Johns Hopkins 2021

[youthathletics]

Carc said he was the best freshman in all of college lacrosse.

[random observer]

Not to speak for Wheels, but he wasn't comparing Bernhardt to Epstein; he was saying that Bernhardt wouldn't be putting up #'s in Hopkins offense either. Bernhardt's clearly the better player right now but that doesn't mean he'd be up near the top in an offense that is definitely still trying to put pieces together and lacks consistent dodging threat, either.

This is exactly it.

You put Epstein on a Top 10 team right now, and his point totals would be through the roof. Hopkins isn't playing poorly because of Epstein, Epstein is playing poorly because of Hopkins.

I'm a big fan of Esptein's but think you are way way off. Bernhardt (and other players of his ilk such as Gray and Sowers) is just a different level player than him right now, and its goes well beyond scheme/teammates/coaching. Frankly if you throw him on Maryland's roster today, I'm not sure that there's a role for him in the starting attack given how Bernhardt, Wisnauskus, and Maltz complement each other. Even at his explosive best as a freshman, Epstein was nowhere near a top 10 player in the country. That's not a slight on Epstein, but rather a comment on just how high that summit is.

In 2019, as a freshman, he was 16th in the country in PPG and 12th amongst players in B1G/ACC/Ivy/BE/PL. 10th in GPG amongst players in those conferences. In his final 9 games he averaged 5.5 PPG which would have been good for 6th in the country by the end of the year. Maybe not a Top 10 player if you included defenders and goalies and FOGO’s but Top 10 attacker? He certainly was very close to that conversation and definitely in it.

Top 10 attacker is quite a different statement than top 10 player. And again, at his zenith he was 16th in PPG which is closer to top 20 range than top 10. Extremely encouraging numbers for a freshman fully befitting the caliber of recruit that he was, but instead of building off of that to get into that top 10 conversation, his play has regressed a bit (almost certainly because of the injury and the poor way it was handled). So any way you slice it, even putting him in the top 10 at the position seems a bit hyperbolic when right now the best player on the Hopkins attack has been Desimone.

Again, this is not meant to disparage Epstein. He's a good player and by all accounts a great leader and person that any locker room would benefit from having, but we don't need to blow things out of proportion in order to scrutinize Milliman's decision, which was puzzling at best in my opinion.

[Bluejay-Fan]

I bet one thing: Joey will be motivated by it. As hopefully the whole team will. And the staff.

W

+1.




Win the B1G AQ & make everyone uncomfortable on Selection Sunday.

[jhu06]

In the history of the program I count only example of the team playing 6 games or more and having back to back losing seasons and only 11 losing seasons since 1897. This is unprecedented awful. Look at the bracketology and ask yourself how many of those programs man for man have more talent than we're supposed to have in uniform and in the coaches room.

[wgdsr]

In the history of the program I count only example of the team playing 6 games or more and having back to back losing seasons and only 11 losing seasons since 1897. This is unprecedented awful. Look at the bracketology and ask yourself how many of those programs man for man have more talent than we're supposed to have in uniform and in the coaches room.

not many. hopkins is dripping talent compared to most of those other schools.

you could get a sense of it in the classic umich - hopkins game, which was all that it was billed up to be. while the wolverines took it on that day as only one titan could, you couldn't help but get the feeling the talent and depth on that blue jay sideline was going to continue to blossom on the field in 2021 and in coming years.

i'll be watching...

[ohmilax34]

In the history of the program I count only example of the team playing 6 games or more and having back to back losing seasons and only 11 losing seasons since 1897. This is unprecedented awful. Look at the bracketology and ask yourself how many of those programs man for man have more talent than we're supposed to have in uniform and in the coaches room.

not many. hopkins is dripping talent compared to most of those other schools.

you could get a sense of it in the classic umich - hopkins game, which was all that it was billed up to be. while the wolverines took it on that day as only one titan could, you couldn't help but get the feeling the talent and depth on that blue jay sideline was going to continue to blossom on the field in 2021 and in coming years.

i'll be watching...

I watched the beginning of the Maryland Michigan game earlier this season and thought the two best players on the field (one for each team) were former Syracuse commits, and kinda shrugged because SU has good players in the positions those guys play.

[51percentcorn]

Look at the bracketology and ask yourself how many of those programs man for man have more talent than we're supposed to have in uniform and in the coaches room.

Uh - all of them? Look - I haven't seen any bracketology so I don't know all the teams that you are referring to but you keep banging your head against the wall thinking this team should be alot better than it is - and it's simply not true - and alot of it is due to talent and several other factors:
- First - how do you assess that we have all this TALENT? There can only be one way since I am pretty sure you haven't personally assessed the vast majority of these players and that way is that Ty Xanders, US lacrosse through its High School AA program and Under Armour told you so. And - this is not meant to be an insult to TX or any of those organizations - but you have to understand how inherently flawed that information is. Helen Keller could tell you that Brennan O'Neill was going to be a superstar but it's a lot harder when you get 50/60/200 players down the line. Kiper, McShea whomever get it wrong ALL THE TIME and I am just going to have a guess that TX and Inside lacrosse don't have those resources. This is not a blind tasting - you know the player's names, their high schools, their college commitments, their club teams their coaches - they have a saying in the wine world - "Ten seconds with the label gives you twenty years of experience" That's not a compliment.
- Second - there's the point another poster made about said "use" of talent. Does Jack Keogh have lacrosse talent? Of course he does. You don't lead Nassau County in assists as a junior and be a stumblebum. Is he a dodging midfielder - of course NOT. That fact - and injuries - have marginalized that talent. Take your pick - Williams/Grimes/Baskin/Keogh/Angelus - they are all attackmen - Williams with his size and mobility is actually the best suited to convert to a middie but they decided they could not afford to do it anymore. The only true middies - non freshmen - are Degnon and Zinn - you are getting some OK production out of Degnon and I don't know what to tell you about Zinn. I am sure there are a multitude of theories. Epstein, DeSimone, Baskin, Keogh, Angelus - all are probably most comfortable at the X position behind the goal - that's not even counting players like McDermott and the now departed Murphy. If you don't think early leading to over recruiting created this problem I am afraid we'll have to agree to disagree. The roster construction on this team is as Sir Charles would put it "Terrible"
- Third - there's the dumpster fire at defensive mid-field and goalie - which the current staff can't solve today - they tried with a transfer andit didn't work out - but as somebody pointed out before the season - he was never above 50% against BIG shooters and he sure has not been to date
- Fourth - you switched coaching staffs and then didn't allow the staff to have physical practices until about a month before the season started - oh and they weren't full team practices for a while and they got interrupted for several days
- Fifth - while it is true that current trends are swelling rosters in alot of programs - Hopkins has had this problem for quite some time now with rosters routinely in the low 50's and above. This helps create the attrition, decommits, poaching because who knows what will happen with a team that big.

[flalax22]

Carc said

Let me stop you there. You said enough for everyone to ignore the rest

[ohmilax34]

Look at the bracketology and ask yourself how many of those programs man for man have more talent than we're supposed to have in uniform and in the coaches room.

Uh - all of them? Look - I haven't seen any bracketology so I don't know all the teams that you are referring to but you keep banging your head against the wall thinking this team should be alot better than it is - and it's simply not true - and alot of it is due to talent and several other factors:
- First - how do you assess that we have all this TALENT? There can only be one way since I am pretty sure you haven't personally assessed the vast majority of these players and that way is that Ty Xanders, US lacrosse through its High School AA program and Under Armour told you so. And - this is not meant to be an insult to TX or any of those organizations - but you have to understand how inherently flawed that information is. Helen Keller could tell you that Brennan O'Neill was going to be a superstar but it's a lot harder when you get 50/60/200 players down the line. Kiper, McShea whomever get it wrong ALL THE TIME and I am just going to have a guess that TX and Inside lacrosse don't have those resources. This is not a blind tasting - you know the player's names, their high schools, their college commitments, their club teams their coaches - they have a saying in the wine world - "Ten seconds with the label gives you twenty years of experience" That's not a compliment.
- Second - there's the point another poster made about said "use" of talent. Does Jack Keogh have lacrosse talent? Of course he does. You don't lead Nassau County in assists as a junior and be a stumblebum. Is he a dodging midfielder - of course NOT. That fact - and injuries - have marginalized that talent. Take your pick - Williams/Grimes/Baskin/Keogh/Angelus - they are all attackmen - Williams with his size and mobility is actually the best suited to convert to a middie but they decided they could not afford to do it anymore. The only true middies - non freshmen - are Degnon and Zinn - you are getting some OK production out of Degnon and I don't know what to tell you about Zinn. I am sure there are a multitude of theories. Epstein, DeSimone, Baskin, Keogh, Angelus - all are probably most comfortable at the X position behind the goal - that's not even counting players like McDermott and the now departed Murphy. If you don't think early leading to over recruiting created this problem I am afraid we'll have to agree to disagree. The roster construction on this team is as Sir Charles would put it "Terrible"
- Third - there's the dumpster fire at defensive mid-field and goalie - which the current staff can't solve today - they tried with a transfer andit didn't work out - but as somebody pointed out before the season - he was never above 50% against BIG shooters and he sure has not been to date
- Fourth - you switched coaching staffs and then didn't allow the staff to have physical practices until about a month before the season started - oh and they weren't full team practices for a while and they got interrupted for several days
- Fifth - while it is true that current trends are swelling rosters in alot of programs - Hopkins has had this problem for quite some time now with rosters routinely in the low 50's and above. This helps create the attrition, decommits, poaching because who knows what will happen with a team that big.

I think this covers it. Lock thread?

[jhu06]

In the history of the program I count only example of the team playing 6 games or more and having back to back losing seasons and only 11 losing seasons since 1897. This is unprecedented awful. Look at the bracketology and ask yourself how many of those programs man for man have more talent than we're supposed to have in uniform and in the coaches room.

not many. hopkins is dripping talent compared to most of those other schools.

you could get a sense of it in the classic umich - hopkins game, which was all that it was billed up to be. while the wolverines took it on that day as only one titan could, you couldn't help but get the feeling the talent and depth on that blue jay sideline was going to continue to blossom on the field in 2021 and in coming years.

i'll be watching...

I watched the beginning of the Maryland Michigan game earlier this season and thought the two best players on the field (one for each team) were former Syracuse commits, and kinda shrugged because SU has good players in the positions those guys play.

This is one of my top questions for the offseason. How many guys leave/are pushed out and does Milliman seek to replace them w/transfers, hs recruits looking for new opportunities for next fall or just wait for fall 2022 and beyond.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Meanwhile, in WLAX (2-4), the women are playing against Penn State this afternoon. Due to all the COVID postponements (four!!), this will be their first game since the OT loss to MD on 12 MAR.

That’s a hell of an interruption, but Coach Tucker probably prefers her season more than what the men are going through...

For example, I doubt Ed Lee will be interviewing her.

[HomewoodHomer]

l

[HopFan16]

Petro allies coming out of the woodwork now. Was only a matter of time.

Also, there is zero evidence the Freddie Gray protests, which lasted for all of two weeks and didn't come near Charles Village, had any impact whatsoever on recruiting. Angelus, Murphy, and Marcille all committed a few months later. Half of the class of 2020—including McDermott, Smith, Raposo, Pehsko, Bauer, Chauvette, and Martin—committed within about a year of the protests. So the core of what's been called (on paper) the best Hopkins class in awhile was not deterred by some protests in other parts of Baltimore that did not affect campus life at Homewood. Who wanted to come to Hopkins but changed their mind because of some unrelated protests elsewhere in a large city?

If you haven't noticed, people here criticize literally everything. Petro wasn't special in that regard. You'd know Milliman has not been spared if you'd paid any attention, though it's pretty clear you are just parachuting in here without an understanding of what's already been discussed in this thread.

Petro has been candid recently about his shortcomings in the second half of his tenure. He admitted he should have had a defensive coordinator. And he acknowledged early recruiting, to the degree that he did it, was a mistake. It's not the Supreme Court—you don't get to keep the job for life. Surely if you think Petro was short-changed after an abbreviated season then you'd admit it's ridiculous to judge the new staff solely on seven games of a pandemic season with players he didn't recruit.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Before all hell erupted, I was going to say Sunday was a win because they actually got to play a seventh game this year, unlike last. Anything more this year is all gravy!


The gravy might be 2-9.

[Ruffled_Feathers]

Milliman will be judged with the same critical eye that saw 10+ years of a downward trend with Petro culminating with a change being desirable. We've had 7 games with a new staff using mostly players they didn't recruit and missing even more of last years core that looked about as horrific last season. A mountain is being made out of a mole hill with regards to sitting Epstein/commentary about it; I imagine he isn't paying as much mind to it as his "parents" on here and twitter are.

Rome wasn't built in a day so anyone who has a sliver of expectation or demand that we should be particularly amazing right now hasn't been paying attention and really isn't worth the time listening or pandering to. Plenty of folks from the reserved section and lingering around here need to accept the reality that last years MSM game was not some anomaly or an off day for this team but rather the current norm. It will hopefully get better but in the meantime get used to it you'll be a lot happier if you do.

[smoova]

- First - how do you assess that we have all this TALENT? There can only be one way since I am pretty sure you haven't personally assessed the vast majority of these players and that way is that Ty Xanders, US lacrosse through its High School AA program and Under Armour told you so. And - this is not meant to be an insult to TX or any of those organizations - but you have to understand how inherently flawed that information is. Helen Keller could tell you that Brennan O'Neill was going to be a superstar but it's a lot harder when you get 50/60/200 players down the line. Kiper, McShea whomever get it wrong ALL THE TIME and I am just going to have a guess that TX and Inside lacrosse don't have those resources. This is not a blind tasting - you know the player's names, their high schools, their college commitments, their club teams their coaches - they have a saying in the wine world - "Ten seconds with the label gives you twenty years of experience" That's not a compliment.

This is a great point and is becoming a real problem for every top-30 DI program. I shudder to imagine the challenge these coaches face every summer: severely limited resources/time, an explosion in the number of talented HS players, huge proliferation of showcase/tourney events, wildly varying use of play-down/hold-back/PG tactics, ceaseless emails/calls/social media yammering from TX/club coaches/lacrosse media/recruiting services/alums/etc. Good luck trying to identify which rising high school "juniors" will be top players in 3-7 years ... and if you don't, adios muchacho. Ugh.

[steel_hop]

I refer back to a quote I read before Petro, Dwan, Benson and Obranski were unceremoniously fired at the beginning of a world wide pandemic with little hope of landing a new job in a timely manner: Does Hop stink because of Petro? Or would they stink more without him?

The Freddie Gray riots most certainly hurt the recruiting process for years. Selling Baltimore to athletes around the country must have been almost impossible. It would have been a hard sell to convince me to send my son to JHU during that time and maybe even now. I believe Petro finally started to get the players that he wanted and the class of '22 would have been unbeatable, even without much support from the leadership at the school. But thank goodness he had all of you couch coaches here to criticize his every move. I feel for the kids that thought they were playing for him and are now stuck with a man who publicly criticizes one of the hardest working players on the team. Let's hope you judge Milliman with the same critical eye. I for one am extremely unimpressed thus far.

Well, if not for nothing, your nickname is accurate. The only two things missing from this post is poor grammar and threats to others to fight them and I'd think it was TenHigh.

[houndace1]

I guess this question is towards the Hopkins faithful who have followed the recruiting for a while but in terms of coaching, is it easier to convert midfielders to attackmen or attackmen to midfielders?

I get that recruiting has made the offensive guys played different positions but what would happen if coaching staffs recruit midfielders to then convert to QB/Wing attackmen? Could this solve some offensive issues?

I only say this because i've seen both Loyola and Hopkins home games every weekend but Loyola has had its fair share of offensive inconsistency as well this season in the first full year in a post- Pat Spencer era. I've seen the staff make some attackmen play at midfield due to injuries/COVID issues, and the offense sputtered at times during games.

Hopkins has ooodles and oodles of top recruits ranked by Inside Lacrosse, Ty Xanders and UsLax compared to Loyola, but its quite surprising to see the teams struggle in similar fashion on the offensive side of the ball.

[jrn19]

I guess this question is towards the Hopkins faithful who have followed the recruiting for a while but in terms of coaching, is it easier to convert midfielders to attackmen or attackmen to midfielders?

I get that recruiting has made the offensive guys played different positions but what would happen if coaching staffs recruit midfielders to then convert to QB/Wing attackmen? Could this solve some offensive issues?

I only say this because i've seen both Loyola and Hopkins home games every weekend but Loyola has had its fair share of offensive inconsistency as well this season in the first full year in a post- Pat Spencer era. I've seen the staff make some attackmen play at midfield due to injuries/COVID issues, and the offense sputtered at times during games.

Hopkins has ooodles and oodles of top recruits ranked by Inside Lacrosse, Ty Xanders and UsLax compared to Loyola, but its quite surprising to see the teams struggle in similar fashion on the offensive side of the ball.

I think on the offensive side it’s easier to convert attackmen to midfielders. I can’t really think of an example of a midfielder being converted to an attackmen (who hadn’t already been an attackmen to begin with; DeSimone as an example) but there’s tons of examples of attackmen being converted to midfielders.

Where it bites you I think is that unless the attackmen you’re converting are big, physical guys in their own right....in transition and on the wings and when they get trapped on defense; you get hurt by the size disparity. And I think that’s been an issue discussed a lot on this board w/r/t Hopkins; lot of guys with great stick skills but lacking in size and getting burned because of it.

[HopFan16]

Interestingly I think many of the guys who have had the most success floating between attack and midfield are the bigger Canadians. Payton Cormier, Tre LeClaire, etc. They have the size/strength to play "midfield" and the stick skills/finishing ability to play "attack."

That type of positionless offensive player is something that Milliman is on the record as wanting to recruit. Matt Collison in '22 could be one of those guys. Koleton Marquis and Stu Phillips (originally a Vermont commit from Vancouver) might as well. But PM doesn't currently have anyone like that on the roster. Peshko might be the closest thing but it's too early to know what we might have with him.