Johns Hopkins 2021

[youthathletics]

Maybe I missed it, can some post, in here, the actual quote where PM threw JE under the bus, please.

Another perspective. With the 2020 season a wash, it is not uncommon, at all, for a soph. slump to occur. As freshman, teams do not overly worry themselves about you...until you smoke them over and over again. Come next season.....they are prepared. There could easily be an argument that PM is trying to play 3D chess in an 'Art of War' type way.....

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”

He may also be doing #32 a favor...by taking some of the pressure off of him, much like a FOGO just not feeling it.

I have no dog in this fight, and certainly scratched my head with the hire, especially after sitting behind the bench at the Cornell vs Terps at NNMC stadium in 2018 and watching the game plan with #51 being buried and happy with 5v5....the entire game.

[HopFan16]

Talent is not the same thing as production.

Production is the result of several factors—talent being one of them. But it also can be created by coaching, development, X's and O's, competition, etc. You're not going to produce much if you have no talent, but not all talented players produce at the level they're capable of.

He may also be doing #32 a favor...by taking some of the pressure off of him, much like a FOGO just not feeling it.

This is supposed to take the pressure OFF him? If PM wanted Epstein not to feel the pressure he would have kept him in the lineup and let him work through whatever issues he was having. THAT signals there's no pressure, no severe punishment for making a mistake. That's the kind of environment I personally thought we were going to get, but I guess not. Or at least—not yet. But all this does is make #32 sleep with one eye open and question his own decision-making. He's going to be wondering if he does something wrong or takes a bad shot if he's going to get benched. To me all that does is add pressure, not take it away.

[nyjay]

"He just needs to play a little better," Milliman said. "I don't think he's been very consistent lately, and I don't think he's helping us enough. I think he's a very good player who - when he's playing well - is great. When he's not, it's really tough to struggle with him."

[molo]

The comments that Ed Lee attributed to Milliman in the online article that appeared yesterday after the game are not in the print article in today's edition of the paper version. I don't know if you have to subscribe to the Sun to access the article, but I think you can get a couple of articles for free.
I subscribe and read the original article online in an email sent me by the paper as well as on the app and read the print article in the edition delivered to my house.

[youthathletics]

"He just needs to play a little better," Milliman said. "I don't think he's been very consistent lately, and I don't think he's helping us enough. I think he's a very good player who - when he's playing well - is great. When he's not, it's really tough to struggle with him."

Thanks nyjay.

[youthathletics]

Talent is not the same thing as production.
Production is the result of several factors—talent being one of them. But it also can be created by coaching, development, X's and O's, competition, etc. You're not going to produce much if you have no talent, but not all talented players produce at the level they're capable of.

He may also be doing #32 a favor...by taking some of the pressure off of him, much like a FOGO just not feeling it.

This is supposed to take the pressure OFF him? If PM wanted Epstein not to feel the pressure he would have kept him in the lineup and let him work through whatever issues he was having. THAT signals there's no pressure, no severe punishment for making a mistake. That's the kind of environment I personally thought we were going to get, but I guess not. Or at least—not yet. But all this does is make #32 sleep with one eye open and question his own decision-making. He's going to be wondering if he does something wrong or takes a bad shot if he's going to get benched. To me all that does is add pressure, not take it away.

As a long time fan of #32, who also had to game plan against him when he was in HS, #32's his work ethic precedes him...he'll be just fine....and who knows, maybe that knee is still giving him fits...emotionally or physically and he does not want to let down the team or family.

And I would also argue, having him run out of the box on some midfield shifts, is not a bad thing...AND brings another perspective for him. PM is probably thinking, 'this will make us harder to game plan for' and maybe it will create a spark. And Again, it is interesting that PM did something (kind of) similar with Jeff Teat vs. MD in 2018, but kept him on the field and told him to just go chill near the sidelines and drag a defender with you to play 5v5, then proceed to run his 1st line midfielders to death.

I do agree the quote is bad and pretty damned messed up, regardless who the player is. Also, based on that quote, sounds like PM has a life in politics if this doesn't work out.

[51percentcorn]

Talent is not the same thing as production.

Production is the result of several factors—talent being one of them. But it also can be created by coaching, development, X's and O's, competition, etc. You're not going to produce much if you have no talent, but not all talented players produce at the level they're capable of.

Thats true - additional factors go into production - but talent is a leading leading indicator - when you have talent that work's hard well that's when you have special players - Sowers/Gray/Bernhard/Kavanaugh/Moore whomever whomever IMO - are producing not because the coaches are providing them with better schemes - but they are better better players with more talent around them. There is no one on the midfield for Johns Hopkins - with the exception of Degnon if you ignore his freshman year when he didn't really play - who is going to average over 10 goals a season in his career - no one is going to be even close - I guess if Angelus really stepped it up he could get there (again not a middie) but the mid-fields are a mess and while Hopkins (with 4/5/6 former attackmen out there) should be able to solve a zone I guess the lack of outside shooting is proving too much of an obstacle

I was wondering when the Teat shut off issue would be raised. Young coaches make mistakes. It's not an unreasonable position to say in the scheme of the offense it's better to go 5v5 with more space but I think the mistake made (and I was at the Maryland Cornell game too) was not having Teat go get the ball whenever a shot went long.

As for Epstein I think this is going to make him angry and challenge himself to show it was a mistake to ever think about reducing his time on the field. He doubled his assists total in less than half a game of playing time. Could be wrong but I expect him to start against Ohio State and play with an attitude.

[kramerica.inc]

PM broke the cardinal rule
He spoke the truth about his best player.

[youthathletics]

...and yet, #32 is barely in 2nd place for total points.

[molo]

Any average hs coach knows a few tactics to combat a shutoff, sometimes more effectively than others. Just watching and allowing your best player to be shut off would not normally be, to use an educational cliche, a best practice.

[nyjay]

"He just needs to play a little better," Milliman said. "I don't think he's been very consistent lately, and I don't think he's helping us enough. I think he's a very good player who - when he's playing well - is great. When he's not, it's really tough to struggle with him."

Thanks nyjay.

It's the last clause that really sticks out to me - what does "it's really tough to struggle with him" even mean? Is 32 getting so down on himself that he's bringing other guys with him? That's what it seems like PM is trying to say, but who knows. And if so, doesn't seem like a public call out is the right medicine. I'm guessing PM really wishes he had that quote back and may be why the quote was pulled from the print editions.

[jrn19]

"He just needs to play a little better," Milliman said. "I don't think he's been very consistent lately, and I don't think he's helping us enough. I think he's a very good player who - when he's playing well - is great. When he's not, it's really tough to struggle with him."

Thanks nyjay.

It's the last clause that really sticks out to me - what does "it's really tough to struggle with him" even mean? Is 32 getting so down on himself that he's bringing other guys with him? That's what it seems like PM is trying to say, but who knows. And if so, doesn't seem like a public call out is the right medicine. I'm guessing PM really wishes he had that quote back and may be why the quote was pulled from the print editions.

It could mean that it’s hard when your best player is struggling and not playing your best; when you’re a 2-4 team and you need everyone to play their best every week, when your best player isn’t playing well that makes it tougher.

But the complexity of the statement is probably why you don’t make it!

[nyjay]

"He just needs to play a little better," Milliman said. "I don't think he's been very consistent lately, and I don't think he's helping us enough. I think he's a very good player who - when he's playing well - is great. When he's not, it's really tough to struggle with him."

Thanks nyjay.

It's the last clause that really sticks out to me - what does "it's really tough to struggle with him" even mean? Is 32 getting so down on himself that he's bringing other guys with him? That's what it seems like PM is trying to say, but who knows. And if so, doesn't seem like a public call out is the right medicine. I'm guessing PM really wishes he had that quote back and may be why the quote was pulled from the print editions.

It could mean that it’s hard when your best player is struggling and not playing your best; when you’re a 2-4 team and you need everyone to play their best every week, when your best player isn’t playing well that makes it tougher.

But the complexity of the statement is probably why you don’t make it!

Amen to that.

[HopFan16]

Epstein "not playing well" is still scoring like 3 pts per game and not turning it over much and that's better than everyone on the team except DeSo. Why is the bar for benching him so much lower than for everyone else? There is a midfielder who plays who has not scored a goal since February 27. Five games without a goal. One single assist over that time. Still plays a ton. PT was dialed back slightly in the last few games—though not entirely, and he was back in there getting shift after shift against Michigan.

If the bar for getting benched is being inconsistent/not being as good as you're supposed to be, then it should apply to everyone. It should apply to the lesser players even more. Why wasn't DeSo benched? He had 0 goals and 1 assist against PSU and 3 turnovers. Didn't really help the team that game. At least Joey scored twice and didn't turn it over once. (For the record I am absolutely not advocating benching DeSo—he is having a great season. But the point is there is a lot of inconsistency to go around.) Only explanation is this was a targeted motivational tactic—the issue is it may have cost us a game and demoralized the team. It has certainly ruffled some feathers in the alumni community, for whatever that is worth.

Unless it lights a fire under Epstein and he/the team goes on some kind of major run that can be directly attributed to this decision, it's going to go down in the books as a total unforced gaffe.

[jhu06]

"He just needs to play a little better," Milliman said. "I don't think he's been very consistent lately, and I don't think he's helping us enough. I think he's a very good player who - when he's playing well - is great. When he's not, it's really tough to struggle with him."

Thanks nyjay.

It's the last clause that really sticks out to me - what does "it's really tough to struggle with him" even mean? Is 32 getting so down on himself that he's bringing other guys with him? That's what it seems like PM is trying to say, but who knows. And if so, doesn't seem like a public call out is the right medicine. I'm guessing PM really wishes he had that quote back and may be why the quote was pulled from the print editions.

-If the school put the newsconference on youtube like they did last year like big boys we'd know.
-When players from 4-10 Hopkins lacrosse programs get benched for performance issues and get publicly mentioned by the coach it's not a gaffe it's accountability. Lacrosse constantly yearns for a bigger spotlight and yet when the things that come with it arrive-benchings, firings, comments to the media, message boards, all the sudden people race to protect them like they're 6 year olds.
-If there were more coverage of the program we'd start seeing lists of potential transfer or recruiting flip options the staff could push for this summer because of a)need at Hopkins b)fits for our system c)players wanting a change at existing programs d)all of the above plus a tie to our current roster
-terps have opened for lacrosse and now spring football, interesting if homewood did for the last game how red the stands would be.

[jrn19]

"He just needs to play a little better," Milliman said. "I don't think he's been very consistent lately, and I don't think he's helping us enough. I think he's a very good player who - when he's playing well - is great. When he's not, it's really tough to struggle with him."

Thanks nyjay.

It's the last clause that really sticks out to me - what does "it's really tough to struggle with him" even mean? Is 32 getting so down on himself that he's bringing other guys with him? That's what it seems like PM is trying to say, but who knows. And if so, doesn't seem like a public call out is the right medicine. I'm guessing PM really wishes he had that quote back and may be why the quote was pulled from the print editions.

-If the school put the newsconference on youtube like they did last year like big boys we'd know.
-When players from 4-10 Hopkins lacrosse programs get benched for performance issues and get publicly mentioned by the coach it's not a gaffe it's accountability. Lacrosse constantly yearns for a bigger spotlight and yet when the things that come with it arrive-benchings, firings, comments to the media, message boards, all the sudden people race to protect them like they're 6 year olds.
-If there were more coverage of the program we'd start seeing lists of potential transfer or recruiting flip options the staff could push for this summer because of a)need at Hopkins b)fits for our system c)players wanting a change at existing programs d)all of the above plus a tie to our current roster
-terps have opened for lacrosse and now spring football, interesting if homewood did for the last game how red the stands would be.

It’s accountability to bench your best player but not bench the dudes who have been playing way worse? Pretty sure you don’t see Mark Few benching Jalen Suggs when he has an “inconsistent game”

[jhu06]

again the school didn't produce the entirety of the interview or even a video clip and they've stopped posting video period of the program during the losing streak on their youtube.

They'll flood us with hourly updates about covid response, but just don't want to cover the lacrosse program.

[Wheels]

-terps have opened for lacrosse and now spring football, interesting if homewood did for the last game how red the stands would be.

Probably a reason not to open the stands to general public.

[jhu06]

-terps have opened for lacrosse and now spring football, interesting if homewood did for the last game how red the stands would be.

Probably a reason not to open the stands to general public.

This season and maybe next should be sponsored by the Wilmer Eye Institute given the harm they've done to jay fans eyesight.

[DMac]

Was a chickenschidt HS move and if the team captain performs better in the future that's not necessarily attributable to this move. He's just a good player. Gotta wonder if PM would do the same with Teat up in Ithaca. Rather doubtful I'd think. Making a statement of some sort but this wasn't the way to do it, IMO.
Got benched like this in HS. A little more justification, Friday night ten o'clock curfew kinda didn't work real good for me, girlfriend's was midnight. Her titts were irresistible, couldn't quite keep my eyes on the clock. Got on the field pretty early on so I'm still thinkin' the reward was worth the risk.