Our #1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s lacrosse (13-1) faces the #8 Georgetown Hoyas (13-3) on Saturday at noon (ESPNU).  The Irish look to avenge the only blemish on their 2024 record and advance to the Final Four in Philadelphia.

As of this writing, pleasant conditions are forecast for the game.

Georgetown Update

Since their February 25 overtime win over the Irish, the Big East champion Hoyas have gone 11-1 and are on a 5 game win streak. Wins over #19 Richmond (14-8) and then #9 Penn State (12-9) last week highlight their season. Their only loss during this period came at #7 Denver (8-10). Their Big East tournament success involved overtime wins over both Providence (14-13) and Villanova (11-10).

The Irish will be reminded of two freshmen discoveries on the Georgetown roster that they will need to plan for carefully.  Defender Ty Banks became part of the top freshman defender conversation (along with our Shawn Lyght) as a direct result of his coverage of Pat Kavanagh in February.  Banks’ solid performances have continued since, and he leads his team in caused turnovers with 23. Freshman goalie Anderson Moore was already known to us from his high school and club play in the southeast, and he has started every game this season for the Hoyas and has posted an excellent .527 save percentage. His 10 saves versus Penn  State and 12 versus Villanova were integral in getting Georgetown to this point.

The Hoya offense is what we thought it would be way back in February. Starters Aidan Carrol (36g, 22a, 2 OT winners), TJ Haley (12g, 38a), Graham Bundy, Jr. (32g, 13a), Alex Vardaro (29g, 15a), Patrick Crogan (19g) and Jordan Wray (19g) are formidable scorers. On the defensive side, Hess, Halpert, Foley and Chairs, in addition to Banks and Moore, are a very solid unit. The team generally is remarkably consistent.

The team data suggests there may be openings for the Irish in the middle of the field as Georgetown clears at .874 (Irish allow .832), and there are some injury questions regarding their main faceoff athlete, James Ball. But overall, the data is uncomfortably even between the teams. In regard to the advance stats, our colleagues at Lacrossereference.com remind us that this matchup is between the #1 and #2 ELO rated teams, with very little to statistically differentiate them.

The ’cause

How do the motivations align? For the boys it is obvious, they are supremely motivated to defend their title and to correct the one blemish on their path to success. But Georgetown is not without motivation, either.  This is top-tier program that has been frustrated at the quarterfinal level since 1999. They desperately want to make it to Philadelphia as well.

If our boys needed an extra edge, they’ll be reminded that Georgetown social media isn’t averse to poking the bear:

Our Three Questions

There are lot of Xs and Os necessary to Irish success, like handling Georgetown inverts and forcing them to try score unassisted, but on a more basic level, we see the three pregame questions as:

  1. Depth. Our depth issue is slightly different than the past few weeks.  The Irish have to use their depth to ask force questions of the Hoya depth.  The deliberate pace of the first game, and the light usage of Irish reserves, tells us that they are happy to go toe-to-toe with starting unit vs. starting unit. The boys can’t let them get away with playing just 22 guys like they did in February (Georgetown only played 23 vs. Penn State last week and 22 vs. Villanova the week before, this is what they want to do!). Make them chose between taking chances with less tested reserves or running their starters into the ground. Success in this area means a lot of things, including a quicker pace, getting ahead early, three lines of constant offensive pressure and dominating the middle of the field. Play a Notre Dame game, not a Georgetown game. Their Catapult data should show them running a marathon.
  2. Discipline. Our original draft mentioned shooting, but upon some reflection we thought shooting was only part of a larger game discipline theme. Watching the early season game we noticed the team was sloppy with the ball early and had unforced failed clears (6 1st quarter turnovers). And when the ball got forward, shot selection wasn’t always the best. Georgetown will need juice to be in this game, and the boys need to avoid giving it to them with turnovers and making Anderson Moore look like a hero. Get the ball forward clean, and take the best shot, not necessarily the first shot.
  3. Don’t Underestimate. Rewatching the February game we were reminded that it was also the occasion of the unveiling of championship banner and the gold-number uniforms, and as viewers we got the sense (deserved or not) that the boys were a bit surprised the Hoyas didn’t just crumble.  It’s a similar sense to what we felt in the first half of the Albany game. The boys hopefully remember the sting of what happens when you don’t come to the field 100% focused. Georgetown will be every bit as motivated as Notre Dame, so the boys need to be as determined to overwhelm their opponent as they were in both ACC Championship games.

There are a lot of metrics that will help us see where the boys are on the path to victory.  The team averages 32 ground balls, they had 26 vs. the Hoyas, average 42 shots, had only 36, 27 SOG, had only 21, 16 goals, had only 10. We hope this conveys a positive message.  The Irish lost a early season game in overtime, there’s no reason to overreact in response. Notre Dame consistently showed over the next 11 games that their baseline is far, far higher.

Please take some time to listen to Drew Brennan and David Brogan’s perspective on the game in their Exit 77 podcast!

 

#GoIrish

ND-ATL 2.0