Johns Hopkins 2023

[HopFan16]

Maybe I am the only one who noticed, BUT at Coach Tillman's post game interview, he noted that Hopkins ran Bobby Benson's offensive scheme AND that many of Hopkins best players are Pietramala's recruits, ???

I think that the motion offense is not Bobby Benson's offense , and that the recruits from years ago have been coached for years by the current staff. Is Coach "Tills" really that upset at losing to the Blue that he wants to start a personal vendetta with Hopkins? Don't we have enough reasons to hate each other??

That did feel a little salty to me, a bit of a dig at the current staff. Crawley is obviously a student of Benson and there are some similarities to the Hopkins offense circa 2014-2020 but he's added in several new wrinkles. Not to mention new personnel — namely Melendez and Collison — allow the offense to do things it hasn't been able to do for awhile. And it's even more positionless than it used to be, e.g. the Stanwicks never used to operate above the cage or on the wing as often as Angelus does. Melendez dodges from everywhere on the field. Both the big middies (Collison, Grimes) and the smaller ones (McDermott, English, Evans) have all initiated from up top and from behind the cage. Everybody can play anywhere.

On the goalie discussion, I do think Timmy is leaving some meat on the bone, so to speak. He's not letting in a ton of bad shots but he's also not stealing many like he was earlier in the season. I guess you could call that a bit of a "slump" and the numbers would support that. All of that being said, the defense plays tough and organized in front of him, and as mentioned, his outlet passes have been largely excellent. So while job #1 as 51 said has seen better days, the overall product is still pretty strong.

[primitiveskills]

Maybe I am the only one who noticed, BUT at Coach Tillman's post game interview, he noted that Hopkins ran Bobby Benson's offensive scheme AND that many of Hopkins best players are Pietramala's recruits, ???

I think that the motion offense is not Bobby Benson's offense , and that the recruits from years ago have been coached for years by the current staff. Is Coach "Tills" really that upset at losing to the Blue that he wants to start a personal vendetta with Hopkins? Don't we have enough reasons to hate each other??

The comments were weird. I think he was trying to make the point that Hopkins had some guys who had played maryland tough in certain games over the past few years, but throwing the point in about Petro's recruiting, and insinuating that guys like Melendez, Mazzone, Collison, etc had just somehow magically appeared on campus was odd.

[10stone5]

Maybe I am the only one who noticed, BUT at Coach Tillman's post game interview, he noted that Hopkins ran Bobby Benson's offensive scheme AND that many of Hopkins best players are Pietramala's recruits, ???

I think that the motion offense is not Bobby Benson's offense , and that the recruits from years ago have been coached for years by the current staff. Is Coach "Tills" really that upset at losing to the Blue that he wants to start a personal vendetta with Hopkins? Don't we have enough reasons to hate each other??

Why not, Tillman isn’t above head games,

refer to coach Nick “Chernobyl” Myers.

[jhu06]

Maybe I am the only one who noticed, BUT at Coach Tillman's post game interview, he noted that Hopkins ran Bobby Benson's offensive scheme AND that many of Hopkins best players are Pietramala's recruits, ???

I think that the motion offense is not Bobby Benson's offense , and that the recruits from years ago have been coached for years by the current staff. Is Coach "Tills" really that upset at losing to the Blue that he wants to start a personal vendetta with Hopkins? Don't we have enough reasons to hate each other??

That did feel a little salty to me, a bit of a dig at the current staff. Crawley is obviously a student of Benson and there are some similarities to the Hopkins offense circa 2014-2020 but he's added in several new wrinkles. Not to mention new personnel — namely Melendez and Collison — allow the offense to do things it hasn't been able to do for awhile. And it's even more positionless than it used to be, e.g. the Stanwicks never used to operate above the cage or on the wing as often as Angelus does. Melendez dodges from everywhere on the field. Both the big middies (Collison, Grimes) and the smaller ones (McDermott, English, Evans) have all initiated from up top and from behind the cage. Everybody can play anywhere.

On the goalie discussion, I do think Timmy is leaving some meat on the bone, so to speak. He's not letting in a ton of bad shots but he's also not stealing many like he was earlier in the season. I guess you could call that a bit of a "slump" and the numbers would support that. All of that being said, the defense plays tough and organized in front of him, and as mentioned, his outlet passes have been largely excellent. So while job #1 as 51 said has seen better days, the overall product is still pretty strong.

Watch the press conference, he's not a coach who has done too many after losses lately especially to us and there's only so many "we played badly" responses he could give. Frankly it was classy and the responses he gave about hopkins sounded like the optimism my pal HF16 has typed here for years. He like many other coaches this year praised PM for getting mazzone (who PM had followed for years) and melendez.

Crawley is in year 1 with players from 2 different coaches and now 3 different coordinators. He's doing what he can. I think Grimes and Peshko are too inconsistent with their shooting and ball handling but that's me. It would be nice to see Collison get more aggressive like he was this weekend. McDermott had another quietly nice game and makar bit on english's pick on the game winning goal.

Marcille seemed to be beaten high and right a lot but that was just watching the game. Narewski got a quick yank saturday in one of many decisions that probably saved the game. According to my research which HF16 will probably fact check as he reads this, we're the only program in the country other than Duke right now that won't have to leave campus until a potential second round ncaa game. That plus games next week against familiar opponents and that's a lot of time that won't be spent traveling and learning new foes and can be dedicated to things like marcille. I thought verbsfeld was good earlier in the year and it's getting late for the "can this guy improve on mistakes he's been struggling with for awhile".

Jameson said in his preseason stuff he wanted to stay out of the box and they did this weekend despite the emotion and road enviornment for the first time since unc. With all the transition and against a good defense they also managed to avoid the offsides calls that have plagued them all year the way Bensons later offenses used to struggle with penalties (marr) and moving picks. That's maturity although I'm sure maryland probably differs on us getting away with a few.

[jhu06]

https://laxallstars.com/quint-kessenich ... l-24-2023/
enough salt here to clean your highway in a january nor'easter
The wooden crab trophy makes it way back to Charm City, where it’ll be lucky not to be stolen, pawned, or covered with graffiti. 6,594 fans and 47,406 empty seats enjoyed
Back to the Jays. What best explains the turnaround on Homewood? I think it’s four things.

Chemistry / Culture
Coaching – All 4 Spots
Key Additions
Healthy Subtractions

[Chitown]

I figure that I will add to the chat about Coach Pietramala also.

I don't think that he will ever get hired as a HC at a significant lacrosse power again.. Right now he comes with too much baggage.
Hopkins didn't like his sideline behavior (too much yelling and screaming, too much profanity -- families coming to a game with their kids who were offended by his behavior.. The admin had to talk to him. Shouldn't have happened. Who has to talk to an adult about their personal public behavior?).

Former JHU players were divided on him. Wasn't the most pleasant guy. Attended a celebratory dinner for Four straight NC teams on a Friday night before a Michigan game (when Michigan wasn't as good as they are now). The Athletic Director showed up, the Hopkins Blue Jay Mascot was there, but no Coach, even for a minute. The room was full of AAs, 4 years of AAs.

Pietramala has stated his biggest disappointment was that his team-mates did not elect him a co-captain of the Team. Wonder why?

Another team that I was on only had one loss (to the greatest NC Team ever) and we were told over lunch that Coach P didn't want us to come to the Cordish Center. this team was full of AAs also. So we walked over to Cordish and walked into his office. The comments weren't polite, some to the effect that his fancy wood desk should go and be replaced with a surplus metal Govt. desk until he won more games.

Anyhow, I think he should be very happy to have his current job.

[HopFan16]

Wish Petro the best. He had a lot of very good years here, won two titles. He means a lot to the program and always will. But it was time. You can see it now that it was so clearly time. Hopefully he's enjoying coaching without the pressure of being the top dog.

If his desire is still to be the head coach at a big-time "Power 5" program then yeah I don't think he's going to lead a program again unless UNC fires Breschi and they bring Petro in to coach his kids. If he opens up his options to smaller schools (with enough money to afford him) then I think he'd get another look. I thought maybe he'd be in the mix for St. John's last year — struggling program in a solid conference that really needs a boost. He could probably get them to a competitive place but guess it wasn't meant to be. They're about to go 0-14.

jhu06 — no fact checks. Good job, you said something that wasn't wrong. Wasn't that hard, was it?

Quint's comment about the crab — which will be locked up inside the Cordish Center on campus — getting stolen was gross. He always, ALWAYS has to find some way to take a dig. You can bet your life on it. The digs are getting increasingly desperate and lame the more the team wins. He's reaching hard.

[51percentcorn]

Few random thoughts:

First to the Black Hole - I was not trying to back you up in any way shape or form. The discussion with respect to Koesterer's defensive philosophy vs Petro's has been around for a while. It is worth pointing out that Smith/Mazzone/Szuluk/Martin etc. are among the primary reasons the defense is better. I never want it out there that I agree any Hopkins SSDMs "sucked" - they did not. Primitive's... viewpoint notwithstanding - it's very difficult in the day and age of midfielders the size of Collison/Schutz/Handley/Dobson etc. to be 5 foot nothing and 160 lbs soaking wet. You're eventually going to get trapped and the slides have to start earlier and that's when you get in big trouble. You don't have to be an NFL linebacker but it's better if you're only outweighed by 20/30 lbs instead of 60.

As far as Tillman's comments - I listened to the youtube thing and I missed the BB offense comment - what I heard was trying to pay a little homage to Petro and a former staff member of his - Benson - and he did say at the end the current staff has brought in impactful transfers and has done a "great job". Nothing to see here and if he is trying to get inside MIlliman's head - I think he will fail miserably.

QK's joke about Baltimore was not well served - I'm not sure what he was getting at with the crack about attendance. There was alot of rain forecasted and possibly some storms that could have meant you travelled there and then had to go sit in your car or leave - pretty impressive 6.5K stuck it out. And no secret that TV/streaming has hurt in game attendance at most lacrosse games. 20+K used to go to that game when it was at Maryland - when it was the only way to see it.
He's not wrong about his list - but he certainly didn't stick his neck out at the beginning of the year definitively predicting this outcome and while not pulling it up and reading it I seem to recall a much different tone when Milliman was hired 3 years ago. He certainly didn't predict a big turnaround in culture chemistry.

In terms of TV vs in game attendance of the upcoming BIG semis and finals - I Get it that TV calls the shots but what I don't get is the choices. First, it's not a great look on TV since it's hard to portray Homewood without views of the opposite stands and except for some sunbathers maybe those stands will likely be empty at 1 and 3:30 and who can watch at 1 and 3:30? Sure the die hards will figure out a way stop working to go or watch but not as many as in the evening and it's not like you are competing against March Madness or anything like that - if you are a basketball or hockey junky and you 're tuning in to the NBA/NHL play-offs on Thursday night well you are not watching lacrosse in the middle of the afternoon. As for students - May 8 starts exams and the 6th and the 7th are not on the schedule as part of the reading period so here's where I would join Team '06 for a very brief period and invest some thought as how to get students there. Given it's a BIG event and not just a Hopkins home game it's probably harder but still worthwhile.

In terms of Marcille - it's a very fair point to say that of those latest 30/40 Save percentage games that you speak of - Hopkins has won 3 out of the 4 of them and if Degnon throws the same pass at State College that he threw at College Park - highly probable it's 4 for 4. But if you want to figure out a path to Philadelphia - you are not going to survive a continuous stretch with that number in the playoffs - There's nothing to be done about the opposing goalie so if Rupple or Fracyon or anybody throws out 16/17 Saves well then you have to be in the ballpark with them. In addition, Hopkins has to eliminate the incredibly easy goals for the opponents - Erksa is a fabulous player - no question about it so when he upper 90's one on a fast break - you get in your circle and say oh well. But 2 of his 4 goals should never have happened at least at that moment in time - you can't forget about your opponents most dangerous player and simply don't know where he is and then have your best defenseman run into the back of the goal right after a timeout.

[primitiveskills]

https://laxallstars.com/quint-kessenich ... l-24-2023/
enough salt here to clean your highway in a january nor'easter
The wooden crab trophy makes it way back to Charm City, where it’ll be lucky not to be stolen, pawned, or covered with graffiti. 6,594 fans and 47,406 empty seats enjoyed
Back to the Jays. What best explains the turnaround on Homewood? I think it’s four things.

Chemistry / Culture
Coaching – All 4 Spots
Key Additions
Healthy Subtractions

What an absolute tool

[nyjay]

Some random thoughts after a great win:

1. I guess I understood that Mazzone was good, but I had no idea at all just how good he is. Just unbelievable off the ground. Happy to have watched him this year, but too bad it's only this one year.
2. Melendez? I know he was hurt last year, but he had a grand total of 20ish points in two years at Marquette. And the staff goes out and gets him, gives him an opportunity from day one and he turns out to be the player who does that to Makar? Completely bizarre that cam happen. What a hidden talent.
3. Really hard for me to complain about Marcille. I know he hasn't been great recently, but I just can help but root for him. Just love the energy, the play personality, the outlets.
4. I think someone mentioned it on Saturday, but the boys played some pretty transition lacrosse. The Degnon-Melendez-Angelus goal was gorgeous, and that's not even mentioning the defensive play that lead to that break, which was equally impressive.
5. Collison is already a problem, but imagine him in three years.
6. Carson Brown is another one who's going to be a star.
7. Tyler Dunn - 18/32 against Zach Cole (SJU) and 14/23 against Weirman. Those are two very good days at the office. Plus 19/26 vs. Delaware.
8. We're going to miss Degnon next year. And Hawley too - great glue guy.
9. Hope some of Angelus/Marcille/Szuluk/Nawreski/Jaronski(who's been quietly very good) take advantage of their 5th year of eligibility. Have to imagine it's likely, no?
10. Not going to look past the two tournaments we have coming up, but winning begets winning. Have to believe that the lean recruiting years are going to come to an end.
11. Man, that Loyola game feels like a long time ago.

[jhu06]

https://laxallstars.com/quint-kessenich ... l-24-2023/
enough salt here to clean your highway in a january nor'easter
The wooden crab trophy makes it way back to Charm City, where it’ll be lucky not to be stolen, pawned, or covered with graffiti. 6,594 fans and 47,406 empty seats enjoyed
Back to the Jays. What best explains the turnaround on Homewood? I think it’s four things.

Chemistry / Culture
Coaching – All 4 Spots
Key Additions
Healthy Subtractions

What an absolute tool

It was a great column. Everyone knows Baltimores issues and the healthy subtraction thing was one of his trademarked tart inside baseball fastballs that a few of you are privy to.

The attendance deal was something he's hammered forever about schools needing to market the games better and play them in venues more commensurate with the crowds they draw. with hopkins in 2 weeks you have a student body, staff and young alumni that not only isn't used to the program winning but is part of a different demographic mix than when I was there. Daniels went out of his way to "diversify" the student body, and so you have kids now who not only aren't used to seeing the program win, but don't have family who passed on the experience of going and don't come from the areas where the sport is common.

marcille has to make more saves. if we're making a ff run you're playing all americans and 30-40 percent goes to 20-30 percent and a 17-8 loss. they have time to figure it out. I don't care to look it up but I doubt tillman has lost to many teams twice in a season. they'll be better next week and we already know what penn state can do to us.

if cuse is on the same trajectory we're on, they'll be a lot better next year and the lacrosse media will be all over the petro comeback story. he's already beaten unc and princeton this year which unfortunately didn't happen enough here.

raposo from what I saw looks like the fillin for hawley thus far although they've had jaronski martin and mcdermott out there and maybe others I'm missing.

[primitiveskills]

Everyone knows Baltimores issues...

Right. Baltimore, like many other urban areas across the country, has issues with crime. What about that merits a mention in an article about a college lacrosse game? When was the last time that a trophy was stolen from or vandalized in Cordish? Exactly which part of the pointless, lazy, thinly velied racist comment about the city and school that have given this guy every opportunity he has had in life did you find "great"?

[HopFan16]

Yeah the issue for me is the comment came out of absolutely nowhere and was just flat out inappropriate. The Jays are 11-4, ranked #4 and no matter what happens in the B1G tournament they have likely already sewn up an NCAA home game so Quint has nothing. Can't say anything about blown clears or a lack of dodgers or no toughness on GBs. There may be another day for that, but it's not today. So he resorts to truly desperate jabs that have nothing to do with lacrosse. The Jays are good and he's just a liiiiitle bit mad about it.

We almost let OC get away with his "Daniels shows up for a PR campaign with photos" comment. This is a fantastically stupid thing to say for two different reasons. First, Daniels did not know the team was going to win and there'd be an opportunity for photos. He was at the game win or lose. That's a hell of a way to spend a rainy Saturday night as a university president. Praying the team pulls off the upset so he can take a photo with the team. Sounds awful. Second, let's assume for a second that it is solely just a PR photo op. So? Who gives a sh*t? Who do you think he's trying to impress? The nerds at the Applied Physics Lab? He wants the Hopkins lacrosse community to like him. Now, why might he do that? Could it be because he actually does care and wants the team to do well? If he didn't care, why the hell show up? Why make the effort? This is a classic example of taking a good thing — the president shows up to support the team in a big game — and spinning it into a bad thing to fit a warped agenda.

nyjay, on your point #2 — Melendez was highly rated coming out of Spalding. IL top 70 recruit and first-team MIAA. I have no idea how he ended up at Marquette, there's probably a story there. Clearly, Petro passed on him. In that Glenn Clark interview from the other day Melendez said it was always his dream to play at Homewood and he jumped at the chance to transfer. Sounds like his injury issues may have spooked some other teams away and he was grateful we took a chance on him. He's quickly turning into my favorite player on the team.

As for #4, no one is going to confuse us with 2016 Brown but we have the horses to get out and go in transition. The poles can all handle the ball and Melendez is so good as the point man in those situations. He sees the field really well.

[JHU69]

jhu06 "you have kids now who not only aren't used to seeing the program win, but don't have family who passed on the experience of going and don't come from the areas where the sport is common."


I came to Hopkins from an area(at the time)where lacrosse, as far as I knew, didn't exist, never heard of it. I fell in love at first sight even though my freshman year we were not very good. I didn't miss a home game and went to many away games for four years. Maybe times have changed given "social media" etc. I believe the game sells itself and feel this teams success will draw more students.

[51percentcorn]

I came to Hopkins from an area(at the time)where lacrosse, as far as I knew, didn't exist, never heard of it. I fell in love at first sight even though my freshman year we were not very good. I didn't miss a home game and went to many away games for four years. Maybe times have changed given "social media" etc. I believe the game sells itself and feel this teams success will draw more students.

The difference is - along with social media - the diversity of the Hopkins Homewood student body. Without looking up the latest stats I believe one of the more recent classes was the first where women outnumbered men. And causcasian is not the predominant ethnic background. So gender and cultural diversity - fabulous characteristics for most everything else - is not that great for lacrosse student viewership. Back in my time the 80% white male student body would already be talking about the upcoming BIG semi game and as the week wore on there actually would be plans for the beer/tailgating etc. Many of thses kids are going to be very focused on exams starting that Monday.

3. Really hard for me to complain about Marcille. I know he hasn't been great recently, but I just can help but root for him. Just love the energy, the play personality, the outlets.

He is such a great person/teammate/leader you can't help but want him out there and root for him. And nobody works harder - If there is one Hopkins player that reads these threads it's Marcille - I am just saying the goalposts have shifted - we were all saying at the beginning - well one poster wasn't - the team is hopefully going to be a little better than last year but very few had #4 IL media Poll and 11-4 penciled in. In May of 22 - if somebody had said Hopkins would make the NCAAs and have a respectable first round game - most would have signed up there and then. Different now and they need better than 40% - I agree with steelhop that many of the Maryland goals - Erksa's come to mind - were not really high probabilities for saves but some could have been. If they get 55% at Job #1 - they are going to be a tough out for anybody.

9. Hope some of Angelus/Marcille/Szuluk/Nawreski/Jaronski(who's been quietly very good) take advantage of their 5th year of eligibility. Have to imagine it's likely, no?

Plenty of time to discuss that issue later but two inputs. First, very interesting that the Hopkins game notes have been continually tracking the percentage of points that could return next year. Since Angelus comprises the vast majority of points that can return from a senior it certainly appears Hopkins is open to that possibility. Second, the downside - the roster math - current roster of 49 - 16 incoming recruits - only 5 are exhausting eligibility - so that's a populace of 60 potentials. Even if you told the entire senior class to go kick rocks - something I guess Milliman likes to do - you're at 51. Tough calls coming up not to mention graduate school matchmaking/player employment etc.

10. Not going to look past the two tournaments we have coming up, but winning begets winning. Have to believe that the lean recruiting years are going to come to an end.

Nine 4 stars are in next years class - Ayers and Sorichetti are just what the doctor ordered for offense. While Melendez has exceeded expectations in virtually every area - Hopkins hasn't had an attack recruit like Ayers' skill set in a long time (Epstein of course but injuires took him away). In the smaller '24 class - nobody mentions Tyler Eye without the word groundballs - I've been told Ben Morris will likely climb the ranking ladders.

[MDlaxfan76]

On attendance, it's clear that attendance for live lacrosse games is down everywhere, so I don't think "diversity" is the reason. In fact, it smacks of something sour...even if not intended that way, worth examining.

That said, we know that winning regularly spurs attendance.
It becomes something kids look forward to doing together, and it attracts the local community.

Good weather at times convenient for a 'party' help a lot, but that's not really possible to even hope for until April. And "party" is not going to be the same as it was when the drinking age was 18, so gotta realize it just isn't the same.

However, other than winning, which is by far the biggest factor, colleges can go out of their way to create fun environments and to promote attendance. That's the only thing that might be open to critique.

"diversity" certainly isn't the issue.
Alternatives are what matter.
Winning can break through that clutter.

[admin]

... Exactly which part of the pointless, lazy, thinly velied racist comment about the city and school that have given this guy every opportunity he has had in life did you find "great"?...

No personal attacks.

[MDlaxfan76]

... Exactly which part of the pointless, lazy, thinly velied racist comment about the city and school that have given this guy every opportunity he has had in life did you find "great"?...

No personal attacks.

I believe he was referring to the comments made by the public personality, bolded, not those of a fellow poster.

The question seems fair.

[51percentcorn]

"diversity" certainly isn't the issue.

We'll have to agree to disagree which I usually don't do with your posts. I want to be very careful here because it treads on waters that can become dark and I do not wan that. But you can't convince me that with over half of the student body from cultures that are not as prepossessed to team sports participation and viewership as much the Unites States is - particulalrly white males - there is no difference in attitude towards lacrosse. It's not that they don't want the team to do well and they will probably attend a game or two or three over their four years but it is clearly not a focus like it was when lacrosse was the social center of the universe in the Spring. Yes there are other critical factors but the kid that is in the Biochem lab on Saturdays isn't there because the lacrosse team is losing - he's there because his culture and parents demand it.

[primitiveskills]

... Exactly which part of the pointless, lazy, thinly velied racist comment about the city and school that have given this guy every opportunity he has had in life did you find "great"?...

No personal attacks.

I believe he was referring to the comments made by the public personality, bolded, not those of a fellow poster.

The question seems fair.

Yes. Thank you.