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Post by bfoley82 on Feb 6, 2022 18:05:56 GMT -5
We have had success in thePL, the women and men have both exceeded the 500 threshold. The women in 1999 and not since prior coach Stephanie 2006-2014 (not in 2008) and the men twice in 2017 and 2019 both under prior coaches. The mens team has a challenging schedule, so patience, in what is the first full season of competition, is required. Next up is Syracuse - a top 10 team and then a game at Michigan. The first 5 PL games are against all fully funded schools with 3 of those in the top 15 and the other 2 in the top 25. That is ranking in the country — competition that no other HC program faces. PC is fully funded. So the initial 8 of 9 games are against fully funded programs. They may not get a W until 2/27 v. Merrimack and then not agin until 4/9 against Lafayette. Be patient. goholycross.com/documents/2021/12/13//All_Time_Results_2021.pdf?id=7314goholycross.com/documents/2020/7/22//All_Time_Results.pdf?id=6862Merrimack might be fully funded...Even if they aren't they are more funded than Holy Cross with their multiple national championships in the sport. Merrimack lost 8-7 to Hofstra yesterday so they might be better right now when compared to HC. |
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Post by JRGNYR on Feb 6, 2022 19:32:04 GMT -5
Totally agree - BUT, what they should be preparing is a comprehensive preseason article on the team and not just the flimsy ‘5 things to know’ that they’ve done for other sports (which contains info many of us already know) For the most part, a lot of schools have moved away from the long preseason articles and the newspaper style recaps in favor of bulletpoints because it's quick and easily digestible. The other formats were a lot of work for little to no ROI. In short, people aren't reading long previews and recaps anymore. You can disagree with it, but it's the way things have moved for a few years now. |
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Post by Crucis#1 on Feb 6, 2022 21:57:53 GMT -5
Blame Powerpoint.
The Bullet point has been the means of communicating in businesses narratives to leadership for over 30 years. Guess most have a short attention span and have never read War and Peace.
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Post by bfoley82 on Feb 6, 2022 22:29:21 GMT -5
Totally agree - BUT, what they should be preparing is a comprehensive preseason article on the team and not just the flimsy ‘5 things to know’ that they’ve done for other sports (which contains info many of us already know) For the most part, a lot of schools have moved away from the long preseason articles and the newspaper style recaps in favor of bulletpoints because it's quick and easily digestible. The other formats were a lot of work for little to no ROI. In short, people aren't reading long previews and recaps anymore. You can disagree with it, but it's the way things have moved for a few years now. This x 1000. This one video from UVM Women's Hockey brought in over 400k views. I doubt a recap on that game would ever see those types of numbers, What would you rather read or see the emotion on the win? |
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Post by HC92 on Feb 7, 2022 5:26:29 GMT -5
A couple of thoughts: 1) Seventeen Fidgety Conferences while the PL membership is carved in stone. I'll take the latter. 2) Eye opening to read that UNH has no men's lacrosse but that doesn't stop Mr. Foley from putting down HC's team. That man could slap an insult on a galloping horse as it sped by without losing his balance. 😊 I am the only one here to bring up the Holy Cross got smoked last night by Providence a team people on this board was ripe to beaten. It was a 9:30 game. At 11:24, PC posted the final score. At 11:25, you posted that link with the caption “SMOKED”. You act like you waited three days and just had to post the score with the nasty caption because all of us sycophants here refused. We only need the score posted once and you managed to get it up 60 seconds after PC did on its official Twitter feed. You also say you felt compelled to do so because “people on this board was ripe to be beaten.” I don’t think anyone here needs to be beaten and one person here made one post saying HC had a chance due to PC’s loss of a lot of players. Thank God you’re here to stop the mass spread of misinformation about HC’s chances of success in men’s lax games. |
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Post by sader1970 on Feb 7, 2022 5:58:16 GMT -5
To 92 and most other Crossporters, as I have posted before, years ago I found Foley to be a legitimate alternative perspective to many of us who wear purple tinted glasses.
Some time back, perhaps a year or two ago, maybe slightly longer, he ceased having that perspective and instead went out of his way to look for negative things to say about Holy Cross, real or imagined.
I would be hard pressed to say that in any case that he has been factually wrong but clearly his approach to Holy Cross is consistently negative.
I have found his posts to no longer just be a dissenting voice but rather to tear down Holy Cross and do his best to irritate other members here.
If he was posting consistent falsehoods about alma mater, I would suggest that he be banned.
That’s not the case as I see it. And, this is an open forum for people to express their opinions.
The best course of action as I see it, and I have done, is to simply add him to your “ignore” list. The only way you will see his purposeful posts is if someone else quotes him.
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Post by rgs318 on Feb 7, 2022 7:42:13 GMT -5
sader1970, Thank you for this very useful reminder.  |
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Post by JRGNYR on Feb 7, 2022 8:30:08 GMT -5
Blame Powerpoint. The Bullet point has been the means of communicating in businesses narratives to leadership for over 30 years. Guess most have a short attention span and have never read War and Peace. It becomes a decision between "keep doing what you're doing with diminishing results" or "get on the train and embrace it like everybody else." There's a lot of talk on this board at various times where people wish that HC's athletic office "got with the times." In this case they have and some people still don't like it.  The bulletpoint presentation serves a few purposes beyond what we've already spoken about. It's also easier for TV/digital talent and production to consume with their prep. It's a more efficient use of time for the SID who's creating the content in the first place. That then frees them up to work on other content or projects. And yes, those shorter bursts are more social media friendly which is a big driver for communications in general, not just in college athletics. SIDs don't like doing a lot of work that isn't going to get read, and it's honestly not fair to the time and effort they put in to ask them to create content that most people won't consume. I've worked on countless multi-page conference weekly releases that I knew were never going to be read cover to cover by the majority of people. As some of the old guard has moved on from the industry and a few more forward-thinking people have assumed leadership roles, they've understood that to "know your audience" requires recognition of the preferred method of content consumption, especially when it comes to recaps and game results. |
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Post by WheelerOnly on Feb 9, 2022 9:47:12 GMT -5
Disappointing outcome Sat night in Smithfield. Hard to know exactly what went wrong without being able to watch the game, but a couple observations from the stats:
Good:
Shots: HC took more shots (48) than PC (43).
Faceoffs: DePierro won 20 of 28 faceoffs (71%). He picked up 6 gbs, which means that the HC wings also did a nice job scooping up 14 gbs (stat for FO violations isn’t posted, so some of those 14 wins might not have resulted in gbs).
HC picked up more ground balls (29) than PC (28).
These stats above would tell you that HC should have been in good position to win the game. But the bad stats, below, were their undoing.
Bad:
Turnovers. 20 turnovers is bad. Hard to finish a game with fewer than 10, but 15 should be your upper limit on a bad day. PC had 13 TOs. So, HC gave them a considerable number of free possessions as a result of sloppy play on the offensive end (only 3 of the TOs were failed clears).
Efficiency:
PC had 39 possessions in their offensive end, put a shot on goal in 29 of those possessions, and scored on 16 of them (41% efficiency).
HC had 38 offensive possessions, managed to put 26 shots on goal, and only scored 9 times (24% efficiency).
I consider 33% efficiency to be a reasonable benchmark both for an offense and a defense. Good teams average above that and teams that struggle average below that. If your offense and defense can both be around 33%, you put yourself in a good position to win games.
Unknowns:
Shooting and goal keeping. 17 saves for PC’s goalie is impressive. 50% saves is a good benchmark for a goalie. PC’s keeper was at 71%. HC played a different goalie each half; 1st half 52%, 2nd half 25%. Not clear if PC’s goalie was making outstanding saves (lowering HC’s efficiency) or HC was taking bad shots that were easy for him to save. The 22 shots that missed the cage suggest maybe it was the later. Also not clear if HC’s goalies were struggling or HC’s defense was allowing PC too many good shooting opportunities.
Summary:
HC had a potentially huge possession advantage (+12) as a result of DePierro’s dominance at faceoffs. If you assume 33% efficiency, that should have translated into a + 4 goal advantage for the game. But HC squandered that advantage by turning the ball over so much (more saves by PC’s goalie also convert into PC possessions).
Both teams ended up with essentially the same number of possessions. But PC converted its possessions into goals (41%) at a much better rate than HC (24%).
Conclusion: HC has work to do on both ends of the field.
Syracuse will likely be better than PC.
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Post by purplehaze on Feb 9, 2022 10:26:22 GMT -5
Can you comment on the goalie position ? Fox played well for much of last season but I see he only played the 2nd half on Saturday - will the coach continue to split the time in these Feb games ?
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Post by sader1970 on Feb 9, 2022 11:04:50 GMT -5
Very impressive analysis, Wheeler. I assume you played LAX and/or coached?
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Post by WheelerOnly on Feb 9, 2022 13:06:03 GMT -5
I agree that Fox did very well in goal last year. Friers must have been playing well in the fall/winter. Teams will occasionally split goalie time, but it’s rare.
Some highlights from the PC game popped up on YouTube:
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Post by sader1970 on Feb 9, 2022 15:36:18 GMT -5
Very, very impressed that these highlights weren't the usual "our team was great, so we don't need to show you how the other team did."
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Post by bfoley82 on Feb 9, 2022 15:47:39 GMT -5
Very, very impressed that these highlights weren't the usual "our team was great, so we don't need to show you how the other team did." They were done by The Lacrosse Network. Not Providence or Holy Cross |
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Post by WheelerOnly on Feb 9, 2022 18:56:15 GMT -5
Also notable that 11 of PC’s goals came from the midfield, only 5 from attack. In terms of defensive improvement, those stats might help shine a light on the area needing most attention.
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Post by purplehaze on Feb 12, 2022 9:25:11 GMT -5
Game 2 is at No.4 Syracuse today at 12:30 and it’s televised on the Big Ten Network - it’s their opener and it will be a tough atmosphere inside the Dome - this matchup is akin to our bball team playing at Duke
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Post by alum on Feb 12, 2022 9:30:53 GMT -5
Game 2 is at No.4 Syracuse today at 12:30 and it’s televised on the Big Ten Network - it’s their opener and it will be a tough atmosphere inside the Dome - this matchup is akin to our bball team playing at Duke If our face off guy has another great game, Cuse will probably steal him like they did with Ben Williams.😬 |
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Post by bison137 on Feb 12, 2022 11:48:49 GMT -5
Game 2 is at No.4 Syracuse today at 12:30 and it’s televised on the Big Ten Network - it’s their opener and it will be a tough atmosphere inside the Dome - this matchup is akin to our bball team playing at Duke I doubt it will be a tough environment. In the games where Syracuse opened with Colgate, pre-Covid, they averaged 2400 fans in the Dome. |
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Post by alum on Feb 12, 2022 12:45:18 GMT -5
Down 5-0 in less than 7 minutes. Not looking good.
now 7-0.
going to watch Loyola and Maryland instead
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Post by hchoops on Feb 12, 2022 12:56:19 GMT -5
Game 2 is at No.4 Syracuse today at 12:30 and it’s televised on the Big Ten Network - i On the ACC network Down 8-0 Toward the end of the 1st period |
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Post by purplehaze on Feb 12, 2022 13:12:19 GMT -5
Scheduling this game as Gary Gait’s coaching debut with the ‘Cuse might not have been a good idea - maybe there’s a small check for us for gas money
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Post by hchoops on Feb 12, 2022 13:14:01 GMT -5
No shutout
13-2
9:02 left in the second
2nd goal by Lambert
Wow
Did that announcer just butcher “Worcester” !
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Post by hchoops on Feb 12, 2022 13:29:14 GMT -5
Getting very ugly
19-2
Under 3 minutes left in the second
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Feb 12, 2022 14:20:46 GMT -5
I know we aren't very good and this program seems to be rudderless, but when was the last time we lost by 20+?
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Post by purplehaze on Feb 12, 2022 14:59:37 GMT -5
Next up, Michigan - fully funded Big Ten program - interesting scheduling by Reppert
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