#2 Notre Dame men’s lacrosse will play ACC foe #12 Virginia Cavaliers in the ESPNU Old Spice game o’ the week in Charlottesville, Saturday, 6:00 pm.  We can’t imagine there would be any conflicting game you’d rather be watching on Saturday, since the onlyhoops game worth watching should end by 2:30. However, if you do have basketball on your mind and in your viewing plans, it will be worth switching over to this game from time-to-time.

Let’s first recall how Perkovic won last year’s contest in overtime:

 

The Virginia Cavaliers are quite different this year, now coached by Lars Tiffany who brought with him the wild offense that was so successful with him at Brown.  They shoot a lot, score a lot, and don’t seem to give a hoot about turnovers or defense.  Teams do score a lot on them, but the challenge is that Virginia can score so easily and so quickly, that no lead is truly safe as Cornell found out last week when the Hoos came back from 7 goals down in no time at all.  Zed Williams and Ryan Lukacovic are familiar names from last year, and Virginia add freshman Michael Kraus who has already tallied 16 goals and 16 assists.  Because of the way they play, their defense will always be suspect and the Irish have to be able to score lots of goals.

Some interesting analytics factoids from analyticslacrosse.com:  ND’s defense is efficient to the tune of 17.9 goals per 100 possessions versus 31.3 for UVa.  On offense, the figures are 35.7 vs. 33.7, with ND surprisingly more efficient.  Possession is where the #s get whacky, with ND games playing to 69.9 possessions as compared to 104 for Cavalier games!! Of course, the Irish SOS remains #1, no surprise there.

Our pregame questions:

-How will the defense adapt to this offense?–  The Cavaliers rarely hold onto the ball long enough to fall into a traditional 6-on-6 set, so the Irish defense will not be given an opportunity to play to their greatest strength.  Most action will come from transition, with Virginia even involving their poles on offense rather than quickly substitute them off.  Notre Dame, to our recollection, has never faced this type of setup before.  We are as curious as anyone as to how they will solve this situation.

-Can the Irish control possession?–  A better faceoff performance will be essential, and Notre Dame can’t get drawn into a running game.  The simply have to control possession and take care of the ball.  There’s no shame in getting worked over by Trevor Baptiste, but the faceoff crew has to shake last week off and control Virginia’s ability push unsettled situations.

-Perkovic (week 5)- Sergio was the hero of last year’s contest.  Against 2017 Virginia, our best guess is that the inside will be the better option for the attack, but #16 should be getting a lot more open looks than he has in any game this season.  He needs to put them in the back of the net, and we think his #s will be up this week.

It will be fun to watch this new offense against the Irish defense, but let’s not assume that will be the extent of the battle.  Ryder Garnsey and co. should be able to fill their boots as well against a defense that has not shown much.

#GoIrish