Each week, we will look back at the games that were to see which players had the largest individual performances. I say largest because the contributions that we can measure (from play by play) tend to be things that are easy to count. This includes, goals, shots, assists, turnovers, penalties, etc. We can’t measure a defender who shuts down an opposing player so completely that he doesn’t even touch the ball. Still, it is interesting to be able to identify the players that really filled it up each weekend and give them a shout out here.
For a bit of background, in order to rank single game performances, we needed a way to condense box score stats to a single number for each player. In order to do this, we relied on our expected goal values methodology, which assigns a goal value to each type of play depending on how often it leads to a goal in the next 60 seconds. By adding up all the expected goals added for each player, we can get to that single number and these rankings.
We have also tagged each performance with the opponent’s ELO rating. The higher the number, the stronger the opponent. This should help to give some context for each performance. Did the player feast on the dregs of D1 or did they put up these numbers against a quality opponent?
Click on any player’s name or the PRO logo () and you’ll head straight to the detailed breakdown on their LacrosseReference PRO page. As opposed to last year, all players appearing in the weekly rundown are unlocked and the information on their page is available to all readers.
Losing Drew Blanchard to transfer definitely put a damper on the FO unit’s success for Hobart this year. As a team last year, they ranked 8th nationally in opponent-adjusted faceoff win rate. We seen it time and time again; having two competitive faceoff guys raises the entire unit’s performance.
But let’s not kid ourselves, Adam Shea has still been impressive. The Statesmen rank 16th in opponen-adjusted faceoff win rate this season; it’s not like the drop-off was that extreme. And specifically with respect to his faceoff Elo rating, he’s had his best season yet.
I think this has got to be a first for the weekly EGA leaders post. Petey LaSalla actually lost the faceoff battle by a 19 to 20 score. I don’t think I’ve ever had a FOGO make this list without winning the majority of their draws.
But then again, LaSalla is no ordinary FOGO. In this game, his offensive skills were on full display. His three points were tied for the most on the team behind only Jeff Conner and Matt Moore (7 apiece). When a FOGO is able to generate that sort of offense while hanging with one of the best opponents in the country, he’s going to earn a spot on this list.
Kevin Winkoff has made some impressive strides this season, so I was glad to see him make an appearance here. It’s rare that you see a player improve on almost every offensive dimension, but that’s just what he’s done this season.
Now, there are still areas for improvement, but this is a guy that was in the 31st percentile nationally for individual player efficiency last year. He’s currently in the 68th percentile this year. Shooting is up, assist rate is up, ball security is up. Just a lot to be happy about if you are Coach McKeown.
With 41 goals scored, and a final margin of just three, the first half of the Hobart/LIU game was one of the more exciting 30 minutes of lacrosse this weekend.
.Then Hobart ran away with it thanks to a 6-1 3rd quarter. Archer’s been the facilitator that makes this offense go for most of the year. After this weekend, he’s got 42% of the team’s assists (Tommy Mott is 2nd with 19%). But this was also the 4th game of the year where Archer shot over 40%.
Colgate is perhaps the best 3-9 team I’ve ever seen. Saturday marked their fourth one-goal loss of the year and they’ve had the lead in all of them I believe. But shifting just 4 goals to the other column over their last 4 games, they’d be on a 4-game winning streak with victories over Harvard, Army, Lehigh, and Loyola.
As it stands, they won just the Lehigh game and I’m sure the fact that they’ve been so close isn’t a huge consolation for Coach Karweck and his staff. But think about where the trend lines are here. Colucci’s been great at the faceoff x (he’s currently 12th in the faceoff Elo ratings). The offense struggled this year (53rd nationally), but the defense jumped from 51st a year ago to 29th this season.
You figure out how to get more out of the offense in 2023 while maintaining what you’ve built on defense this year and the Raiders could be a player in the Patriot League.
Villanova is just hanging around. An at-large berth is out of the question at this point, but Lax-Elo still gives them a 13% chance to grab the Big East AQ.
The offense has fallen from 6th in 2021 to 25th this year, but when you see what Keegan Khan is doing with the Terps, it’s a wonder they didn’t see more of a drop-off. And in part, that’s thanks to the emergence of freshman Luke Keating, who’s been a valuable part of their offense, rating in the 86th percentile nationally for individual player efficiency. While he’s been the leading distributor for the Cats (27% of their team assists), in this game he was locked in shooting-wise.
The end result was a career high 8 points and zero turnovers. In his last 2 games against Marquette and Providence, he’s 15 points and just a single turnover. That is an impressive first campaign.
Against Hampton, Rusterucci finished with 3 goals on 8 shots and he added 4 assists to boot. A very nice day for the freshman. In February, when the Keydets played Hampton, he had 3 goals on 8 shots and he added 4 assists to boot. Eerie.
But coincidences aside, this is a guy that Coach Purpura is going to be able to build around. He’s in the 65th percentile for individual efficiency and when you look at the landscape of the SoCon, he’s right up there with some of the best facilitators in the conference.
For a relatively low usage-rate guy, Jeff Conner has been remarkably efficiency this year, and really for his entire career. This year, he’s in the 95th percentile nationally for individual player efficiency, and that’s not really new for him.
Buckeyes took care of business and Jack Myers had a good-Jack-Myers day. When his usage-adjusted-EGA is less then 2.00, they are 1-4. When it’s over 2.00 they are 8-0.
This is where the chess-match gets so interesting for the Big Ten tournament and possibly the NCAA tournament. Ohio State knows they need to have a productive day from Myers. Opposing coaches know that if they can prevent him from having a productive day, they have a good shot to beat the Buckeyes. Your move…
When I tweeted out the 3 Stars graphic for Saturday, I got some comments about how Maryland didn’t show up at all. 22 goals; you figure that somebody would have a game worth of showing up on the list. Well here you go. In a somewhat understated slot, Wisnauskas makes the list thanks to his second most efficient game of the year.
It’s the paradox of individual vs team stats; the Terps are going to show up on almost any list of top teams, but their individual players rarely do. The reason? Depth. The Terps have played the 3rd most players on a per-game basis this year. Even if you weight the depth model to account for whether the end-of-the-bench is actually being productive, they are still 11th.
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) and you’ll head straight to the detailed breakdown on their LacrosseReference PRO page. As opposed to last year, all players appearing in the weekly rundown are unlocked and the information on their page is available to all readers.
