Monmouth was bad last year. They are much better this year. On with the show.
Monmouth
A rare photo of the Monmouth mascot mid-magic trick.
April 11, 2015, 11 a.m. EST
Titan Field (Red-out)
Live stats.
@DetroitTitans.
Detroit Preview. .pdf notes.
Tempo-Free Profile
The TempoFreeLax.com numbers are out of date, thanks to the NCAA’s hilarious inability to be good at literally anything (well, litigation, I guess) shutting down the ability to pull the stats. The raw numbers are still here:
| Monmouth 2014 | |
|---|---|
| Pace | 53.10 |
| Poss% | 47.08 |
| Off. Eff. | 22.80 |
| Def. Eff. | 25.98 |
Monmouth is a lot better than last year. The TFL stats would actually be fascinating (shakes fist at NCAA).
They’re extremely slow – which has prevented them from getting blown out, despite a possession deficit. Fortunately, that possession deficit is not quite the gulf it was last year.
They’re still utter garbage on the offensive side of the ball. That mark would have been good for a bottom five finish in last year’s overall numbers (improvement though it is over Monmouth’s own offense last year).
Where they’ve made huge strides is on defense. They’re a legitimately great unit on that side of the ball, especially for a new program from a bad league. The strength of schedule adjustments (hello Wagner, NJIT, and – surprisingly – Siena) would make the numbers look a lot less shiny, but they’re legitimately impressive nonetheless.
Offense
Bryce Wasserman, a freshman attack from Texas of all places (there’s good lacrosse in Texas, but to be the star for a team as a true freshman is impressive for a non-hotbed guy), is the main guy for Monmouth. Like, in a huge way. As in, he has almost as many points as the next three guys combined.
Wasserman has 19 goals and seven assists, so he’s a bit of a do-everything guy (unsurprisingly, Monmouth doesn’t assist on even half their goals, so he accounts for a fairly impressive portion of their scoring). He’s had a hand in 26 of 57 Hawk goals.
Sophomore midfielder Tyler Keen is a true finisher type, with seven goals and no assists. Sophomore attack Chris Daly and senior midfielder Zach Johannes are ahead of him with seven goals and five assists and six goals and two assists, respectively.
Defense
Senior goalie Garrett Conaway is having a great year, saving .623 of shots faced. He’s allowing just 7.11 goals per game (remember that Monmouth is one of the slowest teams in the country and adjust the level you’re impressed accordingly).
Senior Ryan Horsch and sophomores Andrew Grajewski and Ryan Atkinson have started all 10 games in front of him. Horsch and Grajewski are caused-turnover machines. Clearly, the defense as a whole is also keeping Conaway from having to make too many tough saves – or maybe just good enough that a really good goalie can make those.
Special Teams
Sophomore Marco Mosleh has missed two games on faceoffs, but even when he’s around, he’s winning at a .438 clip. His replacement, freshman Keegan Teluk (.333) is way worse. That is not a strength for the Hawks in the least.
Monmouth is really bad on the clear, but they do make up for it to an extent by emphasizing the ride.
They’re pretty even in the penalty department in both facets. They commit about the same number of penalties as opponents (slightly fewer), and are as bad on the man-up offense as they are good on man-down D.
Big Picture
Doesn’t matter if this Monmouth team is much improved over last year’s outfit. You want to play big boy lacrosse? Win the game.
In fact, if the Titans lose this one, there’s a strong likelihood that they don’t make the MAAC Tournament, which is basically the only way this season could be considered an abject failure.
Predictions
No strong details necessary. Slow game, defensive battle, Detroit wins 9-7.
Share your predictions, discussion, etc. in the comments.