molo wrote: ↑Sun Feb 03, 2019 8:26 pm
I'll miss this one because of a conflict with an engagement at the RAC. Evidently, Towson gave UVA a tough scrimmage yesterday, dominating face-offs. From this weekends games, midfield depth will be especially important this year. Who is Hopkins's third dm? They need to run three. I'm also a little leery of running too many attackmen at midfield. The clock rewards athletes. Has Hopkins added some athletic middies?
After a warm week, we are looking at a high of 34 on Saturday, but it should be clear.
I haven't watched either scrimmage but behind Jones and Hubler at SSDM are:
- Marc Pion, converted from LSM last year after transferring in from Harvard—a former Under Armour All-American who had his first two years wrecked by injury
- Kyle DiPietro, converted from offensive middie last year out of high school, has barely played
- Ryan Coulter, came in with a lot of hype out of Culver but promptly got hurt and has not been a factor at all in his career till this point
- Owen McManus, freshman LSM/D who is now listed as a midfielder on the roster—assuming that means they're trying to turn him into an SSDM
It's definitely a question mark. At least one of those guys has to emerge as a decent option to run out there for a couple shifts per game and not get torched. Pion has the pedigree and now has a little bit of experience playing SSDM in this defense but I don't think anyone would argue they've been blown away by what they've seen thus far. If Coulter were going to be an option you'd think it'd have happened by now but who knows maybe he steps up in his senior season. There are a few guys in the upcoming class that may help with defensive middie depth but obviously that won't matter for 2019.
Heard through the grapevine that Gainey played really well in goal in the second half vs. Marquette. Darby is still going to start but it'd be nice to have a #2 you can rely on if needed.