Johns Hopkins 2023

[Sagittarius A*]

The boys better be in the ice bath tonight. Tuesday night will be here in a hurry. The game seemed awful chippy and the refs almost let it get out of hand. A lot of questionable calls against the Jays also.

Yes, a lot. I thought St Joe's brought their own refs with them.
Great actors on that team though. Too bad they don't give out awards for acting in a Lacrosse game.
Nareweski was pacing the sidelines the whole game. He looked like a caged tiger.
I don't think the coaches are going to be able to keep him off the field much longer.
He looked ready to go to me.

[HopFan16]

Man, I wish Syracuse could have beat Duke today. Would have helped our RPI/SOS but also now they will be very desperate for a win next weekend. Would prefer to play them coming off a win. Don't love playing teams with their backs against the wall. Though I realize I'm getting a little ahead of myself here as we've still got the Hoos on deck.

Which brings me to my next point — no there are no moral victories and if they take the field Tuesday then they will be doing so with the expectation that they should win. That is all great but the reality of the situation is Virginia has utterly demolished their last three opponents, all of whom are top 20 caliber. Sometimes weird stuff happens on Tuesday nights ("Tuesday is for the hunter" blah blah blah) so never say never BUT the Jays will basically have to play a perfect game and then pray the Hoos fail to get off the bus in order to pull off the upset. I do think the Hoos are going to slip up at some point this year so the Blue Jays need to approach this game with the mentality of why not us.

[nyjay]

So it seems Duke - long-time STX lid school - also rocking the Cascade helmets now. Huh. Interesting. Seems like a story, if we had an actual lacrosse media.

[JaXKy0521S]

So it seems Duke - long-time STX lid school - also rocking the Cascade helmets now. Huh. Interesting. Seems like a story, if we had an actual lacrosse media.

Also noticed the same thing with Tufts. STX had their helmets all over instagram before the season then 2 weeks ago Tufts started showing Cascades. You have to think where there’s smoke there’s fire. Also look at JHU no concussions since the switch. Something is definitely up.

[jhu06]

Quint was correct about one thing - they do need to paint the goal mouth better - can't tell where it is. Jays finally got a goal mouth call.

If you had told me Hopkins would only get 31 shots, turn the ball over 21 times, go to the penalty box 6 times - at least twice full time, fall apart in clearing in the 4th quarter playing against a relatively high scoring team with a top face-off man I would have been pretty confident CBB would not be handing out bananas. Dunn/Marcille outplaying his counterpart/Hopkins scrapping out a few more possessions with ground balls and almost 50% shooting were the keys.

Not sustainable however - especially against a team that has put up a mind boggling 84 goals in 4 games - and Michigan/Harvard/Ohio State/Richmond is not exactly cupcake central. They got to play 39 guys last night - Hopkins was 24 and 1 of those 24 was a single face-off attempt by Callahan. Speaking of the roster has Daniels implemented some type of rolling suspension I don't know about? Phillips now down? No English who looked like he had a nice burst last game? Still no McDermott? This is where this schedule is going to bite you in the butt.

BIG had a nice day yesterday even with Maryland letting one get away. Who had Penn State outscoring Penn 6-0 in the 4th? Handley BTW is shooting 15% and has 11 turnovers.

Paint the crease while they are at it

carson brown and ruddy have been better this year than szulak.
watching the cuse defense today was like seeing an ex girlfriend and remembering all the reasons you broke up with her.
the cuse play by play announcer was like a drunk snl impression of an announcer. what are they teaching those kids?

[Finster]

Man, I wish Syracuse could have beat Duke today. Would have helped our RPI/SOS but also now they will be very desperate for a win next weekend. Would prefer to play them coming off a win. Don't love playing teams with their backs against the wall. Though I realize I'm getting a little ahead of myself here as we've still got the Hoos on deck.

Which brings me to my next point — no there are no moral victories and if they take the field Tuesday then they will be doing so with the expectation that they should win. That is all great but the reality of the situation is Virginia has utterly demolished their last three opponents, all of whom are top 20 caliber. Sometimes weird stuff happens on Tuesday nights ("Tuesday is for the hunter" blah blah blah) so never say never BUT the Jays will basically have to play a perfect game and then pray the Hoos fail to get off the bus in order to pull off the upset. I do think the Hoos are going to slip up at some point this year so the Blue Jays need to approach this game with the mentality of why not us.

Richmond is really not top-20, to be blunt.

[a fan]

watching the cuse defense today was like seeing an ex girlfriend and remembering all the reasons you broke up with her.

So it escaped your attention that your fancy new D coordinator gave up the same exact number of goals this weekend?

[JaXKy0521S]

Quint was correct about one thing - they do need to paint the goal mouth better - can't tell where it is. Jays finally got a goal mouth call.

If you had told me Hopkins would only get 31 shots, turn the ball over 21 times, go to the penalty box 6 times - at least twice full time, fall apart in clearing in the 4th quarter playing against a relatively high scoring team with a top face-off man I would have been pretty confident CBB would not be handing out bananas. Dunn/Marcille outplaying his counterpart/Hopkins scrapping out a few more possessions with ground balls and almost 50% shooting were the keys.

Not sustainable however - especially against a team that has put up a mind boggling 84 goals in 4 games - and Michigan/Harvard/Ohio State/Richmond is not exactly cupcake central. They got to play 39 guys last night - Hopkins was 24 and 1 of those 24 was a single face-off attempt by Callahan. Speaking of the roster has Daniels implemented some type of rolling suspension I don't know about? Phillips now down? No English who looked like he had a nice burst last game? Still no McDermott? This is where this schedule is going to bite you in the butt.

BIG had a nice day yesterday even with Maryland letting one get away. Who had Penn State outscoring Penn 6-0 in the 4th? Handley BTW is shooting 15% and has 11 turnovers.

Paint the crease while they are at it

carson brown and ruddy have been better this year than szulak.
watching the cuse defense today was like seeing an ex girlfriend and remembering all the reasons you broke up with her.
the cuse play by play announcer was like a drunk snl impression of an announcer. what are they teaching those kids?

I like both Ruddy and Brown and think they have played outstanding so far. I just think the physical nature that Szulak brings may fit well against a guy like Cormier. He’s a very strong stocky player where both Ruddy and Brown have more length. He could use his body to really stick to Cormier. At least this is a good thing this year we have multiple options and looks we can throw at the pole position. I think Ruddy was coming back from missing a game so now he maybe rested and would be a nice mix in for close D with Szulak coming back.

[HopFan16]

watching the cuse defense today was like seeing an ex girlfriend and remembering all the reasons you broke up with her.

So it escaped your attention that your fancy new D coordinator gave up the same exact number of goals this weekend?

Duke hit 12 pipes and Syracuse's goalie made an almost equally unfathomable 27 stops. I watched the game and Duke created good looks at will. Cuse is lucky they didn't give up 25.

Not sure what the "fancy new D coordinator" dig is all about given Hopkins' defense has improved in every metric imaginable under his fancy tutelage. There are all kinds of fancy stats like adjusted defensive efficiency that show how much the defense has improved since the fancy coordinator took over but here's a very simple one for you: Through 6 games in 2020 Hop gave up 13.2 goals per game. Through 6 games this year they're giving up 10.8.

Here's defensive efficiency for what it's worth (lower is better):
2020: 31.4% (50th in D1)
2021: 29.4% (33rd)
2022: 27.5% (18th)
2023: 24.6% (18th)

Notice anything?

I wish Petro well. I hope they turn it around up there, except when playing us of course. But it's indisputable our defense has improved since he left. Stats (of both the advanced and basic varieties), eye test, tape, whatever method of evaluation you want to use, it's going to show the same thing.

[a fan]

watching the cuse defense today was like seeing an ex girlfriend and remembering all the reasons you broke up with her.

So it escaped your attention that your fancy new D coordinator gave up the same exact number of goals this weekend?

Duke hit 12 pipes and Syracuse's goalie made an almost equally unfathomable 27 stops. I watched the game and Duke created good looks at will. Cuse is lucky they didn't give up 25.

Not sure what the "fancy new D coordinator" dig is all about given Hopkins' defense has improved in every metric imaginable under his fancy tutelage.

I"m making fun of the "logic" used to conclude Petro can't coach defense.

How was Syracuse's D BEFORE Petro arrived? Do you remember? Hint: in Desko's last year they gave up 18 to Army, 18 to Notre Dame, 21 to Carolina......

Here's defensive efficiency for what it's worth (lower is better):
2020: 31.4% (50th in D1)
2021: 29.4% (33rd)
2022: 27.5% (18th)
2023: 24.6% (18th)

Notice anything.

Yes. You've got top 18 talent over there.

[HopFan16]

watching the cuse defense today was like seeing an ex girlfriend and remembering all the reasons you broke up with her.

So it escaped your attention that your fancy new D coordinator gave up the same exact number of goals this weekend?

Duke hit 12 pipes and Syracuse's goalie made an almost equally unfathomable 27 stops. I watched the game and Duke created good looks at will. Cuse is lucky they didn't give up 25.

Not sure what the "fancy new D coordinator" dig is all about given Hopkins' defense has improved in every metric imaginable under his fancy tutelage.

I"m making fun of the "logic" used to conclude Petro can't coach defense.

Cool, nobody said that.

Here's defensive efficiency for what it's worth (lower is better):
2020: 31.4% (50th in D1)
2021: 29.4% (33rd)
2022: 27.5% (18th)
2023: 24.6% (18th)

Notice anything.

Yes. You've got top 18 talent over there.

Much better than top 50. I'll take this as you acknowledging that the defense is significantly better under the fancy new D coordinator.

[a fan]

Cool, nobody said that.

Right.

Much better than top 50. I'll take this as you acknowledging that the defense is significantly better under the fancy new D coordinator.

Happy to acknowledge that Hop has better players than they did in 2020.

Should we move on to talking about Tuesday's game, or do you want to go down this rabbit hole in midseason?

[Farfromgeneva]

I heard him say that 17 would win it. But that is not the same as saying 15/16 won't win it.

He absolutely said that, said 15 isn't going to win it. When he did, I said 15 will win it because Princeton will just keep shooting themselves in the foot and taking lousy shots to boot. Was less than impressed with the Tigers. Good win for the Hop any way you look at it.

Princeton?

Are you having a stroke? Want me to call 911?!?

DocBarrister

Was rooting against GTown fighting Dordevics and got confused.

[nrthcrosslax]

I think Chauvette has started to figure out the speed and physicality of D1 lacrosse. Glad to see him have a good game.

[jhu06]

I think Chauvette has started to figure out the speed and physicality of D1 lacrosse. Glad to see him have a good game.

Quint said on the broadcast that each game someone different pops. That's either an indictment of a lack of consistency, health and star power among the top guys on offense or a positive sign of depth down the lineup. Or both.

[get it to x]

The St. Joe's game was the first with a save % below 50%. Hop was close to 60% on the year and I was glad to see them lean on the offense for a win, although Marcille was big at the right time. They will, of course, need a total team effort to compete with UVA.

[HopFan16]

Everyone on the second midfield vs. St. Joe's had a multipoint game. You're telling me that's a bad thing? It's not like that was instead of the stars showing up. Angelus and Degnon — the team's two best pound-for-pound offensive players IMO — combined for 13 pts. Angelus is now leading the country in assists BTW. God knows Quint never misses an opportunity to dig his alma mater but I don't think he meant that as one.

[51percentcorn]

Should we move on to talking about Tuesday's game,

Sure - the more I think about it - the lack of time and the lack of experience - as well as what appears to be Milliman's predisposition - means that we are going to likely play UVA straight up as in the defense UVA sees on tape is what they are going to get. Despite '06's observations and expectations (Szuluk is likely Hopkins second best defender) the Hopkins defense has not played together. Marcille's competitive games were in April/May 2021 - Ruddy really never played - Deans had a strong cup of coffee in the line-up a year ago but did not appear in the last 7 or so games - Kaufman token appearances last year - Mazzone is a transfer, Brown is a freshman. Smith has only started for one year and Szuluk missed most of "Spring" practice and the first four games with a broken hand. Ruddy/Kaufman/Deans have all missed at least one game this year. One of the reasons Hopkins has looked better is there has been continuity at the SSDM position and they have 2 first line guys around 6 ft. tall and 190+ - they can stand on their own. The Smurf second SSDM line is a problem against UVA. McConvey/Schutz ? Raposo or Ince might have to take one of them and that's when slides start and they pick you to pieces.

It may ultimately be the recipe for longer term success but with his own words you can see that Milliman thinks the way to approach this is recover/simplify and play hard/tough. That is not a likely recipe for success against this team on 2 days rest - when you again only played 24 (23 really) players for the 6th consecutive game. Parts of the game are going to have to be virtually flawless - you must stay out of man down (64% of their goals are assisted) - Hopkins is likely averaging 17+ turnovers a game and UVA opponents are averaging 16.5 - likely need to find a way to play as clean as possible - 21 turnovers like Saturday - good night. Must prevent their dizzying runs and can't let LaSalla score - make them work for everything. Their Shots on Goal per game average is not far off from Hopkins Shot average (30 to 36) so I think that tells you Marcille better get in the way of anywhere from 14-18. It's a really tall order.

[Sagittarius A*]

Should we move on to talking about Tuesday's game,

Sure - the more I think about it - the lack of time and the lack of experience - as well as what appears to be Milliman's predisposition - means that we are going to likely play UVA straight up as in the defense UVA sees on tape is what they are going to get. Despite '06's observations and expectations (Szuluk is likely Hopkins second best defender) the Hopkins defense has not played together. Marcille's competitive games were in April/May 2021 - Ruddy really never played - Deans had a strong cup of coffee in the line-up a year ago but did not appear in the last 7 or so games - Kaufman token appearances last year - Mazzone is a transfer, Brown is a freshman. Smith has only started for one year and Szuluk missed most of "Spring" practice and the first four games with a broken hand. Ruddy/Kaufman/Deans have all missed at least oine game this year. One of the reasons Hopkins has looked better is there has been continuity at the SSDM position adn they have 2 first line guys around 6 ft. tall and 190+ - they can stand on their own. The Smurf second SSDM line is a problem against UVA. McConvey/Schutz ? Raposo or Ince might have to take one of them and that's when slides start and they pick you to pieces.

It may ultimately be the recipe for longer term success but with his own words you can see that Milliman thinks the way to approach this is recover/simplify and play hard/tough. That is not a likely recipe for success against this team on 2 days rest - when you again only played 24 (23 really) players for the 6th consecutive game. Parts of the game are going to have to be virtually flawless - you must stay out of man down (64% of their goals are assisted) - Hopkins is likely averaging 17+ turnovers a game and UVA opponents are averaging 16.5 - likely need to find a way to play as clean as possible - 21 turnovers like Saturday - good night. Must prevent their dizzying runs and can't let LaSalla score - make them work for everything. Their Shots on Goal per game average is not far off from Hopkins Shot average (30 to 36) so I think that tells you Marcille better get in the way of anywhere from 14-18. It's a really tall order.

Do they start Narewski for this game, essentially fresh, to maybe get an edge up on FOs, or hold him out until the SU game?
I can see an argument either way on this. He's definitely chomping at the bit to get in there.
I think the Jays need to win at the X to have a realistic chance in this one.

[blue angels]

Should we move on to talking about Tuesday's game,

Must prevent their dizzying runs and can't let LaSalla score - make them work for everything. Their Shots on Goal per game average is not far off from Hopkins Shot average (30 to 36) so I think that tells you Marcille better get in the way of anywhere from 14-18. It's a really tall order.

I would speculate that Hop surprises & plays this a lot tougher than some on here might suspect. I would also point out that UR tried to prevent Lasalla from going to the goal and the result was wing line mates, Chizmar and Sallade having big days on offense. There are no clear answers.. yet.....to stopping Virginia's offense. Shut off Shellenberger and there are 5 other guys who can score a hat trick or more on you. There is a lot of lacrosse left to play and the biggest challenges and best teams lie ahead for Virginia. So far, this offense appears to be Virginia's best since their undefeated 2006 team.