, we were a big transfer U and it led to a lot of success when I went there, but hadn’t heard anything through the grapevine yet. With Genny/Brockport leaving this is a huge opportunity for Potsdam to move into that two position and our recruit Oswego

[Laxbro73]

As someone who as watch Cortland all yeah, that was the worst game they played all season. Taking nothing away from Potsdam who played a great game. Cortland offense was terrible. I could go on but don’t want to discount Potsdam.

Cortland will rebound. All starters coming back next year except 1

[GoBears]

It’s funny as an Alumni that’s my thought too, and if Coach B can capture some recruiting success from this season they should be able to keep the train moving forward! We missed a super talented kid in Rowisonkies Barnes who unfortunately missed all season with a leg injury, but he should be able to help lift some of the weight P Walsh leaves behind graduating as an instant impact player.

I’m curious if Berk is working on getting any of the Salmon River boys home from OCC.. not sure where any of those guys are committed yet that are sophomores

We're both thinking along the same lines re: community college transfers. As a Cortland fan, I have no idea what sorts of relationships Rogers has with the various CC's in the region. Since he recruited at SU for so long, I assume he has many.

Berkman has been around for a long time and has the Salisbury pedigree, so I assume he's hitting the CC market hard. It's weird how Potsdam suddenly caught fire. What is he doing different from previous years? Does he have a new assistant who excels as a recruiter? Berkman has always been a strong X's and O's guy, but suddenly he has the talent to make everything work.

The Platty situation was different because Kavanagh was a pretty new commodity when he built that program. Berkman seems similarly talented, but the team languished for many years.

I'm curious what you see as an alum. Something obviously changed to bring these kids into the fold.

As someone who was around the last time Potsdam was successful for multiple seasons a decade or so ago now, this time around I think he’s really captured the North Country talent that generally went elsewhere (salmon river kids for example). He’s done a TON of work with local high schools and started up a NoCo travel team over that last decade. Maybe some fruit starting to bear from that endeavor too? I will also say now that Potsdam offers sports science majors that has helped tremendously get kids that otherwise wouldn’t want Potsdam unless they intended on becoming a teacher or pursued the 3:2 Business degree program that sends kids to Clarkson after a few years of undergrad at Potsdam (basically paying state tuition to get a Clarkson degree).

They also just started working with a S&C coach year round over the past few seasons and probably why you can notice those boys not getting ran off the field by C state like we did in the past since S&C was generally captain led. That seems to have added a whole new dimension to this program that I couldn’t be happier to see (and wished we had when I was attending). Salisbury obviously has a great S&C program that separates them yearly so it’s something I think more programs need to prioritize.

[Leonard Washington]

They also just started working with a S&C coach year round over the past few seasons and probably why you can notice those boys not getting ran off the field by C state like we did in the past since S&C was generally captain led. That seems to have added a whole new dimension to this program that I couldn’t be happier to see (and wished we had when I was attending).

Game changing and difference making when it comes to growth and taking the next step as a program, especially if this has been going on since 21/22.

[GoBears]

They also just started working with a S&C coach year round over the past few seasons and probably why you can notice those boys not getting ran off the field by C state like we did in the past since S&C was generally captain led. That seems to have added a whole new dimension to this program that I couldn’t be happier to see (and wished we had when I was attending).

Game changing and difference making when it comes to growth and taking the next step as a program, especially if this has been going on since 21/22.

It was 2021 I believe when Potsdam Athletics hired the head S&C coach so it’s been a bit now! Potsdam also pulls in a few Hockey/Lacrosse crossover athletes so that’s helped too with being bigger/grittier

[VTLaxGuy]

They also just started working with a S&C coach year round over the past few seasons and probably why you can notice those boys not getting ran off the field by C state like we did in the past since S&C was generally captain led. That seems to have added a whole new dimension to this program that I couldn’t be happier to see (and wished we had when I was attending).

Game changing and difference making when it comes to growth and taking the next step as a program, especially if this has been going on since 21/22.

Big congrats to the Bears!

The above reference to the S&C coach, is exactly what I was thinking watching them a few times this year. Even against SLU, it wasn't men against boys. It was men with better skill and lacrosse IQ vs other men. The S&C work that's been happening in Potsdam has played a HUGE part in their growth (no pun intended).

I'm not sure if anybody mentioned it, but Potsdam and Cortland were tied 4-4 heading into the 4th quarter in their regular season game. The Bears had a tough 4Q that day, but there's no doubt that they walked off the field knowing they could hang with Cortland if they met them again. For a program that had gone 3-47 all time against Cortland, with their last win coming in 1999 (32 game losing streak), and some very wide margin losses during that span; walking away from a tightly contested loss with the confidence that you can beat the giant....man that's powerful stuff. Sports are awesome.

Potsdam v Cortland history referenced above: https://potsdambears.com/sports/mens-la ... ortland/12

[dp68]

They also just started working with a S&C coach year round over the past few seasons and probably why you can notice those boys not getting ran off the field by C state like we did in the past since S&C was generally captain led. That seems to have added a whole new dimension to this program that I couldn’t be happier to see (and wished we had when I was attending).

Game changing and difference making when it comes to growth and taking the next step as a program, especially if this has been going on since 21/22.

Big congrats to the Bears!

The above reference to the S&C coach, is exactly what I was thinking watching them a few times this year. Even against SLU, it wasn't men against boys. It was men with better skill and lacrosse IQ vs other men. The S&C work that's been happening in Potsdam has played a HUGE part in their growth (no pun intended).

I'm not sure if anybody mentioned it, but Potsdam and Cortland were tied 4-4 heading into the 4th quarter in their regular season game. The Bears had a tough 4Q that day, but there's no doubt that they walked off the field knowing they could hang with Cortland if they met them again. For a program that had gone 3-47 all time against Cortland, with their last win coming in 1999 (32 game losing streak), and some very wide margin losses during that span; walking away from a tightly contested loss with the confidence that you can beat the giant....man that's powerful stuff. Sports are awesome.

Potsdam v Cortland history referenced above: https://potsdambears.com/sports/mens-la ... ortland/12

Not only that, but wasn't Potsdam ahead 4-3 in the closing minutes of the 3rd quarter? Like I wrote, I don't think this result was a fluke.

[dp68]

My rating system says...

Geneseo 12 Potsdam 7

[GoBears]

Let’s go Potsdam 13, Geneseo 12 for fun

[Cortlandlaxdad21]

Geneseo-22
Potsdam-5

The game was a one time thing. Geneseo is rolling.

[dp68]

Final SUNY ratings (my system)
These may change a little depending on how Geneseo and common opponents perform in the NCAA's. The numbers in parentheses represent the estimated goal differentials between the rated team and the #1 team.

To prepare for next season, I included Morrisville and Canton.

1. Geneseo (-)
2. Cortland (less than 1)
3. Potsdam (6)
4. Oswego (8)
5. Oneonta (9)
6. Brockport (9)
7. New Paltz (14)
8. Morrisville (17)
9. Plattsburgh (18)
10. Canton (24)

The rating system is an iterative model that compares scores for every game played throughout the season, with a capped differential for every individual game to reduce the effect of blowouts. Recent scores hold more weight because they are last results the system accounts for.

At the conclusion of the season, one could conclude Potsdam and Cortland were closer and that Cortland should be further back from Geneseo. That's my personal opinion too, but I have learned not to question the ratings. The system takes the entire season into account, adjusts for recency, and isn't prone to "prisoner of the moment judgments." In other words, it's usually smarter than me.

I'll post some playoff predictions, D1 included, when I have time. Spoiler alert: Notre Dame is really, really good.

[shouldofbeenbetter]

The SUNYAC lax awards were posted, congrats to all players and to the Potsdam staff for a great year.
Good luck to Geneseo against Middlebury,

[richard]

Geneseo and St John Fisher are both being written off. Here’s hoping they bring their A games and kick some NESCAC ass.

[dp68]

Geneseo and St John Fisher are both being written off. Here’s hoping they bring their A games and kick some NESCAC ass.

For two years in a row, Fisher has improved drastically as the season progressed. I like their chances a little more than Geneseo's, but it would be awesome if either (or both) of these teams got it done on the road.