MLL Draft

[hoya4ever]

The draft was on Wednesday 31st, and some of our guys were drafted. Defenseman Reyn Garnett and middie Dave Paolisso were chosen by the NJ Pride (Scott Urick, Andry Corno, and Walid Hajj are current members), while middie Pete Cannon was chosen by the Philadelphia Barrage.

Also, Brice Queener, who graduated last year, joined the Rochester Rattlers. Brodie Merrill was traded to the Rattlers by the Baltimore Bayhawks this year.

majorleaguelacrosse.com/events/collegiate/

[nychoya3]

So that answers my previous question about Reyn - he's done. Sorry to hear it, but I was pretty sure he had played four years of lacrosse.

Additionally, the latest buzz is that we will only be getting one Duke recruit, since they reinstated their program. It looks like only Scott Kocis from Huntington in LI is joining up, but on the plus side he's (by at least some accounts) the best recruit in the nation. With him and the kid from GTown Prep coming in, we should get some more offense from our middies than we were able to muster this past season.

I spent a bored hour in an airport recently reading Inside Lacrosse magazine, which further confirmed my suspicion that Brodie Merrill is a lacrosse god. The way people drool over him is jsut embarrassing.

[hoya4ever]

Reyn is one of the best players I have ever seen. Anyone with his injuries wouldn't even have played four years in college. Dude was dedicated.

How do you think the middie situation is going to look next year? Pete Cannon was good, really good. Even on his off days his presence used to anquer (sp?) the team. I wonder who is going to step up in his place. I was surprised to hear just this year that he was a middie. I always thought he was in attack because of his offense. Hopefully some of the guys step up.

On Merrill, I'm from Baltimore and I was so happy that I could finally cheer on a team that I had a reason to care about. They traded Brodie, and that was their decision, but I wonder if they aren't going to suffer a lot because of it.

[nychoya3]

Frankly, Pete Cannon didn't have a great year. He struggled with his shooting. You're not confusing him with his brother Brendan Cannon, are you? Brendan is an attack and our best offensive player by leaps and bounds. He'll be just junior next year, and a probable first team AA.

I want some shooters and finishers on offense the way that UVa had. When those guys ripped it from 12 yards out, it was a high percentage shot. I didn't seem like it for us sometimes. We have a bunch of HUGE guys at middie - Kahoe is 6'4'', Wilson is 6'4'', D'Agnes is 6'2'' and built like a tank - but can they shoot it? Not so clear. Paolisso was the only midfielder who really showed up offensively this past season, and he came out of nowhere to do it. So, now we add two huge freshman at midfield who will likely be top 10 players in the IL recruiting issue. Can we get some production? We have some guys on attack who I like - Cannon (obviously), Baird, Casey, McBride, Samperton all had their moments.

Our shooting can be so lousy sometimes that I wonder if it's the offense. I don't know enough about the strategy of the game to say for sure, but I do know what UVa was doing looked a whole lot different than we do. That's surely partly due to their amazing skill level, but is that it?

[hoya4ever]

I know BC was in attack, but I also know that when in trouble Pete was the other choice, the person they seemed to go to, time after time. I do agree with you on everything else, though. He didn't have the year he coulda had. On offensive middie, yeah those guys are huge, and i'll be the first to say that although I think they are athletic and well built, the defense could be a better suit for them. I have high hopes for Wilson, and as far as Kahoe and D'Agnes go, and I think this has been mentioned in some other threat, they need to build up lax skills to match their athleticism. Matt McBride (did he walk on his freshman year?) should become a bigger threat and I'm looking forward to that so much that I'm getting giddy. Also, there is Ryan Still, who will start unless there is some vast improvement from the underclassmen, and I don't know how much of an offense, if any, he can generate. Potential is what this team has, I just don't know what it will take to flip the switch.

To tell you the truth, watching the UVA game I felt like we were a bunch of middle schoolers taking on a college team. They have taken it to such a level that you just really have to go 'wow' and watch them play. I mean besides skill they are also huge, physically. The smallest guy on the team is 5-9 and thats Morrissey who by the way kicked butt this season up and down the field. The rest of the 39 person team (we have 50 which is huge) has 28 players at 6 foot and over. Does this affect the game like it would if it were football? I think it does if you are trying to check someone and they just run all over you. They also seem quick and we are graduating some of our quickest runners this year.

The past two years I have seen more hoya lax practises than a non player oughta. I have also seen Maryland practice as well as Hopkins. We do the same warm ups, same drills, but we don't have have the same kind of energy, urgency, as those other teams. Amazingly, this was true for hopkins last year, the year they won the championship. This year we seemed very much alike with them and we finished in the same place. Maryland has this energy and lets face it, they kicked our butts first game. Is this what we are missing? If there is a way we could get it then I hope so. The bigger question, I guess, is why do we not have it, and I wish I knew the answer.