I’ve been a little lax in updating the blog (pun 100% intended) and for that I apologize. I’ve been a bit busy but I’m going to try and do better, at least until the workload lightens up around the beginning of May. After that I should, in theory, be able to do more updates depending on what news might be out there.
The Minutemen lacrosse team has had three games since last I wrote a recap, and they are 1-2 in those contests. They picked up consecutive losses to Brown and Albany, and then defeated UNC, showing the true Jekyll and Hyde nature of the 2016 Gorillas.
The first of these three games was in Providence against Brown, the annual match up in what is New England’s oldest lacrosse rivalry. In many years the battle between the Bears and the Minutemen is a closely contested, physical affair, but this year the then #7 (now #5) Bears completely dominated the Gorillas in every aspect, leading to a 15-7 win.
And you may or may not believe it, but the game wasn’t even that close. It was 9-1 Brown at the half, 12-2 after the 3rd, and the Minutemen only made the score halfway respectable once Brown had started to cycle in some of the backups in the 4th quarter.
Now full disclosure I did not see this game. It was a road game with no free online stream, and the Ivy League apparently is hard up for cash because they charge you $9.95 for a day pass for one school on their digital network. If there was one intercollegiate athletic league in the nation that definitely didn’t need the extra cash it’s probably the Ivy League, so forgive me if I won’t pay ten bucks to watch a two hour game, even if it does involve the Minutemen. Get over yourselves Ivy League, seriously.
I did follow along with the stat tracker online and I can say watching that, this was a case of both the Bears being a legitimate NCAA title contender but also the Minutemen not coming through in the same areas that have plagued them this season, the face off X and the man-up.
Brown won 18 of 25 faceoffs in this game. My quick, calculator-app-assisted math says that’s a 72% success rate. UMass is not going to come out on the right side of the ledger too many times if they’re getting beat on essentially three out of four faceoffs every game.
They were also 2 of 7 on the man-up. Not good enough. You need to cash in on your man-up chances in this game. If you don’t you’ll regret it once the final horn sounds. Ironically the Minutemen were perfect killing man-ups against Brown, as the Bears went 0-8. That’s great to see as a UMass fan, though it also means that the Bears scored 15 even-up goals, which isn’t outstanding.
Brown is a great team that should make a deep run in the NCAA tournament this year. They were and are without question the better team when stacked up against UMass. That notwithstanding, they are not unbeatable but the Minutemen made them look like it when they played. UMass had a great chance to really gain some momentum and get themselves in the national conversation if they went down to Providence and came out with a win, but they were not ready to play and suffered greatly for it.
You can find the box score from the game here, and also, make sure you check out these great photos from Andy Heller, a good UMass man who trekked to Providence to test out his new lens:
After the loss at Brown, the Minutemen had a chance for a quick turnaround with a Tuesday game hosting then #15 (now #11) Albany Great Danes.
The Great Danes have been in the national conversation ever since the Thompson brothers came to Albany and started setting records, and they’ve continued with that momentum even with Lyle’s departure.
I saw this game in person in Amherst, although towards the end I’ll admit I almost wished I didn’t. It was another very disappointing effort from the Gorillas as they were beaten in nearly all aspects leading to a 16-4 defeat.
Now the one issue I consistently bring up is face off play, and in this game, per the official box score, UMass actually won the faceoff battle with 15 of 23 wins. I’ll be honest, when watching the game live it did not seem like the Minutemen won that many draws. Now the Gorillas did have better possession and shot numbers in this game, and Albany’s goalie Blaze Riordan had a very good game himself, but they didn’t seem like they won 2/3rds of the draws.
Albany’s offense had a great deal of movement and creativity about it, which made it very difficult for the Minutemen to deal with. UMass had a couple of bad defensive games in a row, and it raised some serious concerns about their ability to hang with the top teams on a consistent basis.
The Gorillas went only 1-4 on the man-up against the Great Danes, and Albany cashed in on 4 of 6 of their man-up opportunities. The eye test in this game was the biggest thing, and the Minutemen clearly came up short.
After the games against Brown and Albany, there some legitimate concerns about where the Minutemen’s season was headed. They were run off the field in both matchups and their schedule was not getting any easier. At the time Laxpower had the Minutemen’s strength of schedule as #1 in the entire country (currently it sits at #3), and the Minutemen were hosting then #10 (now #17) North Carolina.
UNC hadn’t come to Garber since 1977, and it was one of the two marquee home matchups of the 2016 season along with Ohio State. Aside from the obvious implications for both teams’ seasons that would be at stake, UMass also debuted new uniforms for the game from adidas:
Whether it was the new threads, the big crowd, or the perfect weather, the Gorillas came out firing like the Minutemen teams we’re used to seeing, jumping out to a very early lead and never looking back.
UMass didn’t run away with the game, but they were in control pretty much from the word ‘go’, and they handed a loss to the Tar Heels by a score of 14-9.
I was in attendance for this one as well and it was night and day from the previous two matchups. The Minutemen were hungry in this game, ready to play, and it showed right away. Their defense was aggressive and had good timing, their offense was clicking (aside from the man-up) with contributions from all over the lineup, and they got a career performance in the cage from goalie Dan Dolan.
Dolan was outstanding, and should have cemented himself as the full-game starter going forward. The Minutemen had been splitting the duties, with Dolan and DJ Smith each playing a half in all the previous games. The old adage is “if you have two starting goaltenders you have none” and that was very true in UMass’ case here. It simply was not working, and it will be a benefit to the Minutemen’s season going forward that they have their guy who they can play in front of all game.
Dolan made all the saves he should have made, some tough, timely stops, and a couple of saves that he had no business making. That’s a successful formula to upset a ranked opponent at home.
Now two of the Minutemen’s traditional problems reared their heads in this one, with the Minutemen going 0-for-5 on the man-up and winning only 8 of 25 draws. Now in this game their defense and goaltender played so well that they overcame the faceoff issue, but that won’t happen every time. (UNC box score here).
There isn’t a totally consistent pattern when it comes to the face off issue, but there is a trend, and it also really emphasizes the Minutemen’s Jekyll and Hyde nature. These McEwen Faceoff Ratings from Inside Lacrosse are great (the link goes to Week 5) as they show every major FOGO in the nation and their efficiency at the X. UMass’ Noah Rak is listed towards the bottom of the list, and you can see how he stacks up versus the rest of D1. To be fair Rak is not the only FOGO UMass uses, they generally have three different players taking draws in-game, but Rak does take the most.
I don’t want to pile on Rak because I think he’s done a decent job, but the fact of the matter is the Minutemen need to be better at the X in order to be more successful. In the pro game faceoffs matter but because there is a 60-second shot clock, possession will change no matter what. In the NCAA a stall clock can only be put on by the referees, and that’s generally only after one team has had possession for a LONG time. Faceoffs help teams in college control the pace and clock, much like an effective running game in football. If your ground game is, generally speaking, worse than your opponent’s, it’s tough to win games.
While that is an issue, UMass did overcome it against UNC, and their offense was more dynamic than I’d seen it all season long. The ball movement was better, the cuts were better, the shot selection was better; it was the type of performance you hope they can duplicate every week going forward.
The feel good story of the game was from Freshman midfielder Tyler Bogart, who earlier in the week had lost his uncle to cancer. Bogart had not made a huge impact on the season before the UNC game, but he broke out for a hat trick against the Tar Heels, which not only helped honor the memory of his uncle, it earned him a CAA award as well:
If the Minutemen can get the kinds of contributions they got up and down the lineup against the Tar Heels all the time, they might just get themselves back in the national rankings.
I liked the new unis the team wore, the newest offering from adidas, although they had the old, generic numbers that the football team’s previous uniforms had prior to the redesign this season. UMass has its own font, and that was a big deal for the newest uniform set across all the sports this season, particularly football. The Gorillas more traditional unis that were rolled out new this season had that font and the outline of Massachusetts above the nameplate space but these high-tech adidas ones do not. Not a fan of that, would like to see it fixed if at all possible, but that’s unlikely this season. Maybe next.
UMass has to capitalize on their momentum as they go in to face #20 Penn State on the road today. PSU is an old ECAC/CAA rival, and they are a good team with solid depth. UMass has gotten themselves back in the “Receiving Votes” section of the latest national poll, so if they can beat another ranked team on the road this week they could absolutely be in the conversation for #20 themselves, even at 4-4.
The Gorillas need to improve at the X and on the man-up before their CAA schedule starts, because their conference slate is always grueling, even more so this year with a couple of top-15 teams in Hofstra and Towson waiting for them.
There’s no live stream, but you can follow along with the live stats on the UMass Athletics website and/or listen to the broadcast on the radio streaming online:
I encourage you to do so, and hopefully we’ll see the Minutemen beat Penn State and get themselves back in the rankings where they belong.
Go U.
Fire The Musket 