MLAX: Duke vs. Syracuse

[4decadedukie]

Duke's Lacrosse team has improved dramatically during the last month; after consecutive late-February losses to Notre Dame and Penn, we have defeated Maryland, Loyola, Mercer, UNC, Dartmouth, Georgetown and Brown to regain the #3 ranking. FYI, Loyola, UNC and Maryland were top-ten rated when we defeated them in March.

In the interim, highly ranked UVa was beaten last weekend by Hopkins; this leaves undefeated Syracuse as the nation's clear #1 team. On Sunday, however, Duke has the opportunity to defeat Syracuse and to contend for its preseason #1 rank. This critically important game is part of the "Big City Classic" played at the Meadowlands, and it will be televised by ESPNU at 6:30. We are clearly the underdog in this contest, but Duke has demonstrated exceptionally rapid improvement in a team that is underclassmen-dominated. Further, our Syracuse and Virginia (16 April) games will both certainly show how ready this year's team currently is for Final Four level competition and will have a substantial NCAA Tournament seeding impact.

Please use Sunday's basketball "off day" to support our Blue Devils, the NCAA's reigning National Champions.

[DukieInKansas]

I wish I could be there to cheer them on. Would someone that is there cheer a little louder for me?

eta - just realized it is on ESPNU - they will hear me yelling from Kansas, won't they?

[burnspbesq]

Tune in early, and root for Hopkins against Carolina at 4:00 Eastern.

[MCFinARL]

Tune in early, and root for Hopkins against Carolina at 4:00 Eastern.

Oh, that's such a tough choice, though. Hopkins? They broke our hearts so many times--2005, 2007, 2008. One year I had the misfortune to sit near the Hopkins band at the championships. The annoying and repetitive riff they play after every Hopkins goal is still ringing in my head. Not sure I could ever root for Carolina in basketball, but in lacrosse, I hate Hopkins more.

[Ima Facultiwyfe]

Oh! To be there for real! We'll be in front of the TV for sure. Go Duke!
Love, Ima

[MCFinARL]

Duke's Lacrosse team has improved dramatically during the last month; after consecutive late-February losses to Notre Dame and Penn, we have defeated Maryland, Loyola, Mercer, UNC, Dartmouth, Georgetown and Brown to regain the #3 ranking. FYI, Loyola, UNC and Maryland were top-ten rated when we defeated them in March.

In the interim, highly ranked UVa was beaten last weekend by Hopkins; this leaves undefeated Syracuse as the nation's clear #1 team. On Sunday, however, Duke has the opportunity to defeat Syracuse and to contend for its preseason #1 rank. This critically important game is part of the "Big City Classic" played at the Meadowlands, and it will be televised by ESPNU at 6:30. We are clearly the underdog in this contest, but Duke has demonstrated exceptionally rapid improvement in a team that is underclassmen-dominated. Further, our Syracuse and Virginia (16 April) games will both certainly show how ready this year's team currently is for Final Four level competition and will have a substantial NCAA Tournament seeding impact.

Please use Sunday's basketball "off day" to support our Blue Devils, the NCAA's reigning National Champions.


Are you saying Duke will contend for its own preseason #1 rank? I'm sure they were not ranked #1 this preseason after losing so many starters from last year's squad. If I recall correctly, the preseason polls had them around 5 or 6, with Syracuse and the rest of the ACC ahead of them.

But maybe I just misunderstood your post.

Either way, I'm excited for this game, as Syracuse doesn't look as unbeatable as they have some years--but it will be a big challenge.

[weezie]

Oh, that's such a tough choice, though. Hopkins?....

Not sure I could ever root for Carolina in basketball, but in lacrosse, I hate Hopkins more.

Yeah, but that's about all they have going on up there.
They're annoying but they ain't no tarholes so go blue jays.

[throatybeard]

Sunday isn't an "off day" in NCAA Basketball:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncw/scoreboard?date=20110403&confId=100

[4decadedukie]

Sunday isn't an "off day" in NCAA Basketball:

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncw/scoreboard?date=20110403&confId=100

As far as I'm concerned, it became one when Duke was defeated by UConn.

[MCFinARL]

Yeah, but that's about all they have going on up there.
They're annoying but they ain't no tarholes so go blue jays.

I understand what you are saying, and you are right that it's all that they have, at least in terms of athletics (academically, of course, it's a pretty strong school). But that doesn't keep them from being pretty arrogant. Maybe I'll just root for no one....

[sagegrouse]

If you forgot to tune in Syracuse-Duke LAX, count yourself lucky. Really one-sided. I am now watching the women's Final Four.

sagegrouse

[MCFinARL]

If you forgot to tune in Syracuse-Duke LAX, count yourself lucky. Really one-sided. I am now watching the women's Final Four.

sagegrouse

Well, the second half was much, much better. The final score was 13-11 Syracuse. Duke has had a tendency to start a bit slow (not unlike the basketball team this year....), and you just can't afford to do that against a team as good as Syracuse. We are a young and relatively inexperienced team this year, and it really showed tonight. Still, it's a good sign they got their act together and came back so strong later in the game--something to build on.

[uh_no]

Well, the second half was much, much better. The final score was 13-11 Syracuse. Duke has had a tendency to start a bit slow (not unlike the basketball team this year....), and you just can't afford to do that against a team as good as Syracuse. We are a young and relatively inexperienced team this year, and it really showed tonight. Still, it's a good sign they got their act together and came back so strong later in the game--something to build on.

Not knowing too much about the program, I'd be happy with any result from the team this year....it would seem that they lost some big pieces off the national title team, so to expect such great success this year would be setting it up for failure.

Go duke lacrosse!

[MCFinARL]

Not knowing too much about the program, I'd be happy with any result from the team this year....it would seem that they lost some big pieces off the national title team, so to expect such great success this year would be setting it up for failure.

Go duke lacrosse!
You are absolutely right. Of 10 starters in last year's championship game, only four are playing this year (one, Mike Manley, an All-American defenseman, is still on the team but out for the season with an injury). And of thirteen other players who saw action in the championship game, seven remain. So it's a big rebuilding year, and after a rocky start to the season, the team has really exceeded all reasonable expectations. Certainly no one would have predicted that we would be 2-0 in the ACC right now. So if we finish with a solid winning record and an NCAA tournament appearance (both likely at this point), that's terrific. And we have a lot to build on for next year--we will lose a couple of excellent players who are starting (Zach Howell, Justin Turri, Tom Montelli) but not nearly as many as last year, and we apparently have a very strong recruiting class coming in. So it's all good.

Next up--an intriguing matchup against Denver, coached by legend Bill Tierney (formerly of Princeton), in Long Island. Go Blue Devils!

[4decadedukie]

While I was distraught with Duke’s first half performance, I believe we actually outplayed Syracuse during the second half. Looking at the statistics, we dominated (as I recall) face-offs and groundballs; we even had more shots on goal and better extra-man conversions. Where we were comparatively weak (IMHO) was in overall defense (far more pronounced in the first half) and in goalkeeping (Syracuse is simply superb in this arena – and it made a MAJOR, game decisive difference). In aggregate, we played well to lose to the nation’s #1 team by only two goals (particularly, given the first half). Our mid-April game against UVa will be critical, especially since the Hoos have two losses (one in the ACC) and face UNC before Duke.

[MCFinARL]

While I was distraught with Duke’s first half performance, I believe we actually outplayed Syracuse during the second half. Looking at the statistics, we dominated (as I recall) face-offs and groundballs; we even had more shots on goal and better extra-man conversions. Where we were comparatively weak (IMHO) was in overall defense (far more pronounced in the first half) and in goalkeeping (Syracuse is simply superb in this arena – and it made a MAJOR, game decisive difference). In aggregate, we played well to lose to the nation’s #1 team by only two goals (particularly, given the first half). Our mid-April game against UVa will be critical, especially since the Hoos have two losses (one in the ACC) and face UNC before Duke.

Agree with all of this. One more thing I might add--while it's true we had more shots on goal, we also had many, many more shots altogether. The Syracuse offense was much more accurate, with 22 shots on goal out of 29 total shots to our 27 shots on goal out of 42 shots. Again, we did much better in the second half, scoring 9 goals on 25 (18 on goal) shots as compared to 2 on 17 shots (9 on goal) in the first half. Obviously, some of this is likely attributable to Syracuse's defense frustrating our offense and forcing, or frustrating us into, bad shots.

Agree that UVa is our most critical remaining game, but we can't look past Denver, which is playing well and has lost only to Syracuse and Notre Dame so far this year.

[4decadedukie]

Agree with all of this. One more thing I might add--while it's true we had more shots on goal, we also had many, many more shots altogether. The Syracuse offense was much more accurate, with 22 shots on goal out of 29 total shots to our 27 shots on goal out of 42 shots. Again, we did much better in the second half, scoring 9 goals on 25 (18 on goal) shots as compared to 2 on 17 shots (9 on goal) in the first half. Obviously, some of this is likely attributable to Syracuse's defense frustrating our offense and forcing, or frustrating us into, bad shots.

Agree that UVa is our most critical remaining game, but we can't look past Denver, which is playing well and has lost only to Syracuse and Notre Dame so far this year.

I agree with everything in this post. Bill Tierney left a Princeton program (after twenty-two years) that had been enormously successful, IMHO essentially to create "Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse." He is a proven master, and a victory over Duke now would be a profound "he's back" statement. We will need to play consistently and well.

[burnspbesq]

Finally got to watch the game tonight, and there were some real positives. As noted, we dominated faceoffs and did well on ground balls. After a bad first quarter in which he was beaten near-side high twice and five-holed once, Wigrizer got it together. Our poor shooting percentage was not the result of poor shooting, but rather a lights-out performance by Syracuse goalkeeper John Galloway.

The real problem was that our young team got swallowed up by the occasion. One wonders what might have happened if Turri's shot in the first 45 seconds goes in instead of hitting the post.

Our kids will learn from this. It will pay dividends in May. That's why you play games like this when you have a young team.

[MCFinARL]

Finally got to watch the game tonight, and there were some real positives. As noted, we dominated faceoffs and did well on ground balls. After a bad first quarter in which he was beaten near-side high twice and five-holed once, Wigrizer got it together. Our poor shooting percentage was not the result of poor shooting, but rather a lights-out performance by Syracuse goalkeeper John Galloway.

The real problem was that our young team got swallowed up by the occasion. One wonders what might have happened if Turri's shot in the first 45 seconds goes in instead of hitting the post.

Our kids will learn from this. It will pay dividends in May. That's why you play games like this when you have a young team.

Granted, John Galloway is a superb goalie and was a big factor here. That being said, he doesn't have to stop the shots that aren't on goal, of which we had many (although I suppose trying to find a good angle on an excellent goalie might lead players to make some shots that don't quite work, and there was the usual quota of shots that hit the pipe, etc.). I didn't mean to argue that our shooting was poor as such, so much as that, compared to Syracuse at least, it was noticeably less accurate and efficient.

Then again, Duke teams over the last few years have generally shot a lot, and it's probably a likely result of that that there will be a fair number of shots that aren't on goal. While one might quibble about a particular game, overall it would be hard to argue that this strategy hasn't worked for them, since Duke has been in the final four 5 of the last 6 years (and probably would have been in 2006).

And I agree completely that our youth and inexperience had a lot to do with the way this game played out, and that it's likely a lesson learned that they can build on moving into the late season.

Next play!

[budwom]

All in all, it's been a fantastic season thus far. We lost something like 17 guys from last year's title team, and we're playing a lot of very young guys. Yet we've been ranked as high as #3, and are currently #4.

However, having watched the Syracuse game, it should be noted that Syracuse's best defender (an All American) didn't play most of the fourth quarter (due to an ankle injury) when Duke made the big comeback.