Johns Hopkins 2021

[flalax22]

It should always be an open competition for playing time

[nyjay]

So I guess the VAC has to know something about goalie play?

[Homer]

Admin not giving lax the support its had in the past came from the deposed coaching staff, a former star player/podcaster, the local newspaper, every major lacrosse publication, espn analysts, alumni and famed forum commenters who are the most plugged in and was said here for years before that by many of you.

You say that like you just listed a bunch of independent sources of information, when actually it's like six guys repeating the same stuff they got from each other.

[10stone5]

John Grant Jr. at his best,
the 2006 World Lacrosse Championship,

http://pointstreak.com/framed/prostats/ ... sonid=1285

[a fan]

Johns Hopkins is making these hires even as the university faces a $100 million budget deficit and President Daniels himself takes a 20% pay cut.

If you want to see a different approach, take a look at the distinguished Cornell program.

How do you know Milliman didn't get less than Petro was being paid?

[DocBarrister]

Johns Hopkins is making these hires even as the university faces a $100 million budget deficit and President Daniels himself takes a 20% pay cut.

If you want to see a different approach, take a look at the distinguished Cornell program.

How do you know Milliman didn't get less than Petro was being paid?

What would it matter? The search firm costs alone probably overwhelm any salary savings.

The key thing here is that Hopkins just made three new hires for lacrosse while the university is facing the most serious fiscal emergency since the late 1980s.

DocBarrister

[MDlaxfan76]

Johns Hopkins is making these hires even as the university faces a $100 million budget deficit and President Daniels himself takes a 20% pay cut.

If you want to see a different approach, take a look at the distinguished Cornell program.

How do you know Milliman didn't get less than Petro was being paid?

What would it matter? The search firm costs alone probably overwhelm any salary savings.

The key thing here is that Hopkins just made three new hires for lacrosse while the university is facing the most serious fiscal emergency since the late 1980s.

DocBarrister

Should they have not done so, Doc?
Or did I miss your point?

Edit, ahh scrolled back...you're just saying that Hopkins has demonstrated support for the program.

[51percentcorn]

Search firm was a bit of a sham I think. Put out there - as I said before to convey importance of the issue and to pay a small homage to Petro. It's not like you are looking for a CEO or COO where there literally could be 1,000 candidates. This took 13 days during a national/world crisis and lo and behold they hired a head coach of another program - a guy that over half the posters here named as a possibility the day after Petro was gone. I'm not sure the money was significant or well spent. Still, these hires, while maybe not breaking the bank are REAL hires and offer evidence the administration took this seriously and still recognize some importance of lacrosse to the school.

Now comes the hard part. I still maintain no one can coach a team of 62-65 people. Unlike college football where 85 players are getting complete free rides and you can tell them to sit down and shut up (and alot more people actually get to play) here you are splitting up 12.6 at a very expensive school. Whether its acting on incomplete less than perfect info and doing it now or holding open tryouts and doing it then - the fat needs to be trimmed from the brisket.

[viper]

Search firm was a bit of a sham I think. Put out there - as I said before to convey importance of the issue and to pay a small homage to Petro. It's not like you are looking for a CEO or COO where there literally could be 1,000 candidates. This took 13 days during a national/world crisis and lo and behold they hired a head coach of another program - a guy that over half the posters here named as a possibility the day after Petro was gone. I'm not sure the money was significant or well spent. Still, these hires, while maybe not breaking the bank are REAL hires and offer evidence the administration took this seriously and still recognize some importance of lacrosse to the school.

Now comes the hard part. I still maintain no one can coach a team of 62-65 people. Unlike college football where 85 players are getting complete free rides and you can tell them to sit down and shut up (and alot more people actually get to play) here you are splitting up 12.6 at a very expensive school. Whether its acting on incomplete less than perfect info and doing it now or holding open tryouts and doing it then - the fat needs to be trimmed from the brisket.

Yes, there is no way they can start the next season (whenever that is) with 62-65 people. If there are folks they decide "don't belong" I am sure they will get that message sooner rather than later. Having said that, unless there is a clear reason to drop/push/move someone along (so to speak) it's also common for coaches to not rush to trim the roster and let time make some decisions for them (aka, injury, academics). I know of one DIII team that ended their fall with 58 on the roster and when January arrived (6 weeks later) they lost 11 kids just through injury, academic issues or priorities and other reasons. Granted that is DIII but the point is, I wouln't fault the coaches for letting time play out a bit before making decisions like that.

[Sagittarius A*]

Yes, there is no way they can start the next season (whenever that is) with 62-65 people. If there are folks they decide "don't belong" I am sure they will get that message sooner rather than later. Having said that, unless there is a clear reason to drop/push/move someone along (so to speak) it's also common for coaches to not rush to trim the roster and let time make some decisions for them (aka, injury, academics). I know of one DIII team that ended their fall with 58 on the roster and when January arrived (6 weeks later) they lost 11 kids just through injury, academic issues or priorities and other reasons. Granted that is DIII but the point is, I wouln't fault the coaches for letting time play out a bit before making decisions like that.

I would tell the goalie to move on right now.

[LaxPundit07]

I would think the JK and JGJ hires would put to bed any of the tactical concerns our forum lurkers had about Milliman. And let’s be honest, how many of those concerns were born from one televised game against Maryland? Other than the Teat shutoff game, how many of Milliman’s “game tactician” critics actually viewed significant Cornell film and deemed his Xs and Os sub par?....

[nrthcrosslax]

Yes, there is no way they can start the next season (whenever that is) with 62-65 people. If there are folks they decide "don't belong" I am sure they will get that message sooner rather than later. Having said that, unless there is a clear reason to drop/push/move someone along (so to speak) it's also common for coaches to not rush to trim the roster and let time make some decisions for them (aka, injury, academics). I know of one DIII team that ended their fall with 58 on the roster and when January arrived (6 weeks later) they lost 11 kids just through injury, academic issues or priorities and other reasons. Granted that is DIII but the point is, I wouln't fault the coaches for letting time play out a bit before making decisions like that.

I would tell the goalie to move on right now.

but who would you replace him with? Do you think Marcille or the incoming freshman can do it?

[MDlaxfan76]

Yes, there is no way they can start the next season (whenever that is) with 62-65 people. If there are folks they decide "don't belong" I am sure they will get that message sooner rather than later. Having said that, unless there is a clear reason to drop/push/move someone along (so to speak) it's also common for coaches to not rush to trim the roster and let time make some decisions for them (aka, injury, academics). I know of one DIII team that ended their fall with 58 on the roster and when January arrived (6 weeks later) they lost 11 kids just through injury, academic issues or priorities and other reasons. Granted that is DIII but the point is, I wouln't fault the coaches for letting time play out a bit before making decisions like that.

I would tell the goalie to move on right now.

Are there two better tenders on the roster?

[steel_hop]

He looked better to me in 2020—he required literally half as many shots to score the same number of goals he had the year before.

Let's not go crazy. He scored 3 goals in the first game against Towson, 1 goal in the second game and then didn't score a goal over the other 4 games. He wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire for a guy that was in his 3rd year starting on 1st line.

I didn't say he was lighting the world on fire, did I? I said he looked better. His shooting percentage doubled and he matched his entire 2019 goal output in six games. That is better. How many hat tricks did he have in 2019? How many times did he beat his matchup to score in 2019? There was improvement. That is literally all I said. Nobody is going crazy here.

Very fair. I'm just not going to get overly excited about his play. As a freshman he demonstrated he could go from high school to college and provide some good production so long as he wasn't the focus of the offense. Sophomore year he struggled and mostly was because he was more of focus drawing better defensive assignments. His issue is that he isn't particularly big and he isn't particularly fast or quick. He definitely added weight his sophomore year that added to some of his issues. Junior year he looked a little better but still wasn't productive enough. Hopefully, PM can get more out of him.

[MDlaxfan76]

Search firm was a bit of a sham I think. Put out there - as I said before to convey importance of the issue and to pay a small homage to Petro. It's not like you are looking for a CEO or COO where there literally could be 1,000 candidates. This took 13 days during a national/world crisis and lo and behold they hired a head coach of another program - a guy that over half the posters here named as a possibility the day after Petro was gone. I'm not sure the money was significant or well spent. Still, these hires, while maybe not breaking the bank are REAL hires and offer evidence the administration took this seriously and still recognize some importance of lacrosse to the school.

Now comes the hard part. I still maintain no one can coach a team of 62-65 people. Unlike college football where 85 players are getting complete free rides and you can tell them to sit down and shut up (and alot more people actually get to play) here you are splitting up 12.6 at a very expensive school. Whether its acting on incomplete less than perfect info and doing it now or holding open tryouts and doing it then - the fat needs to be trimmed from the brisket.

Yes, there is no way they can start the next season (whenever that is) with 62-65 people. If there are folks they decide "don't belong" I am sure they will get that message sooner rather than later. Having said that, unless there is a clear reason to drop/push/move someone along (so to speak) it's also common for coaches to not rush to trim the roster and let time make some decisions for them (aka, injury, academics). I know of one DIII team that ended their fall with 58 on the roster and when January arrived (6 weeks later) they lost 11 kids just through injury, academic issues or priorities and other reasons. Granted that is DIII but the point is, I wouln't fault the coaches for letting time play out a bit before making decisions like that.

Of course, it also depends on when they are actually allowed back on campus and can practice. It's not remotely clear yet that such will be possible this fall.

But whenever they get going, I'd think that there'd be some cuts and some redshirt requests pretty quickly.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bias to keep younger players over upper classmen who've never broken through.

[steel_hop]

Wow. John Grant Jr is the new OC.

DocBarrister

Great hire. I doubt Hopkins will try to choke the air out of the ball like did with DP controlling the offense. They also won't play slow and will force more transition which is where the powers that be want the game to go.

[nrthcrosslax]

Very fair. I'm just not going to get overly excited about his play. As a freshman he demonstrated he could go from high school to college and provide some good production so long as he wasn't the focus of the offense. Sophomore year he struggled and mostly was because he was more of focus drawing better defensive assignments. His issue is that he isn't particularly big and he isn't particularly fast or quick. He definitely added weight his sophomore year that added to some of his issues. Junior year he looked a little better but still wasn't productive enough. Hopefully, PM can get more out of him.

Second time someone has mentioned getting bigger between freshman and sophomore year impacting production. People have also mentioned the seemingly high number of injuries. I wonder who becomes the new strength coach?

[HopFan16]

So I guess the VAC has to know something about goalie play?

Was wondering about this—you now have two mostly offensive minds in Milliman and Grant Jr. who were both attackmen in their playing days, and Koesterer though he has done a lot of good work with the UMBC and OSU defenses, was a faceoff midfielder in college, and has never actually played much defense to my knowledge. I don't know how important it is what position the volunteer assistant played in college—it didn't seem to make a difference with Larry Quinn helping out, but for balance sake you might want a volunteer who has some direct experience either with a pole or in cage. That said I still think you get the best guy you can regardless of area of expertise. I remain a fan of the idea of Tinney.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bias to keep younger players over upper classmen who've never broken through.

It almost has to be this way, IMO. You need young guys on the roster for the future. You can't just cut into that group without damaging your future. Second, it'd be pretty unfair to have high school seniors (who've had their final seasons cut short) compete directly against college kids who have multiple years worth of D1 level game/practice/training/workout experience and technique. Tryouts seem like a pretty difficult thing to parse—upperclassmen X might look better than underclassman Y on tryout day but Y very well may have a lot more potential than the other guy in the long term.

Other programs are going to be faced with the same issue. It will be interesting to see how each staff handles it. In a way I think it'll be easier for PM since he's just coming in and has to assess the roster anyway. Longtime coaches who have strong existing relationships with their players will have unfortunate decisions to make.

[kramerica.inc]

I would think the JK and JGJ hires would put to bed any of the tactical concerns our forum lurkers had about Milliman. And let’s be honest, how many of those concerns were born from one televised game against Maryland? Other than the Teat shutoff game, how many of Milliman’s “game tactician” critics actually viewed significant Cornell film and deemed his Xs and Os sub par?....

Does it?

The JK hire was a bone to alums.

And JGJ is a great name in lacrosse, but his coaching chops are still TBD. His main coaching accomplishment is still list taking a Denver h/s to the state playoffs a few years in a row.

Not saying they will be bad hires. Just more window dressing and optimism than proven commodities at this point.

[nyjay]

I like the idea of Tinney as VAC as well - Hop going Canadian (PM is an honorary Canadian based on his recruiting) would be quite a shock. It's a tremendous bonus that JK can handle the face-off unit in a first class way, but I do wonder about the goalie situation. Not that having one of the best goalies in history on staff actually seemed to help over the last couple of years. I assume most DI goalies have their own guy at home who they've worked with over the years, so maybe that's the answer.

MDLaxFan76, you're the resident goalie expert. What say you?