Maryland 2024

[keno in reno]

Honestly; there are a lot of similarities right now to Duke’s run from 2015-17 after the back to back titles and Wolf et al. graduated.

Dino was able to reset and get back to the Final Four regularly again; but I do think it’s fair to say they’ve never truly rekindled the perfect confluence of events that existed in his first 8 years or so. There’s always been something missing the last few years, and it ain’t for lack of talent.

Tillman/Maryland are at a similar inflection point right now. I don’t really have any doubts they’ll figure it out and get back to Final Fours; but whether they can get back to the standards of the first 10 years are probably a question. And it may be a case of those 10 years just being too high a standard and everything perfectly coming together.

So right now, I'd say the difference with Danowski is he's had the top 1-4 offensive guys in the country for the past 10 years. I mean, put O'Neill on this Maryland team and it's a favorite for the national championship. Tills has missed out on some recent recruits (PSU #4??) and transfers; Duke has not...

[masondixonlax]

Seriously, name the Vermont transfers who haven't worked out. I've only watched every game this year, but they've been excellent by my observation.
[/quote]

100% agree

[jrn19]

Sharkey has not been great at shortie IMO. He’s been beaten at a fairly decent clip. He’s not bad, but the team was in it for Pederson for example and he’d have been a much, much better pickup. In comparison to other shorties they got out of the portal like Jake Higgins or Alex Smith, he’s not up to that standard.

Alviti….has kind of fallen off the radar? McDonald has gotten a ton of the minutes in B1G play. Again, not bad. But not great IMO

Canfield has been tremendous. Great pickup

[jrn19]

Honestly; there are a lot of similarities right now to Duke’s run from 2015-17 after the back to back titles and Wolf et al. graduated.

Dino was able to reset and get back to the Final Four regularly again; but I do think it’s fair to say they’ve never truly rekindled the perfect confluence of events that existed in his first 8 years or so. There’s always been something missing the last few years, and it ain’t for lack of talent.

Tillman/Maryland are at a similar inflection point right now. I don’t really have any doubts they’ll figure it out and get back to Final Fours; but whether they can get back to the standards of the first 10 years are probably a question. And it may be a case of those 10 years just being too high a standard and everything perfectly coming together.

So right now, I'd say the difference with Danowski is he's had the top 1-4 offensive guys in the country for the past 10 years. I mean, put O'Neill on this Maryland team and it's a favorite for the national championship. Tills has missed out on some recent recruits (PSU #4??) and transfers; Duke has not...

The last 4 years have been underachieving relative to talent for Duke for sure

He didn’t really have the top 1-4 guys from 2015-2019 though. Guterding was excellent, but other than that it was a drop off from the Wolf, Jones, Class, Crotty, Quinzani, et al. from 2010-2014.

So that’s why I say Maryland 2023-2024, potentially 2025, is similar to Duke 2015-2017.

2018 though when the new crop got old, they were back in Final Fours regularly. Probably the aim for Maryland from 2026 onwards.

[norcalhop]

Honestly; there are a lot of similarities right now to Duke’s run from 2015-17 after the back to back titles and Wolf et al. graduated.

Dino was able to reset and get back to the Final Four regularly again; but I do think it’s fair to say they’ve never truly rekindled the perfect confluence of events that existed in his first 8 years or so. There’s always been something missing the last few years, and it ain’t for lack of talent.

Tillman/Maryland are at a similar inflection point right now. I don’t really have any doubts they’ll figure it out and get back to Final Fours; but whether they can get back to the standards of the first 10 years are probably a question. And it may be a case of those 10 years just being too high a standard and everything perfectly coming together.

So right now, I'd say the difference with Danowski is he's had the top 1-4 offensive guys in the country for the past 10 years. I mean, put O'Neill on this Maryland team and it's a favorite for the national championship. Tills has missed out on some recent recruits (PSU #4??) and transfers; Duke has not...

There is no way with O'neill this team would be favorite over Notre Dame, Penn State, Duke, and likely several others.

[keno in reno]

Terps are +2 goal differential for the season. I bet this is their worst season ever for that statistic.

[jrn19]

Honestly; there are a lot of similarities right now to Duke’s run from 2015-17 after the back to back titles and Wolf et al. graduated.

Dino was able to reset and get back to the Final Four regularly again; but I do think it’s fair to say they’ve never truly rekindled the perfect confluence of events that existed in his first 8 years or so. There’s always been something missing the last few years, and it ain’t for lack of talent.

Tillman/Maryland are at a similar inflection point right now. I don’t really have any doubts they’ll figure it out and get back to Final Fours; but whether they can get back to the standards of the first 10 years are probably a question. And it may be a case of those 10 years just being too high a standard and everything perfectly coming together.

So right now, I'd say the difference with Danowski is he's had the top 1-4 offensive guys in the country for the past 10 years. I mean, put O'Neill on this Maryland team and it's a favorite for the national championship. Tills has missed out on some recent recruits (PSU #4??) and transfers; Duke has not...

There is no way with O'neill this team would be favorite over Notre Dame, Penn State, Duke, and likely several others.

I wouldn't make them the favorite over Notre Dame

But if you gave this Maryland team a guy like O'Neill who draws a double team basically every time he touches it, and is capable of passing out of them to punish the defense for bad rotations, you would instantly solve one of the main issues with this Maryland team, which is that the defense doesn't respect anyone dodging and doesn't have to double team, and when they do, there isn't really a player who can pass out of it. Suddenly there would be so, so much more space for the offense to move the ball and find holes to exploit; instead of as Wheels said earlier in this thread, the defensive zone basically being a traffic jam

[PulpExposure]

I think one thing that has really surprised me this year with the Terps is just how they don't seem to be great at the fundamentals. Basic passing and catching has been an issue on offense all year (lots of bad passes leading to turnovers), clearing, etc. Ground balls they've been typically Maryland good (+49 for the season), but they're behind in the TO battle (-17), clears (87.5% to 93.5% for opponents), and special teams (EMO is bad at 36%, but man down defense is atrocious at 59%). At least the defense isn't facing a lot of man down opportunities so that's a positive, I guess.

You don't expect Maryland to beat itself, typically, but when you have a razor thin margin for error, any self-inflicted injury like an unforced TO or failed clear is a serious problem.

[Finster]

I think one thing that has really surprised me this year with the Terps is just how they don't seem to be great at the fundamentals. Basic passing and catching has been an issue on offense all year (lots of bad passes leading to turnovers), clearing, etc. Ground balls they've been typically Maryland good (+49 for the season), but they're behind in the TO battle (-17), clears (87.5% to 93.5% for opponents), and special teams (EMO is bad at 36%, but man down defense is atrocious at 59%). At least the defense isn't facing a lot of man down opportunities so that's a positive, I guess.

You don't expect Maryland to beat itself, typically, but when you have a razor thin margin for error, any self-inflicted injury like an unforced TO or failed clear is a serious problem.

Does Maryland even have a ride?

[masondixonlax]

I think one thing that has really surprised me this year with the Terps is just how they don't seem to be great at the fundamentals. Basic passing and catching has been an issue on offense all year (lots of bad passes leading to turnovers), clearing, etc. Ground balls they've been typically Maryland good (+49 for the season), but they're behind in the TO battle (-17), clears (87.5% to 93.5% for opponents), and special teams (EMO is bad at 36%, but man down defense is atrocious at 59%). At least the defense isn't facing a lot of man down opportunities so that's a positive, I guess.

You don't expect Maryland to beat itself, typically, but when you have a razor thin margin for error, any self-inflicted injury like an unforced TO or failed clear is a serious problem.

+100

The majority of games I watched there were so many unforced errors and just stupid turnovers you wouldn’t expect from a division 1 lacrosse team, let alone a team a Maryland team. That one thing that always bothered me about Erska. So sloppy and careless with the ball but I would forget about it after he would net a couple goals. Just not used to that type of play from MD. Think all starting spots should be up for grabs next year. Spanos is good in spurts but not consistent.

[Bmk2222]

On the bright side the past 2 years haven’t been bad years to be down. ND basically has dominated - look at UVA, I guarantee they started the season with Natty in full mind, what do you think they are thinking now. My point a team like UVA with complete studs will most likely be watching on Memorial Day just like the Terps will be….

[masondixonlax]

On the bright side the past 2 years haven’t been bad years to be down. ND basically has dominated - look at UVA, I guarantee they started the season with Natty in full mind, what do you think they are thinking now. My point a team like UVA with complete studs will most likely be watching on Memorial Day just like the Terps will be….

Which is wild given the amount of talent they have (UVA)

[jrn19]

The turnovers are largely down to what we've talked about, there's no space on the offensive end and no one dodges with conviction, so they just force passes. You also only have 2 or 3 players who have the high level lacrosse IQ for the offense they want to run, and one of them in Malever has next to no explosiveness. So the ball is winding up in the sticks of guys who shouldn't have the ball in their stick that much.

Clearing was an adventure in the middle of the year, very unlike this team. But this is also the first time in awhile they don't have athletes at shortie who can punt return clear it. So it's a lot of goalie and long pole play. Not good!

The ride feels like a deliberate strategy to slow the game down and help the defense out since the offense doesn't score. They've never been UVA on the ride, but they were very good at it the last few years. I think they should do it more in an attempt to manufacture offense and boost possession differential, but I don't think it's a huge differentiator with this team.

I thought the fundamentals/situational stuff bothered me more last year, where it felt like they were a really good team who lacked the edge needed to be great, and if they had that, I think they would have been in the Final Four again.

This year, it's more personnel inflicted to a degree and I don't think it's holding them back from meaningfully different results; but it's 100% still frustrating

[keno in reno]

On the bright side the past 2 years haven’t been bad years to be down. ND basically has dominated - look at UVA, I guarantee they started the season with Natty in full mind, what do you think they are thinking now. My point a team like UVA with complete studs will most likely be watching on Memorial Day just like the Terps will be….

Which is wild given the amount of talent they have (UVA)

I dunno, UVA dominated ND for 2.8 games last season and ND ended up the champion. This ND team is certainly better than UVA, but that doesn't mean UVA can't beat them or anyone. Lars is building a pretty good Final 4 resume.

As for the Terps, they will get in the tournament. As a fan that's great and you never know what a Tillman team could do. But I can't take another 60 minutes of agony. Reminds me of the Cottle teams that would make the Final 4 and then get pasted by Duke 18-9 4 weeks after beating them, or score 5 goals against UMass. Painful.

[wgdsr]

On the bright side the past 2 years haven’t been bad years to be down. ND basically has dominated - look at UVA, I guarantee they started the season with Natty in full mind, what do you think they are thinking now. My point a team like UVA with complete studs will most likely be watching on Memorial Day just like the Terps will be….

Which is wild given the amount of talent they have (UVA)

I dunno, UVA dominated ND for 2.8 games last season and ND ended up the champion. This ND team is certainly better than UVA, but that doesn't mean UVA can't beat them or anyone. Lars is building a pretty good Final 4 resume.

As for the Terps, they will get in the tournament. As a fan that's great and you never know what a Tillman team could do. But I can't take another 60 minutes of agony. Reminds me of the Cottle teams that would make the Final 4 and then get pasted by Duke 18-9 4 weeks after beating them, or score 5 goals against UMass. Painful.

can't believe the domers won their 3rd consecutive title so quickly! february seemed like just weeks ago.

[masondixonlax]

On the bright side the past 2 years haven’t been bad years to be down. ND basically has dominated - look at UVA, I guarantee they started the season with Natty in full mind, what do you think they are thinking now. My point a team like UVA with complete studs will most likely be watching on Memorial Day just like the Terps will be….

Which is wild given the amount of talent they have (UVA)

I dunno, UVA dominated ND for 2.8 games last season and ND ended up the champion. This ND team is certainly better than UVA, but that doesn't mean UVA can't beat them or anyone. Lars is building a pretty good Final 4 resume.

As for the Terps, they will get in the tournament. As a fan that's great and you never know what a Tillman team could do. But I can't take another 60 minutes of agony. Reminds me of the Cottle teams that would make the Final 4 and then get pasted by Duke 18-9 4 weeks after beating them, or score 5 goals against UMass. Painful.

can't believe the domers won their 3rd consecutive title so quickly! february seemed like just weeks ago.

?

[Wheels]

On the bright side the past 2 years haven’t been bad years to be down. ND basically has dominated - look at UVA, I guarantee they started the season with Natty in full mind, what do you think they are thinking now. My point a team like UVA with complete studs will most likely be watching on Memorial Day just like the Terps will be….

Which is wild given the amount of talent they have (UVA)

I dunno, UVA dominated ND for 2.8 games last season and ND ended up the champion. This ND team is certainly better than UVA, but that doesn't mean UVA can't beat them or anyone. Lars is building a pretty good Final 4 resume.

As for the Terps, they will get in the tournament. As a fan that's great and you never know what a Tillman team could do. But I can't take another 60 minutes of agony. Reminds me of the Cottle teams that would make the Final 4 and then get pasted by Duke 18-9 4 weeks after beating them, or score 5 goals against UMass. Painful.

can't believe the domers won their 3rd consecutive title so quickly! february seemed like just weeks ago.

?

Their mythical 2022 title.

[HopFan16]

Maryland looking like they will host Georgetown or Penn. As rough as they’ve looked, think both games are winnable.

[jrn19]

Could be Princeton as well if they win the Ivy. Terps really dominated possession in that first match-up

We've seen this script happen before with the Terps; 2015 they lost their last two in ugly fashion and then had Yale Round 1, pulled off a come from behind win, upset a highly touted UNC team in QFs, got all the way to Memorial Day

2019 they lost two ugly ones to Hopkins, went on the road and beat Towson, should have beat UVA.

I don't think it happens this year, but this is where Tills has always earned his $. Hopefully a great crowd comes out and gives the team some juice

[masondixonlax]

Is it possible/ likely that MD lost at large bid with Penn state losing?