Virginia's Starsia on win against Syracuse: "We don't want to be the kings of March"
No. 2 Virginia’s 11-10 victory over No. 1 and reigning national champion Syracuse on Sunday should cement the Cavaliers as the undisputed top-ranked team in the country this week. But for Virginia coach Dom Starsia, that’s about all the win guarantees.
"We don’t want to be the kings of March, we want to be the kings of May," Starsia said Monday. "But these are the kind of games that test you a little bit, and we certainly have still got things we need to work on. But they also hearten you a little bit. … As your team continues to grow, these are the kind of experiences that make it meaningful for everybody."
Starsia’s got a point. The Cavaliers have yet to open Atlantic Coast Conference play against No. 3 North Carolina (5-0), No. 6 Duke (2-2) and No. 7 Maryland (3-0), and they have non-conference contests against No. 5 Johns Hopkins (3-1) and No. 15 Cornell (3-0).
That schedule plays right into Starsia’s philosophy of undertaking everyone and overlooking no one.
"We always try to preach this ‘no big games’ thing," he said. "And it’s almost become a little bit of a joke within the program that I’m always saying that. But the point is, we need to be able to turn around and play the next game. You don’t sell your soul for one knowing that you’ve got to play another. There are certain games on the schedule that are going to get your attention more than others – I’d be the first to admit that – and this is clearly one of them."
Other notes:
*Junior midfielder and Tewaaraton Trophy candidate Shamel Bratton did not play because of a hamstring injury, but his twin brother Rhamel took up the slack, scoring four times. Rhamel Bratton was slowed last year by a back injury, but Starsia said the midfielder has become more consistent since September. "With his brother not playing, I didn’t know where our offense was going to come from. Rhamel stepped into that void," Starsia said. "Before the game, if you had asked me to describe his play, I would’ve said, ‘Consistent.’ After the game, I would’ve said, ‘Geez, that was pretty close to spectacular.’ When you’re dodging [Syracuse’s] Joel White, one of the best long sticks in the game to score four goals and create offense your team, that’s what the big boys do, and yesterday, Rhamel played the way he’s capable of. His charge now is to sustain that kind of performance."
*One cause for concern was the manner in which the Cavaliers fell into a 5-2 hole against Syracuse, which scored all five times on extra-man opportunities. Virginia wiped out that deficit with seven unanswered goals, but the Cavaliers have to rein in their aggression, which could haunt them later. "We need to continue to cut down on the mistakes," Starsia said. "Syracuse is a team that makes you pay for your mistakes. Their first five goals were scored [on] extra man, and we just dug ourselves a hole. Next time, we might not be nearly as likely to dig out of that again. So I thought we settled down and played the rest of the game. As is going to happen early in the season, I thought we made a lot of mistakes, but I thought we also played hard and competed the whole time."
