Comments after the Hofstra game

[mat1992 2,231]

Coach Nads opening statement

Proud of our time for grinding out a tough CAA win. We've been in the league for a long time and it never comes easy and this certainly wasn't. Hofstra was as pesky as they could get. They came out firing. We came with an answer after halftime and responded. It's a great start for us to open with a win in the CAA and I'm excited for these guys.

Shane Brennan

I got a good warmup before the game so it's not like I'm coming in cold. You have to be mentally ready to come in if I'm starting or not starting.

Grant on third quarter

We were moving the ball. Our offense knows what to do. We just have to execute. We just started moving the ball through X and people were putting away their shots.

Nads on third quarter

We cleaned things up. The first half wasn't our best to have. We didn't want a real man up play and we got that quick goal coming out of the half on the man up. We realized that if we shared the ball, we could get them caught in the hedge slides, which they were doing a lot of. We got some nice opportunities. Defensively, I thought we did a better job of defending Ryan Tierney. He was having a strong day. 

On man-down defense being down two men early in fourth quarter

That was massive. Saunders Healy usually just plays man down for us. Sometimes spells a close guy. He made the big pick there. It was great seeing their mentality. Those guys were focused and understood what they needed to do. Hopefully if you clear the ball, you can get momentum.

On goaltender change in second quarter

I didn't feel like he was on the ball. He wasn't sharp on the first goal. A sweeping shot that didn't have a ton on it. The second goal, same type of thing. I didn't think he was on it today. We're confident that we have an experienced guy in Shane. He went in there and did what he needed to do. We have two great ones. That's a luxury that we have. We'll have to continue to evaluate, just like every position. We have a freshman Mo Silla who has improved in practice and deserves to play.

On turnover situation as compared to the last couple of weeks

Numbers-wise it wasn't bad. The fourth quarter was more glaring. I thought we shot ourselves in the foot with the inability to bleed the clock more. Alex came down off the face and was pressing. That's on me, I should have called a timeout on that and save possession. We also pushed a break that we didn't need to and we were calling to pull it back out. We just have to understand the situation better. The turnovers in the fourth quarter. Those are ones we can't have.

 

[TUvet 19]

I attended the game and I thought I think I counted five straight possessions in the last five minutes where we turned the ball over without getting a shot off. I thought Sunday had a really poor game. He kept forcing passes to the middle turning it over. It looks like he is playing with no confidence.  In fact I think we were 0-9 forcing the ball to the middle. Ey's speed was impressive and needed. Mo Silah also did some good things coming up with a big ground ball on the draw. It is great to get a kid from Landon.  Is Sovero hurt? He was their best middie last year. Canto really struggled. The defense was struggling with ball screens in the first half, but played well in the second half. I likes switching to zone for a couple of possessions. Tierney is a really good attacker. Clock management was as bad as it gets.  We didn't value the ball at all and we are so lucky to have Nads as a coach but yes I thought you could have called timeout when we were inexplicably driving to goal instead of using clock.   Take the win. I think the conference is going to be very difficult. The way things are playing out I think we may have to win the conference to get in the dance.

[mat1992 2,231]

Agree with most of what you said. I really liked Mo Sillah out of HS and his videos showed he could be another Koby Smith-type of player, but a little bigger at 6-1, 195. He can play the pole and on the wings on face-offs. I like him over the 6-7 Zungalia, who will probably start at close D next season for Patterson. I just think it's tough for a 6-7 guy to get those 50-50 ground balls on face-offs.

I didn't even notice if Sovero was hurt. Maybe he was sick like Jake McLean and Luke Fromert, who played some. But Sovero has not looked good at all in thew few games he played on the 2nd midfield. Second unit not impressive at all with Beacham, Jake McLean/Greg Ey and Wasserman. We desperately need a scorer there. Was hoping that Montgomery would provide something today in replace of Fromert but they would rather go with a sick Fromert than a 100% Montgomery.

Sunday had a rough game and I agree that he's lacking confidence right now. He had an open shot today and then tried to squeeze a tough pass to Brody Mac. At 6-5, 200, he has a long release but he has go to shoot that ball in the rare time he's open. He has 25 goals so we are counting on him to score along with Brody and Maloof. Seems like fastbreak is dead. Koby Smith is now well-scouted and Goodrich hasn't really generated much offense. The conference is going to be tough. They have to play better against Fairfield because if we come out flat, that's a loss. Everybody is gunning for us because we're a top 10 team that was ranked No. 1 at least briefly.