Johns Hopkins 2023

[HopFan16]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

I get him not getting it last year when the team wasn't very good, as these things tend to go to players on good teams, but now that we're top 10 it's especially weird. You've got a guy from BU on the HM team ahead of him? The best team they've played this year is UMASS. Meanwhile Smith is on national TV every week shutting down top attackmen. I try not to put too much stock into it but it's hard not to root for him and you'd like to see the kid get the recognition he deserves. His GB numbers are slightly down this year but that's largely because Mazzone gobbles up everything in sight. I suspect some of the voters don't actually watch a ton of the games and just look at the GB/CT stats, which we know can be misleading for defensemen.

[wgdsr]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

how did u determine saustad was terrible against hopkins?

[jhu06]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

There were 18 defensemen on the AA Team. Does that mean that, at best, Smith is the 19th best defenseman in the country??

Good post. Big opportunity today to take a step toward may and skunk a conference rival's season.

[51percentcorn]

IL is full of you know what sometimes. This what good ol Terry Foy wrote a couple days ago: "I wrote in the preseason that I expected the Blue Jays to be better and, if they were, it was going to be because of — essentially — the intangibles. I think that opinion has been validated." Well unfortunately this is word for word what he wrote in the preseason " On paper, it’s hard to make a case that the Blue Jays will be better than they were last year. My opinion is that, IF they are, it’ll be thanks to the intangibles more than the talent" This is pretty incredible to be completely wrong and take credit for it. In that same preseason ranking he put EVERY single one of Hopkins opponents higher than the Jays except for - wait for it - Penn State. That's real Nostradamus stuff to say - They aren't as good as last year but in case they are I can't tell you why because it's intangible. Yes Terry - it's talent. Mazzone - Collison and Melendez - along with Angelus playing an entire season at his natural position are difference makers. In the same number of games as he played last year - Grimes has gone from 14 to 24 points. It was also pretty easy to see the Jays were losing 3 injury compromised players that took over 250 shots and unfortuntely not that many went up on the scoreboard. Throw in competent to exceptional goalie play on occasion and that's not intangible.

If Smith is rankled about these silly rankings - then shut down a Rutgers attackman in about 6 hours. The one thing I would like to see from Smith is better decisions on occasions - there was no reason for that Michigan player to score last week except that he went out on an uncontrolled approach - it happens but sometimes discretion is better.

[nyjay]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

I get him not getting it last year when the team wasn't very good, as these things tend to go to players on good teams, but now that we're top 10 it's especially weird. You've got a guy from BU on the HM team ahead of him? The best team they've played this year is UMASS. Meanwhile Smith is on national TV every week shutting down top attackmen. I try not to put too much stock into it but it's hard not to root for him and you'd like to see the kid get the recognition he deserves. His GB numbers are slightly down this year but that's largely because Mazzone gobbles up everything in sight. I suspect some of the voters don't actually watch a ton of the games and just look at the GB/CT stats, which we know can be misleading for defensemen.

Whatever. It's fine. Keeping winning and it will fix itself. Takes time to change conventional wisdom and reputation (because that's what this actually is). They haven't been disrespected in the ranking though this year. At least we didn't strike out entirely like we have for the last couple of years.

[primitiveskills]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

how did u determine saustad was terrible against hopkins?

OK. "Terrible" is an over-reaction. But that game was a good illustration of the weakness in his game, which is off-ball/ sliding/ approach. He's a good on-ball defender, and maybe it is UVa's system, but his approaches and slides are often very slow, and he is a consummate ball-watcher. If you are a AA defender, its much more than just defending the dodge and bullying guys at X.

On the other hand, I'm super-impressed with Kastner. The lazy analysis is "he's 6'7" (which is all you ever hear from commentators), but he's really good on- and off-ball. On paper, last night's match-up with McAdorey should have been tough, but he completely dominated.

[wgdsr]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

how did u determine saustad was terrible against hopkins?

OK. "Terrible" is an over-reaction. But that game was a good illustration of the weakness in his game, which is off-ball/ sliding/ approach. He's a good on-ball defender, and maybe it is UVa's system, but his approaches and slides are often very slow, and he is a consummate ball-watcher. If you are a AA defender, its much more than just defending the dodge and bullying guys at X.

On the other hand, I'm super-impressed with Kastner. The lazy analysis is "he's 6'7" (which is all you ever hear from commentators), but he's really good on- and off-ball. On paper, last night's match-up with McAdorey should have been tough, but he completely dominated.

saustad isn't the fastest guy around, but i caught all of hop's goals and it seems his matchup didn't do anything on him. as u are probably aware. every d man ball watches, to my eye it's uva's system that is making this difficult on themselves. they've created a hedging system based on umd offense (reading between the lines on lars interviews and watching), and it screws up matchups, decision making, etc. saustad's been a beast at times and i didn't see any of what you're seeing as definitely his responsibility in the hopkins game. he was excellent in umd and nd games, seeing as u wanted to call him out. @ umd, 3 goals were on him, tho... 2 of which were screening the goalie.

btw, in skipping to hop goals, saw/heard 1 g from schutz... where he caught, spun, split 2 guys, including swimming smith basically in a telephone booth.

uva's d has been a mess too often the last 2 years. if they don't get it fixed, they'll squander a v good offense.

[jhu06]

Foy tries but he has a lot of responsibilities which probably compromises his ability to be an ace with the facts and analysis. Larken Kemp's arrogance is far worse than Foys spelling and factual errors.

Gtown is up on Denver. Helpful after jville lost last night.

[primitiveskills]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

how did u determine saustad was terrible against hopkins?

OK. "Terrible" is an over-reaction. But that game was a good illustration of the weakness in his game, which is off-ball/ sliding/ approach. He's a good on-ball defender, and maybe it is UVa's system, but his approaches and slides are often very slow, and he is a consummate ball-watcher. If you are a AA defender, its much more than just defending the dodge and bullying guys at X.

On the other hand, I'm super-impressed with Kastner. The lazy analysis is "he's 6'7" (which is all you ever hear from commentators), but he's really good on- and off-ball. On paper, last night's match-up with McAdorey should have been tough, but he completely dominated.

saustad isn't the fastest guy around, but i caught all of hop's goals and it seems his matchup didn't do anything on him. as u are probably aware. every d man ball watches, to my eye it's uva's system that is making this difficult on themselves. they've created a hedging system based on umd offense (reading between the lines on lars interviews and watching), and it screws up matchups, decision making, etc. saustad's been a beast at times and i didn't see any of what you're seeing as definitely his responsibility in the hopkins game. he was excellent in umd and nd games, seeing as u wanted to call him out. @ umd, 3 goals were on him, tho... 2 of which were screening the goalie.

btw, in skipping to hop goals, saw/heard 1 g from schutz... where he caught, spun, split 2 guys, including swimming smith basically in a telephone booth.

uva's d has been a mess too often the last 2 years. if they don't get it fixed, they'll squander a v good offense.

Will agree on your final point. Talent-wise that D should be much better than it is. Much less than the sum of its parts.

[wgdsr]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

how did u determine saustad was terrible against hopkins?

OK. "Terrible" is an over-reaction. But that game was a good illustration of the weakness in his game, which is off-ball/ sliding/ approach. He's a good on-ball defender, and maybe it is UVa's system, but his approaches and slides are often very slow, and he is a consummate ball-watcher. If you are a AA defender, its much more than just defending the dodge and bullying guys at X.

On the other hand, I'm super-impressed with Kastner. The lazy analysis is "he's 6'7" (which is all you ever hear from commentators), but he's really good on- and off-ball. On paper, last night's match-up with McAdorey should have been tough, but he completely dominated.

saustad isn't the fastest guy around, but i caught all of hop's goals and it seems his matchup didn't do anything on him. as u are probably aware. every d man ball watches, to my eye it's uva's system that is making this difficult on themselves. they've created a hedging system based on umd offense (reading between the lines on lars interviews and watching), and it screws up matchups, decision making, etc. saustad's been a beast at times and i didn't see any of what you're seeing as definitely his responsibility in the hopkins game. he was excellent in umd and nd games, seeing as u wanted to call him out. @ umd, 3 goals were on him, tho... 2 of which were screening the goalie.

btw, in skipping to hop goals, saw/heard 1 g from schutz... where he caught, spun, split 2 guys, including swimming smith basically in a telephone booth.

uva's d has been a mess too often the last 2 years. if they don't get it fixed, they'll squander a v good offense.

Will agree on your final point. Talent-wise that D should be much better than it is. Much less than the sum of its parts.

they are playing read and react, and they never mix it up. so the 2nd or 3rd read doesn't know how it's gonna go. if you start sliding early, you can dictate what the ball carrier will do instead of vice versa and it could work. go back and forth.

having offenses dictate only just doesn't work long term, they figure it out. same w fast breaks... fogos and rope units can have a field day.

scott was shut down last week and rutty stalled. opportunity for smith.

[primitiveskills]

Michigan being very unpleasant guests in College Park so far

[44WeWantMore]

But do they have the depth to keep it up for four quarters? They faded late against the Jays, and the Jays do not have a fraction of the weapons the Terps have.

[primitiveskills]

IL's "midseason AA" list is out:

Mazzone - 3rd team
Martin - HM

No Smith, Marcille, Angelus, Degnon, Collison, or Grimes (who quietly is up there statistically with some of the top middies). Not surprised by most of those, but the Smith disrespect is ridiculous. I wouldn't want to be his offensive assignment tomorrow.

Ridiculous regarding Smith. If we want to start naming names on the top 3 teams, how about Saustad, who was terrible against us and even worse tonight. Owen Grant? Reflects IL staff preference for hightlight transition plays versus, well, you know, actual defending. No one on the HM list is even close to Smith.

how did u determine saustad was terrible against hopkins?

OK. "Terrible" is an over-reaction. But that game was a good illustration of the weakness in his game, which is off-ball/ sliding/ approach. He's a good on-ball defender, and maybe it is UVa's system, but his approaches and slides are often very slow, and he is a consummate ball-watcher. If you are a AA defender, its much more than just defending the dodge and bullying guys at X.

On the other hand, I'm super-impressed with Kastner. The lazy analysis is "he's 6'7" (which is all you ever hear from commentators), but he's really good on- and off-ball. On paper, last night's match-up with McAdorey should have been tough, but he completely dominated.

saustad isn't the fastest guy around, but i caught all of hop's goals and it seems his matchup didn't do anything on him. as u are probably aware. every d man ball watches, to my eye it's uva's system that is making this difficult on themselves. they've created a hedging system based on umd offense (reading between the lines on lars interviews and watching), and it screws up matchups, decision making, etc. saustad's been a beast at times and i didn't see any of what you're seeing as definitely his responsibility in the hopkins game. he was excellent in umd and nd games, seeing as u wanted to call him out. @ umd, 3 goals were on him, tho... 2 of which were screening the goalie.

btw, in skipping to hop goals, saw/heard 1 g from schutz... where he caught, spun, split 2 guys, including swimming smith basically in a telephone booth.

uva's d has been a mess too often the last 2 years. if they don't get it fixed, they'll squander a v good offense.

Will agree on your final point. Talent-wise that D should be much better than it is. Much less than the sum of its parts.

they are playing read and react, and they never mix it up. so the 2nd or 3rd read doesn't know how it's gonna go. if you start sliding early, you can dictate what the ball carrier will do instead of vice versa and it could work. go back and forth.

having offenses dictate only just doesn't work long term, they figure it out. same w fast breaks... fogos and rope units can have a field day.

scott was shut down last week and rutty stalled. opportunity for smith.

Yeah, noticed that last night. Kind of a mess once Duke got to the second dodge. That offense is scary though.

Looking forward to Smith on Scott. Smith took him out of the game last year, but it'l be a challenge.

[jhu06]

But do they have the depth to keep it up for four quarters? They faded late against the Jays, and the Jays do not have a fraction of the weapons the Terps have.

"Don't have a fraction of the weapons the terps have". Not even something I've said.

Utah's win puts them into the rpi top 20 and puts jville right at 20 which means we could end up 8-4 or 9-3 this weekend with only 1 top 20 rpi win so far. Amazing.

[primitiveskills]

But do they have the depth to keep it up for four quarters? They faded late against the Jays, and the Jays do not have a fraction of the weapons the Terps have.

Agree that Michigan could wear down, but disagree on the "offensive weapons" part. This is not the Maryland team of the past few years. If anything, stregnth is on the defensive end.

[jhu06]

stats show marcille back in goal. melendez at attack. grimes and peshko at midfield w/diaper dandy collison.

[primitiveskills]

And just like that Scott roasts Smith. Thanks wdgsr!

[44WeWantMore]

Did I call a fading at the end of the game or what?

[primitiveskills]

Fun start. Both teams bringing the energy. Goaltending is the difference so far.

[jhu06]

marcille back in early season form