Cornell 2023

[Redman2]

Thanks for the info

[another fan]

And Cascadden has not taken a drawer in second half

[another fan]

Obviously a lot to like, and great to get younger and reserve players game time. I’ll leave it to others to expand on the positives.

Injuries are a concern.Looked like Dalton in a boot and on crutches, Box out, assume Cascadden injured during the game and of course Long. Short sticks still an issue, especially with Box out. Neither 9 nor 12 can keep up with speed. Coaches tried everybody there at the end including Newman with a short stick, Cook, and perhaps even fogo Graham.

[laxjuris]

Obviously a lot to like, and great to get younger and reserve players game time. I’ll leave it to others to expand on the positives.

Injuries are a concern.Looked like Dalton in a boot and on crutches, Box out, assume Cascadden injured during the game and of course Long. Short sticks still an issue, especially with Box out. Neither 9 nor 12 can keep up with speed. Coaches tried everybody there at the end including Newman with a short stick, Cook, and perhaps even fogo Graham.

The injuries are worrisome indeed. We should have enough depth with Holmes and others to fill in for Dalton, but losing Cascadden or Box for any length of time would put us in a bind.

[joewillie78]

Great to see Cornell come out with fire and not really let Dartmouth get into any kind of Rhythm.
2nd game in a row that Cascadden wins opening faceoff clean, but this time took it right to the net for a quick opening score.
Monster games from Kelleher and Blake who were dodging downhill all game.

CJ put up his usual numbers and even missed a couple he thought he should of had.

Chayse was solid again in net, and Singer, Follows and Adler were groundball machines all game.

This team moves the ball so well and just keep coming at you to put so much pressure on the other teams defense.

Credit to The Big Green who have no quit in them, even when Cornell is firing on all cylinders.
Weather was spectacular and now looking ahead to watching them play a much improved Marquette squad at home in 10 days after a weekend contest away at Harvard.

Gobigred
Joewillie78

[laxfan1313]

For what it's worth (not much), with Duke beating Virginia and Maryland losing to Michigan, The Big Red should move up to 3rd behind Duke & Notre Dame.

[VeryRustyRed]

'Nice to have a game that was not intense to watch (from a spectator standpoint). And on a nice, legit spring day in Ithaca. Not to mention that the majority of the roster received PT. In all due respect to Dartmouth, they have some nice players, but the overall level of team skills and abilities is somewhat of a mismatch - at least if the boys show up focused and ready to play. After least season's squeaker in Hanover and given Dartmouth's first Ivy win in some time, this was not an issue today.
A few miscellaneous thoughts:
-Cornell scored in the first 10 seconds of the game against Penn last week. It was 6 seconds today. Cascadden took both draws. I wonder if Harvard will take a defensive wing alignment next Saturday on the opening draw. I'm not being facetious.
-FOGOS - the last few games Cascadden has looked very good early, but has taken only a few subsequent FOs. I know we're facing off by committee, but the distribution is surprising. Perhaps Cascadden is dinged up. As for Psyllos - love watching him scrap. He doesn't quit. Petrakis looked good for two weeks - but committed at least 2 violations early today; he's also not particularly facile in picking of GBs and securing possession. A definite flaw compared to 20 and 3.
-Coyle - very few touches today. I know the middies had a big day, but I wonder if this was by intent. He's been soooo good.
-Blake - he's a different player the last few weeks. Far more confident and doing more things - perhaps he's more physically sound now? This makes such a difference on the 1st line.
-As noted, Dalton was in a boot. Alex Holmes took his spot. As I've said before, I like his potential. He's fast, can invert, and today he was extremely efficient at rotating the ball - clean and accurate.
-Great to see 44 get one. It was a classic Lombardi goal - off of a face or swim dodge down the middle, high to low.
-One big area of concern - Charlie Box did not play. Our rotation of four - 5,6,7, and Box has been more than holding their own. Bartolotto (a freshman) and Chabot filled in; it was not pretty. If Box doesn't return, they will have huge targets on their backs. As another fan wrote, Caleb Newman, an LSM who had limited time late last season, played with a ss at the very end. It was only one possession, but he looked big, strong, and confident. Give him a shot if needed!
-46 saw his first time at LSM in a while.
*It's tough for the defense (and offense for that matter) to maintain it's edge in a game like this. Too many TO's in the middle of the field as the game went on and a surprising number of defensive lapses that ended in goals. On offense, lots of hands-free shots for our mids today. Dartmouth's D looked slow'ish afoot and not well-connected.

[joewillie78]

For what it's worth (not much), with Duke beating Virginia and Maryland losing to Michigan, The Big Red should move up to 3rd behind Duke & Notre Dame.

Actually, I think it is worth something as we get closer to selection Sunday as a higher ranking could conceivably give us a better seeding.
I will have them 2nd in my rankings tomorrow.
Gobigred
Joewillie78

[laxjuris]

For what it's worth (not much), with Duke beating Virginia and Maryland losing to Michigan, The Big Red should move up to 3rd behind Duke & Notre Dame.

Actually, I think it is worth something as we get closer to selection Sunday as a higher ranking could conceivably give us a better seeding.
I will have them 2nd in my rankings tomorrow.
Gobigred
Joewillie78

The weekly rankings, as fun as they are to talk about, have no impact on the NCAA selections and seedings.

[laxfan1313]

For what it's worth (not much), with Duke beating Virginia and Maryland losing to Michigan, The Big Red should move up to 3rd behind Duke & Notre Dame.

Actually, I think it is worth something as we get closer to selection Sunday as a higher ranking could conceivably give us a better seeding.
I will have them 2nd in my rankings tomorrow.
Gobigred
Joewillie78

The weekly rankings, as fun as they are to talk about, have no impact on the NCAA selections and seedings.

As I said "not much"

[faircornell]

Good to have the luxury of resting the injured. Army and Princeton are two games where these high impact players will be most needed. With all of the "upsets" occurring as cautionary examples, it's tough to take any team for granted. This might be one of the best Big Red teams that we've ever had, if people stay healthy.

[Gobigred]

Good to have the luxury of resting the injured. Army and Princeton are two games where these high impact players will be most needed. With all of the "upsets" occurring as cautionary examples, it's tough to take any team for granted. This might be one of the best Big Red teams that we've ever had, if people stay healthy.

Brown in Providence will be tough, too.

[faircornell]

Good to have the luxury of resting the injured. Army and Princeton are two games where these high impact players will be most needed. With all of the "upsets" occurring as cautionary examples, it's tough to take any team for granted. This might be one of the best Big Red teams that we've ever had, if people stay healthy.

Brown in Providence will be tough, too.

No question. Army, Princeton and Brown are the three most likely "upsets". One more win and I believe that Cornell has clinched an Ivy League Tournament berth. I can't really take anything away from any of our opponents, and don't intend to.

[WestVillCornell]

Brown in Providence sucks… especially if the weather is nice and their students in the crowd are appropriately “fired up”

And agree that we have a tricky stretch coming up
- Harvard away - never easy
- quick turnaround w/ Marquette - who’s v. good!
- then Brown, as mentioned
- then Pton

Not sure if this week is spring break or if it was last week - but rest clearly needed for some

Re: Cascadden - I can’t tell what happened in the game. He took a hard-ish hit and then about 5 min later came back in to take a FO - looked fine-ish, but was a bit wobbly going back to the box following a push. He looked fine on sidelines afterwards. Hope all precautionary.

Agree with what’s been said on the others - we need alternatives at SSDM and love how the coaching staff is mixing / matching.

One thing different than prior years is that we have playing a lot of people in support positions throughout the year. QK commented on our FO rotation in the UVA-Duke game - essentially pointing out the key man risk that their teams have at fogo…

This is a big month - here’s to quick recovery for the injured
!

LGR

[semsox]

And agree that we have a tricky stretch coming up
- Harvard away - never easy
- quick turnaround w/ Marquette - who’s v. good!
- then Brown, as mentioned
- then Ton

Minor point of clarification, but the @Brown game is actually a week after a very important non-conference game @Army, Doesn't take away from the point that this upcoming month is a pretty daunting stretch.

The important thing is to keep improving as the season goes. I have to think there's going to be at least 1 more L in the schedule, and possibly more than that. If and when they occur, hopefully they're used to continue to shape and build the team for another deep postseason run

[WestVillCornell]

Thanks. Very much agree re Army. Wasn’t looking at the schedule when I sent.

I remember last years Army game all to well. Army is good, very disciplined/well coached and obviously tough. That game + Marquette are critical from an OOC perspective.

[VeryRustyRed]

I watched the first half of the Penn State - Ohio State game today. And came away thinking how important matchups are in so many seemingly equal teams on paper.
-As we've seen for a few years now, and as I've always maintained, personnel-wise, OSU's (relatively) strong teams have always been a great match-up for Cornell.
-Penn State...not so at all. Watching Penn State twice this year (needless to say, I didn't see the Marquette shocker), I kept thinking how much they remind me of many of the very strong pre-Covid Yale teams. Then I realized that this isn't at all surprising. Shay built his model from the Tambroni mold during his Cornell years. Well coached, (I hate to use the overworked description) blue-collar style of play, rotate the ball really well, look for the really good shot, not many shots from 12+, well schemed and disciplined on D (think how they really packed things in against Cornell, precluding inside looks and holding Cornell to 6).
-A bad loss or not, while not one of the "big 4" (Duke, UVA, ND, and Maryland), IMO, they're definitely high in the 5 - 10 range. I hope the Big Red doesn't seem them again unless it's well down the tournament road.

The moral of the story. Cornell, when healthy is pretty well balanced. The young front players have settled in. Their matchups against top 5 teams, even top 10, will be significantly enhanced (or detracted from as the case may be) if Long returns and the first 4 ss's stay healthy. If not, we are not nearly as well balanced (i.e., on offense, skewed focus on #15 and on defense, skewed targeting of the shorties...which in turn disrupts the close guys and the base 6 on 6 defense).

[blue angels]

For what it's worth (not much), with Duke beating Virginia and Maryland losing to Michigan, The Big Red should move up to 3rd behind Duke & Notre Dame.

Who has Cornell beaten in the top 5, top 10? They might get ranked 2 in media or coach's but not seeing the case for it yet? Who you beat matters......

[laxfan1313]

For what it's worth (not much), with Duke beating Virginia and Maryland losing to Michigan, The Big Red should move up to 3rd behind Duke & Notre Dame.

Who has Cornell beaten in the top 5, top 10? They might get ranked 2 in media or coach's but not seeing the case for it yet? Who you beat matters......

Lacrosse Reference has Cornell at #4 RPI, 1-1 vs 6-10, 3-0 vs 11-20. https://lacrossereference.com/stats/rpi-d1-men/

[laxfan1313]

The only stat Coach Moran focused upon was ground balls. He even expressed that he wasn't concerned about losing the faceoff battle so long as the Big Red led the ground ball stat. At this point, after 8 games, Cornell is 7-1. Cornell is barely leading the faceoff stat 115-114 but is dominating the ground ball stat 306-221.