THE 2019 Hopkins Lacrosse Fallout Shelter (44, we want more!)

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

I did some research.

I don’t believe I age discrimination, but Cindy is 64 or so. I’m not sure how much longer she’s going to coach.

Going to have to even out the trade a bit more.

Might need to throw in the Navy Glee Club.


NEW WOMBAT FEATURE
———————————————
Diversionary Inane Wombat Cubes: if you got a chocolate Easter Bunny this past weekend, how do you eat it? Feet first? Ears? What does PETA say?

I got my socks answer, which ties into a former LP discussion recommending Gold Toe socks.

[laxxygilmore]

I did some research.

I don’t believe I age discrimination, but Cindy is 64 or so. I’m not sure how much longer she’s going to coach.

Going to have to even out the trade a bit more.

Might need to throw in the Navy Glee Club.


NEW WOMBAT FEATURE
———————————————
Diversionary Inane Wombat Cubes: if you got a chocolate Easter Bunny this past weekend, how do you eat it? Feet first? Ears? What does PETA say?

I got my socks answer, which ties into a former LP discussion recommending Gold Toe socks.

What if Navy's shot clock keeper is thrown in instead?

[jhu72]

Possible defensive midfield recruits - two are available. They even look like Blue Jays.

Are they available for Saturday’s game? Communication might be an issue ... as it’s been all season long.

DocBarrister

The biggest problem is someone will argue they are too small to play defensive midfield even if they can out run the fastest human and clearly play with an "attitude".

[44WeWantMore]

My ranking of state of Maryland teams:

1. Loyola

I get you're joking but I am genuinely curious as to why Maryland does not play Loyola or Towson. You'd think the best teams in Maryland would want to schedule each other.

Just a quick observation, HopFan16 ... you do realize that Coach Pietramala is your avatar on this forum, right?

Maybe it’s time to replace his picture with “TBD”. Just sayin’.

If the time comes then perhaps I will consider retiring the ol' avatar. But until that day, it stays. As long as the thumb is raised, there is hope for the Jays.

Sounds like something I might hear on a Lax broadcast.

[HopFan16]

My ranking of state of Maryland teams:

1. Loyola

I get you're joking but I am genuinely curious as to why Maryland does not play Loyola or Towson. You'd think the best teams in Maryland would want to schedule each other.

Just a quick observation, HopFan16 ... you do realize that Coach Pietramala is your avatar on this forum, right?

Maybe it’s time to replace his picture with “TBD”. Just sayin’.

If the time comes then perhaps I will consider retiring the ol' avatar. But until that day, it stays. As long as the thumb is raised, there is hope for the Jays.

Sounds like something I might hear on a Lax broadcast.

Honestly I was trying to bait Wombat, thought he might make a comment about sticking thumbs in places.

[GSP]

Maryland will choke Saturday.

...and still win by 8!!!!

[swf]

David Pietramala is the worst Hopkins lacrosse coach in the school’s history. It’s been painful to watch him run the program and the university’s image into the ground.

Pietramala has never been liked by his players. He has always been an overweight (now Obese) coach who screams at players during practise and acts like a beast on the sidelines during games. Notice the look on his face when addressing players. What sane kid or parent wants to pay Hopkins’ tuition to be subjected to that? Bob Scott and Henry Ciccarone were gentlemen and role models. In Maryland lacrosse UMD, Towson, Loyola and Salisbury have better programs and better coaches than Pietramala.

Today high school coaches don’t play as big a role in the recruitment process as previously. When I was growing up in Baltimore almost every local high school coach played for Hopkins. Baltimore was the best lacrosse city in America. Now every city has travel coaches who are not Hopkins alumni and they influence where their players go to college. These travel team coaches consist of AAs from UVA, Duke, Syracuse, Princeton and other top tier programs and they are telling their players to avoid Hopkins and Pietramala.

Is Pietramala the Hopkins brand that the administration wants on TV?. What do the faculty in the Medical Center or APL think when they see their university represented by a morbidly obese middle aged man angrily shouting and cursing players and officials in an amateur sporting contest they are subsidizing? It doesn’t help that the schlimazel is pulling down more $$ than they are.

Watch the tape of the UVA Hopkins game. Hopkins isn’t ranked in the top 20 teams in the country. Wake up. The problem is getting worse. Pietramala and Benson have to go.

[Peter Brown]

David Pietramala is the worst Hopkins lacrosse coach in the school’s history. It’s been painful to watch him run the program and the university’s image into the ground.

Pietramala has never been liked by his players. He has always been an overweight (now Obese) coach who screams at players during practise and acts like a beast on the sidelines during games. Notice the look on his face when addressing players. What sane kid or parent wants to pay Hopkins’ tuition to be subjected to that? Bob Scott and Henry Ciccarone were gentlemen and role models. In Maryland lacrosse UMD, Towson, Loyola and Salisbury have better programs and better coaches than Pietramala.

Today high school coaches don’t play as big a role in the recruitment process as previously. When I was growing up in Baltimore almost every local high school coach played for Hopkins. Baltimore was the best lacrosse city in America. Now every city has travel coaches who are not Hopkins alumni and they influence where their players go to college. These travel team coaches consist of AAs from UVA, Duke, Syracuse, Princeton and other top tier programs and they are telling their players to avoid Hopkins and Pietramala.

Is Pietramala the Hopkins brand that the administration wants on TV?. What do the faculty in the Medical Center or APL think when they see their university represented by a morbidly obese middle aged man angrily shouting and cursing players and officials in an amateur sporting contest they are subsidizing? It doesn’t help that the schlimazel is pulling down more $$ than they are.

Watch the tape of the UVA Hopkins game. Hopkins isn’t ranked in the top 20 teams in the country. Wake up. The problem is getting worse. Pietramala and Benson have to go.

This post ought to set off a few alarm bells. WOMBAT is typing like crazy rn.

[HopFan16]

Hm. Sounds like somebody's son wasn't recruited

[3rdPersonPlural]

I watched the PSU game last night on replay. Thanks to the 10 pages of hand-wringing posted on this thread, I had a strong sense of déjà vu’ through the whole game.

Someone pointed out that the difference between what might very well have been a tight game and what actually transpired - the comfortable lead that PSU enjoyed at the half - was shooting. Hop had its share of clean looks at the cage and whiffed. PSU either hit the back of the net or Darby made a save. If Hop had hit the cage on those missed-the-cage shots, the score would have been much closer.

As we all know, the difference between missing the cage entirely and a sweet goal is literally a matter of inches. Shooting with the required level of accuracy requires constant dedication to the craft. Great shooters are obsessive about it.

Hopkins is stocked to the gills with kids who demonstrably great shooters in HS, and now (apparently) have lost that obsessive edge.

I contend that it’s misguided to blame the coach or the recruiting process for not securing kids who hold on to their edge once they arrive on campus. I mean, this is 90% luck and 10% experience and skill for the coach. I also contend that it’s asking a lot of a program and its staff to keep a kids head on his shooting with EVERYTHING else that is thrown at him when he steps onto a (DI) (College) campus that’s filled with distractions which weren’t available or prominent when they were lauded HS shooters.

I guess that my personal opinion is that it’s been a decade since the pool of HS laxers who hit all the metrics to be a star (or at least contributing) D1 shooter was small enough so Hop and ‘cuse were the only programs that everyone expected to be a final four squad, and they (almost) got them all. There are now HS kids from California to Florida who can hit a phone book with a 100 mph shot while on the run 9 times out of ten. The challenge is getting the sublime shooter who will still be obsessively dialing in their shot after the college experience rolls in.

Watching the game, it seemed to me that the teams were well matched through the first half, heck, through the first half of the 3rd quarter, but Hop didn’t shoot well (they haven’t all year) and PSU shot like snipers. That’s the difference, except the 50/50 ground balls which PSU seemed to want more.

[molo]

As for Saturday's game, are Hop fans writing it off, do they see the rivalry as an equalizer in a year in which the two teams don't seem so equal, or do they understand that Hopkins is better than their detractors think they are and that Maryland is not as explosive as Penn State? Should the home team be favored? Sure. Can the visitors pull off the upset? The same Hopkins team that played Rutgers and OSU is playing Saturday. Is PSU that much better than the rest of the conference, or is Hopkins, who I think is comparable to OSU and Rutgers, capable of pulling it together for the first of what should be two games against the Terps?
Looks like comfortable temps with some wind, which should be blocked to some degree by the bowl.

[HopFan16]

I watched the PSU game last night on replay. Thanks to the 10 pages of hand-wringing posted on this thread, I had a strong sense of déjà vu’ through the whole game.

Someone pointed out that the difference between what might very well have been a tight game and what actually transpired - the comfortable lead that PSU enjoyed at the half - was shooting. Hop had its share of clean looks at the cage and whiffed. PSU either hit the back of the net or Darby made a save. If Hop had hit the cage on those missed-the-cage shots, the score would have been much closer.

As we all know, the difference between missing the cage entirely and a sweet goal is literally a matter of inches. Shooting with the required level of accuracy requires constant dedication to the craft. Great shooters are obsessive about it.

Hopkins is stocked to the gills with kids who demonstrably great shooters in HS, and now (apparently) have lost that obsessive edge.

I contend that it’s misguided to blame the coach or the recruiting process for not securing kids who hold on to their edge once they arrive on campus. I mean, this is 90% luck and 10% experience and skill for the coach. I also contend that it’s asking a lot of a program and its staff to keep a kids head on his shooting with EVERYTHING else that is thrown at him when he steps onto a (DI) (College) campus that’s filled with distractions which weren’t available or prominent when they were lauded HS shooters.

I guess that my personal opinion is that it’s been a decade since the pool of HS laxers who hit all the metrics to be a star (or at least contributing) D1 shooter was small enough so Hop and ‘cuse were the only programs that everyone expected to be a final four squad, and they (almost) got them all. There are now HS kids from California to Florida who can hit a phone book with a 100 mph shot while on the run 9 times out of ten. The challenge is getting the sublime shooter who will still be obsessively dialing in their shot after the college experience rolls in.

Watching the game, it seemed to me that the teams were well matched through the first half, heck, through the first half of the 3rd quarter, but Hop didn’t shoot well (they haven’t all year) and PSU shot like snipers. That’s the difference, except the 50/50 ground balls which PSU seemed to want more.

Hop has not shot well this year but if you compare any team to Penn State in shooting, that team is going to look bad. The Nittany Lions are shooting an otherworldly 43% as a team this year. The next best team is Cornell at 38%.

It certainly is a problem, though. Epstein is the only attackman above 30%, while Smith and Baskin (who took some heinous shots against PSU) are the only middies above that mark. Doesn't help when you have two regular midfielders (Keogh and DeSimone) hitting below the Mendoza Line. There's really no excuse for Marr to be below 30% considering he is a spot-up shooter who rarely has to shoot on the run or with defenders draped on him. Meanwhile you've got Zinn who has 4 goals on 12 shots (33%), but apparently that's not enough to earn any more playing time on the offensive end of the field.

I know praising Epstein's work ethic is probably getting old at this point but you can really see it in his shooting. He rarely misses the net. With a few exceptions (he didn't have a great shooting day against PSU either), if his shot doesn't go in it's usually because he forced the goalie to make a tough save.

[Big Dog]

'Cuse has three goal lead late in the 4th, and shuts down too early. Carolina storms back to give them a second good win to help their NCAA chances. OTOH, that's one less at-large slot for Hop.

[Bluejayfan2]

Hm. Sounds like somebody's son wasn't recruited

Or someone's son isn't seeing the field

[jhu72]

Hm. Sounds like somebody's son wasn't recruited

Or someone's son isn't seeing the field

This would not be the first time a parent or parents have come on the board bad mouthing Petro over their kids playing time. Of course if that is what this is.

Parents doing such is usually an indication of a cohesion problem with the team, which of course helps to explain the team's performance.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Hm. Sounds like somebody's son wasn't recruited

Or someone's son isn't seeing the field

This would not be the first time a parent or parents have come on the board bad mouthing Petro over their kids playing time. Of course if that is what this is.

Parents doing such is usually an indication of a cohesion problem with the team, which of course helps to explain the team's performance.

I’m sort of surprised we don’t hear more of it, but I think LP used to tamp things like that down. Especially if it appeared to be more of a vindictive troll instead of a parent.

Today it could be from a Far Eastern Bot though.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Massey has tomorrow’s score as 13-10 for the home team, UMd.

So, they are most likely to get a hernia from lifting the crab.

Any other stats based predictions or odds?

[b1w7o9y7h]

Hm. Sounds like somebody's son wasn't recruited

Or someone's son isn't seeing the field

An off season cage fight between Coach P and swf would generate millions in Pay-per-View revenue. Red-faced angry HOF player and NC championship winning coach versus red-faced angry Baltidaddy. Maybe Quint vs. Carc with down pillows as the undercard?

This planet is getting angrier and angrier by the day. Maybe civil discourse should be required for Kindergartner kids, and they could coach up their parents...

PS As a product of the 70's and 80's formatively, and from CNY, I've always loved to "hate" Hopkins - which can be translated as respecting a worthy, exceptional, generally classy program and people who absolutely LOVE this sport...from its lore and legends - to how the game should be played. None of the great triumphs of the teams we love are possible without the existence of great opponents. And as much as there's a small part of me (a naughty, shallow, bad part) that wants to revel in seeing a great Darth Vader program twisting in the wind, the "I'm better than that / Stay classy" part of me feels the sooner the Hop ship gets back on track, the better for the game. Back to my Dear Old Dartmouth thread. Don't even get me going... Over and out...

[MPSSAAlaxfan]

I watched the PSU game last night on replay. Thanks to the 10 pages of hand-wringing posted on this thread, I had a strong sense of déjà vu’ through the whole game.

Someone pointed out that the difference between what might very well have been a tight game and what actually transpired - the comfortable lead that PSU enjoyed at the half - was shooting. Hop had its share of clean looks at the cage and whiffed. PSU either hit the back of the net or Darby made a save. If Hop had hit the cage on those missed-the-cage shots, the score would have been much closer.

As we all know, the difference between missing the cage entirely and a sweet goal is literally a matter of inches. Shooting with the required level of accuracy requires constant dedication to the craft. Great shooters are obsessive about it.

Hopkins is stocked to the gills with kids who demonstrably great shooters in HS, and now (apparently) have lost that obsessive edge.

I contend that it’s misguided to blame the coach or the recruiting process for not securing kids who hold on to their edge once they arrive on campus. I mean, this is 90% luck and 10% experience and skill for the coach. I also contend that it’s asking a lot of a program and its staff to keep a kids head on his shooting with EVERYTHING else that is thrown at him when he steps onto a (DI) (College) campus that’s filled with distractions which weren’t available or prominent when they were lauded HS shooters.

I guess that my personal opinion is that it’s been a decade since the pool of HS laxers who hit all the metrics to be a star (or at least contributing) D1 shooter was small enough so Hop and ‘cuse were the only programs that everyone expected to be a final four squad, and they (almost) got them all. There are now HS kids from California to Florida who can hit a phone book with a 100 mph shot while on the run 9 times out of ten. The challenge is getting the sublime shooter who will still be obsessively dialing in their shot after the college experience rolls in.

Watching the game, it seemed to me that the teams were well matched through the first half, heck, through the first half of the 3rd quarter, but Hop didn’t shoot well (they haven’t all year) and PSU shot like snipers. That’s the difference, except the 50/50 ground balls which PSU seemed to want more.

There's a lot more to shooting than percentages and all manner or reasons why some teams shoot better than others. First, it's probably the simplest reason, their players are better. Whether they were better in HS or not isn't really the question, they are just better college players.

An athlete can shoot moving through traffic and shooting through stick checks. Maybe they are bigger or faster and can create some space to get their hands free. Maybe their teammates are beating their guy and drawing a double leaving them with time and room to get a good shot off. Maybe there are excellent feeders who hit shooters in good spots on the field with the pass on a frozen rope right in the box. Maybe the schemes get players open in good positions to score. Maybe the bulk of shots are coming from between the hash marks and inside of 10 yards as opposed to low angle prayers from GLE. Maybe shooting is more of a focus in practice and they are drilled so completely that they are that much better than other teams.

I know you said clean looks, but all these factors I mentioned (obviously) contribute to shooting percentage and hitting the cage. You're simply going to be a more effective shooter the more the other team has to worry about the other guys. You can be obsessive about dialing in your shot all you want, but if you can't get to good spots with your hands free on your own or through a great scheme and you aren't a beast athlete who doesn't need his hands free to be accurate, you aren't going to be a very successful shooter.

[steel_hop]

I watched the PSU game last night on replay. Thanks to the 10 pages of hand-wringing posted on this thread, I had a strong sense of déjà vu’ through the whole game.

Someone pointed out that the difference between what might very well have been a tight game and what actually transpired - the comfortable lead that PSU enjoyed at the half - was shooting. Hop had its share of clean looks at the cage and whiffed. PSU either hit the back of the net or Darby made a save. If Hop had hit the cage on those missed-the-cage shots, the score would have been much closer.

As we all know, the difference between missing the cage entirely and a sweet goal is literally a matter of inches. Shooting with the required level of accuracy requires constant dedication to the craft. Great shooters are obsessive about it.

Hopkins is stocked to the gills with kids who demonstrably great shooters in HS, and now (apparently) have lost that obsessive edge.

I contend that it’s misguided to blame the coach or the recruiting process for not securing kids who hold on to their edge once they arrive on campus. I mean, this is 90% luck and 10% experience and skill for the coach. I also contend that it’s asking a lot of a program and its staff to keep a kids head on his shooting with EVERYTHING else that is thrown at him when he steps onto a (DI) (College) campus that’s filled with distractions which weren’t available or prominent when they were lauded HS shooters.

I guess that my personal opinion is that it’s been a decade since the pool of HS laxers who hit all the metrics to be a star (or at least contributing) D1 shooter was small enough so Hop and ‘cuse were the only programs that everyone expected to be a final four squad, and they (almost) got them all. There are now HS kids from California to Florida who can hit a phone book with a 100 mph shot while on the run 9 times out of ten. The challenge is getting the sublime shooter who will still be obsessively dialing in their shot after the college experience rolls in.

Watching the game, it seemed to me that the teams were well matched through the first half, heck, through the first half of the 3rd quarter, but Hop didn’t shoot well (they haven’t all year) and PSU shot like snipers. That’s the difference, except the 50/50 ground balls which PSU seemed to want more.

There's a lot more to shooting than percentages and all manner or reasons why some teams shoot better than others. First, it's probably the simplest reason, their players are better. Whether they were better in HS or not isn't really the question, they are just better college players.

An athlete can shoot moving through traffic and shooting through stick checks. Maybe they are bigger or faster and can create some space to get their hands free. Maybe their teammates are beating their guy and drawing a double leaving them with time and room to get a good shot off. Maybe there are excellent feeders who hit shooters in good spots on the field with the pass on a frozen rope right in the box. Maybe the schemes get players open in good positions to score. Maybe the bulk of shots are coming from between the hash marks and inside of 10 yards as opposed to low angle prayers from GLE. Maybe shooting is more of a focus in practice and they are drilled so completely that they are that much better than other teams.

I know you said clean looks, but all these factors I mentioned (obviously) contribute to shooting percentage and hitting the cage. You're simply going to be a more effective shooter the more the other team has to worry about the other guys. You can be obsessive about dialing in your shot all you want, but if you can't get to good spots with your hands free on your own or through a great scheme and you aren't a beast athlete who doesn't need his hands free to be accurate, you aren't going to be a very successful shooter.

Sure. Those are all reasons that PSU is hitting the cage but their current .430% shot percentage is the best as far back as the NCAA kept records or at least from what I can see. And I am not talk like .001 point better but by a wide margin at .030%. There is no doubt sometimes the cage looks enormous but that is a huge number over a year.