Syracuse Lacrosse: Desko teams dominate in second chance games

With the ACC Championship approaching we know that the Syracuse Orange will face at least one opponent twice this season. This is certainly not the first time a John Desko team will play an opponent twice in once season. In fact, there has been only two years under boss Desko in which a team of his has not faced at least one opponent twice. So, how good has he been in second chance games?

Keep in mind, all of these statistics are from the 1999 season forward, the year that John Desko took charge as the head coach. The first game from each season series will be from the regulars season and every second game is from either the Big East Tournament, ACC Tournament, or NCAA Tournament.

Against opponents whom Syracuse has played twice in a season, the Orange are 20-13 in the regular season games and 25-8 in the rematches.

In matchups where SU won the regular season game, the Orange are 14-6 in the rematch. More impressively, when SU lost the regular season game the Orange are 11-2 in the rematch.

The team that Syracuse has faced twice the most? That would be, not surprisingly, the Johns Hopkins Blue Jays. These two squads have gone at it twice in a season six times, most recently in 2015.

In second games which have taken place in the NCAA Tournament Syracuse is 16-7. Of those games six have been in the NCAA Championship game which SU is 4-2.

How about teams which SU has a chance of playing twice this season? The programs Syracuse has played this season which could reasonably see the Orange again are: Albany great Danes, Army Black Knights, Johns Hopkins Blue Jays, Duke Blue Devils, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and North Carolina Tar Heels. Each of those programs SU has played twice in a season in previous years. Of those teams, Syracuse has a losing record in the second game against only one, Army, which beat the Orange in the NCAA Tournament back in 2010. The Orange are undefeated in the second game against Albany, Duke, and UNC.