LaxPower Back-Up Stick

If you told me the Blue Jays would emerge from their first four games 2-2, I would have thought that was pretty good.

Blue Jays will now need to put a lot of work in and try to win the winnable games against good opponents (Utah, St. Joseph, Navy, and Delaware) and at least split UVA/SU.

A good season is there for the taking, but we will have to see how the injury situation plays out.

DocBarrister

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:18 pm

DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:09 pm Loyola earned this win with their stellar play. Beautiful, aggressive lacrosse all over the field.

I think we can safely conclude now that this Hopkins schedule is moronic. The debate is over on that point. It wasn’t the sole cause of the losses to UNC and Loyola, but it didn’t help. And I don’t think we can exclude the possibility that it may have contributed to some injuries.

We are just four games into this season. Blue Jays have shown some real promise, but hey already have some rebuilding to do.

DocBarrister

Even if that were true, what are we gonna do about it now? It's done.

Not sure what people were expecting coming into the game without two starting attackman against a good defense. Did about as well as Maryland did last week.

On the bright side, we have a freshman midfielder who took a 1st team AA to the woodshed, so that probably bodes well

We're onto the Utes

What do we do now? Build on the positives.

For example, I think the Blue Jays actually cleared the ball well against both UNC and Loyola, two tough teams on the ride.

Another positive … Grimes and Collison are having good seasons. Build off their good starts. Meaning, the coaches should adapt the offense a bit more for them.

The Hopkins D has been excellent at times. Keep working on that.

And just hope to God Marcille is ok.

PM has built a good team. Just wish he would stop trying to kill it.

DocBarrister

Where is Casey McDermott? Kid was good two years ago. Last year he regressed a bit in Millman’s “system” (as did Epstein and others). Haven’t seen him play this year. Injured?

Formerhound wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:28 pm Where is Casey McDermott? Kid was good two years ago. Last year he regressed a bit in Millman’s “system” (as did Epstein and others). Haven’t seen him play this year. Injured?

Neither of them regressed. Both we're injured and McDermott is injured again

DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:09 pm
I think we can safely conclude now that this Hopkins schedule is moronic. The debate is over on that point. It wasn’t the sole cause of the losses to UNC and Loyola, but it didn’t help. And I don’t think we can exclude the possibility that it may have contributed to some injuries.

DocBarrister

WOW! The light came on for this board.

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:30 pm

Formerhound wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:28 pm Where is Casey McDermott? Kid was good two years ago. Last year he regressed a bit in Millman’s “system” (as did Epstein and others). Haven’t seen him play this year. Injured?

Neither of them regressed. Both we're injured and McDermott is injured again

Quite the Loyola troll contingent coming out today. Apparently having one of the best teams in the country isn't what its all about?

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:17 pm
I understand the merits of a "we'll play anyone" mentality re: scheduling, but that doesn't mean you need to put together a suicidal schedule to begin the year. This is suicidal.

+1

We have a midweek game against UVA coming up plus the same Navy/Delaware disaster weekend coming up that we had last year.

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:01 pm

Houndfan73 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:57 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:53 pm Now Marcille's hurt

Yeah….Loyola’s best attackmen out today too….if we’re discussing injuries

What in that post did you take as excuse-making? Go back to your board, fool.

Awh. So salty. Great game.

Houndfan73 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:39 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:01 pm

Houndfan73 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:57 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:53 pm Now Marcille's hurt

Yeah….Loyola’s best attackmen out today too….if we’re discussing injuries

What in that post did you take as excuse-making? Go back to your board, fool.

Awh. So salty. Great game.

Nothing says "inferiority complex" like going on your opponent's board when you win. You guys have a great team this year. Enjoy it.

Any word on the return of Angelus and Melendez?

Houndfan73 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:39 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:01 pm

Houndfan73 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:57 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 1:53 pm Now Marcille's hurt

Yeah….Loyola’s best attackmen out today too….if we’re discussing injuries

What in that post did you take as excuse-making? Go back to your board, fool.

Awh. So salty. Great game.

Lotta bluster for February, especially for a team that accomplished nothing last season. Looks like you have a good team this year, but it's early. But chirping in this thread comes off as insecurity IMO.

Hoponboard wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:10 pm Scott hits post with 10 seconds left. Final: Army 14 Rutgers 13.

Was actually at that game - thought about staying home and watching the Jays, but seems like I made the right decision to go up to West Point. Good news/bad news for the Jays, Rutgers doesn't look like the juggernaut they've been the last couple of years. Defense looks mediocre, fo and clears were worse than mediocre. Offense seems to be Ross Scott (who remains very good) dodging from X and not a lot else. Knoblauch and Sprock were pretty anonymous. So assuming the Jays get healthy, Rutgers seems more beatable that I would have thought a few weeks ago.

Bad news being that the B1G may be a bit down this year and conference wins may not be as valuable as they've been in the past (though OSU looks potentially improved).

So the current injuries are:

Nawreski
Szuluk
McDermott
Deans
Melendez
Angelus
Marcille (?)

Anyone I'm missing?

Sagittarius A* wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:38 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:17 pm
I understand the merits of a "we'll play anyone" mentality re: scheduling, but that doesn't mean you need to put together a suicidal schedule to begin the year. This is suicidal.

+1

We have a midweek game against UVA coming up plus the same Navy/Delaware disaster weekend coming up that we had last year.

Seems to me that the way the tourney selection works these days, you don't really get dinged for losing to good teams. You do, however, get a lot of credit for beating good teams. Conversely, you get basically no credit for beating bad teams and you get dinged hard for losing to bad teams. So playing a lot of good teams does make a fair amount of sense if the goal is getting to the post-season (rather than putting up pretty records). But if things go wrong, you can absolutely end up with a train wreck of a season.

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:36 pm

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:30 pm

Formerhound wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:28 pm Where is Casey McDermott? Kid was good two years ago. Last year he regressed a bit in Millman’s “system” (as did Epstein and others). Haven’t seen him play this year. Injured?

Neither of them regressed. Both we're injured and McDermott is injured again

Quite the Loyola troll contingent coming out today. Apparently having one of the best teams in the country isn't what its all about?

Sorry but I was being serious. Saw McD play as a freshman and was super impressed. Last year he wasn’t the same kid. Millman’s offense isn’t built around middies shooting. Look what happened to Epstein last year. Wasn’t aware of McD’s injury and was just asking.

nyjay wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 5:27 pm

Sagittarius A* wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:38 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:17 pm
I understand the merits of a "we'll play anyone" mentality re: scheduling, but that doesn't mean you need to put together a suicidal schedule to begin the year. This is suicidal.

+1

We have a midweek game against UVA coming up plus the same Navy/Delaware disaster weekend coming up that we had last year.

Seems to me that the way the tourney selection works these days, you don't really get dinged for losing to good teams. You do, however, get a lot of credit for beating good teams. Conversely, you get basically no credit for beating bad teams and you get dinged hard for losing to bad teams. So playing a lot of good teams does make a fair amount of sense if the goal is getting to the post-season (rather than putting up pretty records). But if things go wrong, you can absolutely end up with a train wreck of a season.

You have to be .500 to make the playoffs, so a brutal schedule can backfire in myriad ways. One way is that your injuries start to pile up, which is what's happening now.

If all you wanna do is be over .500, you can just schedule how Michigan did last year. See how that worked out.

If you asked this board a month ago whether Hopkins would be 2-2 a month in, think most would take that. They just maybe swapped the projected L and W. Play a tough schedule, beat good teams, you’re in.

nyjay wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 5:27 pm

Sagittarius A* wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:38 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 2:17 pm
I understand the merits of a "we'll play anyone" mentality re: scheduling, but that doesn't mean you need to put together a suicidal schedule to begin the year. This is suicidal.

+1

We have a midweek game against UVA coming up plus the same Navy/Delaware disaster weekend coming up that we had last year.

Seems to me that the way the tourney selection works these days, you don't really get dinged for losing to good teams. You do, however, get a lot of credit for beating good teams. Conversely, you get basically no credit for beating bad teams and you get dinged hard for losing to bad teams. So playing a lot of good teams does make a fair amount of sense if the goal is getting to the post-season (rather than putting up pretty records). But if things go wrong, you can absolutely end up with a train wreck of a season.

To be clear, I love that we are playing teams like Georgetown, UVa, UNC, Loyola, Cuse, etc. The problem is that most of the tough games are crammed into two-a-weeks. The end of the schedule is one-game-a-week/ all B1G. Is this a conference thing/ decision? If so, it really is detrimental to the teams in the conference as it becomes nearly impossible to schedule in any sort of reasonable way if you want to schedule tough non-conference opponents.

Aren’t Evans, Maher and English also hurt?

I don’t include Glassmeyer because another poster suggested he is out for the year.