Johns Hopkins 2024

[jhu06]

Saw this on another forum, where Cooter — the deranged Maryland rube who used to post here before he was driven out for being a racist — posts frequently about me in a truly bizarre manner, but anyway:

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... 0-41/62284

IL has put four Jays in its top 50 players in the country so far — Collison (46), Martin (44), Ierlan (42), Melendez (41). Glass half full reading of that is that the Jays have a lot of very good players. Glass half empty version is that none of them are truly *great* top 10 type players. Scott Smith will probably be somewhere in the top 40 and since IL along with the AA voters continues to forget that Angelus exists, that'll probably be it for our guys after Smith makes an appearance.

I am not going to weigh in on the rather pointless debate of what "competing" for titles means but what I will say is, in addition to the roster just being flat out better and deeper at every position than it was a few years ago, 2024 will be the first season in a long time with real coaching continuity and a firm culture in place. This is the season that all the struggles and growing pains have been building towards. We'll see what happens.

We did the superstar magazine cover boy thing for a decade+ in the post Rabil petro era with mostly underwhelming results. PM seems to be building full teams up and down the field and recruiting hard for all positions including ssdm, although other than Ierlan the goaltending stuff has been questionable. There was always going to be a challenge to get the A list recruits post petro simply because DP had a generation of relationships and credibility built up around the country and the next guy for the most part wasn't going to have those and had the stench of Daniels on top of everything. IL builds those lists as we know on their own recruiting lists, stats which our guys never really ring up because even our non top 20 games are hated rivals who aren't going to give anything easy like Navy, and their deep unvarnished love for the ACC and Ivy. Duke/UVA/ND guys get all the love from them because they're highly recruited, get a million points because they play Bellarmines the 10 games a year they're not matching sticks with the rest of the acc and there's usually a clunker team in that conference every year anyway.

[Farfromgeneva]

Saw this on another forum, where Cooter — the deranged Maryland rube who used to post here before he was driven out for being a racist — posts frequently about me in a truly bizarre manner, but anyway:

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... 0-41/62284

IL has put four Jays in its top 50 players in the country so far — Collison (46), Martin (44), Ierlan (42), Melendez (41). Glass half full reading of that is that the Jays have a lot of very good players. Glass half empty version is that none of them are truly *great* top 10 type players. Scott Smith will probably be somewhere in the top 40 and since IL along with the AA voters continues to forget that Angelus exists, that'll probably be it for our guys after Smith makes an appearance.

I am not going to weigh in on the rather pointless debate of what "competing" for titles means but what I will say is, in addition to the roster just being flat out better and deeper at every position than it was a few years ago, 2024 will be the first season in a long time with real coaching continuity and a firm culture in place. This is the season that all the struggles and growing pains have been building towards. We'll see what happens.

Didnt see any comments. That was the first thing I was looking for.

[51percentcorn]

We did the superstar magazine cover boy thing for a decade+ in the post Rabil petro era with mostly underwhelming results. PM seems to be building full teams up and down the field and recruiting hard for all positions including ssdm, although other than Ierlan the goaltending stuff has been questionable. There was always going to be a challenge to get the A list recruits post petro simply because DP had a generation of relationships and credibility built up around the country and the next guy for the most part wasn't going to have those and had the stench of Daniels on top of everything. IL builds those lists as we know on their own recruiting lists, stats which our guys never really ring up because even our non top 20 games are hated rivals who aren't going to give anything easy like Navy, and their deep unvarnished love for the ACC and Ivy. Duke/UVA/ND guys get all the love from them because they're highly recruited, get a million points because they play Bellarmines the 10 games a year they're not matching sticks with the rest of the acc and there's usually a clunker team in that conference every year anyway.

WOW - in awe - have absolutely no clue what you are trying to say but Faulkner couldn't have done any better.

[CharlesS]

We did the superstar magazine cover boy thing for a decade+ in the post Rabil petro era with mostly underwhelming results. PM seems to be building full teams up and down the field and recruiting hard for all positions including ssdm, although other than Ierlan the goaltending stuff has been questionable. There was always going to be a challenge to get the A list recruits post petro simply because DP had a generation of relationships and credibility built up around the country and the next guy for the most part wasn't going to have those and had the stench of Daniels on top of everything. IL builds those lists as we know on their own recruiting lists, stats which our guys never really ring up because even our non top 20 games are hated rivals who aren't going to give anything easy like Navy, and their deep unvarnished love for the ACC and Ivy. Duke/UVA/ND guys get all the love from them because they're highly recruited, get a million points because they play Bellarmines the 10 games a year they're not matching sticks with the rest of the acc and there's usually a clunker team in that conference every year anyway.

WOW - in awe - have absolutely no clue what you are trying to say but Faulkner couldn't have done any better.

From ChatGPT , what they thought it meant,,,

"Superstar magazine cover boy thing" and "post Rabil petro era": This likely refers to a period in lacrosse history following Paul Rabil, a notable lacrosse player, and Coach Petro (Dave Pietramala), indicating a focus on star players for team promotion and success.

"PM seems to be building full teams": PM likely refers to a coach (perhaps "Petro's successor") who is focusing on building well-rounded teams rather than relying on a few star players. This includes recruiting for all positions, including specialized ones like short stick defensive midfielders (SSDM).

Concerns about goaltending and "Ierlan": The message mentions some questionable decisions regarding goaltenders, except for a player named Ierlan, possibly referring to TD Ierlan, a well-known face-off specialist.

Challenges in recruiting post Petro: There's an acknowledgment that replacing Coach Petro's extensive network and credibility is difficult. The "stench of Daniels" could refer to a negative aspect or event associated with someone named Daniels, affecting the team's reputation.

"IL builds those lists": IL might refer to Inside Lacrosse, a publication that ranks players and teams. The message suggests that the publication's ranking criteria don't favor their team because their schedule includes tough non-top 20 games against rivals.

"Deep unvarnished love for the ACC and Ivy": This part criticizes Inside Lacrosse for being biased towards teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and Ivy League, suggesting these teams get more recognition and easier schedules.

"Duke/UVA/ND guys get all the love": Refers to lacrosse players from Duke, University of Virginia, and Notre Dame receiving more attention and accolades, possibly because they face weaker teams like Bellarmine more often, boosting their statistics.

Overall, the message reflects frustrations about team building strategies, recruiting challenges, and perceived biases in college lacrosse rankings and media coverage.

[10stone5]

On above, ‘06’, I am a huge fan of never-ending, run-on sentences.

[Farfromgeneva]

On above, ‘06’, I am a huge fan of never-ending, run-on sentences.

Just need the three Cs-caffeine, cigarettes and …

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Glfe6UeXQ

[51percentcorn]

Thanks for the attempt at translating CharlesS - the comment was meant somewhat facetiously and of course with '06 not only do you get the benefit of something straight out of Absalom Absalom you also get the benefit of it being largely incorrect. To Wit:

I've tried to explain this before but taking MIlliman to task for the goalie situation - at least in terms of filling the position with people - is simply wrong IMO. FIrst - PM saw a goalie kicked out of school (Shadyside goalie) and then had a 4/5* decommit soon after the Petro dismissal and then the very late decommit from the kid who ended up at Marquette. The Marquette kid decommitted in January of his senior year - there was no time and no bodies to recruit someone else -though I am sure he tried. Oh - COVID too BTW. SO what did the head coach do? He obtained the services of one of the highest IL rated transfers of that year Kirson. He tried two to three other transfers and then ended up playing a Petro recruit last year. The only questionable issue to my mind was sticking with Marcille when the performance numbers went pretty south. That's a team issue for which no one here probably has the real perspective.

Attributing any recruiting issues in part to DP's departure and his "Relationships". While David was and is a true force of nature and certainly was a great recruiter - the decline in 4/5* had as much to do with increased competition for recruits and the fact that I mentioned in an earlier post - on the field performance. Since 2015 Hopkins is 4 games over 500 and if you think that all has to do with the record of MIlliman - if you throw out 2018 since the last semi appearance DP was just at 500 (8-7/8-7/8-8/2-4). In addition Petro had the golden years of early recruiting where the chicken vs egg came into play. Even beyond the problems with evaluating high school freshmen were those kids rated in part because they were recruited by Hopkins and DP? Most likely.

No recruit made any decision based upon Ron Daniels and just like the famous event that happened 60 years ago this past week - there simply is no hard evidence to dispute that obvious conclusion.

I don't work at IL - neither does '06. But it's a pretty time honored practice to rate better players on the better teams. I guess the Top 50 hasn't been released yet? I don't know - maybe someone like Smith makes it. He should. In terms of Angelus - any recognition he deserves that hasn't been realized probably stems from a couple of factors - he's played mostly for teams with poor records and in '22 he was bounced around between attack and midfield. There also is a plethora of talent at attack putting up big numbers. The next step for him? He needs to produce more in the big games. He was a DNP against Loyola and in the other 5 losses he produced 1 goal and 6 (less than 15% of his season total) assists.

[jhu06]

Thanks for the attempt at translating CharlesS - the comment was meant somewhat facetiously and of course with '06 not only do you get the benefit of something straight out of Absalom Absalom you also get the benefit of it being largely incorrect. To Wit:

I've tried to explain this before but taking MIlliman to task for the goalie situation - at least in terms of filling the position with people - is simply wrong IMO. FIrst - PM saw a goalie kicked out of school (Shadyside goalie) and then had a 4/5* decommit soon after the Petro dismissal and then the very late decommit from the kid who ended up at Marquette. The Marquette kid decommitted in January of his senior year - there was no time and no bodies to recruit someone else -though I am sure he tried. Oh - COVID too BTW. SO what did the head coach do? He obtained the services of one of the highest IL rated transfers of that year Kirson. He tried two to three other transfers and then ended up playing a Petro recruit last year. The only questionable issue to my mind was sticking with Marcille when the performance numbers went pretty south. That's a team issue for which no one here probably has the real perspective.

Attributing any recruiting issues in part to DP's departure and his "Relationships". While David was and is a true force of nature and certainly was a great recruiter - the decline in 4/5* had as much to do with increased competition for recruits and the fact that I mentioned in an earlier post - on the field performance. Since 2015 Hopkins is 4 games over 500 and if you think that all has to do with the record of MIlliman - if you throw out 2018 since the last semi appearance DP was just at 500 (8-7/8-7/8-8/2-4). In addition Petro had the golden years of early recruiting where the chicken vs egg came into play. Even beyond the problems with evaluating high school freshmen were those kids rated in part because they were recruited by Hopkins and DP? Most likely.

No recruit made any decision based upon Ron Daniels and just like the famous event that happened 60 years ago this past week - there simply is no hard evidence to dispute that obvious conclusion.

I don't work at IL - neither does '06. But it's a pretty time honored practice to rate better players on the better teams. I guess the Top 50 hasn't been released yet? I don't know - maybe someone like Smith makes it. He should. In terms of Angelus - any recognition he deserves that hasn't been realized probably stems from a couple of factors - he's played mostly for teams with poor records and in '22 he was bounced around between attack and midfield. There also is a plethora of talent at attack putting up big numbers. The next step for him? He needs to produce more in the big games. He was a DNP against Loyola and in the other 5 losses he produced 1 goal and 6 (less than 15% of his season total) assists.

Petro and Benson it seemed like were getting in every room simply because they were petro and benson. Reading the IL writeup on UNC's fallball gave me awful flashbacks to the last 10 years of the petro era which felt like groundhog day with "we're reviewing everything and trying to evolve" only for nothing to change. At least they can't blame early recruiting and don't have to deal with sankey and bitter.

It will be interesting to see how Crawley evolves. I think he needs to be more focused on execution with his knowns who are going to play the bulk of the minutes instead of trying to play 10-13 guys every game. It's a great story "we're position less and playing everyone" and makes the locker room happier but you need to get your biggest guys who are still going to play more playing bigger more consistently.

[51percentcorn]

Petro and Benson it seemed like were getting in every room simply because they were petro and benson.

What does that even mean? Exactly how many "Rooms" were you in or calls conferenced in to make such a sweeping statement? Look if you are a high profile recruit and you get a call from Dave Pietramala yes you will probably take the call - he might be your coach one day on a national team and counting Hopkins he has been associated with 3 teams now in the past 4 seasons and you're right he is a high profile National HOFer. But you'll also take the call from another head coach at Hopkins because a) Hopkins offers a very highly rated educational opoortunity b)Hopkins is still a very recognizable brand name in the sport c) fully funded 12.6 d) hopefully your parents raised you right to be kind to people that express an interest in you. Yes, coaches typically have a type of player they want in terms of certain characteristics but acting like the current coach is almost avodiing high prodfile recruits or can't get them to come to campus or take his phone call - that's absurd. If Duffy or one of the Millons or whomever wanted to come to Hopkins - ol Petey would find a jersey for them I assure you.

It will be interesting to see how Crawley evolves. I think he needs to be more focused on execution with his knowns who are going to play the bulk of the minutes instead of trying to play 10-13 guys every game. It's a great story "we're position less and playing everyone" and makes the locker room happier but you need to get your biggest guys who are still going to play more playing bigger more consistently.

There's almost a legitimate conversation thought stuck in here but you are focusing on the wrong thing IMO. First - you need 2 middie lines and at least 3 attack so you are at 9 just for starters. Second, Hopkins continues to adhere to my magic number postulate - in a competitive game of 4/5 goals or less differential - Hopkins (any team really) will play 23/24 guys. First 5 games of last year - Jax - 23 Gtown 22 UNC 22 Utah 23 Loy 24. Now when Narewski returned and English became available sometimes it went up to 26 because Hopkins was using 3 face-off guys letting Callahan take a couple AND Hopkins was somewhat unusual in having a dedicated wing SSDM that did nothing else. But the Jays were NOT playing an unusual amount of offensive middies.

Now mix and match - there's an argument to be made there. If injuries are not a significant factor - I would assume most would say you would want consistency for the most part to generate familiarity with everyone's roles/ spots on the field etc. On the flip side you could argue that mixing and matching generates some head aches for the defense because they haven't thought too much about what Player A is going to do with Players D&E when you been game planning for Player A with B & C It all comes down to preparation and trust in your team.

Positonless BTW has nothing to do with the volume of players it's simply a way to describe the fact players can initiate from different pieces of the field rather than the "traditional" ones.

IMO - as I have posted before - Crawley does have a possible volume problem this year with the fact that every single offensive player except Krampf returns and the teams has added some talented freshmen that might want to play now and then. While you can say it's a great problem to have - at the same time it doesn't manage itself so it will require alot of gardening to make the flowers bloom in May.

The first technical problem Crawley has to fix is the EMO. 34% is way too low for the apparent talent that's on the field - an attack leader with 40+ assists - 3 - (now 4 with H Chauvette) left handed cannons in Degnon/Grimes and Collison - Peshko's right hand - Melendez's swiss army knife abilities. In '24 I want to hear one of QK's few complimentary standard lines about Hopkins "If you foul the Jays the band will play"

[HopFan16]

Scott Smith comes in at #20 in IL's rankings. That gives the Jays five players on the list. They have not unveiled the top 10 yet but I believe that will be the most in the Big Ten. I thought a smaller private school wasn't supposed to be able to compete with the big football state schools in lacrosse? We're almost a decade into Big Ten lax and these other programs have now been around for a lot longer than that. When were they supposed to render us irrelevant again? There's always next year.

51, you're doing yeoman's work responding to 06's barely-human drivel but you know better than anyone he's not going to respond directly. His next post will ignore everything you said and pivot to something completely different—probably something having to do with Ron Daniels, the Big Ten commissioner, Notre Dame football's TV contract with NBC, or women's athleisure.

[Farfromgeneva]

How come one day IL sucks and then when it goes people’s way suddenly it’s a meaningful piece of supporting evidence of something?

[Tippy73]

LadyJays Volleyball lost a tough one to Hope College in the NCAA D3 tournament last night. First paragraph from Hopkins Athletics follows:

CLAREMONT, CA – The Johns Hopkins volleyball program's historic season came to an end in its Elite 8 match against #2 Hope Wednesday night, where despite climbing back after being down 2-0, the Blue Jays ultimately fell to the Flying Dutch 3-2 (18-25, 25-27, 28-26, 25-14, 12-15).

Hopkins Volleyball was D3 Champion in 2019 (35-0).

[flalax22]

How come one day IL sucks and then when it goes people’s way suddenly it’s a meaningful piece of supporting evidence of something?

Because this is the Hopkins forum. It’s like Cuckoos Nest around here.

I do agree with the sentiment that it seemed like Petro was trying to recruit stars and PM is trying to recruit teams.

The SSDM position is a glaring difference. Petro rarely recruited specifically for that position. Most of his SSDM were converts who had no idea they would be playing the position prior to arriving at Homewood. Most of PM recruits know exactly what they are in for.

[Farfromgeneva]

How come one day IL sucks and then when it goes people’s way suddenly it’s a meaningful piece of supporting evidence of something?

Because this is the Hopkins forum. It’s like Cuckoos Nest around here.

I do agree with the sentiment that it seemed like Petro was trying to recruit stars and PM is trying to recruit teams.

The SSDM position is a glaring difference. Petro rarely recruited specifically for that position. Most of his SSDM were converts who had no idea they would be playing the position prior to arriving at Homewood. Most of PM recruits know exactly what they are in for.

I see that in your middle sentence. But that wasn’t always Petro right just he got caught of in the disease of me after tremendous success breaking a massive dry spell for Hop on titles.

[Powellfan22]

How come one day IL sucks and then when it goes people’s way suddenly it’s a meaningful piece of supporting evidence of something?

Because this is the Hopkins forum. It’s like Cuckoos Nest around here.

I do agree with the sentiment that it seemed like Petro was trying to recruit stars and PM is trying to recruit teams.

The SSDM position is a glaring difference. Petro rarely recruited specifically for that position. Most of his SSDM were converts who had no idea they would be playing the position prior to arriving at Homewood. Most of PM recruits know exactly what they are in for.

I think recruiting for SSDMs has changed a lot in the last few years, certainly since Petro has been away from Hopkins. I don't know of many teams who recruited specific SSDMs out of high school. Rather they took athletic kids and converted them, usually from the offensive side of the ball. I think most teams still do that.

I could be misremembering, but I thought a lot was made of Ryan Coulter (grad in 2018) being a true SSDM that played in high school. He was recruited by Petro. For some reason that was the first time I remember hearing of a full time SSDM coming to a college program. Not sure why it sticks in my head. I could have the wrong player.

Last year IL designated kids as SSDMs in their Power 100, this year they didn't for some reason. They never used to do that.

[Farfromgeneva]

How come one day IL sucks and then when it goes people’s way suddenly it’s a meaningful piece of supporting evidence of something?

Because this is the Hopkins forum. It’s like Cuckoos Nest around here.

I do agree with the sentiment that it seemed like Petro was trying to recruit stars and PM is trying to recruit teams.

The SSDM position is a glaring difference. Petro rarely recruited specifically for that position. Most of his SSDM were converts who had no idea they would be playing the position prior to arriving at Homewood. Most of PM recruits know exactly what they are in for.

I think recruiting for SSDMs has changed a lot in the last few years, certainly since Petro has been away from Hopkins. I don't know of many teams who recruited specific SSDMs out of high school. Rather they took athletic kids and converted them, usually from the offensive side of the ball. I think most teams still do that.

I could be misremembering, but I thought a lot was made of Ryan Coulter (grad in 2018) being a true SSDM that played in high school. He was recruited by Petro. For some reason that was the first time I remember hearing of a full time SSDM coming to a college program. Not sure why it sticks in my head. I could have the wrong player.

Last year IL designated kids as SSDMs in their Power 100, this year they didn't for some reason. They never used to do that.

Maybe a mid like Josh Hawkins?

[51percentcorn]

A little rich coming from you fla about a cuckoo's nest - if true you've certainly dive bombed or laid eggs in said nest - "kicking rocks"/Murphy/DeSimone/Epstein and the never forgotten intel on Phillips come to mind immediately.

16 can speak for himself but IL is essentially the only game in town - he is clearly not saying IL is the be all to end all - as the only public representation of player analysis and rankings - it is being pointed out that Hopkins has good players and the primary reason Hopkins is back in the conversation at least for a fairly high "ranking" is the increase in talent - alot of which Petro recruited.

I simply don't get this Petro recruited stars - if he did after 2015 he wasn't very good at it for the most part. SInce the SHack/Tinney class - he had 5 top 10 recruits not even one a season - WIlliams/DeSimone/Epstein/Zinn & Grimes. Petro's mistake and MO was to rely too heavily on early recruiting plain and simple. How can you recruit stars when they're freshmen in high school? He made a bet that if he secured enough verbals as early as possible - he could sift through the flotsam - survive any decommits and enough would be left over to power the engine. That strategy and some untimely injuries ultimatley proved fatal.

[flalax22]

A little rich coming from you fla about a cuckoo's nest - if true you've certainly dive bombed or laid eggs in said nest - "kicking rocks"/Murphy/DeSimone/Epstein and the never forgotten intel on Phillips come to mind immediately.

As usual you miss the point. It’s a message board where there is a lot of hyperbole and nonsense amongst people who are way to into a college lacrosse program.

But sure if you want to bring it up, Epstein 3 time captain of this program did far more harm to this program than a kid who missed an academic meeting. PM’s early intervention in culture change was selective, wildly inconsistent to be kind and it was noticed.

I don’t recall the Phillips comment other than he was starting in the fall. I wouldn’t be the first to be wrong about fall projections. There are still some here that think Pollard was the savior that never got a chance.

[51percentcorn]

I could be misremembering, but I thought a lot was made of Ryan Coulter (grad in 2018) being a true SSDM that played in high school. He was recruited by Petro. For some reason that was the first time I remember hearing of a full time SSDM coming to a college program. Not sure why it sticks in my head. I could have the wrong player.

No you have the right player. It was the recruiting guru himself TX that started that hype - highly ranking Coulter and labeling him the prototypical or perfect SSDM (or something to that effect). Coulter suffered a very serious (to use hockey terminology) upper body injury in an incident not to be discussed and so it was a long road - incumbents being established etc. I seem to recall he did get some runs later in his time and either caused a turnover or a personal foul and the speculation was the risk was not worth the reward.

As usual you miss the point.

No I am not missing the point - your specialty is dropping terds in punchbowls if you can - as demonstrated by the continuing Murphy narrative - way oversimplified that chuckleheads like Sag take as Gospel. SO now PM is building a team after being willdly inconsistent and selective - he should write a book then - a lot of people would need to read it. I'll help you with your line about Phillips "best freshman in a decade"

[flalax22]

I could be misremembering, but I thought a lot was made of Ryan Coulter (grad in 2018) being a true SSDM that played in high school. He was recruited by Petro. For some reason that was the first time I remember hearing of a full time SSDM coming to a college program. Not sure why it sticks in my head. I could have the wrong player.

No you have the right player. It was the recruiting guru himself TX that started that hype - highly ranking Coulter and labeling him the prototypical or perfect SSDM (or something to that effect). Coulter suffered a very serious (to use hockey terminology) upper body injury in an incident not to be discussed and so it was a long road - incumbents being established etc. I seem to recall he did get some runs later in his time and either caused a turnover or a personal foul and the speculation was the risk was not worth the reward.

As usual you miss the point.

No I am not missing the point - your specialty is dropping terds in punchbowls if you can - as demonstrated by the continuing Murphy narrative - way oversimplified that chuckleheads like Sag take as Gospel. SO now PM is building a team after being willdly inconsistent and selective - he should write a book then - a lot of people would need to read it. I'll help you with your line about Phillips "best freshman in a decade"

Absolutely not attributed to me. Are you off your meds?