Maryland 2023

[gtownterpfan]

Totally agree on compressed defense. Yesterday was a bit reminiscent of pre-2022 Terp offense (minus Bernhardt), even all the way back to the days of Blye and Snyder-- lots of patient, secure ball movement, but not the kind of constant stress on a D that results from being comfortable taking the ball inside. One reason I was excited last year about arrival of Donville, and to a lesser extent Khan, was that they seemed more comfortable with short, interior passing game, dare I say more of a Canadian box style. Logan was/is exceptionally skilled and well understood that simply because a D man is near you doesn't mean you're not open and shouldn't be looking for the ball. I felt like I wasn't seeing a lot of cutting yesterday, or even taking a quick step away from the D man with stick ready to catch and fire. Guys need to be more comfortable making and catching that kind of pass. Just slinging the rock around the perimeter and waiting to get a skip pass works ok if you've got the shooters, but offense goes to the next level when guys are willing to take it inside. Of course, yesterday, even simple passes were a struggle at times.

[terp talk]

Terp talk Post Game Show --Loyola 12 Terps 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSqVigsmxtM

[jrn19]

I don’t think willingness to pass inside was a trouble yesterday, I think there was a lot of willing ball movement. I think in some cases too willing. I think there was, as discussed, not enough confidence or ability or some combo of both to take on the defender. Long had several chances to go at his man and chose to pass instead. Other guys did have times where they got a step on their defender but seemed to be a step slow in fully committing and making the defense react. Even making the defense react to you dodging forces them out of their position and gets the ball spinning for open shots. Obviously you want to win the matchup to get to the cage yourself or draw the double team but as we saw yesterday on our side, an ill timed show but no go slide can leave a shooter open and this team does have shooters.

There was just a lack of confidence all the way around. Loyola got at the them early and Staudt made a lot of saves and this is a team that has not been used to not seeing the ball go in the net often and often very early

[random observer]

Yesterday's loss was a bad one for the Terps, no doubt (or maybe not *that* bad depending on how Loyola looks the rest of the season). But I think a consequence of Maryland being so dominant these past few years (if Weirman's shot goes anywhere else but right at Rhode in the 2021 final, we might be talking about a 3 year undefeated run just being snapped) is that it's easy to forget that it was just that -- one loss. Duke racks up these kind of losses all the time (including yesterday), and no one bats an eye.

I expect Maryland to be just fine. They won't be the 2022 team, but you can count on one hand the number of teams in the history of college lacrosse that could make a claim to being on their level. This program has been a Final Four lock pretty much the entirety of Tillman's tenure (9 times in 11 tries, with an asterisk for one of the two misses), and plenty of those teams were not world beaters. The Terps still have the best defense and FOGO in the country to fall back on, and I think that offensively they are more light on experience than they are on talent. Murphy may or may not be suited to being the alpha, but he has a skillset that any offense would love to have. Kyle Long is still an All-American caliber player. Spanos is a mismatch for a lot of poles to handle, let alone short sticks. Once he puts it all together I think he is going to be a stud; it's rare to find a player with that kind of size and physicality who is also that skilled. Just needs to rush things a little less.

[keno in reno]

Can someone who watched the game, share if the offense looked different than it did under Coach Benson?

One thing that I noticed against Loyola (I haven't seen the Richmond game) is that the Terps were much less compressed yesterday than they were in 2022. That jumped out at me very early in the game. Last year they kept most of the offense between the football hash marks much more than most teams but they got their hands free with a lot of circular motion. This meant that every player was a threat most of the time. Their quick ball movement led to poor defensive approaches which turns an average dodger into a good one. Yesterday it looked like there was a defender in the lap of every Terp when he received the ball which caused the carousel to break down.

The #2 preseason ranking was just lazy voting/"expert" predictions. This is not last year's offense. This was not a top 10 offense starting last June, and that was with Malever. Terps are usually ranked preseason around 4-7 and ultimately work their way up in May. That's where this year's team should have fairly been ranked, and that's only because of the fogo and 4 defensive guys.

Maryland always has games like this (even last year vs Princeton, Syracuse and ND). This is also not last year's defense. The bigger concern right now is the 2 or 3 links on the defensive chain. Toomey exploited them and got his guys some easy looks (with freshmen of his own). Even Richmond got a ton of open looks last week.

The great thing is that you can beat anyone when you get the ball first 18 out of 22 times (how ugly would this game have been with a bad fogo???). So a few tweaks and individual improvements could get this team back toward the top. Kelly is warming up; he probably could have had about 7 goals with a little more accuracy. Spanos may become a reliable matchup win, but maybe not. I don't know if Dante's stick skills are good enough to play on offense, but it could be nice if the ssdm unit stabilized to the point where Trader could play some offense; I'd imagine he could beat any short stick one on one and get other guys open (like Kelly and Murphy).

Either way, Loyola had this game circled for 8 months and they earned the win. Tough to follow up '22 and even '21 because every opponent will want their long-awaited revenge on Maryland. Even the Hopkins cockroaches are starting to show up in the fanlax kitchen...

Maryland preseason ranking under Tillman

2022: #2
2021: #2
2020: #4
2019: #2
2018: #2
2017: #3
2016: #4

They haven’t started outside the Top 5 since 2015. They’ve been #2 in 5 of the last 6 years. No one ranks Maryland #7 to start the year. This is what happens when you make the Final Four and play for the championship basically every single season. We don’t gotta act like it was crazy for people to rank a team with a defense that is still pretty excellent and a faceoff man that is still excellent and an excellent goalie - albeit now unfortunately injured - #2 in the country to start the season in a season that we’ve already seen is going to be crazy to predict because they lost a game to start the year. The #3 team also just lost a game yesterday to a team that was unranked to start the year.

The loss was terrible, and the offense definitely was a work in progress, and they do have to find answers in terms of dodging. Also, they probably aren’t going to turn it over 20+ times and shoot <20% many games in the future either.

Maryland's press releases indicate some different rankings, like #5 in 2021, but whatever, that's not the main point. UVA was ranked #1 last year after losing a bunch of great players. There's a halo effect in ranking last year's national champs regardless of how many important players are lost. I would like to see how many teams that have lost over 60% of their goal production that were ranked top 2 the next season. I ain't looking up the stats, but it seems similar to the 2007 UVA team that was ranked #1 based on the greatness of the 2006 team.

As far as this season goes, the sky is still the limit with Wierman at the dot. A little (or a lot) more accurate shooting, fewer bad turnovers, guys settling into roles on offense and maybe a few different combinations on defense. Brutal schedule for the offense to learn on the job.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Yesterday's loss was a bad one for the Terps, no doubt (or maybe not *that* bad depending on how Loyola looks the rest of the season). But I think a consequence of Maryland being so dominant these past few years (if Weirman's shot goes anywhere else but right at Rhode in the 2021 final, we might be talking about a 3 year undefeated run just being snapped) is that it's easy to forget that it was just that -- one loss. Duke racks up these kind of losses all the time (including yesterday), and no one bats an eye.

I expect Maryland to be just fine. They won't be the 2022 team, but you can count on one hand the number of teams in the history of college lacrosse that could make a claim to being on their level. This program has been a Final Four lock pretty much the entirety of Tillman's tenure (9 times in 11 tries, with an asterisk for one of the two misses), and plenty of those teams were not world beaters. The Terps still have the best defense and FOGO in the country to fall back on, and I think that offensively they are more light on experience than they are on talent. Murphy may or may not be suited to being the alpha, but he has a skillset that any offense would love to have. Kyle Long is still an All-American caliber player. Spanos is a mismatch for a lot of poles to handle, let alone short sticks. Once he puts it all together I think he is going to be a stud; it's rare to find a player with that kind of size and physicality who is also that skilled. Just needs to rush things a little less.

+1

[BlueJaySince1947]

Hilarious that you pompous bitches only scheduled 12 games, hope you don't get in.

the 12 game nazis are back.
you of course realize hop used to schedule the least amount of games possible during the glory years, no?
fanlax is hilare.

The Blue Jay haters are everywhere.
Please be specific...when did these scheduling issues happen...which years specifically.

This is a MD thread. Why are BJ fans even talking?
I’m damn sure not going to read their post especially not post on their post!

Perhaps the glory years includes 1959 when I watched the Jays hammer Loyola 29 - 3...or 1957 when they thumped UMD 15 - 10 ?

[Mr3Putt]

I watched the replay this morning. Md shot the ball horrible. They are better shooters than that. Did anyone tell them the LOY goalie is Left handed? D Kelly needs to be more alert ! He sleeps walks too much. He needs to play more hungry, could have been more productive . I don’t think Mcananey saw the ball well. The sun, ball screens were a factor.

[Farfromgeneva]

Hilarious that you pompous bitches only scheduled 12 games, hope you don't get in.

the 12 game nazis are back.
you of course realize hop used to schedule the least amount of games possible during the glory years, no?
fanlax is hilare.

The Blue Jay haters are everywhere.
Please be specific...when did these scheduling issues happen...which years specifically.

This is a MD thread. Why are BJ fans even talking?
I’m damn sure not going to read their post especially not post on their post!

Perhaps the glory years includes 1959 when I watched the Jays hammer Loyola 29 - 3...or 1957 when they thumped UMD 15 - 10 ?

Do you realize you’re responding to two different people?

[10stone5]

Hilarious that you pompous bitches only scheduled 12 games, hope you don't get in.

the 12 game nazis are back.
you of course realize hop used to schedule the least amount of games possible during the glory years, no?
fanlax is hilare.

The Blue Jay haters are everywhere.
Please be specific...when did these scheduling issues happen...which years specifically.

This is a MD thread. Why are BJ fans even talking?
I’m damn sure not going to read their post especially not post on their post!

Perhaps the glory years includes 1959 when I watched the Jays hammer Loyola 29 - 3...or 1957 when they thumped UMD 15 - 10 ?

Do you realize you’re responding to two different people?

Doubtful

[AreaLax]

I watched the replay this morning. Md shot the ball horrible. They are better shooters than that. Did anyone tell them the LOY goalie is Left handed? D Kelly needs to be more alert ! He sleeps walks too much. He needs to play more hungry, could have been more productive . I don’t think Mcananey saw the ball well. The sun, ball screens were a factor.

Do you realize that Kelly had 4 goals yesterday? His first goal was probably the best offensive flow they had in the game

[Bmk2222]

I watched the replay this morning. Md shot the ball horrible. They are better shooters than that. Did anyone tell them the LOY goalie is Left handed? D Kelly needs to be more alert ! He sleeps walks too much. He needs to play more hungry, could have been more productive . I don’t think Mcananey saw the ball well. The sun, ball screens were a factor.

Do you realize that Kelly had 4 goals yesterday? His first goal was probably the best offensive flow they had in the game

Calvert Hall!!!

[stupefied]

Should be expected that Maryland's offense would not be nearly as good in 2022.

Lost 6 players now in PLL in Tewarrton winner Winaukaus, Khan, Donville, Demaio , Pugliese , Fairman who keyed offense and then Malever to injury .


That is a ton of offense to lose at once


Will take time . Cuse could give Terps a tough game next week

[keno in reno]

I watched the replay this morning. Md shot the ball horrible. They are better shooters than that. Did anyone tell them the LOY goalie is Left handed? D Kelly needs to be more alert ! He sleeps walks too much. He needs to play more hungry, could have been more productive . I don’t think Mcananey saw the ball well. The sun, ball screens were a factor.

Do you realize that Kelly had 4 goals yesterday? His first goal was probably the best offensive flow they had in the game

Kelly was good, but he probably could have had 7 goals if he put a few open shots on net. He's on the right trajectory to being a dominant scorer.
Spanos looks close as well. He had some great moves to the net with no results to show for it.
Watching the replay, the Terps offense can be fine. They got plenty of good looks; just poor location or great saves by the goalie.
The bigger concern is the D. Loyola was picking on one of our close Dmen with great success, and the ssdm's have a ways to go. If one of the freshmen poles is ready, maybe Geppert could be shifted to either shorty or close to shore up one of the holes (hate to lose him as pole-goal guy though).....by the way, Geppert had a 800 mph shot hit the Loyola D guy square in the leg in the first quarter; not sure how he survived that (and scary to think what that would have done if it hit him higher up)

[jrn19]

Geppert is maybe the best LSM in the country. You don’t take a pole out of his hands to move him to shorty. Close maybe, but a big part of his success is what he does off the ground and in transition and those skills are far more accentuated at LSM than close defense

Burlace had a tough game, but where he struggled noticeably was in showing but not going on a couple of slides, which left shooters wide open. That’s something you can fix through tape and practice and more game time. He did get beat once that I remember, which is going to happen. Contrary to the rather crazy amount of discussion about him relative to his role last year (shout-out a certain ESPN commentator) most teams #3 close defenseman are nowhere near as good as Matt Rahill was last year

[youthathletics]

Geppert was an avg O-Mid at Landon, kudos to tills and crew for getting the pole in his hands after he transferred in. Actually not surprised at the move....many offensive players do very well transitioning to LSM. Both my boys would pick up the pole in summer/fall ball and would like they played it most their life. It is a fun position.

[AreaLax]

Geppert started as a ssdm then went to close when Rahill was the LSM. That lasted a game or two before the they switched the two.

[keno in reno]

Geppert was an avg O-Mid at Landon, kudos to tills and crew for getting the pole in his hands after he transferred in. Actually not surprised at the move....many offensive players do very well transitioning to LSM. Both my boys would pick up the pole in summer/fall ball and would like they played it most their life. It is a fun position.

Not really. Bernhardt, Wisnauskas, Khan, Donville, DeMaio and Malever probably would have helped Coach Bernhardt look as good as Benson through 2 games.

[random observer]

Geppert is maybe the best LSM in the country. You don’t take a pole out of his hands to move him to shorty. Close maybe, but a big part of his success is what he does off the ground and in transition and those skills are far more accentuated at LSM than close defense

Burlace had a tough game, but where he struggled noticeably was in showing but not going on a couple of slides, which left shooters wide open. That’s something you can fix through tape and practice and more game time. He did get beat once that I remember, which is going to happen. Contrary to the rather crazy amount of discussion about him relative to his role last year (shout-out a certain ESPN commentator) most teams #3 close defenseman are nowhere near as good as Matt Rahill was last year

While your point about Rahill is true, it is also fair to say that when you look at that 2022 Terp defense -- which really presented only bad options in regards to who to attack -- he was probably the "weak" link where you might think you have a better chance of drawing a slide relative to Makar, Zapitello, and all of those incredible shorties. Thankfully for the Terps, that potential success rate was still very low, and Rahill more than held his own when challenged.

[MoralTerpitude]

So much went wrong yesterday that's it's hard to draw a lot of conclusions. But from two games a couple of mini-trends have surfaced. Siracusa either needs to be more careful in possession, or needs to get dropped from the second line midfield. And Trader has put himself in bad positions a few times. He's been able to use his athleticism to make up for it, but it did end up biting him yesterday a couple of times. This is not surprising, given he has two games worth of experience at the D1 level. Lacey has been quite good; I think Tills will put him and maybe Wicks or Redd as the starting shorties. Kolar has looked decent, but lost concentration at the end of the first half, and gave up to much space on his man, resulting in a goal.

Murphy doesn't seem to have all of the tools to be an alpha - obviously great scorer, especially when his shot is set up for him. But he's not a creator. Maybe like JRN said they switch him and Long. It was encouraging to see Kelly perform, and Spanos will be scary once he puts it all together. He easily could have had a hat trick, he was dominating this guy.

Funny that the transfers in almost anticipated the injuries. I remember thinking "why would Dolan want to transfer in to sit behind a junior that is a top-3 goalie in the nation?" Glad he did. Same with Lacey.