Games Within the Game, Hopkins-Duke
A few things to maybe keep an eye on for the Hopkins-Duke semifinal...
1. Duke MF Ned Crotty vs. Johns Hopkins LSM Matt Drenan.
Crotty won the matchup in the regular season: He scored three goals in the first half, all on roughly the same move. He went behind the goal and then used a quick change of direction--QCD in coaching parlance--to get past Drenan and score on a close shot.
Drenan was the team's best defender in 2006 but missed last year with a knee injury. Since the Duke game he stopped wearing his bulky knee brace--he now wears a sleeve on his knee--and at times has looked as good as he did in 2006.
But Crotty's signature QCD move gives a lot of longstick defenders problems. (He scored twice against UVa's Mike Timms on the same move as against Drenan.)
See how Hopkins reacts when Crotty goes behind the goal. My best guess is the first time, Drenan will defend it one-on-one. A Crotty goal or Drenan stop will signal a huge early momentum swing.
2. Duke's Pressure Defense
The Blue Devils's longsticks--Tony McDevitt (#44), Parker McKee (#35), Mike Manley (#37) and Nick O'Hara (#77)--pressure the ball all over the field.
It's a relative rarity in lacrosse. Syracuse has used similar tactics in the past when it had athletic longsticks like Ric Beardsley.
Duke likes the pressure because it makes its transition game work. Don't forget that Duke scored only five goals in six-on-six in its 17-6 win over Hopkins on April 5. The rest came on EMO (4), transition (5), off failed clears (1) and unsettled (2).
All this means the Hopkins ball carriers--usually Steven Boyle, Paul Rabil, Stephen Peyser, Michael Kimmel and Mark Bryan--will have to be alert at all times. They may not get a moment's peace on Saturday. If Duke is checking the ball out of sticks of attackmen before the midfielders have subbed into the game, that's a very bad sign.
The upshot to this is that if a Hopkins player can get past his defender, he will get a good shot. People who want to see Hopkins play up-tempo on offense may get their wish on Saturday. I can't see any way around it.
3. Zack Greer
Is Greer one-handed? Yep. Just like the Gait brothers and many other Canadian players. But also like them, Greer is a good enough shooter that he doesn't need an off-hand.
The key is taking away his chances to get the ball on his left, because once its there, it's almost always a goal. Hopkins fifth-year senior D Eric Zerrlaut held Greer in check in the title game last year--Greer went 0 for 6--in part by playing good position defense.
But he got help from D Michael Evans on Matt Danowski. So this is a vital two-on-two game.
Cornell made a big mistake in the final seconds of the semifinals last year. It not only put a shortstick on Greer, the shortstick then defended Greer's right-hand, not his dominant left hand.
Small mistakes, certainly, and Greer made the Big Red pay when he scored the winning goal. But he was unlocked by a pass--a perfect one, from Peter Lamade. The old basketball saying about point guards and big men applies here. Got to cut off the supply to stop Greer.
By Christian Swezey |
May 22, 2008; 10:49 AM ET
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Posted by: Hawks | May 22, 2008 12:12 PM
Christian - That's a really great analysis. Thanks! It will be very helpful in watching the game. How about one for UVA-Syracuse?
You mentioned in a previous blog about how to beat a zone. I have seen most of the UVA games this year, and they have been beaten by a guy coming around the goal on the off-side and getting the pass right in front of the goal, on several occasions. However, the defense has played much better in the UMBC and Maryland games.
Posted by: Eliot | May 22, 2008 1:10 PM
Nice analysis my friend. Looking foward to the games. Hope all is well.
Posted by: Lou | May 22, 2008 4:22 PM
Great stuff, Christian. I'm psyched about the game now.
I wonder if JHU will slow it down _after_ the initial barrage, though. It'd be tough to run with Duke.
Posted by: Incredulous | May 22, 2008 6:12 PM
Great post. Can't see anyone slowing down Duke, but who knows? It's tough for Hopkins, though, because their guys have only played a few years of college ball, as opposed to the fourteen or so years of college experience that most of Duke's players have.
Posted by: UVASTAN | May 23, 2008 11:54 AM
UVASTAN - there are 5 players on Duke who are using an extra year of eligibility and one other, Lamade, using his extra year at your school UVA.
Seems a bit hypocritical for a UVA fan to complain about the 5th year guys at Duke.
Consider your gifts of Lamade and Clausen before you post such negative stuff.
Posted by: seyff45 | May 23, 2008 12:05 PM
Eric Zerrlaut is not a 5th year senior. He is a graduate student who did not see any action in 2004 due to injury. His situation is very different from the Duke 5th year students who actually played 8 games in '06 and had an additional year of eligibility granted to them by the NCAA.
Posted by: rebogamy | May 23, 2008 1:30 PM
To Rebogamy--
Zerrlaut was on the team in 2004. He still is on the team. So he's in his fifth year. I am sorry that the term "fifth-year senior" seems to have taken on a negative connotation these days.
In a lot of ways, it should be a mark of honor; most of the time it signals a player who came back from injury (as Zerrlaut did and several of the Syracuse guys did, too) and have done so well enough to be important to their teams.
Esp. since lacrosse does not do the haphazard mass redshirting of freshmen classes found in other sports. At least not yet.
Posted by: Christian | May 24, 2008 7:23 AM
come on seyff45, get real. I'll trade my one fifth year starter for your 5. it's a total crock that these guys are playing and at all - for duke or any team - and everyone knows it. i have never heard a single convincing argument to the contrary. that being said, the fact that uva brought in an eligible player simply means that Starsia's doing his job. it's the ncaa's backflips for duke and only duke that have me riled up.
Posted by: UVASTAN | May 24, 2008 8:09 AM
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Great writeup, definetly going to be watching those matchups. In our scouting reports we have quick COD not QCD. It's going to be fun to see how Rabil and Peyser come out against Duke. Ohio State couldn't even slow Duke down Sunday, I hope Hop comes out fired up.