Johns Hopkins 2022

[HopFan16]

Realized after looking at the box score that Shure didn't play. Maybe one reason why Martin looked more gassed than usual. Still came up with 3 GBs. He's on track for the best season statistically by a Hopkins SSDM since Phil Castronova in 2011. In his first full year playing the position.

Tough to find bright spots after a loss like that, and while I'm not going to call shortie play a "strength," it is no longer the gaping liability it was from 2016-2020. Part of that is help slides are now being timed better, but still. Lilly has improved as an on-ball defender. Even when the defense doesn't play especially well like it did yesterday, it still looks like a defense playing defense, which yes is setting an incredibly low bar but also marks a resounding upgrade from whatever it is you want to call that thing we witnessed in 2020. Rebuilds take time.

[runrussellrun]

Realized after looking at the box score that Shure didn't play. Maybe one reason why Martin looked more gassed than usual. Still came up with 3 GBs. He's on track for the best season statistically by a Hopkins SSDM since Phil Castronova in 2011. In his first full year playing the position.

Tough to find bright spots after a loss like that, and while I'm not going to call shortie play a "strength," it is no longer the gaping liability it was from 2016-2020. Part of that is help slides are now being timed better, but still. Lilly has improved as an on-ball defender. Even when the defense doesn't play especially well like it did yesterday, it still looks like a defense playing defense, which yes is setting an incredibly low bar but also marks a resounding upgrade from whatever it is you want to call that thing we witnessed in 2020. Rebuilds take time.

rolling "suspensions" flu

[jhu06]

. We don’t have any consistent creators - guys that can regularly draw slides, make seeing eye skips, etc. - and transition goals are rare. And the scheme doesn’t produce a lot of good looks yet either. So everything is hard for us.

There is an old saying. It aint the Xs and Os it is the Jimmy and Joes.

You are correct on your point.

Hopkins offense just doesn't have enough speed/athelectism on offense to make a defense uncomfortable. They just don't at this point. This makes the scheme look not nearly as good as it does. You can two man game all you want but if the defense isn't put out of normal positions it isn't going to be very effective.It is what it is at this point. Some younger players will get better and the scheme will get better but right now the offense is stagnant (or as you put it "everything is hard for us").

The offense is averaging under 12 goals a game (this weekend's stats aren't updated). The defense will be giving up a little less than 12 goals a game after this week. Gotta just try to cover up the weak spots and get better.

The staff has had 2 offseasons to recruit and bring in transfers and they've stuck with benson guys aside from the uva kid that got hurt on the offensive end. The empty offensive possessions point to issues w/Grant jrs ability to game plan and make in game adjustments, and the turnovers are a PM issue that needs to be addressed pronto. Bench a veteran. Reduce playing time for others. Give some of the kids on the bench looks, because this is not a roster that is mentally focused right now and the schedule and expectations do not lighten up. PM had no issues last year in sending a message to Epstein and that needs to happen with some of these other faces.

[HopFan16]

Bench a veteran. Reduce playing time for others.

How do we reduce your posting time

[MDlaxfan76]

Bench a veteran. Reduce playing time for others.

How do we reduce your posting time

Good to see Kirson coming on.

[jhu06]

Bench a veteran. Reduce playing time for others.

How do we reduce your posting time

56 turnovers, 41 goals allowed, -16 on gbs, -8 on faceoffs last 3 games. The 4 second midfield guys the past few weeks have 9 goals and 11 turnovers on the season.

I'm sure this is helping recruiting. The Karen Hopkins University. I'm not sure what the protocols are in states like North Carolina and Virginia but I doubt they have these kinds of handcuffs on student life which is presumably already better than Charles Village.
https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2 ... sk-mandate

[Hail to the Victors]

Bench a veteran. Reduce playing time for others.

How do we reduce your posting time

That's right. There's nothing to see here, '06, no problems at all. The staff has everything under control and the team is headed in the right direction.

[jhu06]

Bench a veteran. Reduce playing time for others.

How do we reduce your posting time

That's right. There's nothing to see here, '06, no problems at all. The staff has everything under control and the team is headed in the right direction.

last week I had strong praise and yes the administration appeared to know what it was doing with the Galloway interview.

[wgdsr]

Bench a veteran. Reduce playing time for others.

How do we reduce your posting time

56 turnovers, 41 goals allowed, -16 on gbs, -8 on faceoffs last 3 games. The 4 second midfield guys the past few weeks have 9 goals and 11 turnovers on the season.

I'm sure this is helping recruiting. The Karen Hopkins University. I'm not sure what the protocols are in states like North Carolina and Virginia but I doubt they have these kinds of handcuffs on student life which is presumably already better than Charles Village.
https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2 ... sk-mandate

in 2020-21 year, uva had all the strict mandates you can imagine. including masks 24/7 even if you were in the tennessee mountains for the weekend.

they started out 2021-22 lifting some outdoor masking and loosened gathering restrictions, most others remained.
they still managed to sign all of their 2022 recruits.

at the beginning of the spring semester for omicron, they tightened some rules, inclusive of no aramark food service at indoor events to prevent mask off/eat and drink on. it is believed by veteran observers to be the 1st time in school history that anyone has ever clamored for more aramark.

aramark recently was announced as back on. and masks can now come off indoors at many places indoors, but that's a no no in classrooms. and not the only "handcuffs". i don't believe any policies have been updated to and fro with respect to favorable lacrosse recruiting vs johns hopkins, but they seem comparable in many instances. i have not heard of the hoos losing a 2023 recruit yet to covid rules.

[1766]

Don't worry, based on historically poor polling and leaked memo's, Covid is officially over as of tomorrow.

[HopFan16]

If we lose a recruit over mask rules (we won't), then I say good riddance

[Catbird]

I am not so despondent as some, others seem to prefer complaining.

This team so far is what we thought they were going into the season, somewhere between 11-20. They can't afford to not show up or they will lose to an equivalent opponent or get washed out against one of the talented ACC teams. It is still February and my grass hasn't even woken up yet.

I think if anyone said before the season we would be 3-2 after February with this schedule, they probably would have taken it. Some perspective is necessary. 2 of 3 wins are likely to be Top 20 by the end of the season (Jacksonville and Loyola). It is amusing listening to some refuse to give credit for the Jacksonville win because it was all of 3 weeks ago, after we heard how much the team sucked because they only beat them 11-8 at the time; doesn't jive with the preferred narrative. Do you throw out the Dolphin Duke win this week now that it is 3 weeks old too? Just nonsense.

Pretty clear that injuries have affected the early season meshing of the offense, it is no surprise they will struggle without secondary scoring. Likewise the offense is based on ball movement and guys going in and out of the lineup with injuries have clearly had an effect in the early season. Losing the UVA transfer Maher to injury has had them trying to plug a hole on the left side from the beginning, and injuries to young guys the last couple weeks has had the compounding effect of losing guys we rely on to provide some size to the offensive group. However I'm confident guys like Mcdermott, Peshko, and Grimes will find their footing again this season. Result is I am confident that the offense will continue to open up.

The defense had a bad day in Chapel Hill. Not good conditions for chasing a great attackman around on his home field. I think before Sunday they were clearly coming together including standing very strong at home against a very good but not elite Loyola offense. Anyone that wants to play the score game will see that the vaunted Rutgers defense gave up more. So far we are the only team to hold Jacksonville under 10.

Goaltending has been trending up the last several weeks and clearing was 21/24 against a tough riding UNC team. There are signs of growth if some are willing to see it.

I'm sitting comfortably with a 9-5 projected finish in the regular season; maybe be a bubble at-large team depending on how the B10 tournament goes. Anyone complaining about the staff already never wanted to give them a chance. First recruiting class they are fully responsible for hasn't even shown up on campus yet.

[Farfromgeneva]

I was looking at the forward schedule and thinking 7-7, mabye 8-6. Just my view so far

03/05 @ Virginia L
03/13 vs Syracuse Push
03/18 vs Navy Push
03/20 @ Delaware Push
03/26 vs Michigan W
04/03 @ Rutgers L
04/09 @ Ohio State L
04/16 vs Penn State W
04/23 vs Maryland L

So if correct that leaves you at 5-6 and figure you go 2-1 on the pushes. Hard to see wins in any of those Ls, maybe Rutgers/OSU. Go 3-0 on pushes and you get to 8-6.

[Catbird]

Seems like people have lots of assumptions on how the current season is going to unfold based on history of a coaching staff that is no longer on campus.

The one that is currently on campus took the team from looking like the Little Giants in February last year to going toe to toe with the National runner up twice to end the season.

[HopFan16]

Wow, nuance and context has no place on this forum, Catbird.

I do think 9-5 is ambitious — we're probably going to be 3-3 after this weekend, which means we'd need to go 6-2 the rest of the way. Possible but I find it unlikely. 8-6 with this schedule probably gets us into the postseason. 7-7 with a first round B1G win to ensure a .500 record may do it as well. People will inevitably cry about it but in that scenario we'd likely have a top RPI and a handful of quality wins. But, we're a looong way from both of those scenarios.

I agree the overall trend of the defense is on a positive trajectory even if it's two steps forward, one step back, but that's usually how things go with a schedule like this. Kirson's improvement is encouraging. He's reacting to shots in a way that we've never really seen him do in a Blue Jays uniform before which makes me think something finally clicked (fingers crossed). However this weekend's expected shooting gallery in Charlottesville may not be the best example of that.

I'm surprising myself by saying this but I think the offense is the bigger issue longterm. It's *supposed* to be based on ball movement but we're not seeing a whole lot of that in reality outside of a half against Towson. It's been a lot of just taking turns dodging, when that doesn't work, pass it off to the next guy. Angelus and DeSimone have had moments getting by their man and drawing slides, but practically no one else has. Epstein is finding ways to score — up to 14 on the year despite bageling in the opener vs. Jax — but he simply doesn't have the burst he did as a freshman. It's unfortunate but it is what it is. He's done a good job reinventing himself as a deadly wing shooter. If he can somehow rediscover that explosion it might be a gamechanger for the entire offense but right now the signs aren't great. One positive development is Grimes' emergence as an off-ball player. He's scored several goals on smart cuts inside. We didn't see that from him last year.

[Farfromgeneva]

Maybe Navy should be considered a W rather than push at this point. But hard to see that 9th win in light of GT and UNC games. Maybe argue RU isn't on that level, but comparative score game early suggests OSU will be challenging. And Inacio (plus Blanchard for depth) is looking like a killer early

[Catbird]

I question whether Jack Myers can keep up the ridiculous pace he is on. If he does then OSU has a serious tewaarton candidate. If he doesn't we will see OSU come back down to Earth some. No doubt many seriously underestimated them before the season, me included.

I'm not sure what you take away from the Georgetown game other than the Jays weren't ready to play what is maybe the best team in the country on 2 days rest. I think you have to strip the Georgetown game of all context to make a read any more granular than, yea we're not ready for that level yet. What that weekend did was give the team valuable experience to take into the 2 game weekend in March and then again in the B1G tournament.

[Catbird]

I'm surprising myself by saying this but I think the offense is the bigger issue longterm. It's *supposed* to be based on ball movement but we're not seeing a whole lot of that in reality outside of a half against Towson. It's been a lot of just taking turns dodging, when that doesn't work, pass it off to the next guy. Angelus and DeSimone have had moments getting by their man and drawing slides, but practically no one else has. Epstein is finding ways to score — up to 14 on the year despite bageling in the opener vs. Jax — but he simply doesn't have the burst he did as a freshman. It's unfortunate but it is what it is. He's done a good job reinventing himself as a deadly wing shooter. If he can somehow rediscover that explosion it might be a gamechanger for the entire offense but right now the signs aren't great. One positive development is Grimes' emergence as an off-ball player. He's scored several goals on smart cuts inside. We didn't see that from him last year.

I don't think its any surprise that the one game we saw the offense really go off and move the ball well (Towson) was the only one played in halfway decent weather with the entire offensive group healthy and playing together. Week 1 looked pretty good too; just trouble finishing on a hot goalie, lest we forget that Luke Millican kept that game from being alot worse for the Dolphins.

And it seems like many have forgotten just how bad things were EVERYWHERE on field except maybe the faceoff X, at the end of 2020. As you said, rebuilds take time.

[flalax22]

People keep referencing a Maher injury. Did he not leave the team?

[Catbird]

People keep referencing a Maher injury. Did he not leave the team?

Last I heard he was injured, but I am not keyed in in any special way.

Looking at the roster now you are right he has been removed I am not sure when that was done. I recall seeing him on there before but now can't remember if that was in the fall or before the season... Wonder what happened there.