Johns Hopkins 2022

[jhu06]

-didn't win our 3rd game until may last year and mid march in 2019 I think. Improvement.
-swezey used the same term to refer to whatever is ailing lyne mcdermott and grimes and then said grimes and mcdermott will be back next week
https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... -win/58960
-college crosse had us at -8 possessions, blowing 5 clears and only winning 2 faceoffs in the second half-and we still won, underscores how good kirson was today.
-3rd attack spot w/grimes on midfield or out has been a black hole although 2nd midfield had been an issue and it produced today. you wonder if they tried in the transfer market there and at midfield and came up short.
-mcmanus and lilly, 2 guys who've had some rough games came up big today when it counted late.
-rutgers and ohio state w/big wins today, if this keeps up our sos should be pretty good.
-3 straight games I think allowing goals in the last 5 seconds of quarters is not clutch, keeping loyola scoreless the last 1030 today w/out lyne was for sure.
-killing 75 percent of penalties-good, giving up goals in the last 5 seconds of quarters in 3 straight games, not good.
-could be as high as 9 depending upon how orange do against the terps tomorrow w/loyola lehigh penn and army all losing and might be 5 big ten teams ranked this week-good sos stuff.
-our dearly missed WOMBAT would've had some thoughts about the flesh at todays game.

[HopFan16]

-3rd attack spot w/grimes on midfield or out has been a black hole although 2nd midfield had been an issue and it produced today. you wonder if they tried in the transfer market there and at midfield and came up short.

They did bring a transfer who could have helped at both of those spots. He got hurt.

[jhu72]

The play that fascinated me was the one where Hopkins has turned the ball back to LC. Howevah a Hopkins plsyer moved the ball out to the middle of the field. A LC player runs up gets the nod from the official and breaks down the field for guess what. A collective What the heck was that goes up. 8 failed clears in the 4 th game !

Officiating was middling. There is a shortage of officials; quality is suffering.

Two pretty evenly matched teams but what does that mean this year

... you are being kind to today's refs.

[51percentcorn]

It's always a good thing to win a game you had no business winning. Kirson and the defense were obviously the biggest reason. Dunn and Callahan figuring out how to go above 50% against a seasoned veteran also helped. Clearing has been a huge issue for a while. The team has an over reliance on the SSDMs running it up the field and if you were going to offer what Kirson's worst issue yesterday was - it was his outlet attempts. But there were at least a few turovers on clears where players simply dropped catchable passes. There's a coaching element there but coaches can't make decisions for the players during the game and to paraphrase a super model "Peter can't throw and catch the ball".

While it's a positive sign that Evans and Raposo gave you 4 goals - it's the second consecutive game where your offensive mainstays did not produce very much. First mid-field was 2-12 shooting and I can hear QK now - "Who can beat their man? Who can get the defense on a carousel?" The attack - obviously struggling to find a third piece with Grimes out - took 8 shots.

Milliman's biggest gaffe was not the horribly botched turnover at the end of the game - it was the decision to call the time out immediately before it and allow Loyola to get settled and double the ball. As someone pointed out earlier - no Hopkins player was under duress and they easily could have run many seconds off the clock before needing the timeout and then botching a keep away play. The intent of the play was obvious - I don't know why everyone is typing "I don't understand" The play was designed for someone guarded by a shortstick to V cut and receive a pass behind the goal - the theory being hte offensive player knows where he's going and should get there first. It was beyond horribly executed.

The idea that one single person in Chapel Hill is going to be geeked for a lacrosse game because of Coach K is maybe the silliest thing I have heard in a long while. North Carolina has alot of talented players - losing your entire first mid-field and your all everything defenseman is going to take some getting use to. Ohio State gave them a reason to re-focus.

[Typical Lax Dad]

It's always a good thing to win a game you had no business winning. Kirson and the defense were obviously the biggest reason. Dunn and Callahan figuring out how to go above 50% against a seasoned veteran also helped. Clearing has been a huge issue for a while. The team has an over reliance on the SSDMs running it up the field and if you were going to offer what Kirson's worst issue yesterday was - it was his outlet attempts. But there were at least a few turovers on clears where players simply dropped catchable passes. There's a coaching element there but coaches can't make decisions for the players during the game and to paraphrase a super model "Peter can't throw and catch the ball".

While it's a positive sign that Evans and Raposo gave you 4 goals - it's the second consecutive game where your offensive mainstays did not produce very much. First mid-field was 2-12 shooting and I can hear QK now - "Who can beat their man? Who can get the defense on a carousel?" The attack - obviously struggling to find a third piece with Grimes out - took 8 shots.

Milliman's biggest gaffe was not the horribly botched turnover at the end of the game - it was the decision to call the time out immediately before it and allow Loyola to get settled and double the ball. As someone pointed out earlier - no Hopkins player was under duress and they easily could have run many seconds off the clock before needing the timeout and then botching a keep away play. The intent of the play was obvious - I don't know why everyone is typing "I don't understand" The play was designed for someone guarded by a shortstick to V cut and receive a pass behind the goal - the theory being hte offensive player knows where he's going and should get there first. It was beyond horribly executed.

The idea that one single person in Chapel Hill is going to be geeked for a lacrosse game because of Coach K is maybe the silliest thing I have heard in a long while. North Carolina has alot of talented players - losing your entire first mid-field and your all everything defenseman is going to take some getting use to. Ohio State gave them a reason to re-focus.

This sounds like my college teammate who wrote this. He watched the game from the comfort of the Center and told me this almost word for word.

[Sagittarius A*]

I definitely thought Scott Smith was the best defenseman on the field yesterday and I don't see how you take him out of the lineup moving forward.
If the Jays had been able clear the ball, the game wouldn't have been close.
The good news is that there's plenty of room for improvement. Unfortunately, UNC has a elite ride, so hopefully that improvement happens sooner rather than later. The other good news is we get some key players back soon.
If we get Nareswski back at some point we've got a nice one-two punch at the X.
Kudos to Kirson who really stepped up. Maybe the light came on for him but I just hope he can keep it up.
The mark of a good team is the ability to win the close ones.
It was great to see the team come through in an historic game. 1000th victory is historic. Nobody else is even close.

[flalax22]

A minor observation and one that means very little but it was interesting to see things get heated between the coaching staffs yesterday. Only noteworthy given how close the previous staff was with their counterparts at Loyola.

[houndace1]

I definitely thought Scott Smith was the best defenseman on the field yesterday and I don't see how you take him out of the lineup moving forward.
If the Jays had been able clear the ball, the game wouldn't have been close.
The good news is that there's plenty of room for improvement. Unfortunately, UNC has a elite ride, so hopefully that improvement happens sooner rather than later. The other good news is we get some key players back soon.
If we get Nareswski back at some point we've got a nice one-two punch at the X.
Kudos to Kirson who really stepped up. Maybe the light came on for him but I just hope he can keep it up.
The mark of a good team is the ability to win the close ones.
It was great to see the team come through in an historic game. 1000th victory is historic. Nobody else is even close.

My guy, what??
Hopkins won and I’m happy but this entire win was because of Kirson. He got peppered with shots and made a bountiful of saves. Granted loyola Made close to zero saves but every other stat was in loyolas favor and they had more opportunities to score. kirson simply stopped nearly everything that was on cage

[HopFan16]

A minor observation and one that means very little but it was interesting to see things get heated between the coaching staffs yesterday. Only noteworthy given how close the previous staff was with their counterparts at Loyola.

I didn't notice this from the couch — any idea what the context was? I saw that Toomey and Dwan were irate at the end of the game but I thought that was directed towards the refs.

I definitely thought Scott Smith was the best defenseman on the field yesterday and I don't see how you take him out of the lineup moving forward.
If the Jays had been able clear the ball, the game wouldn't have been close.
The good news is that there's plenty of room for improvement. Unfortunately, UNC has a elite ride, so hopefully that improvement happens sooner rather than later. The other good news is we get some key players back soon.
If we get Nareswski back at some point we've got a nice one-two punch at the X.
Kudos to Kirson who really stepped up. Maybe the light came on for him but I just hope he can keep it up.
The mark of a good team is the ability to win the close ones.
It was great to see the team come through in an historic game. 1000th victory is historic. Nobody else is even close.

My guy, what??
Hopkins won and I’m happy but this entire win was because of Kirson. He got peppered with shots and made a bountiful of saves. Granted loyola Made close to zero saves but every other stat was in loyolas favor and they had more opportunities to score. kirson simply stopped nearly everything that was on cage

It's true that the goaltending disparity was a huge factor in this game (for once in the Jays' favor) but that wasn't the whole story. Kirson was good but he was not impenetrable. Loyola took a lot of bad shots, a bunch right into Kirson's stick where he barely had to move. 23.8% in offensive efficiency on the day to Hop's 30.6%. Also shot just 23% to Hop's 37%. Olmstead was 0-11. That didn't have all that much to do with Kirson. It's a little bit of "chicken or the egg" when deciding whether it was bad shooting or just good goaltending and in this case I think it was both. The Hounds also bungled their only EMO opportunity while Hop cashed in 2/2.

[51percentcorn]

Yes compelled to agree. I am sure his point would be that without the 8 failed clears all the other statistics would have been closer/even but what about the other 17 turnovers? Plus Hopkins got 2 long stick goals. The Hopkins offense was not humming even when they possessed the ball. Plus if I were a Green and Grey fan I would be saying that if our goalie's could have mustered a save percentage a little higher than 20 percent the game would not have been close. Much like the BIG title game last year in reverse.

Anyway - it occurs to me that without Grimes - and Peshko apparently banged up and Degnon struggling to get shots off the last two games -the weapon that Hopkins possesses - stretch shooting to free up space for the smaller waterbugs - is gone and aside from Angelus' nice move for his goal the "dodgers" are running into brick walls. Hopefullly time will help.

[Sagittarius A*]

Yes compelled to agree. I am sure his point would be that without the 8 failed clears all the other statistics would have been closer/even but what about the other 17 turnovers? Plus Hopkins got 2 long stick goals. The Hopkins offense was not humming even when they possessed the ball. Plus if I were a Green and Grey fan I would be saying that if our goalie's could have mustered a save percentage a little higher than 20 percent the game would not have been close. Much like the BIG title game last year in reverse.

Anyway - it occurs to me that without Grimes - and Peshko apparently banged up and Degnon struggling to get shots off the last two games -the weapon that Hopkins possesses - stretch shooting to free up space for the smaller waterbugs - is gone and aside from Angelus' nice move for his goal the "dodgers" are running into brick walls. Hopefullly time will help.

Yeah, it did seem that Hop struggled to penetrate 6 on 6. They just don't seem to have a dodger that can break down a defense.
I didn't mean to imply that Loyola is not a VERY good team, because I think they are, and going in to the game I was not at all expecting a Hopkins victory, but ended up being very pleasantly surprised. It was worth suffering the cold for.
I think Loyola can go on a roll if they can find the right tender moving forward. Their fundamentals are very strong.

[Chitown]

I rarely comment on Games and never criticize Hopkins plays, BUT the failure to clear and the confusion surrounding our clearing is inexplicable. Players seemed to just stop at Midfield, instead of running like hell towards our Attack. We cleared in slow motion. As Ms. Stanwick noted, "just run". If you have the ball, you have the green light to go, you don't have to slow down to see if you are on-sides. That is someone else's responsibility---someone who doesn't have the ball. Frustrating to watch but easy to fix. Come on Coaches get it done!

[Big Dog]

Is one of the issues on clears, foot speed? Unlike many, I was never on the Zinn-bandwagon, but one thing he has is quickness and speed. And when we needed to get the ball across the midline, he could beat his guy one-on-one, and like an RB, get thru the gauntlet.

[51percentcorn]

I think what '16 was trying to suggest was a good portion of Zinn's turnovers were on clear attempts - yes size and speed were present but decision making? Seems to me Martin is plenty fast enough and some of the other d-mids while not as fast as Zinn - have good size to absorb checks. I'm not sure I can explain it - on settled clears the poles treat the mid-line like a radiation site and short sticks are indecisive at times going east and west not north.

[molo]

Zinn update on his season so far with the NC: he has 1 and 3 for 4 points. UVA plays a lot of middie, usually running three units of different combinations. Their alpha middie, a freshman, runs with the first and the with two other guys as part of a third or second. Zinn, who has taken a couple of runs at ssdm and has taken a few face-off wings, is running for the most part as a second or third middie, seeing a couple of minutes a quarter. With a more accurate shot he would have had 1 and 1 instead of 0 and 1 yesterday. Still, averaging about a point a game for a team with aspirations to threepeat is a nice way to spend a grad year.

[HillsLax]

"As Ms. Stanwick noted, "just run". If you have the ball, you have the green light to go, you don't have to slow down to see if you are on-sides. That is someone else's responsibility---someone who doesn't have the ball."

I absolutely agree with this: the player with the ball is not responsible for staying onside--this is the obligation of the midfielder who is farthest from the play. This is a basic concept taught in high school, but obviously needs to be repeated. Fortunately, this is an easy remedy.

[primitiveskills]

Unfortunately, UNC has a elite ride, so hopefully that improvement happens sooner rather than later.

I mean, they did last year for sure. I didn't see anything elite yesterday, ride or otherwise.

Still, clearing will need to improve a lot.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Zinn update on his season so far with the NC: he has 1 and 3 for 4 points. UVA plays a lot of middie, usually running three units of different combinations. Their alpha middie, a freshman, runs with the first and the with two other guys as part of a third or second. Zinn, who has taken a couple of runs at ssdm and has taken a few face-off wings, is running for the most part as a second or third middie, seeing a couple of minutes a quarter. With a more accurate shot he would have had 1 and 1 instead of 0 and 1 yesterday. Still, averaging about a point a game for a team with aspirations to threepeat is a nice way to spend a grad year.

Zinn has had to play catch-up as he wasn’t there in the fall. If he can contribute a point or so a game, it’s a bonus.

[DocBarrister]

Unfortunately, UNC has a elite ride, so hopefully that improvement happens sooner rather than later.

I mean, they did last year for sure. I didn't see anything elite yesterday, ride or otherwise.

Still, clearing will need to improve a lot.

Expect North Carolina to ride hard next week and force the Blue Jays to finally prove they can clear the ball against a lot of pressure.

As just about everyone here recognizes, this is a coaching issue. Players have plenty of speed and skill to clear. They just need some better coaching to clean things up.

DocBarrister

[jrn19]

Carolina ride is still threatening, but mostly from their attack pressuring early. They’re not nearly as deep at midfield as they were a year ago, which means they’re not able to sustain it the way they did last year.