Johns Hopkins 2023

[Uklax]

Do we think Degnon returns next game or is he out?

[jhu06]

Do we think Degnon returns next game or is he out?

the assumption based on quints reporting (insert joke) is that he's back this week

[51percentcorn]

Reading the announcer tea leaves - Degnon was in uniform against Utah? I would say that's a fairly positive sign you could see him on Saturday. While he has 7 goals in 4 games - it would be nice to see some outside lefty rips materialize to help loosen things up.

On more controversial news - the Petro departure/Milliman arrival decommit face-off man - Constantinides - has been doing well for Towson - 52% on the year and that's with a 38% rate against Cole of St. Joe's. He must have been a big reason Towson took Loyola to the limit. Towson was down one to St. Joe's with 7 minutes left - falling 16-13. Milliman took the job on April 26th? Constantinides verified his commitment to Towson on May 27th so Milliman had one month to run him off.

Here's my harp again. Aside from the fact that these statistics are a comparison of 5 games this year and the entirety of last year I am perplexed by the following: - In 2022 Hopkins garnered 50 ground balls LESS than their opponents and averaged 31 ground ball per game - so far this year they are UP 11 ground balls on opponents and are averaging 34 ground balls per game. Their face-off performance is apprx. 2 percentage points better this year so far 51% to 49%. Clearing success rate is up 4 percentage points 88% from 84%. Goalie Save percentage is WAY up as we know - approx. 12 percentage points 59 to 47%. Even turnovers which is at a "not very good" level of exactly 16 per game - is actually down so far from the 16.8 of last year. SO - to quote Nicholas Cage from The Rock "How in the name of Zeus' butt hole" is Hopkins averaging almost 5 fewer shots per game? - every sign points to more possessions so far. To continue with the Cage lines from that scene "I only bring it up because it might be useful information given the current situation." (That being the somewhat high probability your face-off percentage is going to drop like a rock on Saturday).

[primitiveskills]

Hopkins was starting to hit their stride when the season ended in 2000!? LOL! They were 2-4, had lost four straight, and needed to make a comeback just to force OT with Mount St. Mary’s!

He's either on bath salts or is just trolling. Either way, don't feed into it

Back to the offense/schemes — what we're running now is fairly similar to what Benson ran from 2014 to 2020. Some new wrinkles here and there but at the end of the day a motion offense is a motion offense. It's definitely more positionless now than it used to be though. I've liked the spacing in the offense this year, feels like the field is always pretty balanced and guys aren't running into each other or having to pass long distances which invites poor fundamentals. But there's still a long way to go for it to be a unit that scares defenses.

Saturday's game could be high scoring. Zach Cole gets St. Joe's the ball and that offense can score and score quickly. If the last year or so is any indication they won't be the toughest defense we face so we should, one hopes, be able to put some points on the board when the ball's on our end. I'd expect Cole to win the majority of faceoffs — he's very good — but our guys should be able to scrape together some wins and keep it within shouting distance. Think the more efficient team will win. Jays opened as 1.5 pt underdogs at home. This is an important one. A win goes a long way — increases the odds of .500 or better and gets you another important top 20 OOC win over a team we could be on the bubble with. At the risk of drawing too grand of a conclusion given there still are lots of big games to go, I think this is the kind of game that, if this team is for real, they will find a way to win.

They need to find their best wings and faceoff guys and start them. In a lot of games it's been show up and figure out who is performing or not at faceoff that day. They need this resolved going into the game so we're not trying to play catch up all day.

Hawley and Mazzone have taken the vast majority of the faces on the wing. No compolaints; Hawley's a GB machine. Picking the "best" FO before a game is much easier said than done. Styles/ techniques are very individual, and the best FO (like Cole) have a variety of ways to win. Can be hard to predict beforehand what will be an effective counter. That's where it is incredibly valuable to have two (or 3, if Narewski ever comes back) effective guys ready to go. At a minimum, especially if the game is high scoring, you can wear the other guy down.

[HopFan16]

Reading the announcer tea leaves - Degnon was in uniform against Utah? I would say that's a fairly positive sign you could see him on Saturday. While he has 7 goals in 4 games - it would be nice to see some outside lefty rips materialize to help loosen things up.

On more controversial news - the Petro departure/Milliman arrival decommit face-off man - Constantinides - has been doing well for Towson - 52% on the year and that's with a 38% rate against Cole of St. Joe's. He must have been a big reason Towson took Loyola to the limit. Towson was down one to St. Joe's with 7 minutes left - falling 16-13. Milliman took the job on April 26th? Constantinides verified his commitment to Towson on May 27th so Milliman had one month to run him off.

Here's my harp again. Aside from the fact that these statistics are a comparison of 5 games this year and the entirety of last year I am perplexed by the following: - In 2022 Hopkins garnered 50 ground balls LESS than their opponents and averaged 31 ground ball per game - so far this year they are UP 11 ground balls on opponents and are averaging 34 ground balls per game. Their face-off performance is apprx. 2 percentage points better this year so far 51% to 49%. Clearing success rate is up 4 percentage points 88% from 84%. Goalie Save percentage is WAY up as we know - approx. 12 percentage points 59 to 47%. Even turnovers which is at a "not very good" level of exactly 16 per game - is actually down so far from the 16.8 of last year. SO - to quote Nicholas Cage from The Rock "How in the name of Zeus' butt hole" is Hopkins averaging almost 5 fewer shots per game? - every sign points to more possessions so far. To continue with the Cage lines from that scene "I only bring it up because it might be useful information given the current situation." (That being the somewhat high probability your face-off percentage is going to drop like a rock on Saturday).

Degnon was not in uniform but he did apparently go through a pregame warmup routine, which suggests he's close to returning.

I believe that Marcille is back at practice. No idea if he's going to play. Given the Gibber's performance last week, I feel a bit better about the situation should Tim not be able to go.

Would much rather have Callahan than the Towson kid.

Re: most stats being improved but shots being down — I think two things are happening. The first is that may largely be a product of the teams we're facing and the scoring environments of those games. We haven't really been in any fast-paced, up-and-down, high-scoring environments yet. Utah was supposed to be one but we forced them to play slower, which was to our advantage. There will be faster-paced games (possibly starting this weekend) in which there are more possessions — and thus shots — to go around. We may have a slightly higher share of possessions but I don't know if that necessarily translates to a bigger sheer possession total compared with last year.

The other thing is our shooting % is up from 27% to 28% and shot-on-goal % is crucially up from 57% to 63-64%. Over time that could mean fewer shots because more of the shots you do take are either going in or getting saved. Fewer are missing the cage entirely. While you obviously prefer a shot to miss the cage than for it to be saved, I think that's a positive trend and could be indicative of better team shooting/taking fewer bad shots. I don't have the stats on this but it also feels like we are really taking our time on offense to find the matchups we want to exploit which often uses up most if not all of the shot clock.

[wgdsr]

Reading the announcer tea leaves - Degnon was in uniform against Utah? I would say that's a fairly positive sign you could see him on Saturday. While he has 7 goals in 4 games - it would be nice to see some outside lefty rips materialize to help loosen things up.

On more controversial news - the Petro departure/Milliman arrival decommit face-off man - Constantinides - has been doing well for Towson - 52% on the year and that's with a 38% rate against Cole of St. Joe's. He must have been a big reason Towson took Loyola to the limit. Towson was down one to St. Joe's with 7 minutes left - falling 16-13. Milliman took the job on April 26th? Constantinides verified his commitment to Towson on May 27th so Milliman had one month to run him off.

Here's my harp again. Aside from the fact that these statistics are a comparison of 5 games this year and the entirety of last year I am perplexed by the following: - In 2022 Hopkins garnered 50 ground balls LESS than their opponents and averaged 31 ground ball per game - so far this year they are UP 11 ground balls on opponents and are averaging 34 ground balls per game. Their face-off performance is apprx. 2 percentage points better this year so far 51% to 49%. Clearing success rate is up 4 percentage points 88% from 84%. Goalie Save percentage is WAY up as we know - approx. 12 percentage points 59 to 47%. Even turnovers which is at a "not very good" level of exactly 16 per game - is actually down so far from the 16.8 of last year. SO - to quote Nicholas Cage from The Rock "How in the name of Zeus' butt hole" is Hopkins averaging almost 5 fewer shots per game? - every sign points to more possessions so far. To continue with the Cage lines from that scene "I only bring it up because it might be useful information given the current situation." (That being the somewhat high probability your face-off percentage is going to drop like a rock on Saturday).

possessions are about the same @ 34 (clears+rides+faceoffs won). although opponents' possessions have dropped from 37 to 34.

on the offensive end, means fewer shots per possession. meaning one shot vs 2, etc. big contributor to that is:
- hopkins sog % is 6+% higher but shot/goal % is only 1 tick up. so higher goalie save %.

and it's only 3+ fewer shots per game? looks like they need to get more balls by the goalie when it's on cage.

[molo]

The Towson FOGO was indeed one of the primary factors in the Tigers’ near upset of the Hounds. In fact, he won the OT face-off, giving them the possession that almost allows them to win.

[flalax22]

Do we think Degnon returns next game or is he out?

I’d say yes.

[Lawdawg100]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment since being at Hopkins. Only 33 points in 3 years and being a top recruit as well as the #4 freshman in 2021. He needs to get it together if Hopkins wants a shot at championship weekend.

[HopFan16]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment

That's also what your mom told me about you

[Lawdawg100]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment

That's also what your mom told me about you

My opinions are my own, sorry they do not agree with yours. Does not mean you should bring my mother into this. We are all adults here let’s act like it.

[Lawdawg100]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment

That's also what your mom told me about you

My opinions are my own, sorry they do not agree with yours. Does not mean you should bring my mother into this. We are all adults here let’s act like it.

[HopFan16]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment

That's also what your mom told me about you

My opinions are my own, sorry they do not agree with yours. Does not mean you should bring my mother into this. We are all adults here let’s act like it.

Fair enough. I won't bring your mother into this, though I can't promise I won't bring something into your mother

[Lawdawg100]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment

That's also what your mom told me about you

My opinions are my own, sorry they do not agree with yours. Does not mean you should bring my mother into this. We are all adults here let’s act like it.

Fair enough. I won't bring your mother into this, though I can't promise I won't bring something into your mother

Make sure when you bring it to her you wrap it. I didn’t wrap mine when I brought it to your mother and things got messy. (If you would continue to act like a child I will play along. I was always the tougher one in the group in my days just to let you know)

[a fan]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment since being at Hopkins. Only 33 points in 3 years and being a top recruit as well as the #4 freshman in 2021. He needs to get it together if Hopkins wants a shot at championship weekend.

Have you considered the possibility that maybe you should direct your disappointment at Inside Lacrosse, instead of in a 18 year old kid?

None of these kids ask for these stupid numerical "rankings", you know.

[wgdsr]

i'm not sure the books had this one even on the board for the hop thread.

[OCanada]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment since being at Hopkins. Only 33 points in 3 years and being a top recruit as well as the #4 freshman in 2021. He needs to get it together if Hopkins wants a shot at championship weekend.

Have you considered the possibility that maybe you should direct your disappointment at Inside Lacrosse, instead of in a 18 year old kid?

None of these kids ask for these stupid numerical "rankings", you know.

He has missed time bcs of injuries and played injured as well. How does it look if adjustments for those contingencies are factored in? I tend go agree he needs to be 100%

[ohmilax34]

I'm not sure why anyone's replying to the troll at this point.

[jhu06]

In the broadcasts they've said a number of times that the PM offense is built around the idea of taking a lot of time and to go deep into the shot clock to work possessions and get matchups. The Jville coach touched on that as well in one of his podcasts. Still there have been too many wasted possessions and the second half+ of unc and the loyola games were biblical offensive debacles.

They really need this game this weekend. You saw with the losses to both loyola AND unc we went from top 10, bubble in to fringe may pretender. This win this weekend moves us to around the 11-13 area.

[flalax22]

Brendan Grimes has been nothing but a disappointment

That's also what your mom told me about you

We really do need more mom retorts. Anything for the page count