LaxPower Back-Up Stick

DMac wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:17 pm

Pensky Material wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:06 pm

DMac wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 1:05 pm

Pensky Material wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 12:58 pm

sinman6 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 12:16 pm I'm not sure what people expected from Syracuse this year. New coaching staff + huge question marks at defense and goalie don't create great conditions for success. at least the goalie situation has improved, and the offense is playing well. The albany loss is bad, but all in all, I would say that syracuse is performing as expected right now.

You really think the offense is playing well? They did some good things against Duke but that feels like a lifetime ago. Last night was more of the same, ball dying in sticks, too much one v one and bad shooting. On top of that the EMO doesn't generate any good looks. Injuries and lack of some talent aside they just don't look like they have any plan out there.

My bold.
Completely agree. If TD were to enter the portal (as has been suggested somewhere here...though he says he's coming back) I wouldn't be at all upset about that.

DMac I will disagree with you about TD. While I do think he's trying to do too much at times I think the idea of playing with Hiltz again and Spallina would be enticing for him.

The question then is, would he play a different game? If the ball is still dying in his stick and he's shooting 20+ times a game (many of them ill advised and poor shots) then it doesn't matter who else is on the field with him. I recognize his talent but the ball hog part outweighs that for me. JMHO.

Fair point. I suppose I'm imagining what the offense could be next season with those two other guys and Tucker not having everything going through him.

I think Dordevic kinda has to ball hog it. Aside from Curry literally no one else on the field can dodge. And no one else on the field can pass. It's Dordevic, Curry, and four finishers. He's their best option to do everything. He wasn't that kinda player last year or at any point in his career when he didn't have to do so much. Even just Hiltz coming back will have the ball in his stick way, way less and he'll move the ball more quickly cause he won't be doubled so quickly or be responsible for making all the shots and all the passes. Let alone if Spallina is as advertised.

I understand general Cuse fan frustration over this season but losing Dordevic does nothing to help and can only hurt.

Never understood the Dordevic ball hog comments and I'm seeing a lot of them lately. Him "ball hogging" is a symptom of the anemic offense, not the cause of it. As jrn19 said he's doing it because no one else can get the defense rotating. If the ball were in his stick less, they'd score even fewer goals. I'm sure he'd love to carry less. That'd mean they were generating offense in other ways. But they've been unable to do so. Curry was supposed to share the load but teams have realized you can contain him with a quick slide.

jrn19 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:31 pm I understand general Cuse fan frustration over this season but losing Dordevic does nothing to help and can only hurt.

This may or may not be true. Am going to go to the wlax side for an example. Figuring all know who Emily Hawryschuk for the Cuse wlaxers is, a gifted and dynamic player and real force to say the least. She tends to be a 1v1 player and will force that a bit, and has the ball in her stick longer than most other players. When she went down and out for the season with an ACL injury others had to step up and Cuse had to play a different game. The ball then moved at mach speed, girls were cutting and passing, looking for one another, playing as a team. That team made it to the NC game where they got beat by BC, but there weren't mant people who gave Cuse a snowball's chance in hell of making it to the NC game when Emily went down. Emily's had to learn to fit in the team a little differently now and is doing just fine. Get Hiltz, Spinalla (sp?) and others to step up and play that kind of game without the ball dying in one player's stick and the results might be very surprising.

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:39 pm Never understood the Dordevic ball hog comments and I'm seeing a lot of them lately. Him "ball hogging" is a symptom of the anemic offense, not the cause of it. As jrn19 said he's doing it because no one else can get the defense rotating. If the ball were in his stick less, they'd score even fewer goals. I'm sure he'd love to carry less. That'd mean they were generating offense in other ways. But they've been unable to do so. Curry was supposed to share the load but teams have realized you can contain him with a quick slide.

For the most part I agree. From a lot of what I've seen, and I haven't watched every game, is that they try to get Dordevic the ball after there has been a dodge and a pass to the weak side. If Dordevic's decision making was better, it might open up a few more looks for teammates. The offense is designed for he and Curry to get LOTS of looks, but even when you get a look, you have a choice to not shoot.

Late-ish in the Stony Brook game Syracuse was up by a few and Dordevic forced a shot when he could've passed to an open teammate. I thought to myself at the time that it would've been good for him to move the ball, not force a shot and get a teammate involved since he already had a lot of goals by that point. There was a stoppage in play soon after that and when play resumed Syracuse eventually got the ball and Dordevic had a similar chance and didn't shoot. I thought to myself that I bet one of the coaches mentioned it to him.

The offense sometimes looks disjointed and sometimes it looks free-flowing and effective. What I'd really like to see from Dmac on here, instead of kinda trashing these players, is what he's most knowledgeable about, which is Gait's experience coaching the SU Women's lacrosse team. Did they run a free-flowing offense? How long did it take to click? We know it clicked. Were there players who held the ball longer? How did it impact the team offense?

Edit: I see DMac did what I wanted without even seeing my post. Kudos to him.

jrn19 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:31 pm I think Dordevic kinda has to ball hog it. Aside from Curry literally no one else on the field can dodge. And no one else on the field can pass. It's Dordevic, Curry, and four finishers. He's their best option to do everything. He wasn't that kinda player last year or at any point in his career when he didn't have to do so much. Even just Hiltz coming back will have the ball in his stick way, way less and he'll move the ball more quickly cause he won't be doubled so quickly or be responsible for making all the shots and all the passes. Let alone if Spallina is as advertised.

I understand general Cuse fan frustration over this season but losing Dordevic does nothing to help and can only hurt.

Does next year really look that more optimistic? They'll lose Phaup, Kennedy, Curry, Quinn, Grant, Buttermore. Even if Spallina is as advertised as well as some of the others, they are still true freshmen. Especially losing Phaup, next year could be ugly. There hasnt even been anyone whos really taken a face off at this point.

CrazyPeople wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 3:38 pm

jrn19 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:31 pm I think Dordevic kinda has to ball hog it. Aside from Curry literally no one else on the field can dodge. And no one else on the field can pass. It's Dordevic, Curry, and four finishers. He's their best option to do everything. He wasn't that kinda player last year or at any point in his career when he didn't have to do so much. Even just Hiltz coming back will have the ball in his stick way, way less and he'll move the ball more quickly cause he won't be doubled so quickly or be responsible for making all the shots and all the passes. Let alone if Spallina is as advertised.

I understand general Cuse fan frustration over this season but losing Dordevic does nothing to help and can only hurt.

Does next year really look that more optimistic? They'll lose Phaup, Kennedy, Curry, Quinn, Grant, Buttermore. Even if Spallina is as advertised as well as some of the others, they are still true freshmen. Especially losing Phaup, next year could be ugly. There hasnt even been anyone whos really taken a face off at this point.

I don’t know about the team as a whole; was more referring to Dordevic specifically

If Dordevic returns, the starting attack is likely Dordevic, Spallina and Hiltz, with everyone playing in the position or spot on the field where they're most comfortable. That's a good thing, but after that there's not much firepower. I like Tyler Cordes, but he seems strictly off-ball. Corsi has shown some things. SU fans are excited for FInn Thompson too.

CrazyPeople wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 3:38 pm

jrn19 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:31 pm I think Dordevic kinda has to ball hog it. Aside from Curry literally no one else on the field can dodge. And no one else on the field can pass. It's Dordevic, Curry, and four finishers. He's their best option to do everything. He wasn't that kinda player last year or at any point in his career when he didn't have to do so much. Even just Hiltz coming back will have the ball in his stick way, way less and he'll move the ball more quickly cause he won't be doubled so quickly or be responsible for making all the shots and all the passes. Let alone if Spallina is as advertised.

I understand general Cuse fan frustration over this season but losing Dordevic does nothing to help and can only hurt.

Does next year really look that more optimistic? They'll lose Phaup, Kennedy, Curry, Quinn, Grant, Buttermore. Even if Spallina is as advertised as well as some of the others, they are still true freshmen. Especially losing Phaup, next year could be ugly. There hasnt even been anyone whos really taken a face off at this point.

Losing Phaup will probably be the biggest issue next year (i believe he's taken all but a few draws this season). I'm not aware they have a big recruit coming in so I would hope they hit the transfer portal when it comes to FOGO.

DMac wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:52 pm When she went down and out for the season with an ACL injury others had to step up and Cuse had to play a different game. The ball then moved at mach speed, girls were cutting and passing, looking for one another, playing as a team. That team made it to the NC game

Um, shouldn't this be read as criticism of GG for not figuring this out before the injury?

CU77 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 5:27 pm

DMac wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:52 pm When she went down and out for the season with an ACL injury others had to step up and Cuse had to play a different game. The ball then moved at mach speed, girls were cutting and passing, looking for one another, playing as a team. That team made it to the NC game

Um, shouldn't this be read as criticism of GG for not figuring this out before the injury?

Not an unreasonable point but it's not as if Cuse wasn't winning with EH playing her game, Cuse was a force with her in there. Not only did EH, the T Award candidate (a legit one), go down but Megan Carney went out with a season ending ACL injury as well (another T Award candidate), another top notch player lost to injury. What it more shows to me is why talented players transfer when they get buried in teams with large numbers of talented players. The players that stepped up likely would have seen nowhere near the playing time they did had those two not gone down, but that's not to say they still wouldn't have made it to the NC game and perhaps even won it. Wasnauskis and D. Maltz are two examples of that, both transferred from Cuse to Md after their freshman season (we know how that worked out for them). I was sick when those two left, you didn't have to see much of them to recognize that these are two very good players buried in the numbers on the sideline.

I'd love to see Dordevic to dodge off of the pass more. He almost always holds the ball for a few seconds before he begins his dodge. If Curry could get a step and have defense react, it'd be great to see Cuse bang the ball through X to the backside and have Dordevic go right away instead of waiting. He nearly always dodges against a set defense.

Does Gait mix it up and try some different combos on the field?

I think he has done that. Problem is the difference between #3 and #10 on the depth chart really ain't much

CU77 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 5:27 pm

DMac wrote: ↑Fri Apr 08, 2022 2:52 pm When she went down and out for the season with an ACL injury others had to step up and Cuse had to play a different game. The ball then moved at mach speed, girls were cutting and passing, looking for one another, playing as a team. That team made it to the NC game

Um, shouldn't this be read as criticism of GG for not figuring this out before the injury?

She was lost after the first game of the season. Hard to figure it out with an N=1 and the kid had 5 points. To me it speaks of a team that has depth and adjusts to that depth. You could criticize him for burying some of that depth on the bench at times. I do not think he currently has that.

Spallina is a lefty, correct? If so, I guess he plays behind with Hiltz on the left and Dordevic on the right instead of logging so much time on the left side.

molo wrote: ↑Sat Apr 09, 2022 7:38 pm Spallina is a lefty, correct? If so, I guess he plays behind with Hiltz on the left and Dordevic on the right instead of logging so much time on the left side.

I think he’s a righty, but either way you’re right and I imagine he’ll be behind the goal. Dordevic not only moving to attack but having to take over for Hiltz with his non dominant hand is pretty commendable.

Spallina, Dwan, Finlay Thomson - and with Hiltz hopefully
back at 100%.

Anish (typical) TD the only bright spot for Cuse.
No worries, Mr. Phaup, we've noticed your performance all year long.

One name that's gone unmentioned that absolutely shouldn't is Michael Leo out of St. Anthony's. He has been tearing it up so far this year. He dodges like a bull but has great shake and some box-style stick skills, and he has an absolute hammer of a shot from the left wing. I think he could start at lefty attack as a freshman and free up Dordevic to return to midfield (or alternatively I think he can be effective running out of the box if Cuse wants to keep Dordevic at attack).