COACHING CAROUSEL 2021

[steel_hop]

Did things not work out with Benson? Or did Bernhardt leave for another opportunity?

Could just be a formality they have to do before making it official with Benson full-time.

Yep. Have to do a full search in order to remove the interim tag. Ball will be in Bobby's court if he wants to return.

Yup. Likely need to be done to meet affirmative action and state government requirement or the figurative "we know who we are going to hire but we have to do it this way to satisfy HR." I'd wager a ton of money if Benson wants the job it is his and I'd wager a great deal of money that they don't get any candidates or at least any qualified candidates for the job.

[JeremyCuse]

Interesting that Syracuse identified Petro in their article as potentially joining Cuse staff. Gait also said in presser that he expects announcement in the next few days on staff members.

Petro will be the DC, its only a formality at this point.

That is going to be one hell of a staff. I am not a Syracuse fan, but it's really hard not to root for Gary Gait. I will be interested to see how Petro does up there. They need a lot of help on the defensive side of the field. Wish them all the best.

There is some talent there but a new defensive system is needed and so is an additional infusion of talent. The Yale transfer will help along with Kennedy returning but the D needs a complete overhaul. They have some youngsters with talent but another quality transfer at Close D (probably 2 at this point) would really help. Kennedy is likely to bump back down to close and be the #1 defender but he needs help.

I suspect Coach Pietramala’s Syracuse defense is going to look very different than the Hopkins defenses we have seen in recent years. Doesn’t mean he will abandon everything he has taught the last 30 years, but I am thinking that Coach Gait will try and return the Orange to its old run-and-gun ways, and that calls for a more aggressive defense focused on causing turnovers and initiating transition.

Or am I projecting here?

Dunno ….

DocBarrister

Yes I would expect a very aggressive defense as that will match the style Gait will likely want to play and a re-focus on transition defense/offense which SU got away from the last 5-6 + years under Desko.

[LaxPundit07]

No clue how the Gait Petro March combo will go....but I have a strong feeling this team will be fun to watch! Run and gun, open it up, defend sideline to sideline. Kick it old school. Get ready for some barn burners in the dome.

[jhu06]

No clue how the Gait Petro March combo will go....but I have a strong feeling this team will be fun to watch! Run and gun, open it up, defend sideline to sideline. Kick it old school. Get ready for some barn burners in the dome.

It makes syracuse far and away the story in lacrosse next year especially if they add Petro. ESPN has a contract w/hopkins but if they're smart they'll put all the cuse games on espn3 instead of acc network because there will be national interest from lacrosse fans.

I can't imagine what the holdup on the petro announcement is if its really happening unless its related to his children joining him and the $ dynamics. There are always endround ways about getting the $ right like boosting his salary.

[LaxPundit07]

My guess is they are rolling it out one at a time. Like I said, Gait noted in his introductory presser a staff announcement would happen in the next few days.

Also, kind of interested to see how dynamic of Gait and Petro will be on game day. Gait very reserved on the sideline. And Petro, well, not so much.

[HopFan16]

For those assuming Petro will completely overhaul the defensive philosophy he's been using for 20+ years...I wouldn't hold your breath.

[steel_hop]

For those assuming Petro will completely overhaul the defensive philosophy he's been using for 20+ years...I wouldn't hold your breath.

I don't disagree with you completely. But, I think Gait is going to force him, if he is the DC, to play more aggressively. The game has changed over the last decade. Teams that are more aggressive have been more likely to win games. Further, I also think defenses that limit slides have shown to be more fundamentally sound and better over the last decade. Obvious reason for little slides is that you have athletic SSDM, LSM and Dmen than can run hip to hip with an offensive player.

[44WeWantMore]

For those assuming Petro will completely overhaul the defensive philosophy he's been using for 20+ years...I wouldn't hold your breath.

I don't disagree with you completely. But, I think Gait is going to force him, if he is the DC, to play more aggressively. The game has changed over the last decade. Teams that are more aggressive have been more likely to win games. Further, I also think defenses that limit slides have shown to be more fundamentally sound and better over the last decade. Obvious reason for little slides is that you have athletic SSDM, LSM and Dmen than can run hip to hip with an offensive player.

Because it is inherently better (as a strictly defensive strategy or as a way to ignite run-and-gun) or because it is easier to recruit athletic defensemen to that system?

[FMUBart]

SU got away from the run and gun b/c it wasn't really working...they haven't had the defensive horses for a while now(let's not get into the offset head and difficulty in stripping the ball from attackmen). I agree, don't think the style of play will change much; they'll run when they can, otherwise, ball control, value the possessions and use some clock.

[wahoomurf]

OK, here is an IL article that backs up the notion of a clown-car of lawyers being at fault:

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... ment/57889

The one thing that doesn't fit is Desko saying "it was my decision" to re-instate Scanlan. But maybe he felt he had to take responsibility.

I think we can all agree that the whole thing was badly handled. But I agree that I was too quick to lay primary blame on Desko.

This is consistent with the fact that Trump’s education secretary, Betsy Devos, finalized a new Title IX rule intended to give more protections to students, the vast majority of whom are men, accused of sexual assault and rape.

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/06/85173363 ... al-assault

The Trump rule’s increased favoritism towards accused abusers and alleged rapists, instead of their alleged victims, would readily explain what happened in the Scanlan case.

Wouldn’t cast blame on the Syracuse lawyers from what we know at this point.

DocBarrister

Al ll the legal chazerai was rendered moot when the 4 Captains gave Desko their ultimatum. A clear indication of the end of Desko's reign at Syracuse.

[FMUBart]

Can we move on from the captains end run? I know they're pillars of virtue(despite one getting the USC foul in the blowout loss to G'town), but Desko, IMHO, probably had pressure to reinstate #22.

[jrn19]

SU got away from the run and gun b/c it wasn't really working...they haven't had the defensive horses for a while now(let's not get into the offset head and difficulty in stripping the ball from attackmen). I agree, don't think the style of play will change much; they'll run when they can, otherwise, ball control, value the possessions and use some clock.

I imagine Gait will make changes when he has the guys to do it, which he probably will in 2023 if he can maintain that big time class. But 2022 will be a work in progress in many regards with the roster he has. Wouldn't be shocked if they miss the tournament

[FMUBart]

Still have a cupboard full of talent. New leadership should provide spark next year and give Gator time to mold the team. 2022 will be fine, IMHO

[jrn19]

Still have a cupboard full of talent. New leadership should provide spark next year and give Gator time to mold the team. 2022 will be fine, IMHO

Do they? Their defense was awful last year and has no obvious incoming talent to improve it. Still lack several shutdown defenders.

On offense they lose their best attackmen. They should probably move Dordevic to attack, but that would leave the midfield as Curry, Quinn, and.....? Not exactly much dodging going on there

Need a new goalie

It’s a 7-6 team with a bad incoming recruiting class and losing several of it’s best players. Doesn’t look like much of a recipe for success

[44WeWantMore]

Still have a cupboard full of talent. New leadership should provide spark next year and give Gator time to mold the team. 2022 will be fine, IMHO

Do they? Their defense was awful last year and has no obvious incoming talent to improve it. Still lack several shutdown defenders.

On offense they lose their best attackmen. They should probably move Dordevic to attack, but that would leave the midfield as Curry, Quinn, and.....? Not exactly much dodging going on there

Need a new goalie

It’s a 7-6 team with a bad incoming recruiting class and losing several of it’s best players. Doesn’t look like much of a recipe for success

They might have a bunch of under-the-RADAR West Genny and Reservation studs hiding at OCC, just waiting for the call.

[stupefied]

Expect them to return to transitioning as they did in 18 and 19 . Goalie the last few years was way too deliberate and cautious in his reads. Just watch Gaits women team and his goalie let it fly at any opportunity. Likely emphasis for new goalie and backline will be to get the ball upfield quicker because he"ll want to run and they have some horses. Not sure if all return but men have a top flight lsm and they had athletic poles who played solid m2m Team d has many components , dmid unit , transition d n man down need to be strengthened. .Rest comes down to executing what is taught whether that be big/little switches, secondary slides inpackage . SU scheme last few years was clearly to play man and slide late because they had the personnel before multiple injures watered them down, you rarely saw them in a zone. a new dc may change packages and schemes. Wont shock me if their d is much better after a full fall.

[stupefied]

Still have a cupboard full of talent. New leadership should provide spark next year and give Gator time to mold the team. 2022 will be fine, IMHO

Agree. Cuse has swung from being overrated based off 2020 to possibly now being underrated.

[jrn19]

Still have a cupboard full of talent. New leadership should provide spark next year and give Gator time to mold the team. 2022 will be fine, IMHO

Agree. Cuse has swung from being overrated based off 2020 to possibly now being underrated.

They were the last team in the tournament field and lost by like 10 goals in R1. How are they possibly underrated? Are they a Top 10 team next year all of a sudden?

[a fan]

For those assuming Petro will completely overhaul the defensive philosophy he's been using for 20+ years...I wouldn't hold your breath.

If he gets named DC, you and I get to test our opinions on the importance of coaching in real time. Should be some good fun.

You think not only the Kaestner is a better D coach....you think that coaching can fix deficient/lesser talent. And as you know, I disagree, and believe that every top 20 program has access to D coaches that can teach defense just fine.

So.....if Petro can "out Defense" Hopkins in their head to heads in a few years, after both coaches get their recruits?

Then we'll both know that coaching ain't all that important----the talent on the roster will overwhelm brilliant coaching.


And please understand I say this in good fun.....

[CU77]

afan, I have a higher opinion of the impact coaching than you do. Let's try to be quantitative.

laf's data consistently shows that, year after year, averaged over all games, home field is worth +1 goal per game.

How much is (say) Lars Tiffany worth over (say) Matt Kerwick, in goals per game? That is, if one or the other were to coach exactly the same players on the same team at the same school, what would the score differences be? (Of course this experiment cannot be done in real life.)

I would say at least +2.

What do you say?