DocBarrister wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 4:11 pm
He is a very good recruiter, as I have said before.
Maybe - the jury is still out IMO - Discounting the junior class from this year given the unusual circumstances - Milliman has now had 2 classes come through Hopkins - 28 names on the roster - Collison/Kilrain/Ayers/Brown/H. Chauvette/younger Martin - English of course would have played - Todaro appeared in 2 games that no one can remember - That's 20 names remaining - let's add up the game minutes/seconds those 20 players had - ummm -producer in earpiece - ZERO - nothing - nada - bupcus. Good news - lots of eligibility on the table - Bad news - what's the player happiness meter?
Now of course with all the veterans that stayed/transferred in (good news in another direction) it was known that sort of time allocation was possible - but the truth to power answer is we don't know exacty what we have because most haven't played.
This year's recruiting class is ranked 18th in total stars by Inside Lacrosse - 2 of the recruits are slated as SSDMs/1 goalie/1 FO - so 7 field players - Eye has had an inauspicous last 2 years - suspensions/injuries - his skills - unstoppable motor & ground ball machine appear to be just what the doctor ordered - McCleary/Gregorek and Crogan all appear to have potential - we'll see - Burke is the only quasi attack recruit - a late flip or two would help.
Plus Crawley is the Director of Recruiting - I'll assume that might be the reason for the face on the vodcast when Russell mentioned how great Jen Baker is - but he obviously plays an important role.
DocBarrister wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 4:11 pm
PM won't have a team as talented as his 2024 squad for quite a while.
Again - same reply as above - you don't know that - except for maybe goalie - you are losing alot of experience - talent? Short stick too of course - Here's the mid-field production walking out the door - 32 goals - 12 assists - that's very replaceable. Chauvette's and Degnons shot percentages were not miles apart - have the kid hit the weight room - keep his shooting stroke - give him 130 cracks at the apple - he'll score 40+. Get Melendez back to 53 - have English play a full year healthy - and you're left with Angelus' production - roughly 4 points a game - can you give Ayers the keys to the car and have him drive 4 points a game? Probably not right away - but when Angelus was a true freshman and headed for a a 6-7 goal 10/11 assist campaign from the mid-field nobody and I mean nobody was predicting 25 and 44 - and we atill don't want to talk about the 1 shy of 40 turnovers. So what I like about the Milliman/Crawley program is there appears to be a plan in place - whether it works or not is up to inspection.
DocBarrister wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 4:11 pm
He didn’t maximize the talent he had.
No evidence to support this. The team was hampered offensively not by your lunacy of not dodging aggressively - but by the fact that most of them were not very good at it or were somewhat one dimensional - e.g. Peshko/Grimes. They also wanted to play slower given the issues at face-off and therefore didn't "hunt shots" as wg.. put it I think. The Melendez troubles (whatever they were) and the English/Iler injuries were direct hits to dodging success as well. They were ranked 5th or so in the pre-season - they' came within a goal of making the Final Four week-end - sounds like they hit the bulls-eye in terms of what most thought.
jhu06 wrote: ↑Mon May 27, 2024 5:09 pm
I think one of the best comments he has had since he took over was early in his tenure when he was asked about "his players" on the team and his response was "If I'm bringing them back they're my players and I'm accountable for them".
I agree - this is his exhibited strength to date IMO - he improved the culture - he eventually got the boat rowing in the same direction. Despite a 4-9 season and a 6-9 season I would think some of those players at least had other options - there appeared to be very few voluntary transfers - even after the roster trimming. I always thought a highlight was after the decimating loss to Maryland in 22 - that team could have easily - so easily - thrown in the towel and said to Penn State - enjoy your trip to the electric chair - yet they went up there and dominated Penn State and accounted themselves much better against Maryland.