51percentcorn wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 10:58 am
steel_hop wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 9:05 am
When a team struggles or is losing it avails itself to more suggestions of what to do to make it better. Try Player X... Move Player Y....the coach is a moron... Those types of posts then bring out counter proposals or defenses of the current situation. It is sports and people become passionate about it particularly when they all want a team to do well.
As for me. The team is playing well. Not sure they are a top 5/6 team - though likely a top 10 team. They have certainly been playing well. I'd love to see Hopkins replay the UNC game with a full weeks preparation. Saturday's opponent is going to be a tough one. PSU has beaten some good teams and would almost be a mirror image of Hopkins. A team that wasn't supposed to be that good has been right the ship if you will after a couple of tough seasons.
Agree with alot of this. We'll find out soon enough what ranking is appropriate. I think you throw in the incredible chaos and volatility of the last 15 years with one of the most recognizable programs in the sport then the commentary and angst is going to voluminous and dies down if the ship appears to be under sail in the right direction.
jhu06 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 05, 2023 9:33 am
The jump from Not Ranked/Receiving votes to top 10 is a lot more chaotic, polarizing, and emotional than the jump from where we are now to where Duke/UVA/the fighting Kavanaughs are in 2023. I'm sure 51 or someone can break down what it will take for the 23 jays to make that jump better starting this week but it requires more consistency more than anything else. Cutting down on turnovers, better faceoffs, avoiding the runs that rutgers/delaware had, closing out teams before the 4th instead of needing to close late, stars playing at an all american level rather than an all conference level etc.
There's no secret formula or breakdown for Hopkins. It certainly looks right now that Duke/UVA/Notre Dame and Cornell (especially if Long ever really returns healthy) are the Top 4 teams. The great thing about the NCAA tournament is you won't have to play all four (probably) and you don't have to beat them 2 out of 3/3 out of 5 etc. You only have to do it once. There's only one word that really matters - Possessions. What goes into possessions? Of course that is Face-offs/non face-off Ground balls/Saves/Turnovers. If you are playing one of those teams - any team really - but especially one of those teams - if what happened against UVA happens again (outshot by 16/out ground balled by 20/out faced off by 11/same number of turnovers) then you have little to no shot. Hopkins is probably not the most comfortable team to play right now - the Jays are very willing to go really deep in the shot clock and with the emergence of English/Evans/McDermott and the versatility of Melendez they have alot of pieces that can go difference places on the field and have picked up the slack after opponents discovered Collison. But they need two things maybe more than some - e.g. UVA or Duke might survive a sub-par day from the goalie - they need solid to better than solid goaltending (Hopkins tends to surrender more shots on average and opponents have put 2 more shots on goal) and they need the ball to execute that patient offense and wear defenses down.
The quality of the possessions aside from the turnovers, which is like mrs.lincoln saying there were positive things about the play, have been a lot better this year. I'm sure you can make comments about shooting percentage numbers, but it feels like more of the shots have either been quality on goal shots or not right at the goalie enabling the other team to get out in transition fast. It seems we've seen a lot fewer situations with offensive players caught on defense or even attackmen for long periods-something that's crushed us in the past.
We'll see what the late possessions do to opposing defenses when the weather gets hotter and more humid. If we get deep into the big ten tournament we'll see those schools like penn state, ohio state, michigan, and even Rutgers which might not be used to the Baltimore heat after months in that frigid Schembechler air.
If there was a list of players who are going to define this season from here on out mine would probably be in order marcille, the hot fogo of the day, one of peshko or grimes maximizing their potential, mazzone, jaronski, the third attackman they settle on, and hawley.
