UMBC is hoping that a couple changes will help pump some life into a slumbering man-up offense.
Freshman attackman Jonah Kozireski (Severna Park) has joined a foursome of attackmen in juniors Nate Lewnes (St. Mary's), Jack Gannon and Drew Borsody and sophomore Max Maxwell and one midfielder in junior Pat Young on the unit. And armed with game film prior to games with their last two opponents, the Retrievers have converted 2-of-3 chances for a man-up offense tied for 63rd out of 69 Division I teams at 18.8 percent (3-of-16).
"It's a work in progress, and I see improvement," coach Don Zimmerman said Tuesday afternoon. "We did go 2-of-3 against Richmond. So hopefully, we'll keep moving in the right direction."
At first glance, UMBC's extra-man unit that finished 18th last season at 41.0 percent (25-of-61) didn't get much help from attackman Matt Gregoire, who scored only two of his team-leading 48 goals on the man-up. But Zimmerman equated Gregoire's presence on the inside to the ability of 3-point shooters to break a zone defense in basketball.
"Matt didn't score a lot of man-up goals, but I think his presence inside opened up some of our outside perimeter shooters," he said. "… I think teams were so concerned about Matt that they closed up the inside and that freed up some of our perimeter shooters. So maybe statistically, he didn't have a lot of those goals, but I think his presence helped the unit."
Borsody, who has one of three man-up goals (Maxwell has the other two) for the Retrievers (2-3), has been tabbed by Zimmerman to fill the inside position that Gregoire vacated when he graduated in May. But Zimmerman said all the players have to get on the same page and continue working on their cohesion in practice.
"It really does come down to gelling as a unit," he said. "That's why we've made some personnel changes. We're just trying to find the right chemistry."