THE 2019 Hopkins Lacrosse Fallout Shelter (44, we want more!)

[Henpecked]

Well, Jones never should gave sniffed the C. Marr maybe. Both took way too many dumb penalties. I get coaches like to let the kids vote but sometimes you have to what is right for the team. Kuhn should have been one instead of both those guys.

Marr has a big shot but was amazingly inconsistent this year.

[beastboyz99]

What the Jays most definitely need next season is a D-coordinator who actually knows what they're doing, SSDM's who actually want to play and make an effort (1 stud from CT SSDM coming next year), and Epstein not to leave.

[10stone5]

That was an embarrassment. You are playing a team that scored 155 goals in 14 games and you let them have 10 at halftime. This was my fear. Notre Dame relies heavily on unassisted goals - only 71 of the 155 were assisted. That means they were taking outside shots and 1v1 dodges. Hopkins beyond achilles heel weakness. Throw in Darby's impression of Swiss Cheese (sorry Mr. And Mrs. Darby) and you get the 7-1 1st quarter. The Hopkins shortsticks were beyond abused - Colwell (sorry Mr and Mrs. Colwell) also did not play well. Marr chipped in with a completely useless goal. We've already had a Jones discussion. When your senior captains are two of your biggest liabilities you have virtually no hope of winning the game. Narewski and Prouty fought hard - but they were killed on the after play. That was the real difference in the game and anybody that doesn't think Notre Dame's superior athleticism at the wings made a huge difference is insane. As far as underclassmen - Hubler, Darby, Colwell and Reinson need to have serious competition for their jobs. If you say well what about the offensive mid-fields I would say you are absolutely right but who else do you have?

As far as coaching - it doesn't look good for Petro to have Giacalone come in and play reasonably well and sit on the pines for the entire year when his starter was compiling a 45% save percentage over the year and 31% over the last 3 games. If he has real young talent on the defensive end - then why didn't Colwell sit? What happened to Blondell? What happened to Zinn tonight? I realize Hopkins didn't have alot of possession time throughout the game but he took one run from midfield and ran right by his man.

Hopkins defense will improve when they find some defensive mid-fielders that can stand up on their own. If Epstein could play against his teammates Lyle Thompson's records would be in trouble. Even though Joseph had 3 and 2 - Notre Dame was very happy to switch the entire game and their SSDMs stood up.

3 ACC teams on that side of a bracket joined by a former ACC team. Duke woud have killed our shortsticks - ND did us a favor

Reminds me of a title of a movie I hated: “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

That is a nightmare of a bad movie.
But the critics loved it.

[HopFan16]

What the Jays most definitely need next season is a D-coordinator who actually knows what they're doing, SSDM's who actually want to play and make an effort (1 stud from CT SSDM coming next year), and Epstein not to leave.

Glassmeyer?

Epstein is not going anywhere.

I don't get why Keogh and Baskin both took turns isolating agains a shortie (neither amounted to anything whatsoever) but Zinn apparently wasn't in the offensive strategy. But then again I don't get a lot of things this staff has done this year.

7-1 first quarter and 35-24 GB deficit tells the story. Throw out the first quarter and the game was even. Sadly we cannot throw out an entire quarter. That'd be fun.

Forry—3 shots, 3 goals. Have to wonder if he moves back to attack next year as the inside finisher, although the midfield situation is so miserable that we may need him to stay there.

[DocBarrister]

Schadenfreude time.

And the usual JHU shouldn’t have gotten a bid amplified by 100 given tonight’s result.

Well, two great games against MD and an almost win but still a great game against PSU.

And the tremendous season by Epstein.

That shouldnt have. I said so 10 days ago. Beating 1 team twice in the span of 5 days shouldnt overcome the entire dump season.

Agreed. I went looking through the record books for the last 8 loss season thinking it might have been “never” and found 2010.

Hes been awful. Outside of 2015 when he luck boxed thier way into the tournament hes shown no ability to coach in the tournament. Hell, he didnt have much ability earlier. How many other coaches get 4 straight no. 1 seeds and only 1 one championship and one other championship game appearance. The guy just tightens up and his team does the same thing.

You’re not a Hopkins lacrosse fan.

Don’t know what is going on with you, but please just stop pretending you care anything about Hopkins lacrosse. You root against this team more than most Terp fans do.

DocBarrister

[Homer]

Forry—3 shots, 3 goals. Have to wonder if he moves back to attack next year as the inside finisher, although the midfield situation is so miserable that we may need him to stay there.

Amidst the wreckage, I have to say the way Forry came on the last month or so has been pretty impressive to me. Only one of the captains who's actually looked the part from a distance in terms of mental discipline and positive energy.

[Wood Sticks 4ever]

Forry—3 shots, 3 goals. Have to wonder if he moves back to attack next year as the inside finisher, although the midfield situation is so miserable that we may need him to stay there.

Amidst the wreckage, I have to say the way Forry came on the last month or so has been pretty impressive to me. Only one of the captains who's actually looked the part from a distance in terms of mental discipline and positive energy.

I never quite figured out what the players vote for when they elect a captain. From my view in the stands, the most supportive senior I saw was Jake Fox - forgetting playing time for a minute, I think he would have been a great captain.

[johnnyonthegunpowder]

I don't know if it's Fanlax or what, but this Hopkins thread has been lame as hell this season, especially the whining lately. Shut 'er down.

ND fan or not, your spirit has gotta soar watching Garnsey play today. I'm over the moon for that kid. What a trying year it must've been and a difficult decision to make. But he was all smiles, fired up on the sideline, and completely unselfish with the ball. He throws that assist and gets in his version of a dive. Wow. It's got a bit of a RUDY storyline to it, if Rudy could actually ball. And, yeah, that poke check would've dropped anyone.

[johnnyonthegunpowder]

Forry—3 shots, 3 goals. Have to wonder if he moves back to attack next year as the inside finisher, although the midfield situation is so miserable that we may need him to stay there.

Amidst the wreckage, I have to say the way Forry came on the last month or so has been pretty impressive to me. Only one of the captains who's actually looked the part from a distance in terms of mental discipline and positive energy.

I never quite figured out what the players vote for when they elect a captain. From my view in the stands, the most supportive senior I saw was Jake Fox - forgetting playing time for a minute, I think he would have been a great captain.

Wow, Fox is a senior. I can't believe that.

[DocBarrister]

Greatly enjoyed watching all of you play. Best of luck in life! (Apologies to anyone who may have a year of eligibility left. )

Alex Concannon
Patrick Foley
Kyle Marr
Jake Fox
Robert Kuhn
Danny Jones
Ryan Coulter (???? ... returning????)

DocBarrister

[Sagittarius A*]

Forry—3 shots, 3 goals. Have to wonder if he moves back to attack next year as the inside finisher, although the midfield situation is so miserable that we may need him to stay there.

Amidst the wreckage, I have to say the way Forry came on the last month or so has been pretty impressive to me. Only one of the captains who's actually looked the part from a distance in terms of mental discipline and positive energy.

I can see Forry moving back to attack next year while Zinn moves into his role on the first midfield line. Maybe Mabbet steps up and Cattoni finds a spot. Face offs should be a strength next year. I wonder if we’ve seen the last of Darby? Not sure one FF in ten years merits an extension. Do you go into 2020 as a lame duck staff or do you grab the first bus out of town?

[Chuckman]

""""""""""""""I don't get why Keogh and Baskin both took turns isolating against a shortie (neither amounted to anything whatsoever) but Zinn apparently wasn't in the offensive strategy. But then again I don't get a lot of things this staff has done this year.

7-1 first quarter and 35-24 GB deficit tells the story. Throw out the first quarter and the game was even. Sadly we cannot throw out an entire quarter."""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I was expecting a much better performance by Hopkins after the last three games. The use of Zinn once again is baffling?? The offensive middies could not create any separation at all from ND. Epstein was the only player dodging in first half that was winning his matchup. Williams wasnt having much success, but at least he was drawing a good slide.
Their success in last three games was moving Epstein and Williams around being initiator, having them dodging from x, wing and up top . They are the only two besides Zinn who can create any separation it seems like. Did the coaches forget that Zinn could run by his man?? I saw one dodge ( in second half) from up top where Zinn blew by his man. Instead we saw a steady diet of middies who couldnt create anything .

The first quarter was a mess at FO . We were winning clamp and losing the ball and Face off. ND FO man was doing a great job after losing clamp in first half . Hopkins wings seemed to back off once Hopkins FO man started his escape with ball, while ND wings keep crashing as their FO man harassed Hopkins FO man.

[DougELax]

Greatly enjoyed watching all of you play. Best of luck in life! (Apologies to anyone who may have a year of eligibility left. )

Alex Concannon
Patrick Foley
Kyle Marr
Jake Fox
Robert Kuhn
Danny Jones
Ryan Coulter (???? ... returning????)

DocBarrister

I will always root for Bluejays lacrosse. To me, these kids still represent student-athletes. To invest so much of their personal time for practice, training, travel and games to play for "my" team is something that I appreciate. Seniors, thanks so much and good luck with your life - hopefully this experience will pay you back down the road.

[kennypowers]

So is it just assumed that they are going to let Petro play out next season on the last year of his contract or is there a chance he is bought out (does that happen in this sport often)? Is he likely to be extended even with the mess of the past decade because he is popular with the alumni/donors? This sport isn't like D1 football/basketball where the boosters are non-athletes who just want a winning team-the biggest lacrosse donors are former athletes.

It's just a shame what has happened to this program.

[DaneFan]

""""""""""""""I don't get why Keogh and Baskin both took turns isolating against a shortie (neither amounted to anything whatsoever) but Zinn apparently wasn't in the offensive strategy. But then again I don't get a lot of things this staff has done this year.

7-1 first quarter and 35-24 GB deficit tells the story. Throw out the first quarter and the game was even. Sadly we cannot throw out an entire quarter."""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I was expecting a much better performance by Hopkins after the last three games. The use of Zinn once again is baffling?? The offensive middies could not create any separation at all from ND. Epstein was the only player dodging in first half that was winning his matchup. Williams wasnt having much success, but at least he was drawing a good slide.
Their success in last three games was moving Epstein and Williams around being initiator, having them dodging from x, wing and up top . They are the only two besides Zinn who can create any separation it seems like. Did the coaches forget that Zinn could run by his man?? I saw one dodge ( in second half) from up top where Zinn blew by his man. Instead we saw a steady diet of middies who couldnt create anything .

The first quarter was a mess at FO . We were winning clamp and losing the ball and Face off. ND FO man was doing a great job after losing clamp in first half . Hopkins wings seemed to back off once Hopkins FO man started his escape with ball, while ND wings keep crashing as their FO man harassed Hopkins FO man.

Epstein and Smith were the bright spots for Hopkins last night, but for some reason Notre Dame didn't feel compelled to put a pole on Epstein for the vast majority of the game, and let that switch happen or didn't feel compelled to get a pole back on him.

[steel_hop]

You’re not a Hopkins lacrosse fan.

Don’t know what is going on with you, but please just stop pretending you care anything about Hopkins lacrosse. You root against this team more than most Terp fans do.

DocBarrister

Much more than you. I'd rather see Hopkins succeed than keep a Pollyanna attitude about the state of the program. Not quite sure what you want. I don't want to see Petro waste the next three years of Epstein's time at Hopkins like he has done for the last decade and longer. The program has been a mess for 10+ years. 1 FF in 11 years at an elite lax school is complete and utter failure.

People were discussing Shake and Wells and why no one talks about their careers/records like the other greats at Hopkins? You want to know why? Because they never won a championship. They never even made a championship game, much less won one. In only one of the 4 years of Wells and Shack's time at Hopkins did they make the FF - 2015 the year they were both on the team and a record breaking year from Brown.

From 2012-2015, Hopkins was 43-21 (.671 win percentage). That isn't great but looks great to Shack's 4 years.
From 2015-2018, Hopkins was 39-26 (.600 win percentage). That is awful.

This isn't all on those two guys but at that is why they won't been talked about in the same level as those other greats. It is the same reason Piccola and Riordan are not talked about like Cook, Morrill, Cowan etc. They didn't win a championship. Stinks to for them to say but that's the simple truth. Champions get idolized for bringing home hardware. There is a reason people view Elway differently than Marino even though Marino is a better QB. Elway won 2 championships and Marino didn't. If the Stanwicks, Piccola and Riordan had one championships they would be in the conversation. But, they didn't.

I still remember the day after Hopkins lost to UMd in the FF in 95 when Daughtery stood on his head. Terry Riordan said something to the effect "I'll have to carry that loss around for the rest of my life." I don't want guys saying they because of absolutely mind boggling dumb coaching decisions on the part of Petro screwing up the team.

[steel_hop]

""""""""""""""I don't get why Keogh and Baskin both took turns isolating against a shortie (neither amounted to anything whatsoever) but Zinn apparently wasn't in the offensive strategy. But then again I don't get a lot of things this staff has done this year.

7-1 first quarter and 35-24 GB deficit tells the story. Throw out the first quarter and the game was even. Sadly we cannot throw out an entire quarter."""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I was expecting a much better performance by Hopkins after the last three games. The use of Zinn once again is baffling?? The offensive middies could not create any separation at all from ND. Epstein was the only player dodging in first half that was winning his matchup. Williams wasnt having much success, but at least he was drawing a good slide.
Their success in last three games was moving Epstein and Williams around being initiator, having them dodging from x, wing and up top . They are the only two besides Zinn who can create any separation it seems like. Did the coaches forget that Zinn could run by his man?? I saw one dodge ( in second half) from up top where Zinn blew by his man. Instead we saw a steady diet of middies who couldnt create anything .

The first quarter was a mess at FO . We were winning clamp and losing the ball and Face off. ND FO man was doing a great job after losing clamp in first half . Hopkins wings seemed to back off once Hopkins FO man started his escape with ball, while ND wings keep crashing as their FO man harassed Hopkins FO man.

Epstein and Smith were the bright spots for Hopkins last night, but for some reason Notre Dame didn't feel compelled to put a pole on Epstein for the vast majority of the game, and let that switch happen or didn't feel compelled to get a pole back on him.

That is ND's style. They trust their guys to be able to play man-to-man defense. They almost never slide even to a shortie. MD did something similar in the 2nd game. There were times MD specifically put a SSDM on Epstein. They did slide almost immediately to him though once he started to attack the goal from any position on the field.

Compare that to Hopkins where everyone slides even to help out your best Dman. It also takes almost an entire season to get comfortable in the defense. Then look at where ND's defensive rankings are over the last decade and compare that to Hopkins. Pretty evident which defensive scheme is better or at least which coach is better and putting his players in position to succeed.

[Sagittarius A*]

""""""""""""""I don't get why Keogh and Baskin both took turns isolating against a shortie (neither amounted to anything whatsoever) but Zinn apparently wasn't in the offensive strategy. But then again I don't get a lot of things this staff has done this year.

7-1 first quarter and 35-24 GB deficit tells the story. Throw out the first quarter and the game was even. Sadly we cannot throw out an entire quarter."""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

I was expecting a much better performance by Hopkins after the last three games. The use of Zinn once again is baffling?? The offensive middies could not create any separation at all from ND. Epstein was the only player dodging in first half that was winning his matchup. Williams wasnt having much success, but at least he was drawing a good slide.
Their success in last three games was moving Epstein and Williams around being initiator, having them dodging from x, wing and up top . They are the only two besides Zinn who can create any separation it seems like. Did the coaches forget that Zinn could run by his man?? I saw one dodge ( in second half) from up top where Zinn blew by his man. Instead we saw a steady diet of middies who couldnt create anything .

The first quarter was a mess at FO . We were winning clamp and losing the ball and Face off. ND FO man was doing a great job after losing clamp in first half . Hopkins wings seemed to back off once Hopkins FO man started his escape with ball, while ND wings keep crashing as their FO man harassed Hopkins FO man.

Epstein and Smith were the bright spots for Hopkins last night, but for some reason Notre Dame didn't feel compelled to put a pole on Epstein for the vast majority of the game, and let that switch happen or didn't feel compelled to get a pole back on him.

That is ND's style. They trust their guys to be able to play man-to-man defense. They almost never slide even to a shortie. MD did something similar in the 2nd game. There were times MD specifically put a SSDM on Epstein. They did slide almost immediately to him though once he started to attack the goal from any position on the field.

Compare that to Hopkins where everyone slides even to help out your best Dman. It also takes almost an entire season to get comfortable in the defense. Then look at where ND's defensive rankings are over the last decade and compare that to Hopkins. Pretty evident which defensive scheme is better or at least which coach is better and putting his players in position to succeed.

It did seem like the Jays were playing a “ hole in the front of the goal defense “ last night. They kept sliding to player on GLE leaving wide open shooters right in front of the goal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a defense like that before. And they seemed to do it over and over again. Have to wonder where Giaccalone was in the Penn State game. A couple more saves in that one and we could have won the Big Championship and gotten a home playoff game. Another year another first round blow out. Ho hum.

[HopFan16]

Some thoughts/reactions to a few things written above:

- ND being so willing to let Epstein dodge against a shortie was bizarre, IMO. Yes they won and yes it didn't matter in the end but the kid wound up with 6 points—it wasn't exactly a resounding success. Maybe they were ok with Epstein doing what he wanted if it meant the 5 other guys on the field would be kept in check? I guess if you assume that was the philosophy it sort of worked but still incredibly risky.
- Agree about Giacalone re: Penn State. Now that we know Petro is willing to pull the plug and go to his backup, why has that never happened until it was too late? Giacalone has to be the presumed starter entering the fall. If Gainey or Marcille or someone else wins the job then fine but last night should have been a changing of the guard in terms of the top of the depth chart.
- Epstein had 26 points in his last 4 games (6.5 per game). Not going to do all the research but I'm pretty sure that is one of if not the highest totals of any player in the country over that stretch. I recall a certain poster here saying he needed to "step up." LOL. I thought freshmen were supposed to hit a wall? Also great news for a fan's argument that we need a player in the top 30 points (Epstein is tied for 13th). Well we finally have one and we still stink.
- On a similar note: early recruits accounted for more than half of our offense last night.
- I don't quite get why being a "lame duck" coach in lacrosse is so terrible. Rising junior recruits are not allowed to commit until September. So basically between September and the spring of 2020 is when recruits might be hesitant to commit if they don't know how the coaching situation will shake out. Sure maybe we fall behind on recruiting during that time but considering how many people here want us to do less recruiting of kids as early as possible, maybe it's not such a bad thing if they don't get a head start on that class? By May 2020 they'll know if Petro is coming back or not. I get that it's not ideal but it shouldn't be completely off the table, IMO.
- The highly touted kid who committed to us and then defected to ND? Double bageled last night and finished the season with 5 goals despite ample playing time all year. Doesn't look like we're missing a whole lot
- ND certainly had a better overall faceoff unit but the issue wasn't athleticism—the issue was we couldn't pick the ball up off the ground after winning the faceoff. The other issue is they stuck with Prouty—who has had a good season—for far too long. It was clear immediately that Narewski had a better chance of winning us the ball and yet for whatever reason they didn't stick with him.

I'm not going to anonymously crap on kids as they walk out the door after they gave their all for this program. I think and have long thought that there's a difference between measured criticism and just calling a kid "awful" over and over again. I am guilty of the former but I do not believe the latter and I try to keep it that way. No it didn't work out the way anyone wanted it to but if your first instinct is to immediately insult 22-year-olds on your own team then I think you might want to re-evaluate what this is really about for you. Thank you Kuhn, Jones, et al for your contributions over the last 4 years. Concannon, Coulter, and Foley (?), if you guys are coming back, I'm glad and let's do better next year.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

There needs to be a transition through some farcical aquatic ceremony.