Johns Hopkins 2023

[HappyHourLax]

Not sure if this has been brought up in a recent thread but the social media team is doing a fantastic job in preseason….love seeing them finally modernize their efforts a bit to bring more attention to the program.

[Ruffled_Feathers]

𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑮𝑶𝑨𝑳𝑰𝑬𝑺 > 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬

https://twitter.com/jhumenslacrosse/sta ... 3896296450

They really are and I definitely appreciate all the posting and enthusiasm on the twitter feed but man I have my doubts about the subject matter of this one

[jhu06]

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/league/di/polls/2023

3,15,18 seem like an upgrade from towson/princeton/mt st marys a few years ago and Delaware is also up there.

[HopFan16]

Well you can't say there won't be any quality win opportunities. Find a way to go 8-7 against this schedule and you're in the mix. 9-6 would put them in a good place. They'll need to pull off an upset or three. Tall task but outside those top 3 teams, which are probable Ls, the rest feel winnable. (Note: I am not predicting wins, just saying they're winnable). I like having Rutgers and OSU at home this year. Have to win one of those two.

Denver in town in five days. Finally will have real lacrosse to talk about. Word is that a senior defenseman is likely to be out with an injury the first month or so of the season. Almost got out of the preseason unscathed.

[jhu06]

Well you can't say there won't be any quality win opportunities. Find a way to go 8-7 against this schedule and you're in the mix. 9-6 would put them in a good place. They'll need to pull off an upset or three. Tall task but outside those top 3 teams, which are probable Ls, the rest feel winnable. (Note: I am not predicting wins, just saying they're winnable). I like having Rutgers and OSU at home this year. Have to win one of those two.

Denver in town in five days. Finally will have real lacrosse to talk about. Word is that a senior defenseman is likely to be out with an injury the first month or so of the season. Almost got out of the preseason unscathed.

there's experience and depth at f/o and at least numbers at ssdm. We've started years in worse places there and there are obviously expectations about the LSM play. The new goalie has started against UVA, UNC and St. Joes several times so he shouldn't be out of his depth out of the gun if we're shorthanded and he wins the job.

[51percentcorn]

Word is that a senior defenseman is likely to be out with an injury the first month or so of the season.

This is unfortunately significant and accelerates the youth movement amongst the long stick corps. It may pay benefits in the long run but makes the first 3 or 4 games worrisome. Using the term above "senior defenseman" can really only mean one player - the fact being that the other senior defenseman has only appeared in 3 games his entire career. This means you can really only have two options:
- Your Close Defense must be comprised of Smith and take your pick - One might think Todaro has a leg up being around the program an entire year longer and then you have Ruddy and 4 freshmen
- You can move either Mazzone or Deans probably down to close and the third defenseman is one of the above

Not the end of the world - several freshmen have started on close D and done well and it may help later in the year but taking a 2 year starter out of the line-up certainly reduces the number of players that have played together carrying 6 ft sticks. A theoretical 6-ft defense of Smith/Todaro/Brown (or Didden) and Mazzone will never have played together. Other notable stat - Deans played in 6 games in 21 (injured in 22) - Ruddy 3 games in 3 years - Kaufman 3 games last year. That's the entirety of experience available after Smith and Mazzone.

Bulletin board material - if you assume the other teams receiving votes for the Top 20 are "ranked" by the number of vote points accumulated that means that every team on the schedule except Penn State is "ranked" ahead of Hopkins.

[wgdsr]

things are going to change. a scrimmage and a week or 2 in, but jax just lost to lynchburg in a spirited preseason contest. 1st month, most even good teams are vulnerable. umd was in a knockdown dragout with 'cuse for 3/4s last year. shooting accuracy early season can cure a lot of ills.

[Ruffled_Feathers]

While it certainly sucks to have to start looking down the depth chart at a position the guys wielding 6 ft sticks is at least one area of the team that has plenty of options filled with size and general athleticism that you don't really have to worry too much about. If this gets Nick Kaufman on the field more/"permanently" I wouldn't be panicking just yet.

I'm definitely excited to see where we're at on Saturday. Should actually be some real nice January weather.

[51percentcorn]

I am also a Nick Kaufman fan and if a mobile 6'5" LSM with a wingspan of a condor can put it together he can really really help. But the fact remains that you have 12 long poles - 1 is hurt - 2 sophomores have never played a second and 1 that only appeared in 3 games - 4 freshmen - 1 junior that played a small bit and 1 senior that has never really played - that's 10 of the 12 - so while athleticism may very well be there - experience has packed up her bags and left town.
While experience is low - I do like the trend in numbers - you don't need any more than 12 long poles - just need guys that can play.

[jhu06]

I am also a Nick Kaufman fan and if a mobile 6'5" LSM with a wingspan of a condor can put it together he can really really help. But the fact remains that you have 12 long poles - 1 is hurt - 2 sophomores have never played a second and 1 that only appeared in 3 games - 4 freshmen - 1 junior that played a small bit and 1 senior that has never really played - that's 10 of the 12 - so while athleticism may very well be there - experience has packed up her bags and left town.
While experience is low - I do like the trend in numbers - you don't need any more than 12 long poles - just need guys that can play.

The experience is on the offensive end where Degnon Angelus Grimes Peshko and McDermott and company have been at Homewood for few years now. That unit has not been consistent even quarter to quarter and they need to step up and relieve pressure on the defense and old standby Narewski. Grimes and Peshko absolutely should and need to get off to strong starts in year 3.

[HopFan16]

Kaufman is going to play. Would have pegged him as the #2 LSM behind Mazzone, but now with a presumed starting close D guy banged up I'm not sure how it'll shake out. Might have to move some parts around. Lots of guys with both D and LSM designations. Maybe Mazzone plays on the faceoff wings but then stays on the field and bumps down to close D. Pat Foley used to do that. I know they like both of the freshman defensemen from Deerfield but they may not be ready yet. Agree that it shouldn't be the end of the world — if it is, your defense wasn't as good as you thought it'd be — and that the main question/area of concern remains putting more goals in the net this season than last.

[JeremyCuse]

Yes and high school recruits definitely stopped going to Syracuse as a result

It is not that simple. I was given a stat that there has been a significant drop in enrollment of 40% as one reason NY is seeing fewer elite players coming out. Second Cuse for some reason was not recruiting lax legacies; a good example of one now enrolled at UVA. They did not bother to call about half a dozen. Gross negligence to me

This is simply not true, SU absolutely recruited Colsey and his brother. However, they had Spallin and Leo higher on the board and Joey was obviously the #1 target. Roy allegedly felt SU should have prioritized Ryan more then they did but he happened to be in a class where SU got their top 2 attack targets. I am unaware of any legacy player they simply ignored, that's simply nonsense.

[JeremyCuse]

Yes and high school recruits definitely stopped going to Syracuse as a result

It is not that simple. I was given a stat that there has been a significant drop in enrollment of 40% as one reason NY is seeing fewer elite players coming out. Second Cuse for some reason was not recruiting lax legacies; a good example of one now enrolled at UVA. They did not bother to call about half a dozen. Gross negligence to me

Think we’ve discussed Ryan archer in the past as well. Have heard Jamie was agnostic at best towards Ryan going to Syracuse for various reasons but they probably could’ve had him if they wanted to.

Archer had a good college career and I believe SU did poke around as Desko obviously has a long relationship with Jamie to say the least. However, he was never considered an upper echelon recruit by SU and I don't believe he was ever offered by any of the P5 or blue blood schools including SU. With SU's issues at attack the last few years, I think he definitely could have played but it's hard to say how his game would have translated from the NEC to the ACC.

[FCCTlaxFan]

Yes and high school recruits definitely stopped going to Syracuse as a result

It is not that simple. I was given a stat that there has been a significant drop in enrollment of 40% as one reason NY is seeing fewer elite players coming out. Second Cuse for some reason was not recruiting lax legacies; a good example of one now enrolled at UVA. They did not bother to call about half a dozen. Gross negligence to me

This is simply not true, SU absolutely recruited Colsey and his brother. However, they had Spallin and Leo higher on the board and Joey was obviously the #1 target. Roy allegedly felt SU should have prioritized Ryan more then they did but he happened to be in a class where SU got their top 2 attack targets. I am unaware of any legacy player they simply ignored, that's simply nonsense.

GG and Pat March were at a High School game watching the younger brother play past Spring. If the boys had a choice between UVA and Syracuse I can understand why they might chose UVA.

[OCanada]

Understandable but tget did not have a choice

[JeremyCuse]

Yes and high school recruits definitely stopped going to Syracuse as a result

It is not that simple. I was given a stat that there has been a significant drop in enrollment of 40% as one reason NY is seeing fewer elite players coming out. Second Cuse for some reason was not recruiting lax legacies; a good example of one now enrolled at UVA. They did not bother to call about half a dozen. Gross negligence to me

This is simply not true, SU absolutely recruited Colsey and his brother. However, they had Spallin and Leo higher on the board and Joey was obviously the #1 target. Roy allegedly felt SU should have prioritized Ryan more then they did but he happened to be in a class where SU got their top 2 attack targets. I am unaware of any legacy player they simply ignored, that's simply nonsense.

GG and Pat March were at a High School game watching the younger brother play past Spring. If the boys had a choice between UVA and Syracuse I can understand why they might chose UVA.

Yup SU made a good effort at getting the middle brother this past year but UVA was always the leader and he ended up there. I have no idea what Ocanada is talking about, SU offered both brothers but I believe the middle brother was recruited more under Gait then Ryan was under Desko. Desko prioritized Spallina and Leo at the two top attack guys in that class.

[OCanada]

I guess you don’t know. People have a choice. I mentioned this months ago. It it is not new.

[JeremyCuse]

I guess you don’t know. People have a choice. I mentioned this months ago. It it is not new.

I do know, I know for a fact they offered the middle brother who just committed to UVA last fall and recruited him.

You also have failed to mention who the other legacy's were that SU "allegedly" ignored.

[jhu06]

I guess you don’t know. People have a choice. I mentioned this months ago. It it is not new.

I do know, I know for a fact they offered the middle brother who just committed to UVA last fall and recruited him.

You also have failed to mention who the other legacy's were that SU "allegedly" ignored.

I don't know how many brothers/sons/grandsons/greatgrandsons/nephews of program and university alumni played under Petro but w/his ejection that all dried up unless they're top of the line recruits right? Like there were always fringe kids at the bottom of the roster that you'd look at the end of the year and see they'd played in 1-2 games at most but had a dad or someone that had played in the 70s or 80s.

[OCanada]

Really, I have known 2 of the families for a long time. As i said people can make a choice on what they want to believe. I don’t argue w this kind of thing more than state what i know.