UNC Men’s Lacrosse 2025-26
- Thread starter airball
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Was the D pole not out of bounds there. Need to see a better replay but it looked like he was out before he released the ball
Another classic Breschi late season collapse. The offense is completely anemic and showed no adjustments to counter Cuse’s defensive scheme. Really frustrating to watch Breschi’s teams that have plenty of talent but no toughness.
Looks like the most underachieving coach in history just earned himself another extension. You go Joe! Oh wait, we already gave it to him halfway through the season. 
JB doesn’t win the big games, but he’s a really nice guy.
horrific last 18 hours or so for UNC athletics
Breschi and Somoano have perfected the late season collapse.
Man, save for that magical run by the 2016 Heels and that OT Chris Cloutier goal, the last 30+ years of UNC men's lax have had so many disappointments.
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?what did I miss? Seriously? Yes, this loss is quite disappointing. What else pls, as I miss a lot.
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womens tennis lost 4-3 to AtM in the NCAA quarterfinals and baseball lost to the pups
Goode struggled in Q2 and Q3, but otherwise had a good game. I think he may have been a little too amped up for the game - his reaction after the goals allowed was troubling.
My biggest gripe was the lack of adjustments by the coaching staff (other than trotting out a clearly injured Duffy). After Raio’s hot start, Cuse poled him. With 2 poles on the midfield, Cuse was content to let Matan, Wrede, etc dodge on their SSDMs and UNC did nothing to adjust. I was hoping they would start with Raio/Wilson and throw some pick action or have Raio/Wilson pick on ball, but UNC just kept running the same offense into a brick wall over and over.
My biggest gripe was the lack of adjustments by the coaching staff (other than trotting out a clearly injured Duffy). After Raio’s hot start, Cuse poled him. With 2 poles on the midfield, Cuse was content to let Matan, Wrede, etc dodge on their SSDMs and UNC did nothing to adjust. I was hoping they would start with Raio/Wilson and throw some pick action or have Raio/Wilson pick on ball, but UNC just kept running the same offense into a brick wall over and over.
Best overall talent in last 10 years & hardly nothing to show for
Syracuse’s size, physical play and their advantage at the draw proved to be insurmountable for a Breschi coached team. A cardinal defense violation to let the draw winner barrel down the field and score uncontested and he did it twice This just continues to feed the belief that Joe Breschi coached teams cannot win big games when they matter the most.
Breschi has earned the ire of fans here no doubt, but you are not going to beat the #6 team in the country when none of your 3 all-Americans play to their level. Duffy understandable, but bad day for the other two.
this game was only close because a Syracuse made tons of their own errors. More than us. They looked like the worse coached team today,
this game was only close because a Syracuse made tons of their own errors. More than us. They looked like the worse coached team today,
All year UNC offense against good teams had trouble finding rhythm and open shots. They really need one or more of 1) big FO advantage, 2) better goal tending, 3) alot more groundballs or 4) fewer turnovers. Syracuse tried to help them, but their FOGO came to play. That was the difference.
This team was too dependent on Wambach and the possession advantage he provided while on his game. Seems that he wore down late in the season, which coincided with the team's late-season swoon.
For comparison, I looked at how the Top 8 national seeds distributed their face-off workload for the season coming into today. Listed in descending order, the top FOGO guy for each team took the following percentage of face-offs:
UNC - 94.2%
Syracuse - 82.7%
Princeton - 73.8%
Cornell - 67.3%
Richmond - 62.2%
Notre Dame - 54.7%
Penn State - 50.1%
UVA - 47.6%
Mullen at Syracuse is the only guy who was even close to Wambach's workload. Now I realize that Wambach is an elite FOGO and you want to leverage that advantage, but you also have to manage his workload because it's a long season. Our backup FOGOs Hannigan and Hoffman took a combined 27 face-offs all season. I'd like to see the coaching staff give more opportunities to other FOGO guys next year when the situation allows to keep Wambach fresher over the course of the season.
For comparison, I looked at how the Top 8 national seeds distributed their face-off workload for the season coming into today. Listed in descending order, the top FOGO guy for each team took the following percentage of face-offs:
UNC - 94.2%
Syracuse - 82.7%
Princeton - 73.8%
Cornell - 67.3%
Richmond - 62.2%
Notre Dame - 54.7%
Penn State - 50.1%
UVA - 47.6%
Mullen at Syracuse is the only guy who was even close to Wambach's workload. Now I realize that Wambach is an elite FOGO and you want to leverage that advantage, but you also have to manage his workload because it's a long season. Our backup FOGOs Hannigan and Hoffman took a combined 27 face-offs all season. I'd like to see the coaching staff give more opportunities to other FOGO guys next year when the situation allows to keep Wambach fresher over the course of the season.
I am not sure Wambach wore down. Elite fogos usually take the vast majority of their teams faceoffs. And Wambach is a triathlete, so probably has decent stamina. His advantage is not the clamp, it’s positioning his body after the clamp, quick feet and ground balls. I just think the Syracuse fogo came to play. Big, physical guy was winning the clamp and dictating terms. And the UNC wings seemed invisible to me. The little guy #4 has always seemed to be a waste on the wing. He’s fast, but does not seem to have a particular skill for picking up ground balls in traffic.
Good news is next year will be more talented.
UVA has gone all in on football abs basketball and woefully underfunded non revenue sports. His contract was up and they totally undercut him and told him he was going to have to raise the money for his own scholarships. So he decided not to accept it.
That's wild. I'm not surprised he walked given that scenario. Someone will scoop him up because he's a really good coach.
Can’t say I think that’s smart of UVA. Who is better? Not a good situation there last year I know with a troubling parent (and player?). Heard the environment was bad. Maybe that’s part of this?
can he coach offense
? Please…?Time will tell….
There is a rumor circulating that SMU is going to add varsity lacrosse. their club team already has a D1 caliber stadium on campus, so a no-brainer if they can find the alumni support to make the jump in terms of scholarships and funding.
I would assume that for Title IX reasons this would almost certainly mean they are adding women's LAX as well.
If it happened this would elevate the ACC to automatic qualifier status as a conference for Men's Lax. and it would be the first program in the state of TX, which is good for the sport.
SMU should also add gymnastics. they would be the only program in D1 in TX for that as well, a great recruiting base. Both sports fit their idea of themselves as an emerging Southern Ivy. Neither sport would take up much new campus space, which is at a premium in the Dallas area.
Overall SMU has a pretty small athletic department. The only team vs team spectator sports they play are Football, M & W Basketball, volleyball and M & W soccer. No baseball, softball, filed hockey, nor LAX currently.
I would assume that for Title IX reasons this would almost certainly mean they are adding women's LAX as well.
If it happened this would elevate the ACC to automatic qualifier status as a conference for Men's Lax. and it would be the first program in the state of TX, which is good for the sport.
SMU should also add gymnastics. they would be the only program in D1 in TX for that as well, a great recruiting base. Both sports fit their idea of themselves as an emerging Southern Ivy. Neither sport would take up much new campus space, which is at a premium in the Dallas area.
Overall SMU has a pretty small athletic department. The only team vs team spectator sports they play are Football, M & W Basketball, volleyball and M & W soccer. No baseball, softball, filed hockey, nor LAX currently.
They just won national championships in swimming and tennis, ACC title in T&F, they are 3rd nationally through winter in director's cup standings (which means other sports did quite well too).
So taking this rumor at face value, from the outside looking in, this looks more like a devaluing of lacrosse specifically than something across all non-revenue sports?
it is certainly odd that a successful UVA rebuild seems to have ended with some major disagreements here between coaching staff and administrators. There certainly is some explanation for this and it is not on-field results.
One bitter irony here: The NCAA championship next season is on the UVA campus. Surely this will now be a rebuilding year for them; will they make the tournament?
A. They are hosting the national championship next weekend not next year.
B. It’s not a rumor. I am friends Barry Parkhill as he told me. Brian O’Connor basically built the UVA baseball program from scratch and won national championship. He left for Mississippi State last year because the athletic department would not fully fund his scholarships. You can have 35 baseball scholarships now. He was told he could have 22 and would have to fun raise for the other 13. When men’s lacrosse went from 11 1/2 scholarship to 48 roster spots, they told Lars he was going to have to raise the money for his scholarships himself. They didn’t even give him the 11 1/2 he had before. He had told people last year that he wasn’t going to renew his contract this year unless there were some major changes. Those changes didn’t calm and he did not take a new contract.
UVA has been successful with swimming because they have a couple of alumni benefactors who have funded the program, and it doesn’t cost very much. Same with tennis. They’re alumni groups in baseball, men’s, and women’s lacrosse, and field hockey, all of which they have been extremely good at over the years, have not stepped up yet.
As far as a subject matter of this board goes, they are going to lowball the new lacrosse coach. Expect multiple players to hit the portal, and this not to end well. Unless, they do the smart thing and Mikey Thompson from Christopher Newport. He’s an alarm in one of the best young coaches in lacrosse. I’ll bet their ego won’t allow them to hire a D3 coach..
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