Johns Hopkins 2021

[HopFan16]

In his first season at Maryland, Tillman's Terrapins finished with a 13–5 record, the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship, and as national runners-up after a loss to Virginia in the NCAA championship game. Tillman inherited an experienced squad with 17 seniors from one of the highest ranked 2007 recruiting classes.[12] Rather than overhaul the team, Tillman made minor adjustments to terminology and refocused the defensive scheme from man-to-man match-ups to team containment.[13] During the postseason, Tillman remained in contact with his two predecessors at Maryland. He discussed his players and their personalities with former coach Dave Cottle, whom he invited to address the team after the regular season in which they lost to four underdog opponents.[13] Tillman also consulted with Hall of Fame inductee Dick Edell, who led Maryland to three finishes as national runners-up. Edell, whose teams lost the championship game in 1995, 1997, and 1998 said, "I will counsel people on the semifinals. I don't have a useful thing to say about the final."[14]
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During Tiffany’s first season at UVA, his Cavalier offense finished No. 1 in the ACC and No. 3 in the nation in three offensive categories: goals per game (14.40), assists per game (9.13) and points per game (23.53). Aitken shattered UVA’s freshmen midfielder record of 29 goals and 40 points. Aitken broke the goals record in eight games. Attackman Kraus was named ACC Freshman of the Year and was the only rookie on the All-ACC team after leading UVA with 34 goals and 56 points. In 2018, Tiffany’s Cavalier team ranked No. 1 nationally in ground balls (38.0). Defensively in 2017, Virginia led the nation with 43.33 ground balls per game, averaging nearly seven more ground balls per game then No. 2 Brown (36.56), Tiffany’s previous program. Prior to Tiffany coming to UVA, his Brown squad in 2016 led the nation in ground balls as Tiffany’s staff three years in a row has led the nation’s best team on the ground.
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In his first year at Carolina in 2009, he led the Tar Heels to a 12-6 overall record and a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Tar Heels won their first game in the ACC Tournament in 13 years and they fell just one goal shy of reaching their first Final Four in 16 years. Breschi was the first UNC coach in history to have double digit win seasons in his first eight years as head coach before that streak was broken in 2017 when Carolina finished 8-8.
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this is mens lacrosse, not discovering a 3,000 year missing egyptian city.

Tillman inherited a team that was 12-4 and made the quarterfinals the year before. If you think that situation was similar to ours then you're beyond helping.

UVA in Tiffany's first season did not win an ACC game and missed the tournament. Basically the same season as Dom's last one. Surely you recall the panicked posts on LaxPower from from fans who thought he wasn't the right fit. Guys getting cut, personnel tinkering, major culture change, lot of growing pains that year...sound familiar? Unlike our staff he was allowed to meet his players in person prior to the January of that season. They were pretty good a year later and obviously very good the year after that. You have to give it more than one season, but I guess some people are just hard-wired to need to pretend-fire people over the internet. If only this were The Apprentice.

[Ruffled_Feathers]

Tillman inherited an experienced squad with 17 seniors from one of the highest ranked 2007 recruiting classes.[12]
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The 2010 team he inherited was 12-4 and went to the QF. The 2011 team finished 13-5 and went to the SF. The Maryland teams leading up to the change weren't actively bad, just not good "enough"...

During Tiffany’s first season at UVA, his Cavalier offense finished No. 1 in the ACC and No. 3 in the nation in three offensive categories: goals per game (14.40), assists per game (9.13) and points per game (23.53). Aitken shattered UVA’s freshmen midfielder record of 29 goals and 40 points. Aitken broke the goals record in eight games. Attackman Kraus was named ACC Freshman of the Year and was the only rookie on the All-ACC team after leading UVA with 34 goals and 56 points.

In year 1 he turned a 7-8 team he inherited into an 8-7 team with the help of some dynamite freshman performances as mentioned...

In his first year at Carolina in 2009, he led the Tar Heels to a 12-6 overall record and a spot in the NCAA quarterfinals. The Tar Heels won their first game in the ACC Tournament in 13 years and they fell just one goal shy of reaching their first Final Four in 16 years.

Year 1 he turned an 8-6 team that lost in the First Round of the tournament into a 12-6 team that lost in the Quarters. They had also been to the Quarter Final in 2007.


What is the comparison point to be made here? If your expectation is this years team should be expected to do about as well or marginally better than last years we're about headed for it. We're probably about even with MSM again.

[51percentcorn]

Way to pull some puff off of other team's web-sites '06 and ignore alot of the context - including Virginia was perhaps the most egregious. Virginia went 8-7 in 2017 with wins against Cleveland State, Robert Morris, Siena, Drexel, Richmond, High Point - some good teams there for sure but dropping 20, 20 and 18 on Cleveland State, Siena and Drexel certainly helps that GAA. Second, if you think Hopkins is trotting out Ryan Conrad, Dox Aitken and Zed Williams on its first mid-field put down your laptop and call 911 because you need help immediately.

Maryland's defense in 2011 was ridiculous - they gave up under 7 goals per game. If Hopkins had Brian Farrell, the Schmidt's, Amato in goal etc. - quite possible (probable maybe) that 2-6 is 5-3 or 6-2

UNC - 2009 - oh Billy Bitter and and a Senior (Wagner) and a Redshirt Junior (Petracca) combine for 110 goals. Of and of course Hopkins has tons and tons of Sean Delaneys and Ben Hunts running around to chip in over 50 goals from the 1st mid-field.

Those teams of course also had to battle which pandemics in '17, '11 and '09 - I missed those - must have gotten my "jabs" and forgotten about them.

I would go look for that Egyptian City of yours

[jhu06]

Way to pull some puff off of other team's web-sites '06 and ignore alot of the context - including Virginia was perhaps the most egregious. Virginia went 8-7 in 2017 with wins against Cleveland State, Robert Morris, Siena, Drexel, Richmond, High Point - some good teams there for sure but dropping 20, 20 and 18 on Cleveland State, Siena and Drexel certainly helps that GAA. Second, if you think Hopkins is trotting out Ryan Conrad, Dox Aitken and Zed Williams on its first mid-field put down your laptop and call 911 because you need help immediately.

Maryland's defense in 2011 was ridiculous - they gave up under 7 goals per game. If Hopkins had Brian Farrell, the Schmidt's, Amato in goal etc. - quite possible (probable maybe) that 2-6 is 5-3 or 6-2

UNC - 2009 - oh Billy Bitter and and a Senior (Wagner) and a Redshirt Junior (Petracca) combine for 110 goals. Of and of course Hopkins has tons and tons of Sean Delaneys and Ben Hunts running around to chip in over 50 goals from the 1st mid-field.

Those teams of course also had to battle which pandemics in '17, '11 and '09 - I missed those - must have gotten my "jabs" and forgotten about them.

I would go look for that Egyptian City of yours
[/quote

which players on saturday or parts of the team were better than the ones you saw week 1?

[Sagittarius A*]

Final thought - this is going to stay the same or get worse before it gets better so get a hobby, a dog, volunteer somewhere, travel if its safe, do something that makes you happy and forget somewhat that your favorite team likely has a losing record and will not make the NCAAs.

This is a pretty good suggestion because I don't see this team winning another game in 2021.

[51percentcorn]

They will play either Ohio State or the winner of the Penn State Michigan game (played this weekend) - assuming Hopkins doesn't upset either Rutgers or Maryland correct? They could realistically win that game - they'll have to travel I guess.

[51percentcorn]

"which players on saturday or parts of the team were better than the ones you saw week 1?"

What does that have to do with your prior point about 3 other coaches that took over programs, had all of fall practice, an uninterrupted spring and complete schedule to work out kinks and enjoy some success AND had oodles more talent?

They scored 12 goals instead of 8 - it was a very competitive game until the last couple minutes - Freshmen scored 5 goals - while the SSDMs are still having issues - it's miles better than week 1. They only allowed 3 6v6 goals in the second half. They did a good job on Ohio State's most lethal goal scorer.

They don't have a smorgasbord full of talent and some of the talent they do have is misplaced and likely so for reasons that the current staff had nothing to do with. You could have Mr. Scott as your head coach, Chic or Petro as your DC and Zim as your OC and you don't have a winning record under these circumstances and with this roster.

[HopFan16]

https://bigten.org/standings.aspx?path=mlax

Maryland has locked up the #1 seed, Rutgers has all but locked up the #2 seed. OSU can lock up the #3 seed with one more win or as long as none of the bottom three teams finish 2-0—and even then, it'd go to a tiebreaker at 4-6.

The Mich-PSU winner this weekend will be 3-6 and have a leg up on the #4 seed. That leaves us (assuming we lose to Rutgers) and the Mich-PSU loser both at 2-7, likely 2-8 when it's all said and done (PSU is at OSU, Mich is vs. Rutgers final week). We have scored more goals and allowed fewer than both Mich and PSU so in the event there's a tie (and with the two teams guaranteed to be 1-1 against the other) we're in decent position to win on whatever tiebreaker they use. Then again, we also have the toughest remaining schedule in the conference, so that could change. Goals scored is close (we're at 84, Mich 83, PSU 80) but goals against we have some separation (at just 98, compared to Mich and PSU at 123 and 111, respectively).

Long story short, #5 looks most likely right now based on remaining schedules and tiebreaker scenarios, but #6 and #4 can't be counted out completely. Getting the #4 seed would be nice as we'd get to host a first round game but that would require us to win one of our next two games. I'd probably rather be us than Michigan, but PSU is in the best position to finish #4 IMO.

None of this matters a whole lot but if you are holding a candle for a 1% chance of a conference tournament title, that probably starts with winning one of the next two, getting a home game vs. PSU or Mich round one, winning that, upsetting Rutgers round 2, and then pulling off a Rivalry miracle round 3. Hey, we did it in 2015! Anything's possible.

[lilax]

The Hopkins rebuild is going to be more similar to Tambroni taking over Penn St or Warne with Georgetown. Not like the coaching changes other posters keep comparing them too.

Tambroni and Warne had to take over for Legendary Coaches (Urick & Theil) that struggled later on in their careers.

Look how long it took those guys to build their programs. The Hoya alums wanted to run Warne out and people questioned if Tambroni would ever get it done.

[51percentcorn]

Here's maybe the best thing about this year's team that I have seen so far. They have had opportunities to absolutely throw in the towel and lie down in their last two games and didn't do it. Falling behind 9-5 in the 3rd quarter and 11-7 in the 4th to Michigan they could have quit - especially if things are as bad as some say - instead they scored 3 straight in 6 minutes and played good defense and got the shot they wanted the opponents to take. Then down what 9-3/10-4 to Ohio State standing at 2-5 on the season after losing to Michigan? Talk about an opportunity to mail it in - again they didn't do it and until that turnover with under 2 minutes it was still there to get. That is my evidence that the coaches are still reaching alot of the players.

[51percentcorn]

Bored today - this is all not to say I don't think the coaching staff has made some odd choices or decisions. The most obvious is Grimes in the second half of Saturday's game. There can only be two logical explanations - 1. non contact injury or 2. Pre game decision on giving certain players certain times on the field sort of like splitting halves with goalies. If that's the explanation I would offer they missed the mark on that one and one of the marks of good coaching is adapting during the game - especially if the game is competitive. I can honestly say I would have increased Grime's PT and would have considered putting him on the 1sts with Degnon and Angelus - certainly not sitting him entirely.

The other main question I have is the "tinkering" on the defensive side of the field. 8 games in and now some decent practice time I think the following issue is certainly up for debate:
- Most teams have a nice rotation of 3 maybe 4 SSDMs - Lilly/Mabbett/Shure/Zinn/Martin/Jaronski all are still out there on occasion - Mabbett I guess could be hurt but now he is not out there - Shure and Jaronski have been asked to play short vs long d-mid in the same season. Would some of the issues still observed - such as Terefenko's last goal where the 2 SSDMs were staring at Myers loping down the alley and didn't bother to observe a middie standing in the middle of the field - be so prominent if there was more consistency of personnel?
- Very few of the reserve close defenders have seen any action for all the tinkering - maybe injuries - but Smith and Ruddy have made token appearances - no Rodgers - again - while I used to pay attention to this when I was at games - it's almost impossible to pick out the non dressed players on TV

And I realize this is talking out of both sides of my mouth because I essentially advocated for this to some degree but I also wonder if PM and Jr had to do it all over again would they let DeSimone take the reins of the offense like they have? Why do I ask this given Connor has produced on average 4 points a game - because it has turned Epstein into a different player and I think he has had some issues adapting. Epstein theoretically could be here for 2 more years - DeSo only 1. It's tricky and again goes in part back to recruiting all these players that do very similar things from very similar points on the field.

[HopFan16]

Rodgers has not dressed all year. Don't know what the injury is but he's been in street clothes since February. Calnan as well. Other guys who I've spotted in sweats on the sidelines at one point or another include Chauvette (if he were healthy, we probably would have seen him by now), Cohen, Handsor, Brunner, and Fernandez obviously.

If Delaney and Fernandez both return next year—LSM could be an area of strength off the ground and in transition, though maybe not as 1-on-1 defenders.

Martin has been a pleasant surprise at SSDM. While he has not been completely mistake free, he's just about the best freshman shortie we've had in quite some time. He's come up with some clutch GBs and certainly doesn't need any help clearing the ball with his speed. He's a nice piece to have for the future. Zinn, too, before the nauseating botched clear at the end of the OSU game (not that it would have made a difference in the outcome), was making progress at SSDM. His cover ability has clearly improved back from when he'd occasionally play on defense in 2019-2020.

They are asking a lot of Jaronski and Shure to alternate between SSDM and LSM. It's hard to do once in an entire college career, let alone every other game. Not sure what Deans and Szuluk have done to be in the dog house but they have both been slowly phased out of the lineup.

McManus appears to have won the 3rd close D spot for now to mixed results—he's a big and strong defender not afraid to lay the lumber (anyone see him knock Rutgers' Connor Kirst, who is a giant himself, off his feet a few weeks ago?) but along with that has come some issues staying out of the penalty box. Lyne and Reinson have both played well and would be starting on some good teams, but your D is only as good as the weakest link, which if it isn't one of the shorties, is the goaltender.

I don't mind the tinkering as long as they settle on something this week or next prior to the Big Ten tourney. You can't enter the tournament still unsure about where to put guys. Ideally they have either already figured it out or will decide this week against Rutgers and then the game vs. Maryland will be your test run with your optimal lineup for the tournament.

[ABV 8.3%]

Final thought - this is going to stay the same or get worse before it gets better so get a hobby, a dog, volunteer somewhere, travel if its safe, do something that makes you happy and forget somewhat that your favorite team likely has a losing record and will not make the NCAAs.

This is a pretty good suggestion because I don't see this team winning another game in 2021.

dream it here.......beat Rutgers by 5 and lose by 2 to the Terps (last Maryland goal one of those last second chaois type scenes......sets up an unmotivated OSU team BIG first round match up.....and voualah! Blue Jays in the semis of the BiG.

We ALL know this IS going to happen.....why the Hopkins posters, that call themselves "fans", can't see it IS beyond pusselling.

mean, suddenly, what.......it IS just TOO obvious using the rpi SOS.......this season

[nyjay]

Anyone else listen to the QK IL podcast today? Fair amount of time discussing the current situation and PM's comments. QK was very circumspect in what he said, but, ominously, seemed like he has some questions about PM's ability to build the right culture. The whole discussion, including Foy's comments, didn't leave me feeling great about what's going on behind the scenes.

[molo]

I agree that Q was circumspect, but the vibe I get is not comfortable. The role of lacrosse at Hopkins is unique. It is what football is at most schools, what basketball is at, say, Duke. Seaman, who was not an alum, had a good record was lost his job because he couldn't win the NC. Haus, also not an alum, left of his own accord to coach at his alma mater. Whatever you think of Petro, he was the best defenseman in the school's history--and considered by many the best in any school's history--and was unique an winning NCs as both a player and coach. It's not hard to understand how he remained coach as long as he did even as the team declined towards the end of his tenure. I am not in touch as closely this year as I have been in the past with Hopkins fans and alums, but I do know that for many of them the idea of rebuilding over a period of three or four years is not something that makes them comfortable.
Tiffany took over a UVA program, which while historically good did not occupy the same role at the university as does lax at Hopkins, and had one poor year followed by a fairly good--first round NCAAT year--and won the NC in his third year. While he may not win the NC this year, the team has resumed its position among the elite. Tambroni took over a PSU team that had a slightly less storied history than Hopkins or UVA. I don't think they had ever won an NCAAT game until he came along. They reached championship weekend two years ago in a season in which they were widely considered the best team in the country for many weeks. They entered this year regarded as a top five--or better==team until things went sideways. When Warne went to Georgetown, they were no longer an elite program. After several years, they seem to be headed back towards the top 10, certainly the top 15.
Is Hopkins willing to wait four or five years before they become relevant again? I know that when UVA hired Tiffany after he took Brown to championship weekend, I expected the team to be good quickly if not immediately. I don't think most UVA fans, who are neither as numerous or opinionated, at least judging by message boards, would have been happy with a plan to return the team to national prominence over a five year period.
There is legitimate debate over the level of talent at Hopkins. I said a couple of years ago that they were not exactly ACC caliber in the middle of the field, but this year they are playing a schedule that pits them against one elite team and one very good team and three others with rosters that would appear to be pretty comparable to their level of talent.
Although I didn't go to Hopkins as an undergraduate, I started going to games at Homewood more than 60 years ago. I grew up rooting for them as the "home" team and from my father, a high school coach who had played and coached hockey but not lax when he took his first lax job, learned the game from Hopkins coaches and always tried to have a former Hopkins player as an assistant, I developed a respect for Hopkins as a custodian of lacrosse tradition. It's disconcerting to see them drop out of weekly top 25 polls. I wish the new staff the best of luck, but I hope that next season when I can once again spend some winter and spring days and evenings at Homewood, I will be seeing a team competing to earn a place in the NCAAT instead of one hoping for a winning record.

[jhu06]

Anyone else listen to the QK IL podcast today? Fair amount of time discussing the current situation and PM's comments. QK was very circumspect in what he said, but, ominously, seemed like he has some questions about PM's ability to build the right culture. The whole discussion, including Foy's comments, didn't leave me feeling great about what's going on behind the scenes.

Qk made similar comments here last week starting at 6 in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTcVgcmdA7s

I don't have a problem w/a 2-6 Hopkins team getting ripped by the media. What I think is totally unfair and completely wrong is that as media they have the ability and obligation to get PM's thoughts before they do especially when they're noting alumni/fans etc frustrations in their commentary. It doesn't sound like they made any effort to do so. The school stopped putting the video of the post game media availability on youtube this year and TF notes it might have helped put more context on what was said.

[51percentcorn]

Is it unreasonable to ask whether this very thread is the primary source for the issue?

Edit - I just listened to the yard sale thing on you tube - what a hatchet job with absolutely zero information. That was worse than almost anything on this thread. All three of them said they had absolutely zero information but it didn't stop them. I would someday like to hear the identity of all these lax alums that are blowing up Anish Sharoff's phone about Joey Epstein. For him to start speculating that this leads to the transfer portal is irresponsible in my opinion. Once again, the bottom line is I have not heard one person state they "know" what happened. Is it possible that Milliman mismanaged the situation - from the decision not to start him and his somewhat ill-advised comments to Lee? Yes very possible. Is it also possible that there's a completely rational explanation that would lead most anyone to do what Milliman did? Also possible. Quint, for example, is directly implying that Milliman made this unilateral decision without really talking to Epstein first - and then throwing jet fuel on the fire by implying that almost every coach he had would have had him over for dinner to politely work out his shortcomings. He's lucky he didn't play for Chic. Maybe - just maybe - PM did try the reasoned arm around the shoulder approach and received an inappropriate reaction - Who knows? I don't at all. I think - that if you hooked up PM to a lie detector machine - he would have to tell you he wished he phrased the answer to the question differently because a "No Comment Team Issue " would just fuel virtually the same amount of speculation.

Oh another thing - Joey Epstein doesn't play defense - his absence for whatever time frame didn't lead to Michigan scoring 13 goals

[Sagittarius A*]

Is it unreasonable to ask whether this very thread is the primary source for the issue?

Yes. It was in the SUN. Everybody in the lacrosse universe has seen it.
Quint is apoplectic and rightfully so.
Carc's comments in the video were ridiculous. If the coach has had multiple conversations with the player and it isn't connecting, then he has the option to bench him. Enough said. He doesn't have the option to call him out in the press. Even professional coaches aren't dumb enough to do something that f******* stupid.
I liked Anish's comments. The coach benches the best player, then loses to Michigan. "That should never happen."
Right on brother.
It's time to write to the AD and express our concerns. This issue needs to be escalated, not swept under the rug.

[51percentcorn]

Yes. It was in the SUN. Everybody in the lacrosse universe has seen it.
Quint is apoplectic and rightfully so.
Carc's comments in the video were ridiculous. If the coach has had multiple conversations with the player and it isn't connecting, then he has the option to bench him. Enough said. He doesn't have the option to call him out in the press. Even professional coaches aren't dumb enough to do something that f******* stupid.
I liked Anish's comments. The coach benches the best player, then loses to Michigan. "That should never happen."
Right on brother.
It's time to write to the AD and express our concerns. This issue needs to be escalated, not swept under the rug

It was online in the Sun - you can't even see it unless you subscribe (I guess they let you look at a couple articles for free but then they are good at policing that) again let's not pretend this was on the front page of the New York Times
There is so much delusion here - it's hard to fathom- you're the guy that wanted to storm the Cordish Center and throw out Petro.

[ABV 8.3%]

Is it unreasonable to ask whether this very thread is the primary source for the issue?

Edit - I just listened to the yard sale thing on you tube - what a hatchet job with absolutely zero information. That was worse than almost anything on this thread. All three of them said they had absolutely zero information but it didn't stop them. I would someday like to hear the identity of all these lax alums that are blowing up Anish Sharoff's phone about Joey Epstein. For him to start speculating that this leads to the transfer portal is irresponsible in my opinion. Once again, the bottom line is I have not heard one person state they "know" what happened. Is it possible that Milliman mismanaged the situation - from the decision not to start him and his somewhat ill-advised comments to Lee? Yes very possible. Is it also possible that there's a completely rational explanation that would lead most anyone to do what Milliman did? Also possible. Quint, for example, is directly implying that Milliman made this unilateral decision without really talking to Epstein first - and then throwing jet fuel on the fire by implying that almost every coach he had would have had him over for dinner to politely work out his shortcomings. He's lucky he didn't play for Chic. Maybe - just maybe - PM did try the reasoned arm around the shoulder approach and received an inappropriate reaction - Who knows? I don't at all. I think - that if you hooked up PM to a lie detector machine - he would have to tell you he wished he phrased the answer to the question differently because a "No Comment Team Issue " would just fuel virtually the same amount of speculation.

Oh another thing - Joey Epstein doesn't play defense - his absence for whatever time frame didn't lead to Michigan scoring 13 goals

wrong...wrong.....just wrong........EVERYONE is playing defense when the other team has the ball.

#32 is in the top 5 for ALL Hopkins players, in regards to the cto stat.........

.......how does that stat happen if he is never playing defense?