Does Maryland Repeat As National Champions In 2023?

[MDralphie]

The strongest team up the middle is always going to be tough to beat. They are it. Terp defense and goaltending is historically excellent and that makes them a strong choice. Can they get the same SSDM play? Probably not but if the injury bug doesn’t bite them no one has a better chance. Md will have another strong 2nd midline,Long wearing #1 leading the O with Malaver. I’ll see you in Philly

[Seahawk]

Always take the field. But MD is one of five including Va Cornell Princeton and ND who will likely be the National Champ.

[Wheels]

It's ridiculously hard to repeat.

You could see back in 2019 that Maryland was building for 2 year run of elite play, and COVID pushed that back a year. 38-2 over 2.5 seasons (the 2020 year as the 0.5 year) is just obscene. They're going to be really deep on offense next year but without an obvious alpha. Their defense will be very good but will have questions at shorty...because you don't graduate 4 shorties who all get rostered in the PLL and just easily replace that. Can Wierman cover some of the holes and learning curve? Yes but it's crazy hard to repeat.

How much did last year take out of them not from a talent perspective but from an energy/focus perspective?

[HooDat]

How much did last year take out of them not from a talent perspective but from an energy/focus perspective?

this is the hardest part of a repeat.

[keno in reno]

It's ridiculously hard to repeat.

You could see back in 2019 that Maryland was building for 2 year run of elite play, and COVID pushed that back a year.

Interesting, you certainly were correct 2 years later, but I didn't see it that way in 2019. The defense was just bad. Face-offs were bad. We got dominated twice by Hopkins (with a freshman who looked like he would torment the Terps for 3 more years) and even Penn State. Tills coached a near-perfect 2019 playoff game vs UVA, but the awful ref call seemed to overshadow that the team was not a typical Be the Best squad.

Also, at the time, Jared only had 1 more year of eligibility. 2020 didn't look like it would be a dominant year with a 2OT game vs Richmond, squeaker vs Penn and loss to Nova. Yeah, these last 2 years have been epic. Whoever beats Maryland next season is gonna do some serious partying afterwards.

[Wheels]

It's ridiculously hard to repeat.

You could see back in 2019 that Maryland was building for 2 year run of elite play, and COVID pushed that back a year.

Interesting, you certainly were correct 2 years later, but I didn't see it that way in 2019. The defense was just bad. Face-offs were bad. We got dominated twice by Hopkins (with a freshman who looked like he would torment the Terps for 3 more years) and even Penn State. Tills coached a near-perfect 2019 playoff game vs UVA, but the awful ref call seemed to overshadow that the team was not a typical Be the Best squad.

Also, at the time, Jared only had 1 more year of eligibility. 2020 didn't look like it would be a dominant year with a 2OT game vs Richmond, squeaker vs Penn and loss to Nova. Yeah, these last 2 years have been epic. Whoever beats Maryland next season is gonna do some serious partying afterwards.

If you wanted to write a book about last season, chapter 1 would have to be about the 2019 QF loss. It was after that game that Tills and Reppert changed the offense to what we now see. The shot clock also affected Tills's thinking about pace of play. If you recall that QF, Tills had the offense hold the ball forever...with Kyle Long even getting to the goal wide open and not shooting a couple of times. Tills didn't want the face-offs, which LaSalla was dominating. What happens if Long scores 2 one-on-one goals? The Terps also got back to basics on defense after that 2019 season.

Go back and look at the recruiting classes that would have led to 2020 and 2021 being heavily dominated by juniors and seniors. The COVID year bumped all of that back and compressed it with the bonus year.

[MoralTerpitude]

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how far ahead of everyone else Maryland was last year. Maryland beat UVa by an average of ten goals last year, and Princeton by five. It was very impressive when they were doing it, and in retrospect it seems just crazy. Those teams are probably roughly as good as they were last year, or perhaps a bit worse. And most are ranking them in their top 5, many in their top 3.

So despite losing their entire SSDM core, the Tewy winner, and another couple of attackers that are playing professionally now, the Terps are still probably a little better than both of those teams. Enough to win the natty? It will be interesting to see how Spanos, Kelly, the SSDM from Sacred Heart, and Trader plug into the team, and to a lesser degree Larkin and Schaller.

Knowing Tillman's coaching magic, he'll integrate them in, and Maryland will be machine-like again by midseason.

[jrn19]

The best Tillman teams all have a few consistent through-lines that separate them from the teams that...well, merely make the Final Four. 16, 21, 22 all had great scoring depth, running two MF lines that could score. The 22 one obviously being one of the stronger second midfields in recent memory. And super strong and deep shortie groups. The 2022 one again the strongest, but they went generally about 3 deep with strong shorties in 16, 17, 21, and 22.

The offense has been in the Top 10 every year since 2016; and aside from 2018-2019 the defense has been in the Top 10 every year. They're always going to be great in the 6-on-6 with elite talent on both sides and have a good goalie. Face-offs can go either way, sometimes they're great like 2016 and 2022 or meh like 2017 and 2021.

What will separate them from being a Top 5 Final Four team this year and repeating is whether they again can go 3 deep with strong shorties and run a great 2nd MF line and not just be relying on only 4-5 guys who score

[blue angels]

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how far ahead of everyone else Maryland was last year. Maryland beat UVa by an average of ten goals last year, and Princeton by five. It was very impressive when they were doing it, and in retrospect it seems just crazy. Those teams are probably roughly as good as they were last year, or perhaps a bit worse. And most are ranking them in their top 5, many in their top 3.

So despite losing their entire SSDM core, the Tewy winner, and another couple of attackers that are playing professionally now, the Terps are still probably a little better than both of those teams. Enough to win the natty? It will be interesting to see how Spanos, Kelly, the SSDM from Sacred Heart, and Trader plug into the team, and to a lesser degree Larkin and Schaller.

Knowing Tillman's coaching magic, he'll integrate them in, and Maryland will be machine-like again by midseason.

Love your “hot takes” on the opposition, you know little about.

[MoralTerpitude]

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how far ahead of everyone else Maryland was last year. Maryland beat UVa by an average of ten goals last year, and Princeton by five. It was very impressive when they were doing it, and in retrospect it seems just crazy. Those teams are probably roughly as good as they were last year, or perhaps a bit worse. And most are ranking them in their top 5, many in their top 3.

So despite losing their entire SSDM core, the Tewy winner, and another couple of attackers that are playing professionally now, the Terps are still probably a little better than both of those teams. Enough to win the natty? It will be interesting to see how Spanos, Kelly, the SSDM from Sacred Heart, and Trader plug into the team, and to a lesser degree Larkin and Schaller.

Knowing Tillman's coaching magic, he'll integrate them in, and Maryland will be machine-like again by midseason.

Love your “hot takes” on the opposition, you know little about.

Care to elaborate? Even the UVa thread indicates pretty much the same lineup coming back in 2023 for them, minus Moore, and plus McConvey. Are you saying they will be measurably better this year?

[blue angels]

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how far ahead of everyone else Maryland was last year. Maryland beat UVa by an average of ten goals last year, and Princeton by five. It was very impressive when they were doing it, and in retrospect it seems just crazy. Those teams are probably roughly as good as they were last year, or perhaps a bit worse. And most are ranking them in their top 5, many in their top 3.

So despite losing their entire SSDM core, the Tewy winner, and another couple of attackers that are playing professionally now, the Terps are still probably a little better than both of those teams. Enough to win the natty? It will be interesting to see how Spanos, Kelly, the SSDM from Sacred Heart, and Trader plug into the team, and to a lesser degree Larkin and Schaller.

Knowing Tillman's coaching magic, he'll integrate them in, and Maryland will be machine-like again by midseason.

Love your “hot takes” on the opposition, you know little about.

Care to elaborate? Even the UVa thread indicates pretty much the same lineup coming back in 2023 for them, minus Moore, and plus McConvey. Are you saying they will be measurably better this year?

I don’t follow other teams carefully enough to know or care, what others are returning/have incoming, so hard to know who should be ranked exactly where right now. Virginia, like Maryland and a few others, graduates All Americans every year and is still usually in the top tier. They ended an injury riddled year ranked 5th and They lost a great player in Moore, who missed several games. They return virtually everyone else at every position and have an AA midfielder McConvey incoming and one of the top 2-3 recruiting classes in the Country. Yes, most in the Virginia camp think this team, if healthy, has a chance to be “ measurably” better. What that pre season ranking should be, I have no idea. You seem quick to denigrate them, which is your prerogative, but I think there is more than a little chip on your shoulder. You need to get over it…You won’t catch many Virginia fans denigrating or underestimating Maryland, despite , however many players they had going to the PLL. They will still be a force.

[jrn19]

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how far ahead of everyone else Maryland was last year. Maryland beat UVa by an average of ten goals last year, and Princeton by five. It was very impressive when they were doing it, and in retrospect it seems just crazy. Those teams are probably roughly as good as they were last year, or perhaps a bit worse. And most are ranking them in their top 5, many in their top 3.

So despite losing their entire SSDM core, the Tewy winner, and another couple of attackers that are playing professionally now, the Terps are still probably a little better than both of those teams. Enough to win the natty? It will be interesting to see how Spanos, Kelly, the SSDM from Sacred Heart, and Trader plug into the team, and to a lesser degree Larkin and Schaller.

Knowing Tillman's coaching magic, he'll integrate them in, and Maryland will be machine-like again by midseason.

Love your “hot takes” on the opposition, you know little about.

Care to elaborate? Even the UVa thread indicates pretty much the same lineup coming back in 2023 for them, minus Moore, and plus McConvey. Are you saying they will be measurably better this year?

I don’t follow other teams carefully enough to know or care, what others are returning/have incoming, so hard to know who should be ranked exactly where right now. Virginia, like Maryland and a few others, graduates All Americans every year and is still usually in the top tier. They ended an injury riddled year ranked 5th and They lost a great player in Moore, who missed several games. They return virtually everyone else at every position and have an AA midfielder McConvey incoming and one of the top 2-3 recruiting classes in the Country. Yes, most in the Virginia camp think this team, if healthy, has a chance to be “ measurably” better. What that pre season ranking should be, I have no idea. You seem quick to denigrate them, which is your prerogative, but I think there is more than a little chip on your shoulder. You need to get over it…You won’t catch many Virginia fans denigrating or underestimating Maryland, despite , however many players they had going to the PLL. They will still be a force.

Are you okay

[MoralTerpitude]

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how far ahead of everyone else Maryland was last year. Maryland beat UVa by an average of ten goals last year, and Princeton by five. It was very impressive when they were doing it, and in retrospect it seems just crazy. Those teams are probably roughly as good as they were last year, or perhaps a bit worse. And most are ranking them in their top 5, many in their top 3.

So despite losing their entire SSDM core, the Tewy winner, and another couple of attackers that are playing professionally now, the Terps are still probably a little better than both of those teams. Enough to win the natty? It will be interesting to see how Spanos, Kelly, the SSDM from Sacred Heart, and Trader plug into the team, and to a lesser degree Larkin and Schaller.

Knowing Tillman's coaching magic, he'll integrate them in, and Maryland will be machine-like again by midseason.

Love your “hot takes” on the opposition, you know little about.

Care to elaborate? Even the UVa thread indicates pretty much the same lineup coming back in 2023 for them, minus Moore, and plus McConvey. Are you saying they will be measurably better this year?

I don’t follow other teams carefully enough to know or care, what others are returning/have incoming, so hard to know who should be ranked exactly where right now. Virginia, like Maryland and a few others, graduates All Americans every year and is still usually in the top tier. They ended an injury riddled year ranked 5th and They lost a great player in Moore, who missed several games. They return virtually everyone else at every position and have an AA midfielder McConvey incoming and one of the top 2-3 recruiting classes in the Country. Yes, most in the Virginia camp think this team, if healthy, has a chance to be “ measurably” better. What that pre season ranking should be, I have no idea. You seem quick to denigrate them, which is your prerogative, but I think there is more than a little chip on your shoulder. You need to get over it…You won’t catch many Virginia fans denigrating or underestimating Maryland, despite , however many players they had going to the PLL. They will still be a force.

Are you okay

BA brings up a fair point, several of my posts are UVa-focused, and not in the positive. And yeah, there’s probably a subconscious bias at work there, after the heartbreak of 2019 and 2021. And probably most unreasonably, a decent part of my conclusions are from watching UVa play Maryland this past year; not exactly the fairest measuring stick.

I’ll keep an eye on that until we get to watch actual college lacrosse in February.

[ICGrad]

You seem quick to denigrate them, which is your prerogative, but I think there is more than a little chip on your shoulder. You need to get over it…You won’t catch many Virginia fans denigrating or underestimating Maryland...

Lighten up, Francis.

Nobody was denigrating anybody. He was offering an opinion on Virginia's 2023 outlook. He wasn't criticizing the coaches, or the players, or trashing their incoming prospects; he wasn't belittling your mama.

You must be fun at parties...