Johns Hopkins 2021

[nyjay]

Owen Murphy no longer with the program and in the transfer portal. Ouch. That hurts. Per collegecrosse Twitter.

[HopFan16]

Owen Murphy no longer with the program and in the transfer portal. Ouch. That hurts. Per collegecrosse Twitter.

Just to get ahead of the inevitable reaction—I've heard a few things in the past couple of days and it's not really my place to speculate based on incomplete info but this very much appears to be isolated to Murphy and is not some harbinger of doom or mass exodus or anything like that.

It obviously sucks, as the kid is super talented. HOWEVER if there is any spot on the field the Jays can survive suddenly losing someone like that, it's attack. Angelus could slot in on that right side, or perhaps this helps get someone like McDermott or Bauer on the field quicker. This is no one's idea of a *good* development but if there's a silver lining it's that there is still plenty of talent at the position, and maybe it allows the new staff to see what they've got from this freshman class sooner rather than later. That's to say nothing of Grimes, whom I'd wager was going to see the field quite a bit regardless.

Wish him the best...some team is going to get a solid player assuming he finds a new home. He looked the part.

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/article/ ... rtal/57134

[nyjay]

We're not lacking for attackmen, that's for sure, so probably won't matter much from an overall team perspective. That said, the kid was an awful lot of fun to watch. He had some very un-Hopkins like swag and offensive creativity, which I thought would have fit better with the new staff than with the old one. Oh well.

[HopFan16]

We're not lacking for attackmen, that's for sure, so probably won't matter much from an overall team perspective. That said, the kid was an awful lot of fun to watch. He had some very un-Hopkins like swag and offensive creativity, which I thought would have fit better with the new staff than with the old one. Oh well.

True that. From that standpoint it doubly sucks, as I'm sure Junior would have been able to teach him a thing or do about no-look passes and stick fakes. But on that note...maybe that sort of mentality rubs off on everyone and now you don't have to rely on one guy to bring the creativity.

PS If swag is what you're looking for, the Raposo kid from Canada has no shortage of it. Excited to see what he can do.

[jhu06]

-too bad about murphy. The only upside is these kids are coming from Hopkins which is a strong brand and he put some nice film together.
-ncaa announced plans for basketball tournament and the idea is one state only for mens and womens-all concentrated in indianapolis area. Baltimore and homewood would be an obvious choice for bubbled mens/womens lacrosse tournaments.
https://www.ncaa.com/video/basketball-m ... ed-indiana

[Hoponboard]

Per Lacrosse Bucket twitter

Royal Bay Secondary (B.C.) Middie Alec Billings choosing Johns Hopkins last night marked the third former Cornell commit to follow Peter Milliman to JHU since his hiring in Apr.

“On film as a field player, the 6-foot-3, 205-pound righty midfielder looks very impressive. He can play two ways. Offensively, he works well up top and is a solid and shifty dodger. You can see the box influence on his field game, which Billings says has helped him make “fast decisions,” clearly. He also knows how to be aggressive, use his body, and has some good range as a shooter.”

“Billings has reclassified from the class of 2021 to 2022 and was originally committed to Milliman last December when he was at Cornell, making him the third former Cornell commit to follow Milliman to Johns Hopkins, along with 2021 midfielder Chris Wong and attackman Jack Charboneau, who is also a British Columbia native, and fourth overall player in the 2022 class to decommit or flip.

The midfielder mentioned that the impressive new coaching staff and the lure of Johns Hopkins lacrosse was a big factor in his decision. “For me it was the coaching and the legacy’s of all the players before me.”

Due to the NCAA extending the recruiting dead period, which prohibits in-person recruiting and official visits through April 15th of 2021, as well as the American-Canadian border remaining closed except for essential travel, Billings has not been able to get on Johns Hopkins campus at all. However, he has, like many recruits this year, been able to take a virtual tour.”

https://lacrossebucket.com/2021/01/02/a ... s-hopkins/

[HopFan16]

US Lax Mag ranks the Jays #20 to start the season:

https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/college/m ... son-top-20

I get it, they're going to make Hopkins prove they're decent again before just assuming it'll happen. The taste of the infamous Mount St. Mary's game remains potent nine months later. But it also seems like people have collectively forgotten that Joey Epstein was hurt last year? Forget everything else—just getting him back healthy is going to be an enormous difference maker, like an All-American attackman transferring in. He might be the third biggest "addition" of the D1 offseason, after Duke getting Sowers and Denver adding Morrill.

[Sagittarius A*]

US Lax Mag ranks the Jays #20 to start the season:

https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/college/m ... son-top-20

I get it, they're going to make Hopkins prove they're decent again before just assuming it'll happen. The taste of the infamous Mount St. Mary's game remains potent nine months later. But it also seems like people have collectively forgotten that Joey Epstein was hurt last year? Forget everything else—just getting him back healthy is going to be an enormous difference maker, like an All-American attackman transferring in. He might be the third biggest "addition" of the D1 offseason, after Duke getting Sowers and Denver adding Morrill.

No respect.
LOL

[51percentcorn]

I guess I woud think the second half against Loyola - followed by the consecutive 6 halves against UNC/Princeton and Cuse - all significantly non competitive - weighs heavier than a game against MSM where most saw the writing on the wall that the season was over figuratively and more important literally.

AND the thing is - if the 2x conference schedule + 2 OOC holds - Hopkins will be significant underdogs right off the bat in at least half of their 12 games - the 2 each against Maryland/PSU/OSU and I am not trying to slight Rutgers or Michigan. Then you have the OOCs - I assume for COVID travel purposes - they might be 2 Maryland teams - some combo of Loyola/Towson/Navy/MSM - as some past years have showed - not guaranteed to defeat any one of them - and you would be a significant underdog to the Hounds - it's going to be tough to get to #20.

I think the thoughts going into 2021 are:
- Face-offs should be competitive
- Goaltending should be improved
- Offense will eventually be fine - talent is generally very young however - but there is talent
- Defense and Defensive mid-field is shockingly inexperienced - especially close defense - if you review the roster where "Defense" is listed next to the name - you have a freshman eligible Szuluk (who played 6 games for another team) a sophomore eligible McManus (who has played a total of 6 games at close) and Fernandez (who I thought most people see as an LSM because of his size) Other than that nobody has seen the field. Both defensive midfielders played in all 6 games last year but that is pretty much the extent of the experience as Lily saw very limited action in 2019

I forgot to add that I think the coaching strucure and the quality of the assistant coaches will bring benefits at some point

[jhu06]

US Lax Mag ranks the Jays #20 to start the season:

https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/college/m ... son-top-20

I get it, they're going to make Hopkins prove they're decent again before just assuming it'll happen. The taste of the infamous Mount St. Mary's game remains potent nine months later. But it also seems like people have collectively forgotten that Joey Epstein was hurt last year? Forget everything else—just getting him back healthy is going to be an enormous difference maker, like an All-American attackman transferring in. He might be the third biggest "addition" of the D1 offseason, after Duke getting Sowers and Denver adding Morrill.

to use Petro era lingo-who are your other 2021 Hopkins lacrosse knowns. You're an opposing coach you worry about epstein. The rest of the roster?

School also posted baseball preseason poll story which seems odd if they weren't planning to play.

[Matnum PI]

US Lax Mag ranks the Jays #20 to start the season

Preseason, where your team is ranked is irrelevant. Where your opponents are ranked is everything.

[51percentcorn]

to use Petro era lingo-who are your other 2021 Hopkins lacrosse knowns. You're an opposing coach you worry about epstein. The rest of the roster?

Short sighted - you worry about what you do not know - which are 2 major things - you do not know how this collection of players will fit within Jr's systems (you'll probably be watching as much Air Force/Cornell film as JHU) AND you won't know zippy about what they are going to do with Keogh, Angelus, Grimes, McDermott, Bauer and the O'Jays etc. For example, name for me all the Air Force knowns when they rang 14 up against Duke (Quincy Peene had scored a total of 4 goals in his prior 2 years - Brandon Dodd was a freshman - they had 8 total against Duke). I would worry about Cole Williams in his last year as well. There is talent - it's logical to think new systems and schemes in this year of no practices and informal preparation hurts a team changing staffs way more than others AND the schedule as reported will be brutal

[HopFan16]

I guess I woud think the second half against Loyola - followed by the consecutive 6 halves against UNC/Princeton and Cuse - all significantly non competitive - weighs heavier than a game against MSM where most saw the writing on the wall that the season was over figuratively and more important literally.

AND the thing is - if the 2x conference schedule + 2 OOC holds - Hopkins will be significant underdogs right off the bat in at least half of their 12 games - the 2 each against Maryland/PSU/OSU and I am not trying to slight Rutgers or Michigan. Then you have the OOCs - I assume for COVID travel purposes - they might be 2 Maryland teams - some combo of Loyola/Towson/Navy/MSM - as some past years have showed - not guaranteed to defeat any one of them - and you would be a significant underdog to the Hounds - it's going to be tough to get to #20.

I think the thoughts going into 2021 are:
- Face-offs should be competitive
- Goaltending should be improved
- Offense will eventually be fine - talent is generally very young however - but there is talent
- Defense and Defensive mid-field is shockingly inexperienced - especially close defense - if you review the roster where "Defense" is listed next to the name - you have a freshman eligible Szuluk (who played 6 games for another team) a sophomore eligible McManus (who has played a total of 6 games at close) and Fernandez (who I thought most people see as an LSM because of his size) Other than that nobody has seen the field. Both defensive midfielders played in all 6 games last year but that is pretty much the extent of the experience as Lily saw very limited action in 2019

I forgot to add that I think the coaching strucure and the quality of the assistant coaches will bring benefits at some point

Good points. With respect to the potential Big Ten heavy schedule I will say this—you're definitely underdogs in about half those games but there are also at least four very winnable games in that slate as you mentioned, and you're most likely not going to go 0-6 against the other three. Conference games tend to be pretty close...PSU will be good but they lose Ament. OSU is not some indestructible force. They did just give us their goalie.

The other thing is that you're probably(?) not playing Syracuse/UNC/UVA. So if this is indeed what the schedule looks like it would seem to be something of a wash compared to a normal year.

The defense is severely—almost comically—inexperienced...this is where Koesterer's reputation as a teacher/motivator hopefully kicks in.

This is the one year I think the majority of Hopkins fans will give them a pass if they don't make the playoffs—for several obvious reasons. So now is the time to lay a foundation/build a culture/start the upward trajectory without the burden of win-loss record or making the NCAA tournament. If they make it, great, but the more important thing is 2022 and beyond.

As to 06's question—first of all, good luck covering a healthy Epstein even when you do devote lots of attention to him. In his last four healthy games he had 6 pts against Maryland, 5 pts against Maryland the second time, 9 pts against PSU, 6 pts against Notre Dame...that's an average of 6.5 pts per game against elite competition with the other team's #1 defending you. Seriously, I think people have already forgotten how good the kid was, and one could argue he hadn't even peaked.

In the event defenses do figure out a way to stop him it's not like the cupboard is bare. Williams may not be an All-American but he is no slouch, the guy has two 45+ pt seasons under his belt, they have not one but two of the best freshmen in the country coming in in Grimes and McDermott, Degnon can shoot the lights out of the ball, Zinn and Angelus have shown flashes, Keogh is apparently healthy and a tank now....there are weapons. Though admittedly a lot of it does presume Epstein returns to something resembling his 2019 form.

[shaadb-man]

They're ranked 20th because that's what theyve shown over that last 5 years. They were terrible last year which of course lead to the parting of ways with Petro but excluding '18 haven't been great for 5 years now with 4 blowout loses in the 1st rd.

I don't think that they have forgotten about Epstein, who is an absolute stud, but instead remember that they where 8-8 when he was healthy and was blown out in the first round. Yes he ended the year with big games vs ND, PSU, and UMD x2, they were also 2-2 in those games.

The team is loaded at attack, but is very average everywhere else and haven't been able to properly practice their new systems. New D coach is a home run hire and the O will be good with Milliman's system and recruiting, JR is there to teach them a few new stick tricks and hopefully get a few more Canadians to commit. Yes AF scored 14 against Duke in Duke's yearly early season upset, but average 9.6 gpg in the other 6 which included Canisius, Cleveland St, St Bonaventure, and Utah.

They have the coaching and the strength of schedule that they will always play that will give them plenty of opportunity to improve that ranking throughout the year, but not sure how #20 is a surprise.

[HopFan16]

They're ranked 20th because that's what theyve shown over that last 5 years. They were terrible last year which of course lead to the parting of ways with Petro but excluding '18 haven't been great for 5 years now with 4 blowout loses in the 1st rd.

By that logic, several teams ahead of them should definitely be nowhere near the top 20. What has Rutgers done in the last five years? They are 2-4 against Hopkins in the last five seasons, 13-25 in the conference with just one finish better than 4th, and have not made an NCAA tournament.

Nobody claimed Hopkins has been great or that they warrant a great ranking, but if we're going off of what a team has shown over the last 5 years, these rankings would look vastly different.

By Hopkins standards the last five years have been bad but by NCAA-wide standards they have absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, been better than #20. They are 16-9 in the Big Ten in the last five seasons, have a quarterfinal appearance, a Big Ten championship—plus a second B1G title and a FF appearance if you extend to 2015 which was five full seasons ago. Just because Hopkins has stunk by its fan base's high standards doesn't mean they have objectively stunk—many teams including several ranked ahead of them in this poll (Lehigh??) would kill for such a stretch.

[shaadb-man]

Apologies for going back 5 years... lets go back one year then. They should be in the 40s

[HopFan16]

Apologies for going back 5 years... lets go back one year then. They should be in the 40s

Ok, fair enough. Rutgers was also 2-4. Where should they be? 50s? Heck, Notre Dame was 2-3 and they're ranked in the top 10. What about them?

[shaadb-man]

That's a much easier question to answer

Talent

as I said in the first post outside Epstein and the attack their talent is average

[DocBarrister]

That's a much easier question to answer

Talent

as I said in the first post outside Epstein and the attack their talent is average

The Blue Jays do not have merely “average” talent. Compared to the “average” Division I team, the Blue Jays have talent that is far beyond “average.” I think any coach in Division I would acknowledge that.

The task ahead for Coach Milliman and his staff is to get those players to perform up to their potential.

DocBarrister

[Sagittarius A*]

I forgot to add that I think the coaching structure and the quality of the assistant coaches will bring benefits at some point

I think Milliman and company will thrive in the underdog role and this team will surprise.

Reasons for optimism:
Epstein and Grimes
Face-offs
Coaching
New Goalie

Reasons for Pessimism:
Everything else

Over the course of the season I think we'll see week-to-week improvement.
I'm looking forward to it.