Johns Hopkins 2020

[wgdsr]

because hopkins defenders, coached by pietramala and dwan, are encouraged to let players shoot when they're in range.

[primitiveskills]

Darby hasn't played poorly. I wouldn't say he played great. One of the bigger issues is that he doesn't get the ball out of the his stick on clears. He holds it way to long.

The bigger issue is the Hopkins long sticks are just awful. There isn't a good athlete among them and their stick work is horrendous - honestly the entire team has substandard stickwork. Good thing they chased Rapine away. They spend way too much time ball watching and not enough time moving. They can't defend a cutter to save their life. I get Petro likes man to man but with this group he has to play zone. There isn't enough speed or talent to match up in man-to-man on Hopkins defense. But, hey, stubborn and loyal tend to be the opposite sides of the same coin.

Fine for Petro to play man-to-man, but if you do you need to press out and pressure opponents. Get on their hands. Harass them all over the field. To use the key word of the season, if you’re going to play man-to-man in this era, you need full “buy-in” and play man-to-man aggressively.

That’s what Loyola does. That’s what North Carolina does.

Petro’s defenses are more than a decade behind the times.

DocBarrister

for the last quarter and a half, maybe.
the rest of it... you have no idea what youre talking about. youve never played, so stop speaking like an expert.
theyve created a defense and with the shot clock you can play to that. having to be aggressive has never been less necessary.

Relying on the shot clock as your 8th defender is basically the shot clock variant of a passive defense. With today’s shooters, it’s important to prevent any clean shot from any range.

Petro’s passive defense has always put too much pressure and emphasis on goalies to make the stops. It sets up Hopkins goalies for failure. North Carolina’s aggressive defense prevented many Hopkins shots from even reaching the goal.

I was thinking the same thing. Plenty of Hopkins's shots were checked/blocked way out front of the cage and only became an official shot statistic bcos they traveled in the general direction of the crease.

Yes, that’s right.

Hopkins had a much lower SOG% compared to North Carolina shooters in this game. Some of that is on the Hopkins shooters, but much of it was attributable to the aggressive North Carolina defense getting their sticks on shooters hands, blocking shots, and pressuring shooters.

Now, watch how cleanly North Carolina shooters got their shots off, even with Hopkins defenders nearby. Clearly received different coaching.

DocBarrister

Have tried hard to resist chiming in, but here it goes. If by "agressive" you mean "pressing", then UNC did not play an "aggressive" defense. Quite the opposite; they were very packed in witrh sticks in passing and shooting lanes, and their LSMs did a very nice job closing out on shooters. Hence the blocked shots. Hopkins was more aggressive, but in keeping with the past 5+ years, there were several bad slide decisions and a general inability to close out on shooters. that was the difference.

[wgdsr]

that's ridiculous, they need to be more aggressive.
look at loyola.

[DocBarrister]

and unc managed this advantage with their "aggressive"defense, turning a 3 to 2 cumulative cto advantage into a comfortable win. i think you've hit the nail on the head and lax is for dummies.

You don’t even need to look at the stats to understand the crucial difference in this game.

Just focus on the SOUND of the game.

Seems like every time a Hopkins player took a shot, you HEARD a North Carolina stick crashing on the shooter or his stick. Tar Heels constantly got their sticks on the Hopkins shooters’ hands or stick. Tar Heel defenders were in position to do that because they played defense aggressively.

Now, compare that to the SOUND you hear (or don’t hear) when North Carolina shooters shot the ball. Yes, some of that is due to the Tar Heels moving the ball better for open shots, but much of that was due to a Hopkins defender failing to pressure the North Carolina shooter.

Go ahead ... focus on the SOUND of the game and you’ll hear the difference.

DocBarrister

[primitiveskills]

that's ridiculous, they need to be more aggressive.
look at loyola.

/sarcasm?

[DocBarrister]

Darby hasn't played poorly. I wouldn't say he played great. One of the bigger issues is that he doesn't get the ball out of the his stick on clears. He holds it way to long.

The bigger issue is the Hopkins long sticks are just awful. There isn't a good athlete among them and their stick work is horrendous - honestly the entire team has substandard stickwork. Good thing they chased Rapine away. They spend way too much time ball watching and not enough time moving. They can't defend a cutter to save their life. I get Petro likes man to man but with this group he has to play zone. There isn't enough speed or talent to match up in man-to-man on Hopkins defense. But, hey, stubborn and loyal tend to be the opposite sides of the same coin.

Fine for Petro to play man-to-man, but if you do you need to press out and pressure opponents. Get on their hands. Harass them all over the field. To use the key word of the season, if you’re going to play man-to-man in this era, you need full “buy-in” and play man-to-man aggressively.

That’s what Loyola does. That’s what North Carolina does.

Petro’s defenses are more than a decade behind the times.

DocBarrister

for the last quarter and a half, maybe.
the rest of it... you have no idea what youre talking about. youve never played, so stop speaking like an expert.
theyve created a defense and with the shot clock you can play to that. having to be aggressive has never been less necessary.

Relying on the shot clock as your 8th defender is basically the shot clock variant of a passive defense. With today’s shooters, it’s important to prevent any clean shot from any range.

Petro’s passive defense has always put too much pressure and emphasis on goalies to make the stops. It sets up Hopkins goalies for failure. North Carolina’s aggressive defense prevented many Hopkins shots from even reaching the goal.

I was thinking the same thing. Plenty of Hopkins's shots were checked/blocked way out front of the cage and only became an official shot statistic bcos they traveled in the general direction of the crease.

Yes, that’s right.

Hopkins had a much lower SOG% compared to North Carolina shooters in this game. Some of that is on the Hopkins shooters, but much of it was attributable to the aggressive North Carolina defense getting their sticks on shooters hands, blocking shots, and pressuring shooters.

Now, watch how cleanly North Carolina shooters got their shots off, even with Hopkins defenders nearby. Clearly received different coaching.

DocBarrister

Have tried hard to resist chiming in, but here it goes. If by "agressive" you mean "pressing", then UNC did not play an "aggressive" defense. Quite the opposite; they were very packed in witrh sticks in passing and shooting lanes, and their LSMs did a very nice job closing out on shooters. Hence the blocked shots. Hopkins was more aggressive, but in keeping with the past 5+ years, there were several bad slide decisions and a general inability to close out on shooters. that was the difference.

Defense starts with rides, does it not?

DocBarrister

[notentitled]

north carolina quicker

[primitiveskills]

Darby hasn't played poorly. I wouldn't say he played great. One of the bigger issues is that he doesn't get the ball out of the his stick on clears. He holds it way to long.

The bigger issue is the Hopkins long sticks are just awful. There isn't a good athlete among them and their stick work is horrendous - honestly the entire team has substandard stickwork. Good thing they chased Rapine away. They spend way too much time ball watching and not enough time moving. They can't defend a cutter to save their life. I get Petro likes man to man but with this group he has to play zone. There isn't enough speed or talent to match up in man-to-man on Hopkins defense. But, hey, stubborn and loyal tend to be the opposite sides of the same coin.

Fine for Petro to play man-to-man, but if you do you need to press out and pressure opponents. Get on their hands. Harass them all over the field. To use the key word of the season, if you’re going to play man-to-man in this era, you need full “buy-in” and play man-to-man aggressively.

That’s what Loyola does. That’s what North Carolina does.

Petro’s defenses are more than a decade behind the times.

DocBarrister

for the last quarter and a half, maybe.
the rest of it... you have no idea what youre talking about. youve never played, so stop speaking like an expert.
theyve created a defense and with the shot clock you can play to that. having to be aggressive has never been less necessary.

Relying on the shot clock as your 8th defender is basically the shot clock variant of a passive defense. With today’s shooters, it’s important to prevent any clean shot from any range.

Petro’s passive defense has always put too much pressure and emphasis on goalies to make the stops. It sets up Hopkins goalies for failure. North Carolina’s aggressive defense prevented many Hopkins shots from even reaching the goal.

I was thinking the same thing. Plenty of Hopkins's shots were checked/blocked way out front of the cage and only became an official shot statistic bcos they traveled in the general direction of the crease.

Yes, that’s right.

Hopkins had a much lower SOG% compared to North Carolina shooters in this game. Some of that is on the Hopkins shooters, but much of it was attributable to the aggressive North Carolina defense getting their sticks on shooters hands, blocking shots, and pressuring shooters.

Now, watch how cleanly North Carolina shooters got their shots off, even with Hopkins defenders nearby. Clearly received different coaching.

DocBarrister

Have tried hard to resist chiming in, but here it goes. If by "agressive" you mean "pressing", then UNC did not play an "aggressive" defense. Quite the opposite; they were very packed in witrh sticks in passing and shooting lanes, and their LSMs did a very nice job closing out on shooters. Hence the blocked shots. Hopkins was more aggressive, but in keeping with the past 5+ years, there were several bad slide decisions and a general inability to close out on shooters. that was the difference.

Defense starts with rides, does it not?

DocBarrister

Was talking about their play in the defensive half, so not sure of your point.

[wgdsr]

and unc managed this advantage with their "aggressive"defense, turning a 3 to 2 cumulative cto advantage into a comfortable win. i think you've hit the nail on the head and lax is for dummies.

You don’t even need to look at the stats to understand the crucial difference in this game.

Just focus on the SOUND of the game.

Seems like every time a Hopkins player took a shot, you HEARD a North Carolina stick crashing on the shooter or his stick. Tar Heels constantly got their sticks on the Hopkins shooters’ hands or stick. Tar Heel defenders were in position to do that because they played defense aggressively.

Now, compare that to the SOUND you hear (or don’t hear) when North Carolina shooters shot the ball. Yes, some of that is due to the Tar Heels moving the ball better for open shots, but much of that was due to a Hopkins defender failing to pressure the North Carolina shooter.

Go ahead ... focus on the SOUND of the game and you’ll hear the difference.

DocBarrister

]i need more lessons like this to figure out how to understand what i'm seeing like guys like you do.
great encouragement of other sports fans.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

and unc managed this advantage with their "aggressive"defense, turning a 3 to 2 cumulative cto advantage into a comfortable win. i think you've hit the nail on the head and lax is for dummies.

You don’t even need to look at the stats to understand the crucial difference in this game.

Just focus on the SOUND of the game.

Seems like every time a Hopkins player took a shot, you HEARD a North Carolina stick crashing on the shooter or his stick. Tar Heels constantly got their sticks on the Hopkins shooters’ hands or stick. Tar Heel defenders were in position to do that because they played defense aggressively.

Now, compare that to the SOUND you hear (or don’t hear) when North Carolina shooters shot the ball. Yes, some of that is due to the Tar Heels moving the ball better for open shots, but much of that was due to a Hopkins defender failing to pressure the North Carolina shooter.

Go ahead ... focus on the SOUND of the game and you’ll hear the difference.

DocBarrister

]i need more lessons like this to figure out how to understand what i'm seeing like guys like you do.
great encouragement of other sports fans.

One way to reduce the eye pain is to use an ice pick.

[DocBarrister]

Darby hasn't played poorly. I wouldn't say he played great. One of the bigger issues is that he doesn't get the ball out of the his stick on clears. He holds it way to long.

The bigger issue is the Hopkins long sticks are just awful. There isn't a good athlete among them and their stick work is horrendous - honestly the entire team has substandard stickwork. Good thing they chased Rapine away. They spend way too much time ball watching and not enough time moving. They can't defend a cutter to save their life. I get Petro likes man to man but with this group he has to play zone. There isn't enough speed or talent to match up in man-to-man on Hopkins defense. But, hey, stubborn and loyal tend to be the opposite sides of the same coin.

Fine for Petro to play man-to-man, but if you do you need to press out and pressure opponents. Get on their hands. Harass them all over the field. To use the key word of the season, if you’re going to play man-to-man in this era, you need full “buy-in” and play man-to-man aggressively.

That’s what Loyola does. That’s what North Carolina does.

Petro’s defenses are more than a decade behind the times.

DocBarrister

for the last quarter and a half, maybe.
the rest of it... you have no idea what youre talking about. youve never played, so stop speaking like an expert.
theyve created a defense and with the shot clock you can play to that. having to be aggressive has never been less necessary.

Relying on the shot clock as your 8th defender is basically the shot clock variant of a passive defense. With today’s shooters, it’s important to prevent any clean shot from any range.

Petro’s passive defense has always put too much pressure and emphasis on goalies to make the stops. It sets up Hopkins goalies for failure. North Carolina’s aggressive defense prevented many Hopkins shots from even reaching the goal.

I was thinking the same thing. Plenty of Hopkins's shots were checked/blocked way out front of the cage and only became an official shot statistic bcos they traveled in the general direction of the crease.

Yes, that’s right.

Hopkins had a much lower SOG% compared to North Carolina shooters in this game. Some of that is on the Hopkins shooters, but much of it was attributable to the aggressive North Carolina defense getting their sticks on shooters hands, blocking shots, and pressuring shooters.

Now, watch how cleanly North Carolina shooters got their shots off, even with Hopkins defenders nearby. Clearly received different coaching.

DocBarrister

Have tried hard to resist chiming in, but here it goes. If by "agressive" you mean "pressing", then UNC did not play an "aggressive" defense. Quite the opposite; they were very packed in witrh sticks in passing and shooting lanes, and their LSMs did a very nice job closing out on shooters. Hence the blocked shots. Hopkins was more aggressive, but in keeping with the past 5+ years, there were several bad slide decisions and a general inability to close out on shooters. that was the difference.

Defense starts with rides, does it not?

DocBarrister

Was talking about their play in the defensive half, so not sure of your point.

Point is ... defense starts on rides, and offense starts on clears. It’s an entirely different, aggressive mindset.

We have seen Petro tentatively or temporarily move in those directions in past seasons, but never on a consistent basis. Just not his style. Hopkins has the personnel to play a more aggressive style.

Some of you naysayers criticize my posts, but I don’t see you offering anything about how this team could improve. Status quo? “Stay the course?”

I’m optimistic about this team. I think Hopkins should play more aggressively on defense and on rides. That’s not a radical or extreme idea.

DocBarrister

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Ain’t happening DB.

Non sequitur.

Which I believe means we don’t have the horses. Non equine. Something like that.

[HopFan16]

Not sure asking how sloppy William's was in the game is going after him. He played poorly. He 2 turnovers but also a bunch of passes that were off target and recovered by Hopkins.

After a 7-goal home loss in which virtually nobody played particularly well, the one kid you call out by name is the only guy with a hat trick? No it was not a perfect game but he was really our only player who showed an ability to beat his man (not just shorties either—he toasted Will Bowen on his last goal). Just think it's odd who you decided to single out. On the list of reasons why the game went the way it did, Williams and his 3 goals were not super high on the list.

The 6 on 6 defense wasn't good—definitely the worst of the season so far (not a surprise given the team they were facing) but it was not as bad as you might think. How many settled 6v6 goals did UNC really have? 17 in total, one of which was a garbage time goal after we started pressing out, so 16 real goals, 5 of which were extra man, that leaves 11, a few were in transition and then you had the one absolute backbreaker on the failed clear in which a UNC player was left one on one with Darby. We had 10 goals, zero in transition and just 1 EMO, so the 6v6 score was, something in the vicinity of, what, 9-9? Our settled offense pretty much matched theirs—the difference in this game were penalties giving them EMO chances aplenty and disastrous clears/turnovers.

The response to the 10-man was truly bewildering, like they had never seen it before and were just totally winging it.

[DocBarrister]

and unc managed this advantage with their "aggressive"defense, turning a 3 to 2 cumulative cto advantage into a comfortable win. i think you've hit the nail on the head and lax is for dummies.

You don’t even need to look at the stats to understand the crucial difference in this game.

Just focus on the SOUND of the game.

Seems like every time a Hopkins player took a shot, you HEARD a North Carolina stick crashing on the shooter or his stick. Tar Heels constantly got their sticks on the Hopkins shooters’ hands or stick. Tar Heel defenders were in position to do that because they played defense aggressively.

Now, compare that to the SOUND you hear (or don’t hear) when North Carolina shooters shot the ball. Yes, some of that is due to the Tar Heels moving the ball better for open shots, but much of that was due to a Hopkins defender failing to pressure the North Carolina shooter.

Go ahead ... focus on the SOUND of the game and you’ll hear the difference.

DocBarrister

]i need more lessons like this to figure out how to understand what i'm seeing like guys like you do.
great encouragement of other sports fans.

One way to reduce the eye pain is to use an ice pick.

Yes, yes ... that’s a great idea! It will help you all to listen to the SOUNDS of the game and achieve a higher level of WISDOM and INSIGHT (which you surely need).

Home Depot has a sale on a nice set of four.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/TEKTON-Mini ... lsrc=aw.ds

DocBarrister

[Laxsmitty]

Can anyone copy the link for Petro’s post game news conference? I can’t find it online. Thx

[HopFan16]

Can anyone copy the link for Petro’s post game news conference? I can’t find it online. Thx

It hasn't been posted yet. Going to be a real doozy.

[DocBarrister]

Ain’t happening DB.

Non sequitur.

Which I believe means we don’t have the horses. Non equine. Something like that.

Same tired old excuses, Old Friend.

We have the horses, lots of them. Just need to let them run.

DocBarrister

[Laxsmitty]

Can anyone copy the link for Petro’s post game news conference? I can’t find it online. Thx

It hasn't been posted yet. Going to be a real doozy.

Accountability and all .....

[DocBarrister]

Not sure asking how sloppy William's was in the game is going after him. He played poorly. He 2 turnovers but also a bunch of passes that were off target and recovered by Hopkins.

After a 7-goal home loss in which virtually nobody played particularly well, the one kid you call out by name is the only guy with a hat trick? No it was not a perfect game but he was really our only player who showed an ability to beat his man (not just shorties either—he toasted Will Bowen on his last goal). Just think it's odd who you decided to single out. On the list of reasons why the game went the way it did, Williams and his 3 goals were not super high on the list.

The 6 on 6 defense wasn't good—definitely the worst of the season so far (not a surprise given the team they were facing) but it was not as bad as you might think. How many settled 6v6 goals did UNC really have? 17 in total, one of which was a garbage time goal after we started pressing out, so 16 real goals, 5 of which were extra man, that leaves 11, a few were in transition and then you had the one absolute backbreaker on the failed clear in which a UNC player was left one on one with Darby. We had 10 goals, zero in transition and just 1 EMO, so the 6v6 score was, something in the vicinity of, what, 9-9? Our settled offense pretty much matched theirs—the difference in this game were penalties giving them EMO chances aplenty and disastrous clears/turnovers.

The response to the 10-man was truly bewildering, like they had never seen it before and were just totally winging it.

Blue Jays had lots of contributors on offense, which was reassuring. Plus, our “Chris Gray,” Joey Epstein is still at half speed.

All the new Hopkins starters need to learn from this game and keep working at it. They’ll improve with more reps.

Epstein, by the way, is making steady progress. Based on the limited information that we have, I’m not sure he will be 100% even by the end of April. We shouldn’t expect him to be. But even a partial Joey Epstein can be darn productive, as we saw today.

DocBarrister

[primitiveskills]

Point is ... defense starts on rides, and offense starts on clears. It’s an entirely different, aggressive mindset.

We have seen Petro tentatively or temporarily move in those directions in past seasons, but never on a consistent basis. Just not his style. Hopkins has the personnel to play a more aggressive style.

Some of you naysayers criticize my posts, but I don’t see you offering anything about how this team could improve. Status quo? “Stay the course?”

I’m optimistic about this team. I think Hopkins should play more aggressively on defense and on rides. That’s not a radical or extreme idea.

DocBarrister

Define "aggressive". If you are including the element of playing a ten-man ride (something that Petro hasn't done in over 20 years of coaching), then maybe you mean pressing guys all over the field? I honestly don'y know what you mean. As I said, UNC today did not press in the half-field. They packed the crease area and closed out on shooters (evidenced by very few caused turnovers but lots of deflected shots). One reason they were able to play that style is that Hopkins very rarely has more than one guy on the offensive end that can beat their man off the dodge. When you don't slide, your only responsibility on defense is closing out and then sloughing back in/ getting your stick up when off-ball.

If that's your idea, then UNC would have scored 30 today, with Gray scoring 20 of those, because we apparently have no real on-ball defenders. Instead, everyone on D is focused on slides, which makes it very difficult to get into passing lanes and close out shooters.

At some point, you have to overcome stubborness and work with what you've got. If you have defensive personnel that are better equipped for zone (or less exposed in a zone), then play zone. And play a goalie can catch up to high outside shots while your at it. But we won't do that.