The LacroCity Weekend Primer, 2/19/21
I have zero shame, thanks for asking.
Welcome, subscribers and thank you for allowing entry to your inbox. This is the debut of a new feature where I attempt to make your life a little bit more comfortable and exciting by offering up [mostly] lacrosse-related musings to get you ready for the weekend. As always, thank you for signing up for LacroCity. If you are in a position to help me out, please consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Stat of the Week
Ryan Tierney has played in one game for Hofstra and has more goals than the following teams: Delaware, St. Joseph’s, Richmond, and Air Force. Tierney is not talked about with the same reverence as players like Chris Gray or Michael Sowers - even Asher Nolting is getting more column space. But RT is the real deal. He gets his hands free by creating his own shot in a multitude of ways. However, his greatest asset is his game sense. If you were drawing up a play to get him the ball at the end of a game - in any sport - and that play went wrong, he would still find a way to get the ball. That’s the kind of player that you want to watch. Tierney and the Pride are scheduled to play Sacred Heart this Saturday, which promises to be another opportunity for Tierney to put up double-digit points. Again.
Game to Watch
Lenoir Rhyne vs. Belmont Abbey
DII is a tough division to get into if you’re a new fan or not connected to a team. Even in DIII it’s easier to pick one of the top 10 teams and get really invested in their seasons because they’re covered by local and national media with more voracity and attention than most - if not all - DII teams. So, you’re forgiven if you’re looking at this matchup and going “I have no idea who those teams are, they sound like two boring landmarks in France and England. Why would I watch that game?”
These are two Top-10 teams looking to make noise on the national scene by getting to a DII title game.
Despite that, Belmont Abbey has already been upset in a big way by Catawba and LRU struggled to handle a very game North Greenville team last weekend.
This is very much a loser leaves town match, except the town is the NCAA Championship.
Both teams have legitimate superstars on offense - for Lenoir Rhyne it’s attackman Eric Dickinson (who has not played yet in 2021, but led the team with 38 points in 7 games in 2020 and is on the active roster). For Belmont Abbey, it’s sophomore attackman Noah Haas, who had a hat trick in the loss to Catawba. Will Dickinson make his 2021 debut? Will Haas lead the Crusaders to their first victory? Watch the stream to find out at 2:00 pm, EST this Saturday.
Matchup to Watch
Austin Deskewicz, Stony Brook vs. Nathan Laliberte, Bryant
It’s a FOGO battle the likes of which no one else will write about, which is why you subscribe to this newsletter! Right?
Last week Deskewicz went 12-13 against Sacred Heart with 7gbs. Last year, as a sophomore, Deskewicz played in four games and won just 48.5% of his draws, splitting time with Renz Conlon - who also had a good day against Sacred Heart, winning 9 of his 14 attempts.
Laliberte, who is a freshman in addition to being the pride of the Shire at the face-off X, went 12-17 for Bryant in their OT win against Providence and had just one turnover to go with his 7 groundballs. Laliberte has been committed to the Bulldogs for what seems like forever and was an absolute force at Pinkerton winning almost 90% of his face-offs on the not-so-mean fields of Derry.
The latter will have to have a big day against the former, as the Stony Brook offense looked great last week and the Bryant offense struggled to do anything but collect shot clock violations.
Unit to Watch
Virginia Defense vs. Loyola
I...need to rename this segment. The Cavs lead the NCAA in caused turnovers per game with 12.5, 25 total, in two games played so far. Like many stats, this will likely vacillate wildly, but for the moment let’s pursue the throughline that the Virginia ride and aggressive slide-or-die attitude holds against a Loyola offense that looked like a class of toddlers that were sent out to the playground after eating their weight in paste for most of their game against Richmond. And then Kevin Lindley scored three goals including the game-winner in overtime, which was recapped by the funniest tweet Dan Aburn has ever posted in his life:
Devitte Matrix Leaderboard
A week ago I proposed a way to make turnovers more relevant in the complex equation that we use to determine which players are great. All you have to do is subtract a player’s turnovers from their point total to get your Devitte Matrix rating. Even though it’s clearly not a matrix by any means, Zack Capozzi at Lacrosse Reference decided to track this number anyway. These are your DM leaders heading into this weekend:
Chris Gray, UNC, 19 (6.33DM per game)
Kevin Rogers, High Point, 10 (5DM per game)
Connor Shellenberger, UVA, 9 (4.5DM per game)
Jacob Kelly, UNC, 9 (3DM per game)
Ethan Walker, Denver, 9 (2.25 per game)
*The aforementioned Ryan Tierney is second in the nation in DM per game with 6, but that comes with a price - he had 8 goals and 3 assists in his first game, but also had 5 turnovers.
Is Clark University going to win this week?
It’s been over a year since my beloved Cougars were able to call themselves winners after going 0-6 in the 2020 pando. They play Western New England University this weekend, whose signature win was an upset victory over Wesleyan last year. So. No. Unfortunately, Clark won’t win this week.