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

[QuakerSouth]

No, thats not what I am saying at all. If it is determined that it is time to move on, so be it. What I am saying is Hopkins, despite what the fanbase thinks, has had a pretty good run over the last 10 years. To think that changing coaches will yield better results than you've had is difficult to imagine.

[44WeWantMore]

I think you might find that replacing Petro isn't going to yield better results than you've had over the last 10 years. Hopkins has made the tourney how many years in the last 10? How may Quarters? A Final? If you think you "deserve" more, well......

Someone said on here they want Hopkins to be competitive---like either final 8 or final 4 every year. That is unrealistic. UMD doing what they are doing is amazing. Being competitive and being amazing are not the same thing. This isn't 50 yrs ago, 40 yrs ago, even 30 yrs ago. To think a team can get back to those types of winning seasons is fantasy.

Lots of good points here about Hopkins ability to still recruit good players. Thats true. You'll get your share of good guys. But no more than your fair share.

Petro is not perfect; nobody is. But if you think getting rid of him will all of a sudden change your fortunes, I think you could be in for a rude awakening. Be careful what you wish for.

So Maryland shouldn't have moved on from Cottle? Virginia from Starsia? Navy from Meade (oh wait)? While the message might not get as stale as long-term professional coaches since the kids rotate thru every four years, still a group on this board think that the coaches seem to be on auto-pilot. There have been years of questioning the use (or lack thereof) of bench strength, the construction of the roster (lack of mid-field depth for example) and the development of players over their four years.
Free the Wombat! page count

Grumpy Cat Dies at 7 Years Old

[seacoaster]

I think you might find that replacing Petro isn't going to yield better results than you've had over the last 10 years. Hopkins has made the tourney how many years in the last 10? How may Quarters? A Final? If you think you "deserve" more, well......

Someone said on here they want Hopkins to be competitive---like either final 8 or final 4 every year. That is unrealistic. UMD doing what they are doing is amazing. Being competitive and being amazing are not the same thing. This isn't 50 yrs ago, 40 yrs ago, even 30 yrs ago. To think a team can get back to those types of winning seasons is fantasy.

Lots of good points here about Hopkins ability to still recruit good players. Thats true. You'll get your share of good guys. But no more than your fair share.

Petro is not perfect; nobody is. But if you think getting rid of him will all of a sudden change your fortunes, I think you could be in for a rude awakening. Be careful what you wish for.

So Maryland shouldn't have moved on from Cottle? Virginia from Starsia? Navy from Meade (oh wait)? While the message might not get as stale as long-term professional coaches since the kids rotate thru every four years, still a group on this board think that the coaches seem to be on auto-pilot. There have been years of questioning the use (or lack thereof) of bench strength, the construction of the roster (lack of mid-field depth for example) and the development of players over their four years.
Free the Wombat! page count

Grumpy Cat Dies at 7 Years Old

Grumpy Cat obituary. Now that is some serious page count padding. At this point, the question is: will it require Regime Change to get us to 200 pages, or can we get it done without the bloodletting. DMac, when you're out of the Penalty Box, jump in here!!

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Wombat is now free. Carry on!

RIP Grumpy little lady.

[steel_hop]

No, thats not what I am saying at all. If it is determined that it is time to move on, so be it. What I am saying is Hopkins, despite what the fanbase thinks, has had a pretty good run over the last 10 years. To think that changing coaches will yield better results than you've had is difficult to imagine.

Nothing personal but this ain't Penn Lacrosse but Hopkins. And Penn might think 1 FF a decade is okay. It sure isnt at Hopkins. Just different standards.

As I said, I'd be very happy if Hopkins last 10 years looked like Denver's. What Denever has done over the last decade even exceeds what standard I've stated before. And there are a number of programs with even better results then Denver and odds say 10 programs with a better last 10 years then Hopkins.

[notentitled]

More kids play now then ever before and the talent pools are deeper. Having top ranked recruiting classes does not mean you win or new coordinators is not always the answer. The other schools are developing players as well. Your opponents could be recruiting 2, and 3 star players and building them into a system and turning them into 3.5 or 4 star players. And these kids want to play so the idea of JHU stockpiling talent and thinking that you will not have bad runs is rather silly. Furthermore, you will have kids who are marvelous at 18 and then they do not improve and everybody else catches up.
The Johns Hopkins experience is no different than what many football and basketball programs go through. UCLA basketball is currently finding this fact out. They were dominant and now more talent exists and it may not to play in LA. The game is growing and the idea that you should be something is ... Alabama football before Saban was average and eventually his run will end too. It's the normal.

[HopFan16]

UCLA basketball isn't a bad comparison, except they've now had two different new coaches since they last made a Final Four in 2008.

One thing that might help the Jays win more games next year is replacing UVA with Navy on the schedule. Smart timing, coach.

Also, Loyola says goodbye to Pat Spencer, and Towson graduates a really great senior class. If we win the games we won this year, plus those three games then, boom, that's a 10-3 season. Problems fixed! Go Jays!

[Typical Lax Dad]

More kids play now then ever before and the talent pools are deeper. Having top ranked recruiting classes does not mean you win or new coordinators is not always the answer. The other schools are not developing players as well. Your opponents could be recruiting 2, and 3 star players and building them into a system and turning them into 3.5 or 4 star players. And these kids want to play so the idea of JHU stockpiling talent and thinking that you will not have bad runs is rather silly. Furthermore, you will have kids who are marvelous at 18 and then they do not improve and everybody else catches up.
The Johns Hopkins experience is no different than what many football and basketball programs go through. UCLA basketball is currently finding this fact out. They were dominant and now more talent exists and it may not to play in LA. The game is growing and the idea that you should be something is ... Alabama football before Saban was average and eventually his run will end too. It's the normal.

The number of head coaches with national championships at Alabama is remarkable. Saban has been tremendous though.

[DMac]

I think you might find that replacing Petro isn't going to yield better results than you've had over the last 10 years. Hopkins has made the tourney how many years in the last 10? How may Quarters? A Final? If you think you "deserve" more, well......

Someone said on here they want Hopkins to be competitive---like either final 8 or final 4 every year. That is unrealistic. UMD doing what they are doing is amazing. Being competitive and being amazing are not the same thing. This isn't 50 yrs ago, 40 yrs ago, even 30 yrs ago. To think a team can get back to those types of winning seasons is fantasy.

Lots of good points here about Hopkins ability to still recruit good players. Thats true. You'll get your share of good guys. But no more than your fair share.

Petro is not perfect; nobody is. But if you think getting rid of him will all of a sudden change your fortunes, I think you could be in for a rude awakening. Be careful what you wish for.

So Maryland shouldn't have moved on from Cottle? Virginia from Starsia? Navy from Meade (oh wait)? While the message might not get as stale as long-term professional coaches since the kids rotate thru every four years, still a group on this board think that the coaches seem to be on auto-pilot. There have been years of questioning the use (or lack thereof) of bench strength, the construction of the roster (lack of mid-field depth for example) and the development of players over their four years.
Free the Wombat! page count

Grumpy Cat Dies at 7 Years Old

Grumpy Cat obituary. Now that is some serious page count padding. At this point, the question is: will it require Regime Change to get us to 200 pages, or can we get it done without the bloodletting. DMac, when you're out of the Penalty Box, jump in here!!

Seven is mighty young for a cat to die, take note Hop fans. All your miserableness isn't good for your health...and whatever you do, don't listen to the voice of reason that QuakerSouth and notentitled bring.
Thanks for the invite, sc.

[co2519]

More kids play now then ever before and the talent pools are deeper. Having top ranked recruiting classes does not mean you win or new coordinators is not always the answer. The other schools are not developing players as well. Your opponents could be recruiting 2, and 3 star players and building them into a system and turning them into 3.5 or 4 star players. And these kids want to play so the idea of JHU stockpiling talent and thinking that you will not have bad runs is rather silly. Furthermore, you will have kids who are marvelous at 18 and then they do not improve and everybody else catches up.
The Johns Hopkins experience is no different than what many football and basketball programs go through. UCLA basketball is currently finding this fact out. They were dominant and now more talent exists and it may not to play in LA. The game is growing and the idea that you should be something is ... Alabama football before Saban was average and eventually his run will end too. It's the normal.

As the parent of kids playing in Colorado (HS and MS) I want to throw this out there: I wonder if programs like Hopkins, MD, Syracuse, etc. are / will miss out on more and more high-potential recruits from non-hotbed regions, because these kids think (rightly or wrongly) that because of where they come from, even if they make the squad at Hopkins, they'll have a hard time seeing the field. There's a perception out here that if a kid goes to a school like Hopkins, the coaching staff (AND players from back east) will be skeptical of your ability to produce, and all other things being equal, will have a bias towards the kid with the MIAA / Long Island background (for good reason, I know). Yes, Dismuke counters this, but then I look at an Asher Nolting...frankly, DU / Tierney / Brown have made a living getting guys from CA, CO, OH, Canada,etc. and turning them into terrific players. My guess - when recruiting those kids, they sell them on the fact that they're much more likely to see the field at DU than they ever would at Hopkins, MD, Duke, etc. Food for thought.

[HopFan16]

More kids play now then ever before and the talent pools are deeper. Having top ranked recruiting classes does not mean you win or new coordinators is not always the answer. The other schools are not developing players as well. Your opponents could be recruiting 2, and 3 star players and building them into a system and turning them into 3.5 or 4 star players. And these kids want to play so the idea of JHU stockpiling talent and thinking that you will not have bad runs is rather silly. Furthermore, you will have kids who are marvelous at 18 and then they do not improve and everybody else catches up.
The Johns Hopkins experience is no different than what many football and basketball programs go through. UCLA basketball is currently finding this fact out. They were dominant and now more talent exists and it may not to play in LA. The game is growing and the idea that you should be something is ... Alabama football before Saban was average and eventually his run will end too. It's the normal.

As the parent of kids playing in Colorado (HS and MS) I want to throw this out there: I wonder if programs like Hopkins, MD, Syracuse, etc. are / will miss out on more and more high-potential recruits from non-hotbed regions, because these kids think (rightly or wrongly) that because of where they come from, even if they make the squad at Hopkins, they'll have a hard time seeing the field. There's a perception out here that if a kid goes to a school like Hopkins, the coaching staff (AND players from back east) will be skeptical of your ability to produce, and all other things being equal, will have a bias towards the kid with the MIAA / Long Island background (for good reason, I know). Yes, Dismuke counters this, but then I look at an Asher Nolting...frankly, DU / Tierney / Brown have made a living getting guys from CA, CO, OH, Canada,etc. and turning them into terrific players. My guess - when recruiting those kids, they sell them on the fact that they're much more likely to see the field at DU than they ever would at Hopkins, MD, Duke, etc. Food for thought.

Hopkins has two more kids from Colorado coming in next year. The starting goalie all year was from Texas. Hopkins has a long history of great players from Canada. Kieran Eissler was from Nevada. The 2020 class has one kid from Utah, one from California, one from Georgia, two from Canada, one from Florida, another from the Culver Academy (which also sends a lot of guys to Denver) to add to the two in the 2019 class.

If you think Denver is recruiting guys from out west because they think they're more likely to see the field there rather than the very basic fact that the school is geographically-speaking in their own backyard, well, I'm not sure what else to say. Smart players know that if they put in the work and perform well then they will see the field, no matter if it's at Johns Hopkins or elsewhere. Ok, unless you're Evan Zinn. One could actually argue that Petro has played some of these kids from non-hot bed areas TOO MUCH. That's definitely come up once or twice in this thread before. I don't think he cares where you're from.

[HopFan16]

Watch Culver vs. ACN. Hunter Jaronski plays close D with a pole, then runs into the offensive end and switches sticks with one of his teammates to play offensive midfield with a shortie. Also takes faceoffs. Also plays LSM. No idea what position he'll play in college (my guess is LSM?) but these announcers cannot stop singing his praises. ACN is getting their teeth kicked in by Culver, but he looks quite athletic.

More good news: Johnny Cohen (Culver) is a legitimate offensive midfielder. However, he is not a large kid. Looks to be in the Baskin/Keogh mold. Does have some quickness. Apparently he's a very good basketball player.

[jhu06]

we've had 11 years of top 10 classes, in most cases top 5 or the number 1 class and results that don't match the rankings (where have you gone henry grass, drew supinski and so many others), not sure why we should get excited about new kids when mays tend to end with pre preakness 5+goal thrashings.

THE AD NEEDS TO ADDRESS THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY. The rest of this stuff is meaningless drivel.

[a fan]

Oh yeah, the AD at a billion dollar University should be beholden to the utter nonsense that is the Recruiting Issue of Inside Lacrosse.

Great idea. Who should the Hopkins Chair of the School of Medicine report to? The editors of Men's Health Magazine, and their thoughts on the best gluten-free snackie-poos?

19 years, missed the playoffs once. Odds the next guy will do better are not high. That's all anyone is saying. Best of luck with your new coach.

[Homer]

THE AD NEEDS TO ADDRESS THE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY. The rest of this stuff is meaningless drivel.

Address the university community about what? Since when do AD's ever do what you seem to be imagining Shanahan's suppposed to? What we're all talking about isn't a scandal, it's losing games.

19 years, missed the playoffs once. Odds the next guy will do better are not high. That's all anyone is saying. Best of luck with your new coach.

Do better than that specific stat? No, probably not, but so what? If the current staff were to stick around another 19 years it seems unlikely they'd equal that number either. The operative question isn't how the future will compare to the past, it's whether the current staff or somebody else gives you the better chance of winning going forward.

Also, while the 18/19 record making the playoffs is genuinely impressive and not to be discounted, it's arguably slightly missing the point to emphasize that when what fans are mainly complaining about is a regular pattern of squeaking into the playoffs and then getting utterly blown out. Probably a lot of us would trade a few occasional playoff misses for a less abject performance once there.

Appreciate your skeptical take on whether things will necessarily get better with a change -- point well taken. But you have to acknowledge there's a risk to sticking with the current setup, just as there is with shaking things up. Luckily nobody's asking any of us!

[44WeWantMore]

Virtually every call I receive from area code 410 is asking ...

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Virtually every call I receive from area code 410 is asking ...

WE WANT MORE!

... of your money.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

And a lot of you all are trying to put lipstick on a pig.

C05C4170-EC61-48E6-BCCB-A5952198EC23.jpeg (35.11 KiB) Viewed 3857 times

The season, with the exception of beating the stuffing out of the Terps twice and a close but no cigar moment in Piscataway, in a word, SUCKED.

[steel_hop]

Virtually every call I receive from area code 410 is asking ...

You answer those calls?

[jhu06]

Virtually every call I receive from area code 410 is asking ...

WE WANT MORE!

... of your money.

yes 410-516-3421 is the number, usually week nights between 7-8 and sunday afternoons 2-8. Blocked. If you don't like the university just give $1 because part of the US news formula is percent of alumni that give. so to their alumni giving formula % your $1 is the same as $10k although you might not get a polar fleece made for $5 in taiwan and sold for $65 in the bookstore and a handwritten note.

Losing games is a scandal and she comes off as ignorant and tone deaf. Then again there are no baltimore newspaper reporters anymore (a certain professor at homewood used to say the sun was only good for one thing and I can't say it here and that was back when they had more than 3 reporters) and for all the heat lacrosse gets as an elitist sport the coverage is beyond fawning. If this were a big boy sport with big boy and girl reporters like football or hockey or softball or womens college basketball we'd be seeing stories like that one from yahoo I posted in march about Tennessee womens basketball a program like Hopkins that was once a tower in college athletics and has fallen into the doldrums. Instead we get vintage homewood arrogance and condescension of asking alumni to boost support of a lackluster program that isn't even the best on its own street that would be loyola. Alabama ad has one job-hire a good football coach and give him all the resources he needs same thing here with mens lax.

I can't imagine what attendance will be next spring. You think the student body which is now regionally and internationally diverse is going to schlep out to cold wet homewood in february and march to see a lacrosse program coming off a season like this?