I thought from your post there was an actual announcement.HooDat wrote: ↑Thu Jun 13, 2019 3:18 pmhmmmm...GBMan wrote: ↑Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:32 am Update on Harvard and Stony Brook https://www.collegecrosse.com/2019/6/11 ... pdates-lax
....little Dano getting some independent experience at Stonybrook is interesting.
.... but so is Thompson to Harvard. Amherst likes to consider itself uber select in terms of academics - that experience should line up well for Harvard. Brown's "outcome to be determined" in terms of going with a D3 coach doesn't provide a lot of guidance on the NESCAC to Ivy transition..
Curious what the folks with Harvard ties think of that idea.
I'm not a Harvard alum, but my son was a 2016.
During his recruiting process back in '10-'11, we were very impressed with John Thompson. Felt like a rockstar guy, tons of energy, and all the right sorts of 'philosophical' stuff. I had no doubt that he'd be a terrific guy for whom to play. Great recruiter and now proven achiever.
We made a hard run at him for Dartmouth some years back, but he understandably thought he was in line for the Brown job. Made sense, Brown alum.
I know that Scalise likes him, fellow Brown alum, and he'd be an excellent cultural fit. Definitely understands the academic dimension in recruiting and how to motivate that sort of athlete. There's no tougher academic environment than Amherst.
On DIII, I don't buy that there's some sort of major difference other than the aggregate talent (size/speed, especially) of the players. From an X's and O's, lacrosse is lacrosse. If anything, we see the impact a fresh perspective can have on Brown and UVA from a DIII assistant coach.
But what's really important is the sorts of intangibles special coaches bring. EQ. That translates at any level of coaching. You can have all the playing and coaching experience in the world at the D1 level, but if you can't inspire trust from others, you're never going to produce the top teams in your league in any sort of repeatable way.
I'd say that Thompson has that EQ.
That said, I'd mentioned to my son that Kirwan was being rumored to be in the mix and he thought that the Harvard folks would be quite excited about that possibility as well.
On the 'national stage' back and forth, when you beat top 10 teams, you're on that stage. During my son's tenure that happened pretty regularly. If you make it into the NCAA's, anything can happen. I sure wouldn't have predicted Yale to win it all a year ago nor the Hoos this year, but a couple of bounces of the ball, so to speak and here we are.
