~Loyola University Greyhounds 2024~

[Farfromgeneva]

Utilizing some SAT words I see… yes, MVA’s time has passed.
Ignoring half of players and under developing the rest isn’t working. Making false promises to kids and telling them they will see play time if they do XY and Z and then failing to follow through isn’t cutting it. From what I’ve witnessed, atleast Toomey coaches up the kids during the course of the game and MVA rarely interacts with his players. I think MVA has lost quite a bit of respect from both parents and players over the last few years. He is the antithesis to both Dwan and Toomey.

Ok…well some of the other loyola alums I know can handle big boy words and has passed kiddie math but I guess there’s always some that fall through the cracks. FYI there’s a Rutgers acolyte who makes things up and would love your style. Anything goes when a mind is made up setting aside derided facts or logic.


Why don’t you give very detailed and explicit examples in false promises and how MVA didn’t follow through? Obviously you’ve a personal position that bleeds through this above. Nobody’s going to change your mind that he’s the only problem I can see.

Funny how in reading here effectively “the offense doesn’t perform as well as it did when Spencer was here now that Pat Spencer is gone” and then coming up with the solution that it’s the experienced OC who the HC brought in and still supports that is the problem. Pretty brilliant stuff.

Sorry but where did anyone in this thread use the “the offense doesn’t run as well as it did when Spencer was here” logic?
My prior posts set forth facts:
1. Almost every middie on offense has regressed statistically over the past three years. Higgins, Kamish and Heuston specifically.
2. Highly ranked recruits rarely play (Dixon, Cote, McGory, West, Murphy, Haberman and more)
3. This has happened previously when Van ran out Bateman, Seay and Wigley as a second line an entire year in spite of the fact that they scored FIVE goals the entire year while allowing guys like Binney and Heuston to wallow on the bench (and score when they eventually got the opportunity)
4. This year’s offense is stagnant. Midfielders don’t dodge. It’s the same every game since Georgetown. Maybe because our three starting attack (Minicus, Poitras and James) scored 13 goals v Georgetown, the subsequent opponents realized that our midfielders don’t produce offense. All of this teams production comes from four guys, all of whom are attack men. They ran Lindsey out of the box the first four games and he did nothing. Since moving him back to attack he has 10 points in his last two games.
5. Getting back to not using young guys, Henry Haberman is a perfect example. He had 12 goals as a freshman. This year he has three goals in six games in spite of sharing second line minutes with Murphy, Binney, Lindsey, Heuston. In his limited time he has produced much more than Kamish, Higgins or Heuston. Why doesn’t he play more? And what is the deal with Murphy who also continues to garner second line minutes? 1 assist in 6 games?
My point is that the offense has struggled all year. Highly recruited kids don’t play. Most of the offensive players have regressed over the past three or four years. Losing to Colgate???? Come on. Something needs to change and change fast.

1. It’s a suckers bet to be linear thinker. Also ignores everything outside of the control group and that impact. Don’t do that.
2. Don’t believe the hype. Can bang on recruiting but HS rankings are worthless to making a point about college performance. Bet Charlie understands that.
3. Your younger kid arguments is a mix
Of linear thinking and straight specious supposition.

MVA could be cooked. It happens to everyone. Or…it could be Charlie who’s long in the tooth for the gig. Can’t possibly be that though. So I’m sitting here unimpressed by your case. Might help if you add some lacrosse in there. The plays, substitutions, line mixes, offensive sets. That’s where one can make a real case. What I see above is linear thinking and a bunch of past Ex Post supporting arguments.

“Linear thinking”??? How about the eye test: offense has been horrible since Georgetown. Statistics show regression of guys who were really good midfielders three years ago. Guys that Toomey and Van recruited on offense the past three years don’t play. That’s either bad recruiting or bad coaching. Nothing “linear” about those stats. Defensive recruiting has been, except for FOGO (we’ll see how Hall progresses) pretty good. Houlihan, Reynolds, Ramon, Bean, etc… have all developed into starters as juniors. Contrast that with the offense and but for Minicus (5star recruit) none of the junior recruits play. Of the sophomore recruits Minicus is the only one getting real playing time. Nothing “linear” about that either.
A poster who is clearly a parent of a kid on the team (laxfam4life86) clearly indicates that there are issues with Van in the room. True or not the offense looks brutal. Just look at the Colgate game for instance. Lindsey at X and hits a cutter for three tap in goals. Looks great correct? Except he tried that play nine times during the game leading to five turnovers and 2 saves.
Can you name a single time in the past five games where a midfielder dodged, beat his man, and scored (except for Binney in Rutgers game when he scored twice and has been invisible since)? Why? Why doesn’t Heuston, Higgins or Kamish do anything resembling an attempt to beat a defender one v one? Why does the offense always go to X? My God I’ve watched this team for the past four years since moving back to Bmore. I watched Higgins and Kamish as sophomores do 10x more offensively than they do today. Both dodged, beat defenders and scored when they were sophomores. Why can’t they do it today?

Look Farfromgeneva I don’t have the answers. As a former player for Charlie I do have serious questions. Those questions need to be addressed by Charlie as he’s the guy who hired Van and he’s the guy who’s given Van free rein to run this offense.

So kids with good coaches never ever ever peak as FR? You’ve never seen that before and they always get better YoY right?

One of a tttttrillion (source: Keenan, Cornel West, Thompson) of regression from FR over time under good coaches:

https://fightingirish.com/roster/sergio-perkovic/

But that’s my point nobody knows if it’s Mark or something else and today to hold the alternate position is to directly say you don’t entice Charlie is running the program properly. That’s all. Look I know a ton of Hobart alums who would struggle to survive if they couldn’t make an income coaching or in lacrosse. Marc’s brother was not a good HC. Kerwick. BJ Ohara. So it’s possible but yet when Charlie Toomey and Dom Starsia are still ride or die, particularly Charlie where he in theory risks his job making a bad choice and this isn’t football where it’s easy to swing assistants around to save face. Hence I said how much are you willing to risk that Marc is definitely the problem. Because in theory Charlie is risking his paycheck on it.

My only skin here is I need Poitras to play at least a little
Middie so my son can use him in fantasy lacrosse at midfield this season and that is now the case so I’m good.

You know I try to take you seriously but just can’t. Your misstatements of what other people claim as well as your pomposity relating to “linear” reasoning is just overwhelming. A perfect example of the absurdity of your argument comes in the form of “So kids with good coaches never peak as freshmen”. Many kids peak as freshmen. The problem at Loyola is that EVERY middie that plays at Loyola peaked as a freshman or a sophomore. If it was one or two then your argument bears considering. When you have Higgins, Kamish, Heuston, Bateman, Wigley, Seay, etc… all regress YET STILL START OR PLAY SIGNIFICANT MINUTES, there is a problem. If that’s thinking linear then I guess I’m a linear guy.
Oh, an by the way, if you’re watching Loyola the past two games maybe you’ve noticed that Poitras is playing middie ever time that Lindsey comes out to play attack. They’ve been basically trying to run an offense with four attack and sliding Poitras to mid. This results in four players (Heuston, Higgins, Binnney, Kamish) getting first or second line middie reps with Murphy/Haberman splitting the fifth spot. In doing this, Poitras has been the only middie who dodges and goes to the goal. This seems to limit Minicus’s influence on the offense dramatically.

Dude Seay was a transfer from Bellarmine…

Don’t me seriously I don’t care. I can’t take your hysterical it’s MVA because we’d be winning nattys with this crew except his awful work as OC.

Many smart coaches don’t believe in 3/3 anymore rather best six, especially in a motion offense…

All your arguments are nonsense and yes someone’s said effectively “the offense doesn’t run like it did with Spencer within the last three pages. Look back.


Fans are fans but telling other people they can’t be taken seriously when they’re wafting like emotional super fans is interesting.

And yea assuming a path up and to the right is linear thinking. Most people fall into it, a significant conductive distortion trap for most. It crates further conductive distortions and makes choices and sides harder with too much noise.


Utilizing absolutes like “every” is problematic as well (in all caps which men’s sim supposed to take it more seriously or something)

BTW unselfishly argued to have Poitras at Mid earlier and wa share down by York fan/Loyola expert cohort around here. Them they did it the the offense improved.

[Formerhound]

A “significant conductive disorder trap” says it all. Let use big words to say squat. Riley Seay played for Loyola from 2021-2023 and scored 14 goals his second year. Keep trying to show how smart you are.

And by the way, re read your post as English is a language that you don’t seem to be very familiar with.

[Farfromgeneva]

A “significant conductive disorder trap” says it all. Let use big words to say squat. Riley Seay played for Loyola from 2021-2023 and scored 14 goals his second year. Keep trying to show how smart you are.

And by the way, re read your post as English is a language that you don’t seem to be very familiar with.

Cognitive misspelled bc I use my phone.

Whatever go whine and be a baby. It’s your problem. And the Patriot league’s if that’s what Loyola has been spitting out since they joined.its pathetic. When you grow up a little you’ll see a million times kids flatline or regress after a good FR year and stop blaming the coaches reflectively. Or not. But that’s a you problem. I’m just pointing out no real argument that is permissive has been made for what he’s failed in his job at. That’s just, using caps so you understand, FACTS. And the progression is called migration from burn sophomoric to realistic.

[Formerhound]

A “significant conductive disorder trap” says it all. Let use big words to say squat. Riley Seay played for Loyola from 2021-2023 and scored 14 goals his second year. Keep trying to show how smart you are.

And by the way, re read your post as English is a language that you don’t seem to be very familiar with.

Cognitive misspelled bc I use my phone.

Whatever go whine and be a baby. It’s your problem. And the Patriot league’s if that’s what Loyola has been spitting out since they joined.its pathetic. When you grow up a little you’ll see a million times kids flatline or regress after a good FR year and stop blaming the coaches reflectively. Or not. But that’s a you problem. I’m just pointing out no real argument that is permissive has been made for what he’s failed in his job at. That’s just, using caps so you understand, FACTS. And the progression is called migration from burn sophomoric to realistic.

[laxbro11]

Seems like far from Geneva struggles with quantifiable facts As former hound says the eye test gives you all the information you need

There is a problem with the Loyola offense I would say formerhound and myself are more vertical or even lateral in his thinking

Far from Geneva needs to take the blinders off and see that Mva is part of the problem re watching Colgate tells you a lot about the development or the lack there of of the players There is no accountability for poor performances as laxfamforlife has said

Looks like a wet one today Maybe give the hounds a chance

[Hound93]

Placing blame for poor performance on a single individual is aggressive. Accountability needs to fall with everyone, including the players. I’m confident that the coaches are working OT to right the ship but how bout the players. Every post has been on the coaches, Formerhound knows the staff is one of the best in college lacrosse. I hope the players aren’t sitting back waiting for their miraculous improvement without putting in the work. Practice time is limited and controlled by the NCAA, the best teams and players are on the field at least another 5-10 hours a week without coaches. Are they committed to putting in the work? This is a question the coaches and players need to ask themselves.

[Formerhound]

Placing blame for poor performance on a single individual is aggressive. Accountability needs to fall with everyone, including the players. I’m confident that the coaches are working OT to right the ship but how bout the players. Every post has been on the coaches, Formerhound knows the staff is one of the best in college lacrosse. I hope the players aren’t sitting back waiting for their miraculous improvement without putting in the work. Practice time is limited and controlled by the NCAA, the best teams and players are on the field at least another 5-10 hours a week without coaches. Are they committed to putting in the work? This is a question the coaches and players need to ask themselves.

Very good points you make here. Totally agree you can’t just blame Van. The thing is when you aren’t playing and watch the guys ahead of you not producing for three years and you still don’t get an opportunity to play I’m sure it becomes discouraging and more and more difficult to put in those extra hours. Players need to be held accountable. If they aren’t producing they need to be replaced. Reward hard work in practice. For the past three years there has been no accountability. Same line up. Same results. Same lack of development. Same offense.

[Mr3Putt]

Does anyone look at the numbers?
Clears 81%
Shooting 28%
EMO 3-15 20%
Faceoffs 38%

It’s a miracle Staudt is 53% . And has covered up some pimples with the team being outshot 268 to 228. It’s a lot more than Van Arsdale. Clearing 80% on D1 level is rough . Offensively I’d say shot selection has to improve. That shows in the EMO being 20%. They need to shuffle the deck. Nasso could just take over today. Offense may not get enough possessions.

[Formerhound]

Does anyone look at the numbers?
Clears 81%
Shooting 28%
EMO 3-15 20%
Faceoffs 38%

It’s a miracle Staudt is 53% . And has covered up some pimples with the team being outshot 268 to 228. It’s a lot more than Van Arsdale. Clearing 80% on D1 level is rough . Offensively I’d say shot selection has to improve. That shows in the EMO being 20%. They need to shuffle the deck. Nasso could just take over today. Offense may not get enough possessions.

Great points. Stats don’t lie. And 60th in D1 goals per game

[laxbro11]

Placing blame for poor performance on a single individual is aggressive. Accountability needs to fall with everyone, including the players. I’m confident that the coaches are working OT to right the ship but how bout the players. Every post has been on the coaches, Formerhound knows the staff is one of the best in college lacrosse. I hope the players aren’t sitting back waiting for their miraculous improvement without putting in the work. Practice time is limited and controlled by the NCAA, the best teams and players are on the field at least another 5-10 hours a week without coaches. Are they committed to putting in the work? This is a question the coaches and players need to ask themselves.

Very good points you make here. Totally agree you can’t just blame Van. The thing is when you aren’t playing and watch the guys ahead of you not producing for three years and you still don’t get an opportunity to play I’m sure it becomes discouraging and more and more difficult to put in those extra hours. Players need to be held accountable. If they aren’t producing they need to be replaced. Reward hard work in practice. For the past three years there has been no accountability. Same line up. Same results. Same lack of development. Same offense.

I agree. There is blame to be shared by all But is still the coach’s job to get the most out of his players Van did not become a hall of fame coach without superior players A HOF coach wins when they shouldn’t Gets the most out of his players hold players accountable when they are not producing This gas not happened

[laxbro11]

Does anyone look at the numbers?
Clears 81%
Shooting 28%
EMO 3-15 20%
Faceoffs 38%

It’s a miracle Staudt is 53% . And has covered up some pimples with the team being outshot 268 to 228. It’s a lot more than Van Arsdale. Clearing 80% on D1 level is rough . Offensively I’d say shot selection has to improve. That shows in the EMO being 20%. They need to shuffle the deck. Nasso could just take over today. Offense may not get enough possessions.

+1 for both

[houndace1]

Even though it’s a 16-10 loss i will say that the positives is that for the first half they went toe to toe with the number 5-6 team in the country. They had transition goals, the GBs were close in the first Half and there was spirited effort.

Downsides is that again they’re playing SO much defense due to uneven faceoff wins that there’s no gas to finish out games. It also doesn’t help that the offense had turnovers at the worst possible times.

They have POTENTIAL to play with a top team like Duke, but as gunkel said it’s the little things that will get wins.

It’s now PL tourney or bust.

[houndace1]

Adding slight notes:

Congrats Pacheco for scoring his first goal of the season!
Luke had another good game in cage but the team as a whole really needs to support him.

Jake Wilson #88 got decent minutes on close D as a freshman.

They gave extended minutes this time to heuston who popped with 3 goals, Habermann and Murphy as the two sophs. Matt Dixon got a run in.

I think I saw Brady west or Brady Quinn get in for one run as they were clearing

[Formerhound]

Some positives:
1. Matt Heuston. Four dodges and three goals
2. Joe Kamish: finally dodged and scored.
3. Matt Poitras: 3 Goals
4. Stayed with a very good team for most of the game. Real positives can come from this.

Some negatives:
1. Man up is putrid. 3/18 this year? Most man up opportunities don’t even generate a shot.
2. Evan James with probably his worst game ever. 5 turnovers and multiple poor shots which resulted in easy saves or no backups.
3. Way too many turnovers. Kamish and Lindsey with 3 each, Minicus with two.
4. Defense was bad in second half. That said, Duke’s offense is good. Two many guys got beaten one v one.

Big game next week. Will they change things up?

[BlueJaySince1947]

Loyola pathetic in second half...

[Formerhound]

After finally drying out and getting warm (weather was brutal for those not there which I’m sure led to some of the sloppy play) I had the opportunity to watch the replay on ESPN. I was even more impressed with Heuston. This is how I remember him last year and early this year. North-South guy with speed and power. Wish the other middies would emulate his game (obviously some can’t due to their size).

The man up really bothers me. It’s the same every game. Pass the ball around the outside for 30-40 seconds and then take a bad shot. This team really misses a guy like Pete Swindell who can score from up top on a step down. Haven’t seen Kamish shoot from up top one single time this whole year. Defenses know this and stack inside preventing those inside good scoring opportunities. Don’t they have someone who can take that spot? I was told that McGory has a rocket of a shot. Cote also (although neither one was dressed yesterday from what I could see).


Defense was up and down. Much better on the clear than last week but still too many times the ssdm gave up the ball instead of pushing it over the center line. Couple nice goals from Pacheco and Chase Gregory kept it close in first half but Faceoff is going to kill this team.

Big game this week v BU. Last two years they’ve gone with the ten man ride which gave us fits (as it did last week against Colgate). Need to score on EMU and need to clear at 90%+ or we’ll fall to 0-2 in Patriot league and will be in danger of not even making playoffs.

[QuestionMark]

BU-Loyola is a huge game next week with major PL playoff implications. I doubt Loyola clears above 85%. BU is one of the best riding teams in the country. I think the game boils down to the face off dot. BU has struggled mightily there.

[Finster]

BU-Loyola is a huge game next week with major PL playoff implications. I doubt Loyola clears above 85%. BU is one of the best riding teams in the country. I think the game boils down to the face off dot. BU has struggled mightily there.

Charlie Toomey has a fascinating OOC philosophy: every game is a murderers row. There is no breather. I understand the strategy, but man, it allows for no time to gel.

I bet you guys want that Colgate game back. If we’re being honest, Loyola beats Gate 9 out of 10 games. That was a bad Hounds game at FO and surprisingly in goal too.

[kramerica.inc]

My takeaways:
Clear was much better this week. That is how we need to clear every time out. That needs to continue for the Hounds to have success.

2nd Q turnovers seemed excessive. But I think that might have been the weather. They cleaned that up the second half, which was a good sign. That was a brutal weather game, and really was surprised there weren't more.

Hounds were getting out GB'd in every Q. But a major part of that is faceoffs. You're always gonna have a GB deficit if you're going 20-10 at the X. If we can get to 50% faceoffs it will help us tremendously, because I feel like our shooting was much improved.

We need to be at least 33% shooting, and were probably there against Duke, which kept it tight.

I personally like the 1-4-1 we were running on offense. We don't have lots of guys who will win their matchup consistently so we need to be very active off ball to have success. When we do, we look darn good. Gotta have assisted goals.

Agree that EMO needs to capitalize.

[Formerhound]

Just looked at stats for last three losses:
Duke: 18 turnovers 15 offense/3 Defense
Colgate: 11 turnovers 7/offense 4 Defense
Rutgers: 11 Turnovers 9 offense 2 defense

Season totals on offense:
Poitras 6 TO/20 points
James 7/19
Lindsey 14/15
Minicus 11/13
Heuston 5/7
Higgins 6/6
Kamish 4/5
Binney 5/4
Haberman 4/3
McCullouch 2/2
Murphy 0/1

The vast majority of these turnovers have been the result of forcing a ball inside to a cutter. Very few times they’ve turned the ball over on dodges. Just look at Lindsey. We move him back to attack and he scores 4 goals his first game, all on dodges from X. He shot the ball 8 times against Towson and four times v Colgate and had 5 goals and 5 assists. Very good numbers but he had 11 TO in those three games. James had a terrible game v Duke but that’s excusable as he’s played well overall. Surprised to see how the points to turnover ratio is so bad on offense when you exclude Poitras and James from the equation. Almost a turnover for every point.
Need to have the mids generate more of the offense from up top (as well as James and Poitras from the wings). Less trying to hit cutters from X as that’s not working. Let’s see if they make any changes on the man up as it’s been putrid this year. Would love to see them set Kamish for a step down shot. If he can generate from up top it should open up the inside game a ton.