Johns Hopkins 2021

[flalax22]

It’s an interesting point to monitor which teams had and did not have fall ball - especially for early season games. I know Hopkins and Gtown for example did not. Where as Ohio State and Villanova (who Gtown plays today) did. I feel like it is being underestimated how important that fall is - just implementing your system, not only offense and defense - but rides, clears, terminology, freshman development, etc. So now the first couple weeks of the spring that needs to happen - causing those teams to be way behind.

I’d assume Hopkins will be much better by the end of the year.

Lack of fall ball certainly impacts systems, rides, clears etc. It does not explain bad passes and not being able to catch or finish. That’s stuff that you should be working on everyday regardless of program status.

[flalax22]

Random thoughts:
- Expectations were low and the team looked like a bunch of people who hadn't played together
- I was slightly surprised at the nature of some of the turnovers - literally not being able to hold onto the ball - but both teams were sloppy
- One thing that hasn't changed - and needs to - is groundballs - I bring this up because part of that is simply effort but the issues of the past few years continue - On a global view Hopkins won 2 more face-offs but lost the gb battle by 7 (which is bad enough) but when you dig deeper you see that Narewski/DeSimone and Epstein accounted for 18 of the 26 ground balls and while all "non starters" gathered a paltry 4 that means that the other 8 starters managed a grand total of 4 as well. Tarafenko only had 6 gbs for Ohio State - the other face-off guys got 1 so Ohio State had at least 26 non face-off man gbs while Hopkins had 17. This extends possessions - accounts for too many possessions when you lose the majority of 50/50 face-offs - which leads to the defense getting tired and the goalie seeing 27 rubber spheres.
- Obviously with the situation personnel is going to have to be a fluid but the defensive mid-field stood out as a question mark and a mess - very interesting that Glassmeyer and Jaronski were absent and maybe the most omnipresent defensive middie was a child who probably never played the position before. Well actually 2 might have never played the position before if you count Shure as well and then throw in that your #1 LSM was a walk-on and you have the problems that you have in that even if you like that group's athleticism its certainly understandable in the heat of the first battle they forget everything with such little practice.
- The only assisted goal in the first 8 of OSU's was a pretty simple pass in transition to DeBerry - while again understandable that no one knew what they were doing - and I don't want cheap shots but somebody in Scarlet and Grey needed to end up on their butt.
- No Szuluk
- Interesting that Prouty only took 4 draws (and lost all of them) - I wonder what that was about - nicked up or they thought Narewski could battle the physical Tarfenko better?
- Offensively - they looked horrible against the zone and I imagine the Wolverines will be practicing their zone defense - Grimes/Epstein and Zinn with 9 of the 19 turnovers - 32 total shots - 25% shooting - While I like Angelus - he really took almost a quarter of the team's shots? Basically the same total as Epstein, Williams and Grimes put together? This is clearly a strength of the Ohio State team and their defense will keep them in alot of games.
- Hopkins needs shooters - if Grimes has this cannon it needs to come onto the battlefield - understand it was his first college game under very difficult circumstances but Hopkins desperately needs shots - I'll take 7 misses from Grimes as long as they're missiles getting the defense and the goalie thinking. Isn't one of the freshmen O'Jays reknowned for outside shooting? - get him out there - for a team that in some ways survived the last few years with good if not great shooters - Wharton/Benn/Brown even Marr - there is no one that consistently worries a defense from outside 10 right now
- DeSimone certainly looked like a different player at attack - hopefully he can keep it up - though it may take some time for him and Epstein to figure out the roles

If you listened to the post game press conference it’s pretty obvious what’s up with Prouty. Milliman referenced the position requirements have changed and no longer rely on technique and timing and that it’s pretty much a ground ball battle. I don’t know that we will see Prouty again. That was never his strength.

[Sagittarius A*]

Josh Kirson is a very capable goalie. Made some excellent saves that kept this game from becoming embarrassing. Liked his work on clears, too.

DocBarrister

Kirson made a lot of spectacular saves yesterday and he wasn't getting much help from his defense.
Sort of made the IL disinformation of him and Grimes being in a battle for their starting slots look silly. Didn't they also say Murphy was in the mix at attack? LOL.

Definitely looked like a team that hasn't practiced a whole lot. But they fought back and didn't quit in the second half. Although it's early in the season, DeSimone's success yesterday highlights one of the issues we had with the last coaching staff. It's one thing to recruit players, it's quite another to get the most out of them. That starts with getting them in the right positions to begin with.

I think this group can probably beat Michigan next week, but not sure I'm seeing any other wins in the first half of this schedule. However, if they clean up the sloppiness, get some more people involved in the offense and fix some of the defensive problems, this team can compete. I think they may win some games in the second half and maybe in the BIG tournament. With good goalie play and good play at the X, this team has something to build on.

Last year, I thought it was just hopeless. I'm definitely not feeling that way this season.

[HopFan16]

It’s an interesting point to monitor which teams had and did not have fall ball - especially for early season games. I know Hopkins and Gtown for example did not. Where as Ohio State and Villanova (who Gtown plays today) did. I feel like it is being underestimated how important that fall is - just implementing your system, not only offense and defense - but rides, clears, terminology, freshman development, etc. So now the first couple weeks of the spring that needs to happen - causing those teams to be way behind.

I’d assume Hopkins will be much better by the end of the year.

Lack of fall ball certainly impacts systems, rides, clears etc. It does not explain bad passes and not being able to catch or finish. That’s stuff that you should be working on everyday regardless of program status.

I agree with you on a lot but I sorta resent the implication of this post. It's a bit difficult to work on those things when campus is shutdown for 10 days and student athletes are forced to quarantine in their homes/dorms that entire time. It's not just that facilities were closed but that the players were literally isolated inside. We discussed this earlier when talking about whether or not it was a good idea to postpone the game. As far as I know they don't have their own goals to shoot on. Some may not even have adequate walls for wall ball. Work ethic isn't an issue. They've missed a ton of time, both in the offseason and very recently as they were meant to be preparing for this game. I don't think anything we saw should surprise you.

In the postgame presser Milliman says they haven't even had time to install a zone offense. When you're thrown out there generally underprepared, fundamentals tend to break down. Play is sloppy this time of year to begin with. This will all improve over the course of the season.

Most of the problems from yesterday are going to get better. The big one that's going to have staying power is the inexperience and lack of speed at SSDM. No easy fix for that.

[flalax22]

It’s an interesting point to monitor which teams had and did not have fall ball - especially for early season games. I know Hopkins and Gtown for example did not. Where as Ohio State and Villanova (who Gtown plays today) did. I feel like it is being underestimated how important that fall is - just implementing your system, not only offense and defense - but rides, clears, terminology, freshman development, etc. So now the first couple weeks of the spring that needs to happen - causing those teams to be way behind.

I’d assume Hopkins will be much better by the end of the year.

Lack of fall ball certainly impacts systems, rides, clears etc. It does not explain bad passes and not being able to catch or finish. That’s stuff that you should be working on everyday regardless of program status.

I agree with you on a lot but I sorta resent the implication of this post. It's a bit difficult to work on those things when campus is shutdown for 10 days and student athletes are forced to quarantine in their homes/dorms that entire time. It's not just that facilities were closed but that the players were literally isolated inside. We discussed this earlier when talking about whether or not it was a good idea to postpone the game. As far as I know they don't have their own goals to shoot on. Some may not even have adequate walls for wall ball. Work ethic isn't an issue. They've missed a ton of time, both in the offseason and very recently as they were meant to be preparing for this game. I don't think anything we saw should surprise you.

In the postgame presser Milliman says they haven't even had time to install a zone offense. When you're thrown out there generally underprepared, fundamentals tend to break down. Play is sloppy this time of year to begin with. This will all improve over the course of the season.

Most of the problems from yesterday are going to get better. The big one that's going to have staying power is the inexperience and lack of speed at SSDM. No easy fix for that.

That’s a fair point and I wasn’t really thinking about the pre season which certainly hampered things with the lockdown and the recent weather. I was more commenting on that a lack of fall ball while difficult to implement systems shouldn’t and I don’t think did hamper the players ability to work on stick skills.

[primitiveskills]

It’s an interesting point to monitor which teams had and did not have fall ball - especially for early season games. I know Hopkins and Gtown for example did not. Where as Ohio State and Villanova (who Gtown plays today) did. I feel like it is being underestimated how important that fall is - just implementing your system, not only offense and defense - but rides, clears, terminology, freshman development, etc. So now the first couple weeks of the spring that needs to happen - causing those teams to be way behind.

I’d assume Hopkins will be much better by the end of the year.

Lack of fall ball certainly impacts systems, rides, clears etc. It does not explain bad passes and not being able to catch or finish. That’s stuff that you should be working on everyday regardless of program status.

I agree with you on a lot but I sorta resent the implication of this post. It's a bit difficult to work on those things when campus is shutdown for 10 days and student athletes are forced to quarantine in their homes/dorms that entire time. It's not just that facilities were closed but that the players were literally isolated inside. We discussed this earlier when talking about whether or not it was a good idea to postpone the game. As far as I know they don't have their own goals to shoot on. Some may not even have adequate walls for wall ball. Work ethic isn't an issue. They've missed a ton of time, both in the offseason and very recently as they were meant to be preparing for this game. I don't think anything we saw should surprise you.

In the postgame presser Milliman says they haven't even had time to install a zone offense. When you're thrown out there generally underprepared, fundamentals tend to break down. Play is sloppy this time of year to begin with. This will all improve over the course of the season.

Most of the problems from yesterday are going to get better. The big one that's going to have staying power is the inexperience and lack of speed at SSDM. No easy fix for that.

Interesting that Milliman addressed zone defense at the presser. His explanation makes sense. This is a team that should be playing zone predominantly, but you need the time to practice. There is no slide package in the world that can compensate for weak SSDM play in a man-to-man defense.

[primitiveskills]

Random thoughts:
- Expectations were low and the team looked like a bunch of people who hadn't played together
- I was slightly surprised at the nature of some of the turnovers - literally not being able to hold onto the ball - but both teams were sloppy
- One thing that hasn't changed - and needs to - is groundballs - I bring this up because part of that is simply effort but the issues of the past few years continue - On a global view Hopkins won 2 more face-offs but lost the gb battle by 7 (which is bad enough) but when you dig deeper you see that Narewski/DeSimone and Epstein accounted for 18 of the 26 ground balls and while all "non starters" gathered a paltry 4 that means that the other 8 starters managed a grand total of 4 as well. Tarafenko only had 6 gbs for Ohio State - the other face-off guys got 1 so Ohio State had at least 26 non face-off man gbs while Hopkins had 17. This extends possessions - accounts for too many possessions when you lose the majority of 50/50 face-offs - which leads to the defense getting tired and the goalie seeing 27 rubber spheres.
- Obviously with the situation personnel is going to have to be a fluid but the defensive mid-field stood out as a question mark and a mess - very interesting that Glassmeyer and Jaronski were absent and maybe the most omnipresent defensive middie was a child who probably never played the position before. Well actually 2 might have never played the position before if you count Shure as well and then throw in that your #1 LSM was a walk-on and you have the problems that you have in that even if you like that group's athleticism its certainly understandable in the heat of the first battle they forget everything with such little practice.
- The only assisted goal in the first 8 of OSU's was a pretty simple pass in transition to DeBerry - while again understandable that no one knew what they were doing - and I don't want cheap shots but somebody in Scarlet and Grey needed to end up on their butt.
- No Szuluk
- Interesting that Prouty only took 4 draws (and lost all of them) - I wonder what that was about - nicked up or they thought Narewski could battle the physical Tarfenko better?
- Offensively - they looked horrible against the zone and I imagine the Wolverines will be practicing their zone defense - Grimes/Epstein and Zinn with 9 of the 19 turnovers - 32 total shots - 25% shooting - While I like Angelus - he really took almost a quarter of the team's shots? Basically the same total as Epstein, Williams and Grimes put together? This is clearly a strength of the Ohio State team and their defense will keep them in alot of games.
- Hopkins needs shooters - if Grimes has this cannon it needs to come onto the battlefield - understand it was his first college game under very difficult circumstances but Hopkins desperately needs shots - I'll take 7 misses from Grimes as long as they're missiles getting the defense and the goalie thinking. Isn't one of the freshmen O'Jays reknowned for outside shooting? - get him out there - for a team that in some ways survived the last few years with good if not great shooters - Wharton/Benn/Brown even Marr - there is no one that consistently worries a defense from outside 10 right now
- DeSimone certainly looked like a different player at attack - hopefully he can keep it up - though it may take some time for him and Epstein to figure out the roles

If you listened to the post game press conference it’s pretty obvious what’s up with Prouty. Milliman referenced the position requirements have changed and no longer rely on technique and timing and that it’s pretty much a ground ball battle. I don’t know that we will see Prouty again. That was never his strength.

I'm envisioning lots of angry parents of budding FOGOs moaning about writing thousands of dollars in checks to Greg Gurenlian and others for camps that now no longer look like the ticket to a D1 scholly for junior!

[HopFan16]

Fair enough—just think the combination of no fall ball and the recent 10 day shutdown was a perfect storm, in terms of both implementing systems but also literally just throwing/catching/scooping/shooting. It's one thing to do that in practice but it's another to come in cold after missing so much time and do it in the heat of the moment against a very good opponent.

I caught a bit of the ESPNU replay this morning, a few other stray thoughts:

- Williams should have been a middie awhile ago if only to help in the clearing game. Just get it to that kid out of the box and he'll do the rest.
- Deans is a really interesting prospect. Someone said it already but he's big and fast and looks the part. Covers a lot of ground quickly. He got juked out of his shoes on a LeClaire face dodge but other than that he played a solid first game.
- I counted 5 goals that can be attributed directly to one SSDM. The support wasn't great but that's tough to overcome. #37 had a decent game
- DeSimone really could have had 5 or 6 goals. He looks like a different player. Almost unrecognizable from the guy sophomore year who had the shooting yips

[nyjay]

- I counted 5 goals that can be attributed directly to one SSDM. The support wasn't great but that's tough to overcome. #37 had a decent game

I rewatched as well, and saw the same. OSU goals 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11 and 13 were pretty much guys getting beaten 1 v. 1 with no/late slide. Mostly SSDM's, but #11 was on the LSM and #2 a D. The others were either transition, due to good OSU ball movement to the off-wing (44) with guys being late to close out and the last one was just garbage time.

That, of course, doesn't address a lot of quality looks that OSU had where Kirson bailed out the D with a good save.

Certainly seems like we've moved away from an overcomplicated D scheme. Looks like we just need one more SSDM who can cover. I think we'll find one.

Really enjoying this Cuse/Army game. #goArmy.

[Mr. F]

Not that it matters a whole lot at this point, but I actually think we’ll stay in the top 20 this week, especially with Villanova getting blasted by GTown and our play in the second half. Although, still not great to be ranked behind Stony Brook.

[Big Dog]

Random thoughts:
- Expectations were low and the team looked like a bunch of people who hadn't played together
- I was slightly surprised at the nature of some of the turnovers - literally not being able to hold onto the ball - but both teams were sloppy
- One thing that hasn't changed - and needs to - is groundballs - I bring this up because part of that is simply effort but the issues of the past few years continue - On a global view Hopkins won 2 more face-offs but lost the gb battle by 7 (which is bad enough) but when you dig deeper you see that Narewski/DeSimone and Epstein accounted for 18 of the 26 ground balls and while all "non starters" gathered a paltry 4 that means that the other 8 starters managed a grand total of 4 as well. Tarafenko only had 6 gbs for Ohio State - the other face-off guys got 1 so Ohio State had at least 26 non face-off man gbs while Hopkins had 17. This extends possessions - accounts for too many possessions when you lose the majority of 50/50 face-offs - which leads to the defense getting tired and the goalie seeing 27 rubber spheres.

yes, we are not good on GB's, and haven't been for years. But IMO, it's Hop's more lack of quickness (and athleticism) than it is 'effort' -- I saw plenty of effort, but guys are just getting beat 1-on-1, and that first step is key to blow by the opposition and get to the ball first.

[HopFan16]

At least our defense might be better than Syracuse's?

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Not that it matters a whole lot at this point, but I actually think we’ll stay in the top 20 this week, especially with Villanova getting blasted by GTown and our play in the second half. Although, still not great to be ranked behind Stony Brook.

Top 20/25 Rankings don’t mean diddly squat at any point in the season.

They are merely popularity contests promoted by media to drum up conversation.

The real metrics are what it takes to get into the tourney, and then from there, taking your bracket one game at a time and fulfilling your destiny.

[jhu08]

The real metrics are what it takes to get into the tourney, and then from there, taking your bracket one game at a time and fulfilling your destiny.

Our "tournament" likely starts with the round of 128 on Saturday, May 1.

Everything else is noise.

[jhu06]

At least our defense might be better than Syracuse's?

-2010 you had young guys push out unproductive veterans. lilly, lyne, dipietro, mabett if you can't play man at the d1 level as a vet after you were exposed last year. that's not fall ball it's conditioning, talent, and a view from the sideline. Lillys bio has DP listed as head coach, I hope the password for the site isn't 123WOMBAT.
-DiPietro 6'2, Mabbett/Lilly 6'4. I guess we're going big there again.
-McManus wasn't terrible. He's a big piece this year.
-broadcast was an absolute dumpster fire. Hopkins Lacrosse is a longtime espn property. we have a contract with them like they do with the NFL and major league baseball and Jay Alter doesn't know that there's an S on johns and neither he nor carc know the numbers of players (I thought roster memorization along w/hair and makeup was a graduate level course at the Newhouse school). Alter lives in Darien, not Missoula, that's a benching for me. I realize that this is not the 1992 dream team but they knew maybe 4 players and regularly confused grimes for connor disimone. Do your homework.
-transition d, starts with picking up groundballs on offense and not taking awful shots. Outside shooting was not good and a lot of the shots were deflected in bound.
-Baskin doesn't have the size or toughness inside, they need someone who can live inside and finish. It was a problem too often last year
-need stronger wings, Narewski can't do it all.
-Ohio State has the biggest athletics staff of any school in the country and their uniforms look like a 1983 beer league team that picked the cheapest option from china town. They need a white outline on the red numbers on the blackshirts otherwise they look like cherries on fudge sauce and you can't read a thing.
-Who is the pat fraser, ryan brown on this roster. we know what epstein, williams, zinn, connor are, but angelus/degnon/keough/baskin seems like they're guys who run around the periphery and just wait for a mistake to score.
-pregame program recognizing military relationship was really good. Harvard in particular and many good schools have had fraught relationships w/rotc over the years but it's one of the more underrated parts of the school and some of my favorite kids I went there with.
-sideline warriors would've lost their minds w/out crowd noise w/DP. At 41 minutes in after one of Mabetts goals you can hear jameson coaching him after he comes off the sideline and working with him.

[51percentcorn]

06:
I didn't see DiPietro play much if any shortstick - I saw 16 Mabbett 34 Shure and 37 Lilly - DiPietro was on the wings of ome face-offs and then got hurt when he collided with an OSU player trying to come off the field. Mabbett and Shure have never played that position and have never played at all really so your comment that they were exposed previously is not accurate. I am not going to sit here and argue they excelled but the lack of practice clearly had an impact.

With respect to your thoughts on the broadcast - I again point you to the mantra you should adopt for 2021 and going forward - No One Cares - In addition it's tough to call or color a game off a TV screen and when you are not in the same room as the other guy. You can't tell when the other person is going to speak - numbers have to be harder to see etc. Yes Alter should know how to pronounce the school's name. Carc was actually better to my ear in that he cut down on the superlatives and the laxbro words. Much of his commentary was spot on - he didn't mince words on the Hopkins defense in the first half and he offered/semi predicted the mini Hopkins run that made the game mildly interesting for a couple of minutes.

I said Hopkins needs some shooters and agree that we still rely too much on the face-off man himself

Who cares about Ohio State's choice of uniform

Not only was Ohio States zone an effective tatcic from a schematic standpoint - they played it really well especially for the first game with not alot of practice on their side - that's going to neutralize alot of midfield dodging - Degnon is more of a shooter than a dodger and he scored on a nicely crafted shot. He needs more opoortunities.

Mabbett had a tough day

[Sagittarius A*]

If you've got good goalie play, a zone makes a lot of sense.

[DocBarrister]

One highlight against Ohio State ... Epstein’s cross-field pass to a shooter (Degnon? Not sure) that was right on the money. Shot didn’t go in, but that pass was bold and sharp.

Epstein hasn’t shown his signature ankle-breaking moves behind the net, yet, and he had a tough defender on him against Ohio State, but I think he’s going to have a good season.

DocBarrister

[Matnum PI]

NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE
3:00 PM (Replay of) Ohio State vs. Johns Hopkins on ESPNU.

[Typical Lax Dad]

One highlight against Ohio State ... Epstein’s cross-field pass to a shooter (Degnon? Not sure) that was right on the money. Shot didn’t go in, but that pass was bold and sharp.

Epstein hasn’t shown his signature ankle-breaking moves behind the net, yet, and he had a tough defender on him against Ohio State, but I think he’s going to have a good season.

DocBarrister

I am keep my fingers crossed that he gets all the way back. Sometimes you just never know. Good luck.