LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Hopfan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 7:53 pm Aren’t Evans, Maher and English also hurt?

i believe they are, was a week they had multiple practices.

Hopfan wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 7:53 pm Aren’t Evans, Maher and English also hurt?

Evans was dressed today for the first time this season, but didn't see any action. Believe English has dressed the last couple of games but maybe isn't game ready yet? Dunno. All three have been nicked up.

It's tempting to panic during/after a loss, but it's still February, they're 2-2 and have a lot of season in front of them. I'd rather they play the long game and not force the issue with guys who might still be banged up, especially with the bench as short as it is.

Was nice at least to see Marquis on the field today even though he didn't really make an impact (then again, hardly anyone did). Those minutes could pay off the next time he gets in there.

Navy lost to Manhattan, Brown lost to Quinnipiac(!), Harvard gave up 25 goals (probably could have been 30+), Rutgers lost, Cornell had a lot of trouble with Albany...weird weekend across D1. Losing the last two is not good but I agree with the general idea that if you told me before the season we could start 2-2 headed into the Utah game, I might have taken it. Time to hit the reset button.

jrn19 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 6:53 pm 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.

It's only that simple if you have depth at multiple positions. We do not.

jrn19 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 6:53 pm 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.

Not saying .500 is all you want to do, it's what you have to do to have a shot at the playoffs.
2-2 with half the team injured and more killer schedule coming up is not where you want to be.

Don't let facts get in th eway of a good story - To blame it on the schedule without any real evidence is what is moronic
Szuluk - injured in practice before the season
McDermott - according to QK I believe injured in practice after one game
Deans - only played in one game
Evans/Maher/English - have not played to date
So only Angelus and Melendez are candidates for the schedule nonsense
The schedule did not cause Marcille's head to hit Mazzone's knee (Or whomever's knee)

So without 4 starters and arguably your two most versatile if not the best offensive players and virtually all of your midfield depth you were bringing a dull spoon to a machete fight and had no hope. WHat I would take issue with the staff over is that only 24 guys played in an 11-2 game and only 2 offensive subs Smith and Phillips - maybe 10 SSDMs is not the way to go - Charboneau? Krampf? Teachout? they should have played if dressed.

nyjay wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 5:22 pm So the current injuries are:

Nawreski
Szuluk
McDermott
Deans
Melendez
Angelus
Marcille (?)

Anyone I'm missing?

Hopkins played down 4 starters including two that are crucisl to running the O plus key depth providers. Expecting the O to execute well in that circumstance is unrealistic. Though as Coach said we did not execute well at all. Had all starters played i can envision a W being possible.

Before conferences, break into divisions and the explosion in talent Hopkins scheduled teams playing their way onto or off of the schedule. It wanted the toughest schedule in the country.

A team needs the “athletes” (term of art) to win titles. Supuku is not a good look.

51percentcorn wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 8:30 am Don't let facts get in th eway of a good story - To blame it on the schedule without any real evidence is what is moronic
Szuluk - injured in practice before the season
McDermott - according to QK I believe injured in practice after one game
Deans - only played in one game
Evans/Maher/English - have not played to date
So only Angelus and Melendez are candidates for the schedule nonsense
The schedule did not cause Marcille's head to hit Mazzone's knee (Or whomever's knee)

So without 4 starters and arguably your two most versatile if not the best offensive players and virtually all of your midfield depth you were bringing a dull spoon to a machete fight and had no hope. WHat I would take issue with the staff over is that only 24 guys played in an 11-2 game and only 2 offensive subs Smith and Phillips - maybe 10 SSDMs is not the way to go - Charboneau? Krampf? Teachout? they should have played if dressed.

Think Marcille banged into Smith's knee. I'm surprised no one has complained about doubling with the goalie there and blamed the injury on the coaches. That represents progress for this thread. Nice job, everyone.

"Dull spoon to a machete fight" is a great description and exactly what this was. No excuse for a performance like that — they need to be better — but it was probably the worst possible matchup on the schedule to enter into shorthanded against what appears to be an elite defense that similarly suffocated the Terps.

Again it's early but we may ultimately look back at these first four games and say it was the toughest stretch of the season. We need Georgetown to start winning but it's not getting any easier with Notre Dame and Princeton up next for the Hoyas.

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.

If a system is by definition creating incentives isn’t this a good thing to incent programs to schedule as hard as they can and risk the train wreck?

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Feb 18, 2023 7:43 pm

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.

Agree. The conference scheduling (both B1G and ACC/Patriot/etc) forces all of the tough non-conf games into Feb/early March. So if you want to play a tough non-conf schedule, you basically have to do it now. Agree that it's not great, but I'm fine with this type of scheduling. When/if the team is actually really good, they'll be well prepared for the tournament. And if they can't get through this stretch, they probably weren't going to do much damage in the tournament anyway. But it absolutely can lead to some ugly season records.

On a positive note, get some of these injured guys back and I don't see why the Jays won't be able to play with the rest of the B1G. UMd is still very good, but not what they were last year (or in 2021). Rutgers looks to have regressed. OSU looks good, but how good? PSU and Mich will probably be better than last year, but not great. No reason they can't get 3 conference wins.

Farfromgeneva wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 9:16 am

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.

If a system is by definition creating incentives isn’t this a good thing to invent programs to schedule as hard as they can and risk the train wreck?

Yes, I think that's right and I think that's what the staff has done. And I think it's the right thing to do. Frankly, it's actually a high class to even be able to do it - there are plenty of mid-major programs that would love to be able to create non-conference a schedule like this, but they can't because all these high end programs wouldn't be willing to schedule them.

Obviously not the most important issue at this point, but anyone else a bit surprised that Versfeld (and not Caracciolo) was the first one off the bench?

nyjay wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 12:33 pm Obviously not the most important issue at this point, but anyone else a bit surprised that Versfeld (and not Caracciolo) was the first one off the bench?

Not really surprised. Versfeld has had a year in the program and presumably knows how to direct the Hopkins D. Caracciolo is probably just getting to know the defense.

DocBarrister

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.

that used to be the system. very tough for coaches that even follow it to know now. last year's chair is back as are some other holdovers. 3 teams made it last year without earning a top 10 win, and 2 didn't who beat top 10 teams. one of whom won 2 of them. among other things. coaches are going to have to go with their best guess.

Any word on Melendez?

nyjay wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 12:23 pm

Farfromgeneva wrote: ↑Sun Feb 19, 2023 9:16 am

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.

If a system is by definition creating incentives isn’t this a good thing to invent programs to schedule as hard as they can and risk the train wreck?

Yes, I think that's right and I think that's what the staff has done. And I think it's the right thing to do. Frankly, it's actually a high class to even be able to do it - there are plenty of mid-major programs that would love to be able to create non-conference a schedule like this, but they can't because all these high end programs wouldn't be willing to schedule them.

Preach

Ohio State beat UNC 8-5.

Not often I agree with Quint - “ Being tired is never a valid excuse. Train harder. Get more rest. Play more members of the roster. Play some zone defense. Hold the ball. Do something strategically to compensate for your fatigue”

I mean, “hold the ball” is what Maryland used to do to compensate for having a smaller roster and to prevent fatigue from taking place and costing them games and I remember Quint sure as heck not being a fan of that.

Pundits are very good at talking out of both sides of their mouth

"Hold the ball"? You know they instituted a shot clock a couple years ago?...

jrn19 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 20, 2023 11:35 am I mean, “hold the ball” is what Maryland used to do to compensate for having a smaller roster and to prevent fatigue from taking place and costing them games and I remember Quint sure as heck not being a fan of that.

Pundits are very good at talking out of both sides of their mouth

This is "valid" too.

Feels to me like playing more guys may be required, though if injuries have reduced top forces, there's a cost there as well.

It's very, very early...