Maryland 2024

[jrn19]

Kudos to the folks who were nailed on about Spanos last week. I got it way wrong. He looks terrific today

[PulpExposure]

13-7. Wierman utterly dominated. Offense looked good in spurts, but went dead in the 3rd quarter. A positive with that is that some of the Maryland offensive players took their defenders to the rack (Spanos notably, who had 4 goals). Defense looked great.

Workman like victory. Notre Dame up next week.

[keno in reno]

Hard to be negative after a solid win, but the offense kind of wasted an epic performance by Wierman. If that wasn't his most dominating game ever, it sure was close. Wow.

Spanos was star #2. He's got great patience and vision, and knows when to take it himself. His teammates cost him a couple of assists.

We've played some excellent goalies, but some of the stars need to shoot better when wide open. So many sloppy turnovers again on perimeter passing.

Overall, great defense again. #1 is just a non-human.

Nice win, really should have been closer to 20 goals given all those possessions and open looks. Gotta get a lot more efficient at ND.

[PulpExposure]

So many sloppy turnovers again on perimeter passing.

Yeah that really bothered me too. Just too many bad passes or failed catches when there wasn't any pressure. That's fundamentals.

Overall, great defense again. #1 is just a non-human.

Nice win, really should have been closer to 20 goals given all those possessions and open looks. Gotta get a lot more efficient at ND.

Ajax is unreal. With Makar leaving, you knew Ajax was a shoe-in to replace him as that #1. Next year I don't know who will take up that mantle. I thought it could be Schaller, but there are a few times even today he slid to Ajax when he shouldn't have, and left his guy open for the shot.

ND will be a good test. I feel like Maryland will win a lot of games because it's got a very solid team with a lot of veteran leadership. Many teams lack that veteran presence; ND is not one of them.

[Wheels]

13-7. Wierman utterly dominated. Offense looked good in spurts, but went dead in the 3rd quarter. A positive with that is that some of the Maryland offensive players took their defenders to the rack (Spanos notably, who had 4 goals). Defense looked great.

Workman like victory. Notre Dame up next week.

Gianforcaro made 20 saves, and it wasn't like the Terps were hitting him in the chest.

The offense looked good today. They were aggressive. They're starting to figure out when to pass and when to attack instead of spinning the ball all the time. Siracusa looked really aggressive. Spanos probably couldn't believe that Princeton kept shorting him and didn't slide to support. There were several times Princeton didn't even bother to chase Malever behind the goal. Just allowed themselves to get hung up.

The deal with Erksa is you're going to have live with him learning to carry the load. He had fewer TOs today, but he didn't shoot well on 10 shots. There's a learning curve for everyone. He'll get more efficient, hopefully, as the season progresses.

The Terps dominated 50-50 ground balls today.

The defense pretty much had the game at hand after a quarter. Princeton never got within 4 for the entirety of the game.

[PulpExposure]

The offense looked good today. They were aggressive. They're starting to figure out when to pass and when to attack instead of spinning the ball all the time.

Really liked that. This is maybe why it's good to not always just have murderer's row on your schedule - let a pretty young team take some chances on offense and learn what works. You can see they're doing that.

The deal with Erksa is you're going to have live with him learning to carry the load. He had fewer TOs today, but he didn't shoot well on 10 shots. There's a learning curve for everyone. He'll get more efficient, hopefully, as the season progresses.

Yeah, he's not quite there yet with the stick skills. His passes aren't always as dialed in as they need to be. But he's also only a sophomore and didn't exactly play in the MIAA in high school, for example. As you said before, you have to let him live with it as he learns.

I was impressed with Spanos today - he took advantage of the shorties with goals and some nice passes, but also scored dodging on a pole.

[jrn19]

4-0. Still +1 on last season. Let's see if we can make it +2 next weekend.

Pros
- Wierman looks like he's back to his 2022 form. Sharp, healthy, just completely dialed in. 67% and they'll probably need something like that against Notre Dame next weekend. That's what he had last year and it wasn't enough. Lynch won the last 3-4 of the game in regulation IIRC. I'm sure Wierman remembers
- Great to see Kolar back. Shorties looked strong. Was interesting to see Stamos matched up on Kabiri some early; and he hung in there. They're going to be a strength of the team come the end of the year if they can stay healthy
- 60%+ Faceoff, 60% goalie play, and a #1 defender just wiping out All-American attackmen is a truly unbelievable spine of the team. Ultimate floor raisers. Just need the other end to come through
- Last week Erksa was the party starter; this week Spanos. Played with decisiveness, that's what the team needs. Attacked shortie matchup from the outset, made things happen, got the offense in control. 4 goals + 1 assist is the type of game the offense needs from it's #1 option that game
- Malever is looking more and more comfortable

Cons
- We can do the "the opposition goalie had 20 saves and they weren't easy" thing all day. It's been 20 games now the last two years of this. We say this every single week. They were 44th in shooting percentage last year. If you adjust for the defense and goalies, they were 28th. 5th in the Big Ten in both. Coming into today, they were 25th in shooting percentage. 17th adjusted. Better. Not great. Today, they were pretty mediocre. This is who they are. They are not a good shooting team. They don't have outside shooters who threaten the defense. Eric Malever isn't a threat to hit an outside shot. Braden Erksa isn't. Danny Maltz can be, but as we saw today, it's a wind-up that causes him to be prone to turnovers. Koras is an inside finisher. Whittier doesn't shoot often. Spanos is mostly driving to the cage on his shots. Jack Brennan has scored 2 goals in his last 12 games. Kelly is a wing shooter. Murphy is the closest thing. That's one guy. Yeah, Gio had 20 saves. And two weeks ago Staudt had 16. And Knox Dent had a bunch in the first round last year. They're creating better looks this year so it's not going to be as much of a problem, but this team had a 5-6+ year run of elite shooting and now they're simply okay.
- The offensive drought was disappointing, especially after such a solid first half. And yeah, the turnovers are a part of it. The turnover rate isn't terrible considering the number of possessions they have, but 49 in 4 games is costly. As said above, this is just something you gotta live with till the team finds consistent dodging. Last week, it was Erksa. This week, Spanos. So they're finding 1 threat, which is good. We're seeing the offense grow. I think the key to unlocking things is finding the second guy week, in week out. When one guy goes quiet, it doesn't completely shut down the offense and force them into jamming these passes into the interior and trying to be perfect.

Onto ND. Going to need another great Wierman day and going to be another big day for the shorties. Notre Dame's middies won them the game last year dodging. If they can handle that match-up, they can handle anything. Might be a little too early in the season for it, but this team is definitely seasoned for tough road games at this point. I'm sure the team will be amped for it much the same way ND was after how many close ones they'd lost to us last year

[keno in reno]

5-0. Still +1 on last season. Let's see if we can make it +2 next weekend.

Pros
- Wierman looks like he's back to his 2022 form. Sharp, healthy, just completely dialed in. 67% and they'll probably need something like that against Notre Dame next weekend. That's what he had last year and it wasn't enough. Lynch won the last 3-4 of the game in regulation IIRC. I'm sure Wierman remembers
- Great to see Kolar back. Shorties looked strong. Was interesting to see Stamos matched up on Kabiri some early; and he hung in there. They're going to be a strength of the team come the end of the year if they can stay healthy
- 60%+ Faceoff, 60% goalie play, and a #1 defender just wiping out All-American attackmen is a truly unbelievable spine of the team. Ultimate floor raisers. Just need the other end to come through
- Last week Erksa was the party starter; this week Spanos. Played with decisiveness, that's what the team needs. Attacked shortie matchup from the outset, made things happen, got the offense in control. 4 goals + 1 assist is the type of game the offense needs from it's #1 option that game
- Malever is looking more and more comfortable

Cons
- We can do the "the opposition goalie had 20 saves and they weren't easy" thing all day. It's been 20 games now the last two years of this. We say this every single week. They were 44th in shooting percentage last year. If you adjust for the defense and goalies, they were 28th. 5th in the Big Ten in both. Coming into today, they were 25th in shooting percentage. 17th adjusted. Better. Not great. Today, they were pretty mediocre. This is who they are. They are not a good shooting team. They don't have outside shooters who threaten the defense. Eric Malever isn't a threat to hit an outside shot. Braden Erksa isn't. Danny Maltz can be, but as we saw today, it's a wind-up that causes him to be prone to turnovers. Koras is an inside finisher. Whittier doesn't shoot often. Spanos is mostly driving to the cage on his shots. Jack Brennan has scored 2 goals in his last 12 games. Kelly is a wing shooter. Murphy is the closest thing. That's one guy. Yeah, Gio had 20 saves. And two weeks ago Staudt had 16. And Knox Dent had a bunch in the first round last year. They're creating better looks this year so it's not going to be as much of a problem, but this team had a 5-6+ year run of elite shooting and now they're simply okay.
- The offensive drought was disappointing, especially after such a solid first half. And yeah, the turnovers are a part of it. The turnover rate isn't terrible considering the number of possessions they have, but 49 in 4 games is costly. As said above, this is just something you gotta live with till the team finds consistent dodging. Last week, it was Erksa. This week, Spanos. So they're finding 1 threat, which is good. We're seeing the offense grow. I think the key to unlocking things is finding the second guy week, in week out. When one guy goes quiet, it doesn't completely shut down the offense and force them into jamming these passes into the interior and trying to be perfect.

Onto ND. Going to need another great Wierman day and going to be another big day for the shorties. Notre Dame's middies won them the game last year dodging. If they can handle that match-up, they can handle anything. Might be a little too early in the season for it, but this team is definitely seasoned for tough road games at this point. I'm sure the team will be amped for it much the same way ND was after how many close ones they'd lost to us last year

Not 5-0

[AreaLax]

Post game press conferences
https://youtu.be/X3MOPfeRiEQ?si=0ssRx_Xkn3mQS-_N

[jff97]

Well looks like the Terps will see a pretty fired up Notre Dame team next Sunday. Wonder what the over/under is on how many times the Kavanaghs will be mentioned.

[coda]

Well looks like the Terps will see a pretty fired up Notre Dame team next Sunday. Wonder what the over/under is on how many times the Kavanaghs will be mentioned.

There is no number high enough to take the under

[keno in reno]

Well looks like the Terps will see a pretty fired up Notre Dame team next Sunday. Wonder what the over/under is on how many times the Kavanaghs will be mentioned.

There is no number high enough to take the under

Is the Little Q doing it? Re-watch the '23 UVA semifinal game and count how many times he cried about UVA's lucky bounces, then cried about ND's amazingness in their comeback. It's like a Disney movie.

[jrn19]

Terps will be fired up after they let last year get away approximately 36 times; Notre Dame will be fired up after they vomited all over themselves today. Refs everywhere are calling approximately a million penalties. It could be a bit of a shitshow, to put it mildly.

[AreaLax]

Eric Spanos names Big Ten Offensive Player of the week and Luke Wierman named Big Ten specialist of the week

[AreaLax]

6 NOTRE DAME (-2) VS 3 MARYLAND

Has to be the game of the weekend.. There’s a ton to like in this one. The game within the game of Ajax Zappitello vs Pat Kavanagh is electric. The Terps defense and goaltending, in my eyes, is their strength this year. Zappitello is the alpha, but that entire six person unit is impressive to me, and McNaney looks back to his old self. On the other side, I said this week on the pod how highly I think of Braden Erksa. He’s looked spotlight ready at every turn for the season and change, not easy to do given the situation he stepped into.

Notre Dame is coming off a loss, which hasn’t happened in a while. I consider their midfield to be a legitimate matchup nightmare, the attack is obviously special with the Kavanaghs, Jake Taylor will find any last blade of grass the defense leaves open and score a goal from it. I am very much excited for what I consider to be a great strength on strength matchup here. Notre Dame doesn’t get respite, their schedule is loaded because they’re the defending champs, time to turn the page and start working back towards the top of the mountain. For Maryland, they got a single number one vote last week. A win here, and I bet they get a few more. The mountain top has room for one team, and both these teams can make their case for it with a win.

https://x.com/danarestia/status/1763610 ... EO2hFStaxg

[molo]

If Maryland wins, they are number one. I the spread is wrong. I see Maryland by a couple. They are battle tested, ND not so much.

[keno in reno]

If Maryland wins, they are number one. I the spread is wrong. I see Maryland by a couple. They are battle tested, ND not so much.

#1 the week of March 3rd means nothing. 2021 national champ UVA lost to Syracuse by 10 before March, and Notre Dame 2023 got destroyed by UVA twice before it mattered the third time.

[Essexfenwick]

If Maryland wins, they are number one. I the spread is wrong. I see Maryland by a couple. They are battle tested, ND not so much.

#1 the week of March 3rd means nothing. 2021 national champ UVA lost to Syracuse by 10 before March, and Notre Dame 2023 got destroyed by UVA twice before it mattered the third time.

Yeah you’re right. they shouldn’t have rankings. Especially when Be The Best is #1 it’s redundant.

[jrn19]

Top 20 poll doesn't matter; but a win would just about seal an at-large berth for the tournament provided they didn't suffer a truly monumental collapse. They'd have accomplished the most of any team in non-conference play, with maybe only Hopkins having as comprehensive a resume so far (but they have a loss.) And of course, still got UVA at home in two weeks after.

So a win would be hugely consequential even if being ranked #1 on March 4th isn't the biggest deal

[laxfan1313]

After 1 quarter, STFU Carc. Jeez!