No. 16 Rutgers Men’s Lacrosse Hosts Rival No. 14 Princeton Sunday
- Thread starter Tango Two
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Agree. Our DC role needs a long look in the off season
book your May tee times, fellas!
they've now played two playoff caliber teams and have been dominated both times....who knew that bringing in more than a dozen second rate transfers from D3 schools and low D1 schools wasn't going to move the needle? princeton lost all of its impact seniors to the transfer portal and is still more talented at every position on the field. two programs headed in complete opposite directions...ships passing in the night. the program needs a full reset if it hopes to be a competitive top 10 team in the future.
they've now played two playoff caliber teams and have been dominated both times....who knew that bringing in more than a dozen second rate transfers from D3 schools and low D1 schools wasn't going to move the needle? princeton lost all of its impact seniors to the transfer portal and is still more talented at every position on the field. two programs headed in complete opposite directions...ships passing in the night. the program needs a full reset if it hopes to be a competitive top 10 team in the future.
You’re clearly trying to gaslight the board. Before today, we had THREE starters out, and today was the first game back for one of those starters.
Not a fair or equal fight.
gaslight? did you watch the same game i did? they got ran off the field...
princeton lost something like 7 all american caliber players to the transfer portal. i would love to hear what they have to say about what you think is "fair"
Understand the sentiment on this topic and in theory it’s correct…however what many forget is that in the modern game, it’s really not debatable that the shorties are THE best athletes on the field and they are better athletes than attackmen and close defenders…some exceptions, but by rule…the best athletes…
While all offenses continue to scheme and try at attack the shorties, they are not the easiest matchups in many cases…
I’ve talked to a number of players over the last few years…D1 offensive players and most say that while it’s nice to not face a guy with a long pole in his hand, they follow that up by saying that many times they prefer attacking the close defender because modern day shorties are just crazy good athletes…
So while I agree you gotta beat the short stick matchup, I’d also add it’s not as easy as it looks
I’ve said it for years…when you have old, veteran, experienced Shorties…youre gonna be very good…and conversely you CAN NOT win with an average set of shorties
nyc hates Eurgwrs more than Quint lol. Loser comes here after every loss but never wins. B you know you’ve arrived when you have haters.
Boom tee times now lol. Muni guy
Boom tee times now lol. Muni guy
Yet went to the final four while you were blowing your boyfriend.
Typical loser. No where to be seen when the team wins. Rutgers in his head so bad. Imagine having zero affiliation with a school and running to a message board after they lose a game.
Clown.
Typical loser. No where to be seen when the team wins. Rutgers in his head so bad. Imagine having zero affiliation with a school and running to a message board after they lose a game.
Clown.
there is also the issue that most teams plan around attacking the shorties which puts the game in the hands of your least productive offensive players. There is no question that ssdm is the toughest job in lacrosse as every offensive player wants the short and game plans are devised around getting good SS match-ups. That being said I felt like we could have used the pick game better and Princeton kind of exposed the newness of our defense but it was good to see some of these kids working their way back into the line up as 2 of the 3 preseason injured guys played Saturday and that should help moving forward.
You nailed it @rufamily
Thank you for adding that point as it’s 100% correct.
Teams that run great offense always end up getting the matchups they want inside that 60 second window
Ball movement and an active two man screen game from all areas of the field can help shift matchups to get the ones you want…
PS. Hope you and your family are well!
I'll book my tee time after my session with NYCLax's wife.
Definitely agree on the.pick game. We didn’t use it nearly enough nor effective enough. Im sure the staff sees that too watching film.
Tough ask to have guys who haven’t played the entire season to be in mid form for Princeton. Hopefully they ramp up quick. Our best lacrosse is still ahead.
Gotta beat Umass
Then you got the B1G
IMO, you go 3-2 in the B1G reg season and we’re positioned well…
It’s not easy to get into the field…if you’re in it, you’ve earned it
It’s time to play your best lacrosse
Yeah, plenty of chances left for marquee wins, and the healthier the team is, the better of course.
They only have two losses, and one of them is against what is turning out to be an elite this year. All is not lost...
We certainly had our challenges on offense and unfortunately it was much as I feared coming off the Detroit Mercy game. We got our share of looks and did not finish. A lot of credit goes to the Princeton goalie as he played an outstanding game. However our shooters also made his job easier than it should have been. Shot selection has not been bad but we are not finishing the looks we are getting at a high enough rate. You get away with that against Hofstra and Detroit Mercy, but not Army and Princeton. We will need a much better effort against UMass or the results will be similar.
My biggest disappointment is with team defense. It was an issue last year with more experienced players and this year it is a much bigger issue. I just don’t understand our defensive philosophy. It seems as if we are almost afraid to slide and when we do we appear uncertain if we are sliding from adjacent or the crease. We end up with half slides where we’re not doubling the ball carrier but we are leaving the adjacent man open at the same time. Second and third slides are nonexistent. Unfortunately this is a much bigger problem to solve because it appears to be systemic. You can’t just roll a new guy out there and hope he plays better than the other guy. It is really hard to understand because it is so fundamental. A decent high school team knows when and how to slide.
We need to take a hard look at our defensive coaching because either we are implementing an awful defensive scheme or they are not coaching it properly. Either way, I can see that for the most part, it is not a total lack of talent. We have skilled defenders. They are just not playing well at all as a unit and I’m just not sure how that gets fixed at this point in the season.
My biggest disappointment is with team defense. It was an issue last year with more experienced players and this year it is a much bigger issue. I just don’t understand our defensive philosophy. It seems as if we are almost afraid to slide and when we do we appear uncertain if we are sliding from adjacent or the crease. We end up with half slides where we’re not doubling the ball carrier but we are leaving the adjacent man open at the same time. Second and third slides are nonexistent. Unfortunately this is a much bigger problem to solve because it appears to be systemic. You can’t just roll a new guy out there and hope he plays better than the other guy. It is really hard to understand because it is so fundamental. A decent high school team knows when and how to slide.
We need to take a hard look at our defensive coaching because either we are implementing an awful defensive scheme or they are not coaching it properly. Either way, I can see that for the most part, it is not a total lack of talent. We have skilled defenders. They are just not playing well at all as a unit and I’m just not sure how that gets fixed at this point in the season.
I’ll be surprised if he survives this offseason tbh
One thing being overlooked is the turnovers. We've been one of the best teams in the country not turning it over. I think we had 20 turnovers. I think we had 13 in the first half. You cannot give a team with the offensive talent that Princeton by just giving them the ball. That's a recipe to lose.
We played 3 guys who were slated to be starters who saw their first live action of the year. One at each level. That's a tough ask but you have to think the staff was throwing a little caution to the wind to get these guys up to speed as fast as possible.
We created a lot of offense for them with some poor slides but I think it was actually the offense that didn't pull the weight. We missed a lot of shots, which some weren't great but some their goalie just made some ridiculous saves on. He put a lid on it.
Umass is a must win. Then a new season starts.
We played 3 guys who were slated to be starters who saw their first live action of the year. One at each level. That's a tough ask but you have to think the staff was throwing a little caution to the wind to get these guys up to speed as fast as possible.
We created a lot of offense for them with some poor slides but I think it was actually the offense that didn't pull the weight. We missed a lot of shots, which some weren't great but some their goalie just made some ridiculous saves on. He put a lid on it.
Umass is a must win. Then a new season starts.
We often times seem to struggle with our clears. Many of the turnovers are long/high passes from the poles. Our mids seem to wait on the offensive side for the long pass. Conversely, we don't seem to put much pressure on the opponents clears. They seem to have mids simply running across the midfield with Ross or Dante in some limited pursuit. I'll let the lax guys answer........
Our clearing percentage has been very strong. Teams play some level of aggressiveness. At the height of Nascar teams were just giving up the clear basically. If they were going to get beat, it wasn't going to be by us revving our engines. Teams now are more aggressive on the ride because we haven't been running and gunning as much, mostly because we don't have the offensive talent at SSDM that we've had previously. Still our percentage is high for clears. Saturday wasn't our finest.
Really liking what I see from Stoller. His outlets are getting better and better each game. I don't want to put him in Kirst's class yet but we are seeing glimpses of those types of rainbow dimes.
Really liking what I see from Stoller. His outlets are getting better and better each game. I don't want to put him in Kirst's class yet but we are seeing glimpses of those types of rainbow dimes.
I've been to every home game. It's almost always an outlet to the side, to a pole. Our SSDM don't hang around for an outlet pass, they often cross midfield, forcing that long pass. I'd rather a guy like Hund carry the ball with an option to run or make an easier pass, then a pole running away from a quicker, harassing ATK. Lots of turnovers. Is there a strategy that I'm missing?
Kirst was awesome sending them downfield though
Hate to say this, but things would be different with Rizzotti at close D. He was HM All-Ivy at LSM his freshman year and could carry. Him carrying would open options for the SSDMs and the attack. And while he is not yet Kirst, I like what I see from Stoller on the long passes.
There aren't lots of turnovers. Saturday notwithstanding. I believe going into the Princeton game we were 2nd in the country in having the least amount of turnovers.
In the past we had guys like Kamish, Scarpello, Franckowiak, etc. who would breakout sometimes before the player they were covering even shot knowing the angle they were taking would have the ball gobbled up by Kirst or Edlemann. And once they got the ball it wasn't window dressing. They were as legit of a threat as any of the O midfielders. Get them in open space it's lights out.
We need to develop more offensive middies as d middies to get back to that level of running. The guys we get as transfers don't have as much of an offensive game because they come from systems where that isn't expected. Hund has the capability and so does Edwards who has been sitting out hurt unfortunately. I think we will see more of it as time goes on. By the time we made our Final Four run, guys knew where other guys were going to be before they even got there. They had played so much together and the talent on that team was off the charts at every level.
We won't soon see that level of lacrosse again in college. Sort of a perfect storm. Those FF teams were basically pro teams at that point.
College lacrosse this year is wide open. I won't be shocked if we beat any team on our schedule that is left. I also won't be shocked if we lose to any of them. That goes for teams across the college landscape. Look at Maryland who is arguably the best team in the country. The beat a winless Brown team in overtime. A team we played in the fall who we made look like a high school team.
Parity is here and it's not going away for the foreseeable future. You better bring your A game every weekend though or it's going to be an L or a squeaky win.
He was a huge loss. I said it when it happened but taking him off the team, along with our fastest SSDM and second best attackman severely changed how we were going to play. One of those guys you can absorb but that was a major hit at all three levels. I doubt any team in the country had to deal with losing that class of athletes.
If we can get out of the OOC portion of the schedule at 6-2 with the opportunities ahead, there is life. Team needs to get better and more consistent, fast though. I am expecting Kelly to be much more comfortable on Sat. specifically. They are all learning to play together again which is a tall task in the middle of a season. But possible.
Sure is. Army is very, very good. I really think they have the makings of a Final Four team. I also don't believe they will get there in undefeated fashion.
It was definitely a combo of both. We didn’t get off nearly enough shots and those we did were low quality or missed the cage too often. Defensively we let them get way too many easy looks. Almost 70% of their shots were on cage. Stoller kept it from getting even more out of hand with a respectable 52% save percentage all things considered.
The reality is that we dominated faceoffs 16-10, had more GBs, both teams had a 78% clearing percentage. We gave up 20 turnovers but we also turned them over 17 times. This is a rare example of the difference not being in the intangibles but simply that we were dominated 6v6 and in transition on both ends. They were able to create offense and put shots on cage and we were not. That was the difference and it was significant.
This sums it up. Army and Princeton exposed us offensively and defensively, 6v6 and in transition. While I wish I could say there is light at the end of the tunnel with a couple of the guys coming back I think we will need more pieces to be able to compete with Hopkins or Maryland and to claw for a bid.
It's all going to depend on how fast the team can gel. This was almost the team we had constructed. But having it and being who you were supposed to be are two separate things. Can they put it together? There is talent there. Brecht teams are almost always playing their best at the end of the season.
There are no super teams out there. Anyone can be beat.
There are no super teams out there. Anyone can be beat.
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Don’t quote me on this but I think in 2021 and 2022 RU led the nation in clearing %…so THE best in the nation…
Lots of that had to do with a great goalie that threw precise outlet passes knowing where guys were gonna be…but a lot of it had to do with the experience and age and ability of the rope personnel on those teams…as you noted, those guys were very very good…add in a close guy like Bobby Russo that was an excellent ball handler and run out guy and it was like we were playing with two LSM’s…advantage Rutgers…and the results showed…
Funny thing is clearing and turnovers was a phone conversation topic I had with a former RU SSDM about 3 weeks ago…he said they spent 30-40 minutes everyday at the end of practice on perfecting clearing…full field…said it was intense and it was expected that they clear at 100%…if they didn’t, they heard about it in heated fashion
Its a priority and it’s expected that you clear with a high level of success…
Those teams made it look easy…
Nothing worse in coaching than devising a good blueprint, watching it come to fruition in the preseason, then seeing it all come crashing down due to multiple injuries. Some things are out of your control. You just have to hope that the breaks eventually even themselves out, and generally speaking, they do.
If we can get by Umass and go on some kind of run I will consider this the staffs finest coaching job. We completely changed identity from the last scrimmage to the first game.
I also feel like we need more secondary scoring as we are not getting much from our 2nd middies and if we don't get more from them and the 3rd attack spot you will see teams continue to double pole the middies
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