Johns Hopkins 2021

[Sagittarius A*]

On the positive side, the Jays did put up double digits against a very solid defense.
The game was also very competitive into the second half until the woes in the clearing game caused the team to unravel.
You can't keep giving Maryland second chances on offense and it just demoralized the defense and took the wind went out of the team's sails.
One of the problems is too many converted attackmen playing midfield who don't seem to be able to clear the ball.
If they are not going to play Zinn much on offense, why not give him a role in the clearing game, or try him at ssdm?
He's got size and speed and he'd be a huge asset on clears. What is there to lose? He should also be playing more on the wings on FO.
Fixing the clearing has got to be the #1 issue for this team.
This team doesn't seem to be athletic enough to get balls off the ground, so I don't think there's a magic fix here.

[Old Lax Fan]

" I have a hard time remembering another kid who has developed such a complete game from having a "just a shooter" rep. He was really impressive yesterday. "

Someone who comes to mind is Joel Tinney, who tied the Hopkins record for midfield assists as a senior. But you are right. Wisnauskas had a great game.

[HopFan16]

Degnon has only taken 7 shots. Scored on 3 of them. They definitely need to draw up some more plays to get him free on the wing. When he and Epstein are on the field at the same time that's really all the outside shooting you need in order to make the defense respect both wings and soften up the middle a little bit.

That said I still don't really think the offense is doing a whole lot wrong right now. They were going goal-for-goal with Maryland until the Terps 3rd quarter run which totally left us devoid of chances and threw everything out of rhythm. But that started with failed clears, the defense tiring, and losing faceoffs.

Cole needs to be involved in the clearing game. He can be a one-man clear a la Ranagan if they used him that way. He's pretty much the only guy I trust to run north-south without getting cutesy, falling over himself, or panicking and trying to dump the ball to someone who's not ready. The SSDMs minus maybe Jaronski don't have the pure foot speed to clear effectively. It might be time to unveil Martin or Arteaga, at least to help in certain clearing situations.

[jhu06]

rewatching the game
-the flow and experience of maryland/osu defenses compared to ours is like watching 2 different sports. W/them it's like a symphony you see consistent movement, anticipation and organization. W/us you see guys heads turning, 2-3 steps behind the ball. The numbers in terms of experience of other teams offenses vs our defense and their defenses vs ours has to be something else.
-the amount of turnover there the last 3/4 years is really something. 2 staffs. turnbaugh>darby>kirson. Foley/rapine/colwell>colwell/mcmanus/lyne. Reinson/mcmanus-szu/lyne, and that's leaving out the ssdm/lsm stuff. It's a carousel. Dixon/Quint this is where you create fancy graphics for the games we pay $15 to watch.
-I've not always been very complimentary towards reinson, but I really feel for him. szuluk is new, lyne was on the bench his first 2 years. He's at a new position.
-epstein does not give up on a single second of his time on the field. Even on saves, he just chases every single opportunity to make plays.
-williams really struggles w/passing and ball control, even in year 5 on a lot of plays
-Degnon 10 goal pace after 23 goal pace last year. I know the schedule is tougher, but he also isn't a freshman.
-delaney is a former basketball player and he looks small next to grimes
-Grimes is not at the pt in his confidence or career where he knows how to assert himself in games, design opportunities for him.
-second midfield is degnon/williams and it gets about 1/4 of the run. they really don't believe in zinn anymore. Even on faceoffs he's a non factor.
-we were supposed to be favored on faceoffs, I'm not sure what happened to narewski but it also feels like his best wing options are delaney and lilly. Delaney looks so much more comfortable. They don't keep stats on what narewskis numbers are w/various players but it really feels like he wins more w/delaney and lilly there.
-second half story isn't hard to read. Benson has been an emo champ for awhile and second half has easy terp save w/keogh/mabett on d then a failed clear and degnon/mabett on d then another failed clear and eventually a 6 on 4 and 3-4 goal terp lead. That's a ton of pressure to put on a defense when mabett is new to ssdm. Poor shooting doesn't show as turnovers or emo but when it puts an offensive middie on for an extended period w/mabett, it really hurt.
-broadcasters put a better effort than carc does. they had the penalty story at the beginning of the game 7 last year vs 1 to start this year and then we had 4 yesterday.
-terps had momma turtle and daddy turtles in the stands. Hopkins parents pay a lot of $ to watch kiddos get degrees. we should be able to do this next weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEnbGWocM5w

[AreaLax]

Looks like Hopkins parents were allowed at the game yesterday
https://twitter.com/kmcnulty_219/status ... 89933?s=21

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Well, despite two of the outcomes, this season is a lot more fun than watching Oprah.

[nrthcrosslax]

What's keeping Degnon off the 1st line? All the kid does is score goals...every game. Defensive liability? Takes the same space as Williams?

[HopFan16]

What's keeping Degnon off the 1st line? All the kid does is score goals...every game. Defensive liability? Takes the same space as Williams?

Can't be more of a defensive liability than the other middies. Not sure I totally agree with it yet but I assume the philosophy is they want two middies on that line who can win a matchup vs. a shortie. Williams gets poled, so it's up to the other two. Angelus is one, and it looks like they've decided Keogh can be another. But Degnon is more of a spot-up shooter, not sure they want him iso-dodging shorties. If you have Degnon out there with Williams (who we assume in this scenario gets a pole) and Angelus, then you're relying almost entirely on Angelus as your one guy to dodge against shorties. It'd help if they let Grimes take a few runs against a shortie rather than being a stationary shooter because then you wouldn't need all your dodging-against-shorties to come from the midfield. Not sure he's going to be an elite dodger but he certainly could break down a shortie in high school.

[jhu06]

degnon, keough and the d did a nice job when they were caught on d to start the second half killing those back to back terp possessions off failed clears. they have a lot more confidence in 40 right now than 1 or 29 and I think he's a good bet to see the field long term.

[DocBarrister]

Degnon has only taken 7 shots. Scored on 3 of them. They definitely need to draw up some more plays to get him free on the wing. When he and Epstein are on the field at the same time that's really all the outside shooting you need in order to make the defense respect both wings and soften up the middle a little bit.

That said I still don't really think the offense is doing a whole lot wrong right now. They were going goal-for-goal with Maryland until the Terps 3rd quarter run which totally left us devoid of chances and threw everything out of rhythm. But that started with failed clears, the defense tiring, and losing faceoffs.

Cole needs to be involved in the clearing game. He can be a one-man clear a la Ranagan if they used him that way. He's pretty much the only guy I trust to run north-south without getting cutesy, falling over himself, or panicking and trying to dump the ball to someone who's not ready. The SSDMs minus maybe Jaronski don't have the pure foot speed to clear effectively. It might be time to unveil Martin or Arteaga, at least to help in certain clearing situations.

Blue Jays need to keep passing the ball and keep it hopping on both clears and offense. At least that’s the issue I see in both those areas.

Too often Hopkins is relying on a middie (or even a long stick) to make a one-man clear, and they get in trouble when the opposing team rides hard and double or triple teams the ball carrier. Blue Jays need to work on keeping the ball moving, and working harder off-ball on clears to get open for passes.

Offense did a nice job against Michigan moving the ball and getting it to a finisher for a high-percentage shot, whether close to the net or with time and room from a distance. It’s one of the reasons Epstein had 6 goals. I think 10 of the 14 Hopkins goals against Michigan were assisted.

That good ball movement broke down against Maryland, in no small part due to the Terps’ D. Yes, 7 of 10 goals were assisted, but Blue Jays turned the ball over more than a few times when they tried to push it inside or to a man on the crease.

We’ll see more goals from Epstein, Grimes, and Degnon when JGJr’s motion offense really gets clicking. That’s going to take a lot more practice and a few more games. I think the Blue Jays will be a very different team in the second half of the season.

DocBarrister

[HopFan16]

Blue Jays need to keep passing the ball and keep it hopping on both clears and offense. At least that’s the issue I see in both those areas.

Yes, sometimes they get tunnel vision on the clear and just don't see the easy pass in front of them. But just as often, they're panicking and passing too early or too frequently because they don't trust their own legs to get them by defenders. At least three of the failed clears last weekend were in this latter category.

On to Penn State. The Nitty Lions are only shooting 27% as a team and have just 15 assisted goals—perhaps the impact of not having Ament but both numbers are uncharacteristically low for them. I'd expect that to change soon. By contrast, one of the positives of our first three games is that we're shooting 33% as a team (with 20 assisted goals)—bodes fairly well if we're able to start gaining a few more possessions per game, either through faceoffs, clearing, a couple more saves, etc. One of the many issues of the last few years has been that, with a few exceptions of course, the team flat out couldn't hit the cage—so far that does look considerably better.

Where Penn State has been pretty good is faceoffs and groundballs—we're going to have to be a lot better on both if we want to win on Saturday. From an overall talent standpoint, I do think it's a very winnable game.

[ohmilax34]

Blue Jays need to keep passing the ball and keep it hopping on both clears and offense. At least that’s the issue I see in both those areas.

Yes, sometimes they get tunnel vision on the clear and just don't see the easy pass in front of them. But just as often, they're panicking and passing too early or too frequently because they don't trust their own legs to get them by defenders. At least three of the failed clears last weekend were in this latter category.

On to Penn State. The Nitty Lions are only shooting 27% as a team and have just 15 assisted goals—perhaps the impact of not having Ament but both numbers are uncharacteristically low for them. I'd expect that to change soon. By contrast, one of the positives of our first three games is that we're shooting 33% as a team (with 20 assisted goals)—bodes fairly well if we're able to start gaining a few more possessions per game, either through faceoffs, clearing, a couple more saves, etc. One of the many issues of the last few years has been that, with a few exceptions of course, the team flat out couldn't hit the cage—so far that does look considerably better.

Where Penn State has been pretty good is faceoffs and groundballs—we're going to have to be a lot better on both if we want to win on Saturday. From an overall talent standpoint, I do think it's a very winnable game.

Yeah, this should be a good game.

I tried watching some of the UMD JHU game last night. It felt really sterile and was pretty hard to watch. I had just finished watching the end of Syracuse and Vermont. Even with Ryan Powell giving no insight into what is causing the SU defensive breakdowns (I think they actually played pretty well, but played a lot of defense), the game felt alive. There were a number of whistles during one JHU EMO and there was no explanation from the announcers what was going on. I'm not gonna get too hung up on the announcers sounding muffled, because they were probably wearing masks. I'll try to watch some more, because this JHU team is interesting. I observed Cole Williams dodging and drawing a slide, but not pulling the slide far enough and trying to make a really short pass to a teammate that wasn't caught. I think he can improve and be successful as a midfielder, but he sometimes doesn't seem to have a great feel for the game.

[HopFan16]

Blue Jays need to keep passing the ball and keep it hopping on both clears and offense. At least that’s the issue I see in both those areas.

Yes, sometimes they get tunnel vision on the clear and just don't see the easy pass in front of them. But just as often, they're panicking and passing too early or too frequently because they don't trust their own legs to get them by defenders. At least three of the failed clears last weekend were in this latter category.

On to Penn State. The Nitty Lions are only shooting 27% as a team and have just 15 assisted goals—perhaps the impact of not having Ament but both numbers are uncharacteristically low for them. I'd expect that to change soon. By contrast, one of the positives of our first three games is that we're shooting 33% as a team (with 20 assisted goals)—bodes fairly well if we're able to start gaining a few more possessions per game, either through faceoffs, clearing, a couple more saves, etc. One of the many issues of the last few years has been that, with a few exceptions of course, the team flat out couldn't hit the cage—so far that does look considerably better.

Where Penn State has been pretty good is faceoffs and groundballs—we're going to have to be a lot better on both if we want to win on Saturday. From an overall talent standpoint, I do think it's a very winnable game.

Yeah, this should be a good game.

I tried watching some of the UMD JHU game last night. It felt really sterile and was pretty hard to watch. I had just finished watching the end of Syracuse and Vermont. Even with Ryan Powell giving no insight into what is causing the SU defensive breakdowns (I think they actually played pretty well, but played a lot of defense), the game felt alive. There were a number of whistles during one JHU EMO and there was no explanation from the announcers what was going on. I'm not gonna get too hung up on the announcers sounding muffled, because they were probably wearing masks. I'll try to watch some more, because this JHU team is interesting. I observed Cole Williams dodging and drawing a slide, but not pulling the slide far enough and trying to make a really short pass to a teammate that wasn't caught. I think he can improve and be successful as a midfielder, but he sometimes doesn't seem to have a great feel for the game.

Most games on BTN+ are like that, but especially the ones broadcast at Maryland. The view is from outer space, you can't hear any field noise whatsoever, there are either no or minimal replays, the cameramen are often a few seconds behind the play, the list goes on. I can't imagine how jarring it must be to go from an ACC/ESPN production in the Dome directly to a BTN+ game at Maryland. It just doesn't do any kind of justice to the speed or intensity of the game. That infamous EMO you referenced was totally mind-boggling—just no information from the announcers whatsoever nor even an acknowledgment that something weird was going on. They weren't explaining what any of the penalties were either so basically you had to just know all the ref signals or follow along with the live stats simultaneously. The Wisnauskas dive/hit into the crease—literally no info from the commentators about what happened or what the calls were.

It's a whole lot better than nothing though. Luckily for us Jays fans, our next two are on ESPN.

[flalax22]

Reportedly covid protocols have placed this weekends game in jeopardy.

[nyjay]

Reportedly covid protocols have placed this weekends game in jeopardy.

Say it ain't so. PS - listened to the Foy/QK pod this morning. Quint was a little more generous to the Jays this week. No love for Wombat though. Wombat, if you want love from Quint, you gotta sign your work. Quint of course just assumed that your name actually wasn't Wombat. But we all know the truth.

[jhu06]

Reportedly covid protocols have placed this weekends game in jeopardy.

Say it ain't so. PS - listened to the Foy/QK pod this morning. Quint was a little more generous to the Jays this week. No love for Wombat though. Wombat, if you want love from Quint, you gotta sign your work. Quint of course just assumed that your name actually wasn't Wombat. But we all know the truth.

-16 or 51 can correct me, but our attack has deso recruited as a midfielder. Our top 5 midfielders were recruited as attackmen (williams, baskin, angelus, degnon, keogh). Our lsm was recruited as a basketball player. Reinson was recruited as an lsm. our ssdm mabett was a middie. Our goalie and defenders were recruited by someone else and almost every week we're playing top 15 opponents. My respect and appreciation for Milliman is growing.
-Rosemont has minted $ since they added the terps and rutgers (and yes I know they took a "hit"from corona). There's no reason Hopkins games should be on btn+ or that the production should be this garbage especially when ESPN's is so much better. That's on Homewood. Have to be dozens of lacrosse hof in college park area and retired broadcasters who could've done saturdays game.
-penn state dominated maryland on faceoffs who dominated us. We saw second half saturday what happened when we our d was forced to play several possesions in a row w/out a break. This is supposed to be jamesons speciality.
-qk and the current state of this team for a few weeks might drive a few of you nuts.

[HopFan16]

-16 or 51 can correct me, but our attack has deso recruited as a midfielder. Our top 5 midfielders were recruited as attackmen (williams, baskin, angelus, degnon, keogh).

Degnon has always been a middie.

-Rosemont has minted $ since they added the terps and rutgers (and yes I know they took a "hit"from corona). There's no reason Hopkins games should be on btn+ or that the production should be this garbage especially when ESPN's is so much better. That's on Homewood.

I am absolutely begging you to stop posting about things you don't understand. The garbage BTN+ production at Maryland is now Homewood's fault? You sound totally ridiculous when you say things like this and it takes away from the rest of your post.

Our home games are all on ESPN. Road games, BTN has the rights to pick up for TV. They didn't pick up any lax games this weekend because of other sports. So they go to BTN+ which are semi-pro productions run by each individual school. Hop's own gameday streams on "Hop TV" are significantly better than the BTN+ streams at Michigan, OSU, and Maryland. Blaming the BTN+ game at Maryland on us is beyond the pale, even for you.

[HopFan16]

Reportedly covid protocols have placed this weekends game in jeopardy.

The women's game at Homewood this week was just pushed two days, from tomorrow to Friday. Wonder if that's related.

[steel_hop]

Reportedly covid protocols have placed this weekends game in jeopardy.

The women's game at Homewood this week was just pushed two days, from tomorrow to Friday. Wonder if that's related.

Which might be caused by something at OSU (where the women's team just played) as OSU just closed their admin offices for the next couple of days.
https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-sta ... r-one-week

Honestly, it demonstrates how stupid most of this is.

[AreaLax]

Reportedly covid protocols have placed this weekends game in jeopardy.

The women's game at Homewood this week was just pushed two days, from tomorrow to Friday. Wonder if that's related.

Maryland posted the updated to their schedule on March 2nd for the March 12th game. Not sure why Hopkins is just updating their schedule