Better cut of player. You can notice just by how many more GB's the D has picked up cleanly vs. previous years. This is relative, obviously.
Completely agree, both teams looking much better this year, glad to see it.a fan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:55 pmBetter cut of player. You can notice just by how many more GB's the D has picked up cleanly vs. previous years. This is relative, obviously.
Work in progress, just as the O is. All I know is that I enjoy watching both Hop and Syracuse play.
Both teams could easily miss the playoffs this year. Or make them. Which is why it's so fun to watch....
We've reached the point in the season where it doesn't make much sense to say "X beat Y, so X needs to be ranked ahead of Y." That works for the first few weeks but we have a lot more data now. For instance, Jacksonville beat a Duke team that annihilated Loyola. Why shouldn't Jacksonville be ahead of both teams? And why shouldn't Hopkins be ahead of Jacksonville, who they beat pretty handily? Have seen several polls out there recently including the one from USA Lax Mag that has Jacksonville many spots ahead of the Jays. If you do it by X beat Y who beat Z and then rank exactly in that order you're not going to have a fun time. Rankings should be heavily weighted toward how teams are *currently* playing IMO. The NCAA commitee can sort out the holistic resumes later.jhu06 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 11:16 am https://www.insidelacrosse.com/league/DI/polls
no way we should be ahead or within 5 of loyola or unc.
The biggest difference has been the improved goalie play. Mark is an enormous upgrade over what they were getting last year. But the defensive play in front of him looks largely the same to me. They got absolutely shredded at home against UNC and Duke. Looked a lot like last season. Giving up a ton of good looks. But now they've got a goalie who can save some of them. Looked better against Hopkins but at least part of that was due to the Jays playing slow and not winning a ton of faceoffs.a fan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:55 pmBetter cut of player. You can notice just by how many more GB's the D has picked up cleanly vs. previous years. This is relative, obviously.
Work in progress, just as the O is. All I know is that I enjoy watching both Hop and Syracuse play.
Both teams could easily miss the playoffs this year. Or make them. Which is why it's so fun to watch....
DMac wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:59 pmCompletely agree, both teams looking much better this year, glad to see it.a fan wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 12:55 pmBetter cut of player. You can notice just by how many more GB's the D has picked up cleanly vs. previous years. This is relative, obviously.
Work in progress, just as the O is. All I know is that I enjoy watching both Hop and Syracuse play.
Both teams could easily miss the playoffs this year. Or make them. Which is why it's so fun to watch....
Much different O from the Cuse the year, don't have one guy taking 22 shots
in a game. Jus' sayin'.
. No assists. One groundball. Two turnovers. Meh. They're incrementally better. But you're right..... if you want to boil it down? Neither Syraucse nor Hopkins made the playoffs last year-----so really, it's splitting hairs to say either team is "better", and point at some stats. Missing the playoffs is missing the playoffs for these two proud programs.
Yep. They're still working on recruiting. The one thing I'm hoping both Syracuse and Hop fans are finally realizing is just how bare the cupboards were at the end of Desko and Petro's tenure. They were getting smoked on the recruiting trail, and now two sets of coaches have missed the playoffs entirely as a result.
Jays don't have a top offense yet. That's why. Cuse has a few years to go, hoping for better players on D in particular before the ship will float. And the O has to get far better. You have to be able to put up 15+ per game if you want to win the tough games on Syracuse's schedule, and go deep into the playoffs.
Yes. Shredded on defense. Duke took 66 shots and hit 12 pipes (and Mark made 22 saves). Cuse D was missing assignments and losing matchups all over the place. Duke generated an insane amount of quality looks. It was a bad defensive performance.
But he did have a career day. Sadly that's not how this works? Take some saves away from Mark — he stole a few, including one on the doorstep on Hop's first man-up, probably the best save of the game for either side — and then what happens? With a few exceptions, the Cuse shooters didn't make Marcille move much. Give the highlights a watch again. Lots of low-angle shots and stick-side high saves. Great game from him but the bulk of his saves were not exactly of the spectacular variety.
A reasonable estimate based on the teams’ performances to date.
Mark had 27 savesHopFan16 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 3:54 pmYes. Shredded on defense. Duke took 66 shots and hit 12 pipes (and Mark made 22 saves). Cuse D was missing assignments and losing matchups all over the place. Duke generated an insane amount of quality looks. It was a bad defensive performance.
But he did have a career day. Sadly that's not how this works? Take some saves away from Mark — he stole a few, including one on the doorstep on Hop's first man-up, probably the best save of the game for either side — and then what happens? With a few exceptions, the Cuse shooters didn't make Marcille move much. Give the highlights a watch again. Lots of low-angle shots and stick-side high saves. Great game from him but the bulk of his saves were not exactly of the spectacular variety.
BTW, Mark had huge days against UNC — 27 saves! — and in the aforementioned Duke game and Cuse still lost both. Clearly you need more than a big day from your goalie to win.
Hop -5 is indeed the line. O/U at 22.5. I kinda have a good feeling about this one.DocBarrister wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:10 pmA reasonable estimate based on the teams’ performances to date.
However, I’m not assuming an easy game against Navy at Navy.
I’m sure the Midshipmen view the Blue Jays as an opportunity.
Hopkins should expect a spirited contest.
DocBarrister
And criminally underrated on this boardFinster wrote: ↑Mon Mar 13, 2023 10:55 amHopFan16 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 2:04 pm Roughly halfway through the season. Time for a little report card.
Offense: B-
Improved from last year, but still a ways to go. Collison and Melendez have been impact additions. Angelus looks very comfortable — some have even said Stanwickian — as the primary distributor. Degnon remains one of the country's best pure shooters. Some nice contributions from Bauer and Krampf. But Grimes and Peshko have gone cold after solid starts. Injuries have led to week-to-week inconsistency and the group overall still looks like they're a player or two away from being a top unit. Have struggled against aggressive, athletic defenses (Loyola and UNC). Still, the ball is hotter than last year, they're a couple players deeper than they have been and they're shooting it better — 32% as a team, compared with 27% last year.
Defense: B+
Passing the eye test. Scott Smith is doing All-American work limiting opposing teams' top attackmen. Mazzone has been a crucial add on D, on faceoff wings, and in transition. Ruddy filled in admirably for Szuluk while the latter was out and Carson Brown has been quite the find. Pat Deans makes plays when healthy. SSDM defense has been up and down — Martin being the top guy but Jaronski, Raposo, and Ince have all had their moments. I would love to see them develop a 5th guy to rotate in there as sticking to 4 and running that same group out every game makes me nervous. Slides and recoveries, on-ball D have been solid and they're not hanging the goalie out to dry nearly as often as they used to. Shorties only get roasted once or twice a game rather than four or five. Big, physical group that plays with a chip on its shoulder.
Goaltending: A
After years in the wilderness looking for a goalie, the Jays finally have their guy. Not much else to say really. Over 50% in 5/7 games against top competition, with some huge performances sprinkled in. Marcille has also quietly been good clearing the ball — always looks to get it out quick and you can count the number of bad clearing passes on one hand. He has 3 points! Versfeld was excellent in spot duty against Utah.
Faceoffs: B
Right around 50% on the season against another gauntlet, and that was without Narewski for much of the year. Callahan and Dunn have taken turns being the guy, with Dunn's performance against Zach Cole of St. Joe's being the standout game. Now with Narewski back they've got 3 legit guys who can all win a matchup on a given day. The Wing God Jack Hawley has come up with some very clutch GBs. Want to see a bit more from the poles (Mazzone, Smith, etc.) who get bumped up to play on the wing. Still room for improvement in that area.
FanLax: C+
Some good performances from 51, Ruffled, nyjay, primitive, hmmm, 44, HOB, flalax, and others. Getting solid play out of that group. DocB has his moments but is still looking for that consistency. 06 and OCanada will surprise you with occasional gems but are more often than not a detriment to overall team performance. Sag A is riding the bench. steelhop has given up. Not the worst this group has ever been but a lot to work on. Lots of time left to get it together but something tells me they won't.
This was a +1,000 post, particularly the last paragraph. Humor is way underrated in society.
51percentcorn wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 4:55 pmAgain, the defense will concede that the administration was not in love with the head coach if the prosecution will concede the performance had deteriorated. I did mention 2013 in a post just before that and we'll just have to agree to disagree on the Rambo narrative. In terms of Shellenberger - I am privy to a source who told me BEFORE he decommitted that he was very likely to decommit as soon as the UVA situation got resolved. Hopkins was the bridesmaid even if they didn't know it.OCanada wrote: ↑Sun Mar 12, 2023 2:57 pm A good hypothetical demoing how wrong the narrative is that has been presented here. You might have added Schelly committing but then going to UVA. And Rambo going to MD. Not certain what happened there.
You omitted mentioning the hazing year when Daniels wanted to cancel the season but was forced to back off. I cannot definitively answer your question bcs it is a hypothetical and there are several people involved but given other events not listed eg the contract structure I am confident he would be gone anyway. What is JC’s view.
The hit was late - it was not a token push after a goal - the flag should have been thrown. And you are incorrect on the other point - the shot clock was dwindling down to nothing and even on the stream you could hear everybody in black telling him to go. That's like saying in the 2005 semis Jake Byrne had enough time and should have had the awareness to feed Huntley on the other side who was wide open.
