THE 2019 Hopkins Lacrosse Fallout Shelter (44, we want more!)

[molo]

Will next week against Loyola be deja vi all over again?

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Still a chance Hopkins can reach 1000 wins this season.

[Hoponboard]

It’s one thing to lose contested FOs, but with the shot clock, it’s devastating to lose the vast majority of draws cleanly, Which is what happened to Hopkins. By my estimate, Towson started 14 possessions with the full 80 seconds while Hopkins started two. That led to the Tigers’ enormous possession advantage and the collapse of the Jays’ defense.

[Hoponboard]

It’s one thing to lose contested FOs, but with the shot clock, it’s devastating to lose the vast majority of draws cleanly, Which is what happened to Hopkins. By my estimate, Towson started 16 possessions with the full 80 seconds while Hopkins only started two. That led to the Tigers’ enormous possession advantage and the collapse of the Jays’ defense.

Another factor was shots on goal. In the decisive 2nd quarter, Towson kept extending possessions by resetting the clock with 11 shots on goal while Hopkins had only two.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

It’s one thing to lose contested FOs, but with the shot clock, it’s devastating to lose the vast majority of draws cleanly, Which is what happened to Hopkins. By my estimate, Towson started 16 possessions with the full 80 seconds while Hopkins only started two. That led to the Tigers’ enormous possession advantage and the collapse of the Jays’ defense.

Another factor was shots on goal. In the decisive 2nd quarter, Towson kept extending possessions by resetting the clock with 11 shots on goal while Hopkins had only two.

Yeah, and just before the half, Hopkins had 4 goals but the Towson goalie only had two saves. TWO! Got a third right before halftime. But still, untested, not shot at enough to make him wilt in his first ever start, but of course, hard to shoot when you don’t have the ball.

Another goat-getting statistic: most of Towson’s goals were unassisted. And I’d have to go watch the replay as to how Darby let so many unassisted goals in. I get the D in front letting him down, but a lot were some longer shots. The fricking wormburner by the long pole was not a good look, and the clearing in the first 20 minutes was maddening.

Epstein’s goal deserves a hockey assist from the ref who pointed possession Towson’s way, then flipped around and pointed the correct way and blew the whistle. That’s why the Towson D was moving upfield and Epstein wound up so wide open. BS goal due to the quick whistle.

But hey, Navy won today. So, yay.

[jhu72]

It’s one thing to lose contested FOs, but with the shot clock, it’s devastating to lose the vast majority of draws cleanly, Which is what happened to Hopkins. By my estimate, Towson started 16 possessions with the full 80 seconds while Hopkins only started two. That led to the Tigers’ enormous possession advantage and the collapse of the Jays’ defense.

Another factor was shots on goal. In the decisive 2nd quarter, Towson kept extending possessions by resetting the clock with 11 shots on goal while Hopkins had only two.

Yeah, and just before the half, Hopkins had 4 goals but the Towson goalie only had two saves. TWO! Got a third right before halftime. But still, untested, not shot at enough to make him wilt in his first ever start, but of course, hard to shoot when you don’t have the ball.

Another goat-getting statistic: most of Towson’s goals were unassisted. And I’d have to go watch the replay as to how Darby let so many unassisted goals in. I get the D in front letting him down, but a lot were some longer shots. The fricking wormburner by the long pole was not a good look, and the clearing in the first 20 minutes was maddening.

Epstein’s goal deserves a hockey assist from the ref who pointed possession Towson’s way, then flipped around and pointed the correct way and blew the whistle. That’s why the Towson D was moving upfield and Epstein wound up so wide open. BS goal due to the quick whistle.

But hey, Navy won today. So, yay.

During the second quarter when most of the damage was done with outside shots, there was a huge problem being caused by the sun angle with respect to the goal Darby was defending. Not a directly in his eyes problem, but just slightly outside his line of direct sight. He was having some trouble with it, it appeared to me when he would have to pick up his head for shots coming from the south side of the field. That does not explain the total lack of defense that was giving up those shots but without the sun problem, Darby probably pulls in a few of those. Don't think stopping the ball is going to be his problem. Clearing passes is a different story.

At the same time as his troubles, stopping and clearing, the whole team decided to play the worst 15 minutes of lacrosse I think I have seen in all my years. Dropped easy passes, bad passes, bone head plays. I don't think this had a lot to do with Towson. A very solid team with some really good players, but the Jays would have lost this game to just about any D1 team given their play during the 2nd quarter. They never seemed to be able to get that out of their heads. To me it looked like they pretty much gave up early half way through Q3. I can only think of a few quys -- seasoned players -- that I thought looked like they even showed up to play. This was a full team defeat. Playing thier best they may not have beaten Towson, but playing as they did, they would beat almost no one.

[HopFan16]

Another goat-getting statistic: most of Towson’s goals were unassisted. And I’d have to go watch the replay as to how Darby let so many unassisted goals in. I get the D in front letting him down, but a lot were some longer shots. The fricking wormburner by the long pole was not a good look, and the clearing in the first 20 minutes was maddening.

Darby managed to snag a couple that he probably shouldn't have, so I'll call it a wash. I thought it was a perfectly adequate debut for him on a day when he saw a million shots and the defense in front of him was not playing well. The clearing obviously needs work.

There will probably be better days on faceoffs, and the offense just needs some time to gel—a lot of new faces, and guys in new spots. But this team is going absolutely nowhere if they don't figure out the SSDM spots. We've talked a lot about player development, and this staff deserves some credit for the work they've done with guys like Kuhn, Williams, Marr, Jones, who have all clearly improved throughout their careers. But the fact that they've been completely unable to create serviceable depth at arguably the most important position on the field—for this team, at least—is disheartening. If we're going to get torched by Towson, I'm not looking forward to playing Virginia, Penn State, etc.

7 hours after this one ended, after I've had some more time to digest, and my main takeaway is that I cannot believe Zinn was not utilized more today. My sincere hope is that he becomes a bigger factor very soon. He's the exact kind of player this team needs, so maybe they should use him.

I can only think of a few quys -- seasoned players -- that I thought looked like they even showed up to play.

If we're giving out prizes for effort, I thought Rapine and Kuhn both showed some energy on D and off the ground on a day when the D as a whole as a nightmare.

[jhu72]

Another goat-getting statistic: most of Towson’s goals were unassisted. And I’d have to go watch the replay as to how Darby let so many unassisted goals in. I get the D in front letting him down, but a lot were some longer shots. The fricking wormburner by the long pole was not a good look, and the clearing in the first 20 minutes was maddening.

Darby managed to snag a couple that he probably shouldn't have, so I'll call it a wash. I thought it was a perfectly adequate debut for him on a day when he saw a million shots and the defense in front of him was not playing well. The clearing obviously needs work.

There will probably be better days on faceoffs, and the offense just needs some time to gel—a lot of new faces, and guys in new spots. But this team is going absolutely nowhere if they don't figure out the SSDM spots. We've talked a lot about player development, and this staff deserves some credit for the work they've done with guys like Kuhn, Williams, Marr, Jones, who have all clearly improved throughout their careers. But the fact that they've been completely unable to create serviceable depth at arguably the most important position on the field—for this team, at least—is disheartening. If we're going to get torched by Towson, I'm not looking forward to playing Virginia, Penn State, etc.

7 hours after this one ended, after I've had some more time to digest, and my main takeaway is that I cannot believe Zinn was not utilized more today. My sincere hope is that he becomes a bigger factor very soon. He's the exact kind of player this team needs, so maybe they should use him.

I can only think of a few quys -- seasoned players -- that I thought looked like they even showed up to play.

If we're giving out prizes for effort, I thought Rapine and Kuhn both showed some energy on D and off the ground on a day when the D as a whole as a nightmare.

Rapine I thought had a good day. Kuhn was not an embarrassement but I don't think he had a typical Kuhn effort, or at least didn't show the same kind of results. These guys couldn't make much of a difference given the generally unfocused play of the rest of the team.

[Noonan]

Hopkins SHOULD not be in top 20
They looked horrible today

[laxman3221]

I am heartbroken that Lax Fidelis did not live

What?

[a fan]

Sadly, LaxFi passed away a few weeks ago, laxman...... sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[laxman3221]

Sadly, LaxFi passed away a few weeks ago, laxman...... sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Godspeed LaxFi. I called an old work friend earlier this week and his wife told me he had passed last summer. Getting old suxs

[51percentcorn]

Petro's press conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCwA-KRydOg

I hate when a coach basically implies he saw a problem coming. Maybe he just didn't get through to the young kids but his defense is a veteran group. It was a train wreck from the second quarter on. Sometimes the face-off % is a misleading statistic - sometimes it isn't. This was a little bit of both. The make it take it of the second quarter demoralized the team and Petro is correct - when it got to 6-4 or whatever and he called the timeout - they didn't fight back. You want the statistic that tells you everything you need to know? The starting 10 for Towson had 19 ground balls - the starting 10 for Hopkins had 9 and Rapine had 4 of those. Then the turnovers - of the 19 only Epstein, Marr and Cattoni had more than 1 for a total of 7 which means 12 other players had T/Os. Darby was the furthest reason from why Hopkins lost - but like Petro I wouldn't say he played well - there were some outside bombs he never saw - sun or no - and his clearing was horrible. Speaking of clearing - the Hopkins schemes and execution still remain horrible to me. If a team can force the Hopkins goalie to make a pass to the side to a defender and then back to the goalie you know the Jays are going to struggle. We rely way too much on getting the ball to a short stick near our own goal and running through the ride. We almost seem completely incapable of doing the one side overload and getting the other side to step across for an easy pass. Oh well - Petro says its not time to panic - after Saturday the meme may very well be the Kevin Bacon line in Animal House. All is not well.

[johnnyonthegunpowder]

I don't think I've ever seen a presser with Petro where he has prepared and read so much language directly off his notes. You could tell that he thought this through and knew what words and phrases were important to speak publicly. Man, I really feel bad for him. It sounds like practices have not been up to snuff and that mentality played out in the game as well. Got to turn this around. I'd be looking to Marr to lead the Jays past this lost and build some resilience. As a captain and player, he's the guy for that. Get a chip the shoulder and use it.

Le me address the elephant in the room: Towson's rugby style shorts were were both harbinger of a whooping and symbols of the culture they have embraced and cultivated in the off season. You're lined up doing some pre-game ball drills and you see the opponent is going full rugby short approach, you know what's coming. The identity that Nads has been working years to cultivate is history, toughness, and Towson Stateness. Fear the shorts.

Great game by the tigers. Jays will bounce back. It just has to happen immediately. No waiting til the middle of the season for adjustments. Panic is like shame; it can be of use.

[DaneFan]

Well said. Nadelan has built an amazing program and culture and to see them bounce back in a big way off of a sub par season was impressive.

[HopFan16]

Speaking of clearing - the Hopkins schemes and execution still remain horrible to me. If a team can force the Hopkins goalie to make a pass to the side to a defender and then back to the goalie you know the Jays are going to struggle. We rely way too much on getting the ball to a short stick near our own goal and running through the ride. We almost seem completely incapable of doing the one side overload and getting the other side to step across for an easy pass.

Agreed, although with the new rules it seems really hard to prevent a team from clearing past the midline in 20 seconds, even if your first outlet pass is to a pole on the wing, and even if the ball goes back to the goalie. The majority of the Jays clearing errors were when Darby tried to get transition going and made a bad pass (though I do recall Foley and Jones just flat out dropping the ball on easy passes). Doing the "slow clear" didn't seem like an issue yesterday. But of course, when you do that you're losing the opportunity to get up the field quickly for an opportunity in transition. It looked like Towson was conceding us the "slow clear" in an effort to stop transition, which they did successfully.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Sadly, LaxFi passed away a few weeks ago, laxman...... sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Godspeed LaxFi. I called an old work friend earlier this week and his wife told me he had passed last summer. Getting old suxs

10 DEC 2018 actually. Lung cancer. Damn cigarettes. He did stop cold turkey some five years ago when he had cardiac issues.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Hopkins SHOULD not be in top 20
They looked horrible today

Rankings are popularity / beauty contests meant to stir debate during the season.

Ranking numbers aren’t important - the only thing that matters is whether you are selected in May or are left home holding your crank.

Right now, Hopkins beauty ranking is UGLY.

Let’s make that FUGLY.

More than cosmetic surgery is required.

Wombat

[stupefied]

Hopkins SHOULD not be in top 20
They looked horrible today

Rankings are popularity / beauty contests meant to stir debate during the season.

Ranking numbers aren’t important - the only thing that matters is whether you are selected in May or are left home holding your crank.

Right now, Hopkins beauty ranking is UGLY.

Let’s make that FUGLY.

More than cosmetic surgery is required.

Wombat

These early "upsets" tell me more about the winners than they do the losers but most everyone was surprised by how Towson handled JHU and how HP pulled away from Duke.

I expect Danowki to clean up what ails Duke and same with Petra and JHU.

Towson has served notice that they are vastly underrated and can play with anyone.

[flalax22]

Agreed, although with the new rules it seems really hard to prevent a team from clearing past the midline in 20 seconds, even if your first outlet pass is to a pole on the wing, and even if the ball goes back to the goalie. The majority of the Jays clearing errors were when Darby tried to get transition going and made a bad pass (though I do recall Foley and Jones just flat out dropping the ball on easy passes).

I'm glad somebody pointed that out. Not on the kid when Foley and Jones didnt catch the ball that hit their stick.