Johns Hopkins 2021

[nyjay]

Just watch the second half. It's a tie.

[HopFan16]

Better yet, just watch the 3rd quarter. Jays win 3-1. Outshoot OSU 12-8. Perfect on clears. Win faceoffs 4-1. A scintillating performance.

In all seriousness, it is a decent sign that they didn't lay down and came out of halftime looking and playing better. Body language or effort was never an issue. I'm going to chalk up the first half to first-game jitters off a long layoff/minimal practice time and hope the team next weekend resembles the one we saw in that third quarter.

Some results in the first few games of this season—not just with us, but around the league—are going to be a bit strange. For instance, does anyone think Villanova is that bad? Utah nearly (and probably should have) beat Denver. I don't think we're going to know how good or bad teams really are until mid-March or so.

[kramerica.inc]

I'd love to jump all over the Jays for the loss. But I think this year is different and unlike any others we will see.
The last minute changes to game day rosters...the inability to even OFFER consistent/normal (full TEAM) preparation...the daily trials and tribulations none of us see.
Moral victories ARE a thing this year.
And I'd be disappointed the Jays lost this week's game (Just like my hounds did), but indeed happy and optimistic that Hopkins kept plugging away under their new coach and played a tough second half. That is a huge positive.
Stay healthy and good luck this year, guys.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

I don’t know, losing to Michigan wouldn’t be the end of the world.

If it happens, I would then root for going 0-10, winning the B1G AQ, and watching the rest of the lacrosse world scream.

3-10 tourney team. I like the sound of peaking in May and everyone having a whinge.

[jhu06]

if you dont want to hand rosemont your money next weekend or want to watch all of the paywalled games from last weekend, they're up on youtube now. Despite our game getting shown on regular espn, we have the most watches so far, lot of interest in patrick means debut.

[51percentcorn]

The DeSimone thing is easy to understand - I never agreed with it completely but at least I understood it. His freshman year Hopkins had Shack as a senior with Williams and Marr on the wings and that unit produced 58, 53 and 49 points - the team went 12-5 with only 1 bad loss (7 goals to Loyola) and had Duke at least sitting up and taking notice in the 2nd half in the quarters. DeSimone was on a mid-field line with Tinney and had some success. Then it all went haywire as 3 things occurred - first, Williams and Marr returned after the aforementioned pretty decent seasons - Marr shot almost 38% his junior year and Williams was coming off a 35 goal season so despite my thought that Marr might be the best suited player to move to the midfield I knew it was never going to happen - Second - Epstein was now in Baltimore so they obviously had an option at attacking from X - Third the midfields were decimated with the loss of Tinney, Valis and Fraser to graduation leaving Connor with Forry Smith (clearly not a mid-fielder), the freshman Zinn and a bunch of Lilliputian attack players running around as middies. So they obviously told him, you're the number one guy you're going to get the pole - you need to be bigger and stronger. So they felt it was the best round peg in a square hole and it might have cost them a damn good attackman for a year and a half. Just think if Marr had moved to mid-field in '19 - you would have had all that extra time for DeSimone and Epstein to figure out how to interact with each other and Marr still would have gotten his 100 shots which is about all you wanted him to do. Oh well.

Szuluk and Glassmeyer were the conspicuous absences from Saturday - Injured/COVID or benched? As I think '16 said - you have to think Glassmeyer could at least accomplish a little bit more over what we saw Saturday

[nyjay]

I thought the poles were generally pretty decent, so maybe Szuluk end up with the short straw on playing time.

Glassmyer baffles me. As with Ince, he was a wing/SSDM at a first rate HS program (Brunswick, CT) and I would have thought he'd be one of the first guys given a chance. He wasn't great in the abbreviated 2019 season, but I still would have thought he would be up. We'll have to see what the rotation looks like going forward. Certainly seems like 37 and 34 should be the first two up this weekend. I'm hopeful that as the team gets more practice time, one or more of the young guys start getting a few more runs.

[HopFan16]

Jaronski was another conspicuous absence. Pretty sure he was dressed on the sidelines, so not an injury.

Like I said before I think the lineup we see in Ann Arbor will not be the same as the one that started at Homewood this weekend.

I thought Glassmeyer showed some promise as an on-ball defender last year, which IMO is the first priority for an SSDM given how often opposing teams try to isolate and attack them. Definitely not perfect, also had some brain farts in the clearing game but for a freshman shortie I've seen much worse.

I don't think the SSDM or LSM positions are settled, and may not be for awhile.

[Matnum PI]

just watched the game and... That was difficult to watch. To be fair, OSU is good. But still tough to watch. With this said, JHU has plenty of talent. they just need time. which, hopefully, they'll get in the coming months.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Just finished watching the game backwards.

Another benefit, aside from 0-0, was the announcing was completely unintelligible, except you could hear “The wheels on the three buses go round and round” way too many times.

Once might have been fine. Three was just wrong.

[DocBarrister]

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

I want to watch it in reverse, so I’ll like the outcome.

All about the 0-0 tie? "Kissing one's sister?!"

Who let this riff-raff from up the street into our thread?!?

Loose the cats!

DocBarrister

[DocBarrister]

I know he is undersized but, I'd like to see Cody Ince get a shot. He's someone you don't have to teach the SSDM position to. Played it all throughout high school at McDonogh, in one of the best HS conferences in the country. Can't be much worse than what we saw this weekend.

Re: FOGO, Narewski was out there because we needed his size/strength battling for GBs against Terefenko, who is just a beast of an athlete. Against a normal FOGO I would expect to see more of Prouty. I don't think that this game necessarily signals a total changing of the guard.

Epstein will be fine.

Narewski will see most of the draws...fare better at GBs, bigger and more athletic. Prouty was solid when knee down but that's in the rear view mirror.

Prouty is a plus athlete too. I wouldn't be too sure - will probably be matchup dependent.

I hope so. Blue Jays can’t rely on just one FOGO. Ideally, with the new face off rules, we can recruit one or two old-fashioned middies like Kyle Harrison who can play offense, play defense, and take some faceoffs. Need not be HOF-caliber like Harrison, or a star like the Ohio State middie, just an old-style two-way middie who takes faceoffs.

Do they even make players like that anymore? Endangered species.

DocBarrister

[DocBarrister]

just watched the game and... That was difficult to watch. To be fair, OSU is good. But still tough to watch. With this said, JHU has plenty of talent. they just need time. which, hopefully, they'll get in the coming months.

I like the “bones” of this team. Blue Jays need practice and polish, but I think they will be a very good team by the end of the regular season. Remains to be seen whether they can improve quickly enough to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament.

DocBarrister

[Matnum PI]

and, if this season is not their best, this wouldn't be the end of the world either. they'll improve this season. but, more importantly, they need to improve more dramatically over the next few years.

[jhu08]

and, if this season is not their best, this wouldn't be the end of the world either. they'll improve this season. but, more importantly, they need to improve more dramatically over the next few years.

Yeah, my eyes are on 2022 and especially 2023.

If we make the tournament and do well this year, great! If we don't - not the end of the world.

[steel_hop]

The DeSimone thing is easy to understand - I never agreed with it completely but at least I understood it.

I understand where you are coming from because there were some decent results but I think it gets into some of the biggest reasons why the past coaches are no longer here. There was never an attempt to move guys around and I think my views on Benson are well known (as I said being the OC at Hopkins for decade and not really sniffing a HC job tells you all you need to know what other schools felt about Benson).

Let's also not ignore that the staff could have inverted DeSimone and put Williams up top as a change of pace in the offense. In fact, many of Williams best goals came from him dodging up top (a MD B1G playoff game comes to mind). Nothing says you need to keep guys in the same spot during the entire game. So I get the view of we had good success last year but as the saying goes if you aren't improving you are getting worse.

[HopFan16]

(as I said being the OC at Hopkins for decade and not really sniffing a HC job tells you all you need to know what other schools felt about Benson).

You've said this exact line like 10 times and it just isn't true. He was a finalist for the UMBC job in 2016. Does that not count as "sniffing"? Maryland, our biggest rival who could have hired one of dozens of coordinators including several of its own alums, just hired Benson as OC. Is right now really the time to be making the argument that Benson isn't valued? You're free to criticize him all you want—I've done the same on occasion over the years—but if you're trying to say his reputation isn't good, then you'd be dead wrong.

As far as DeSimone goes it's clear he is more comfortable operating around the cage than he is dodging downhill from up top. You didn't have to make him a permanent attackman or bench Kyle Marr in order to capitalize on that. It was less that he was playing the wrong "position" and more that his skill set just wasn't being optimized. Him gaining weight sophomore year as 51 mentioned was a really strange decision—assuming it was a deliberate decision and not the result of injury or something.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

We should all wish Coach Benson the best. And we should be delighted that he landed another OC position.

Now, is anyone taking up a collection, ahem, donation, ahem, for him in support of future Terp games?

[flalax22]

(as I said being the OC at Hopkins for decade and not really sniffing a HC job tells you all you need to know what other schools felt about Benson).

You've said this exact line like 10 times and it just isn't true. He was a finalist for the UMBC job in 2016. Does that not count as "sniffing"? Maryland, our biggest rival who could have hired one of dozens of coordinators including several of its own alums, just hired Benson as OC. Is right now really the time to be making the argument that Benson isn't valued? You're free to criticize him all you want—I've done the same on occasion over the years—but if you're trying to say his reputation isn't good, then you'd be dead wrong.

As far as DeSimone goes it's clear he is more comfortable operating around the cage than he is dodging downhill from up top. You didn't have to make him a permanent attackman or bench Kyle Marr in order to capitalize on that. It was less that he was playing the wrong "position" and more that his skill set just wasn't being optimized. Him gaining weight sophomore year as 51 mentioned was a really strange decision—assuming it was a deliberate decision and not the result of injury or something.

What are your thoughts on how Epstein and DeSimone will coexist. Small sample size but it sure looks like they both are comfortable behind the net and probably both at their most effective there.

[Sagittarius A*]

and, if this season is not their best, this wouldn't be the end of the world either. they'll improve this season. but, more importantly, they need to improve more dramatically over the next few years.

Yeah, my eyes are on 2022 and especially 2023.

If we make the tournament and do well this year, great! If we don't - not the end of the world.

Playoffs? Playoffs?
I think we're probably looking at a sub-.500 season this year with only a very small chance of winning the BIG tournament.
How many wins can we realistically expect against UMD, PSU, OSU, and Rutgers?
Maybe 4-6 assuming 2 wins against Michigan.
PM needs this season to right the ship. Although I'm sure he's thinking the future is now, the deck is stacked against him this year.