LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Ruffled_Feathers wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:26 pm At the end of the day this is about the result I expected but how we got there sure was not. The first half gives me hope, the third quarter makes me think getting back to proper competency in the middle of the field and in the clearing game is going to require a complete roster turnover.

The weakest points of this team continue to rear their ugly heads which certainly gives credence to the idea that week to week coaching decisions of the prior staff weren't the only thing standing in the way. Ugly groundball play and giving opposing offenses way too many second chances are familiar hallmarks of the last few years and if there was one thing I was hoping a new staff would/could fix it was the clearing game. But man does this just look like more of the same. Either there is more deprogramming to be done or the current crop of poles and rope unit is just beyond help.

Its a weakness for sure, and has been for awhile. Its great that Delaney is playing this well, but it is an indictment of recruiting/ roster construction that a guy who hasn't played lacrosse in four years is your #1 LSM.

I’ve filmed there multiple times. You need to set up your camcorder on the terrace level rather than the ‘moonshot’ press box level.

flalax22 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:25 pm

DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:19 pm Blue Jays played a competitive first half against Maryland.

Turnovers really decided this game. Cole Williams had a good game, but boy ... he made some costly and untimely turnovers, too.

I’m actually shocked that people are praising his game today. He’s a 5th year senior and his turnovers completely impacted momentum. On another note if anyone has seen Grimes please let the authorities know as he was reported missing.

Williams played an aggressive game, including with his passes. It be what it be. I’m sure JGJr will have some praise and instruction for Williams this week.

Grimes is doing fine. Like many HS lacrosse stars, I think he’s having a tough time adjusting to not having the ball in his stick all the time. Especially tough learning off-ball play. His senior teammates need to work harder to get him more involved.

DocBarrister

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:08 pm Take a walk. Get some fresh air.

I actually just did this (independent of your comments @06). It helps. I wish our more, um, passionate, fans would calm down and have some perspective.

Final score looked about like I thought it would. It was how we got that there was a gut punch.

We’ll move on. Penn State next week is a big game in terms of conference positioning. And we have plenty to work on as a team between now and then.

Ruffled_Feathers wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:26 pm
The weakest points of this team continue to rear their ugly heads which certainly gives credence to the idea that week to week coaching decisions of the prior staff weren't the only thing standing in the way.

I'd say all those blaming Benson for Hop's inability to score were wrong.

DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:19 pm P.S. BTN+ announcers are good, but the technical quality of the broadcasts suck. I pay $14.99/month for that cr*p?!?

Announcer quality - and overall broadcast quality - varies wildly between the 5 schools. And sometimes even from game to game for the same program.

a fan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:40 pm

Ruffled_Feathers wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:26 pm
The weakest points of this team continue to rear their ugly heads which certainly gives credence to the idea that week to week coaching decisions of the prior staff weren't the only thing standing in the way.

I'd say all those blaming Benson for Hop's inability to score were wrong.

Hopkins scored plenty during Benson’s tenure. The newly-installed motion offense in 2014-2015 was one of the best coaching jobs I’ve seen. Offense isn’t why Pietramala lost his job.

Plus, it’s obvious that Benson made some excellent adjustments today in the second half.

DocBarrister

jhu06 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 2:52 pm hard to put this on this staff when we've seen this for more than a decade of highly rated recruits who come in and the wheels just come off in embarrassing fashion. Benson the terp coach will enjoy the win, benson the former hop coach should feel embarrassed watch kids he recruited in some place since a very young age. Corona, fall ball, are excuses for defensive communication. They're not excuses for turnovers, failed clears, awful shooting angles, not winning faceoffs, mental toughness rising to the moment of 10-0 runs. Baskin, Zinn, williams, prouty, narewski, reinson. Can't score, can't clear, can't hold onto the ball, can't consistently put good shots on net. So many classes that entered the homewood nest over the last several years left the same way the classes they replaced did-w/performances like this. The bassett crew took the field in part because the kimmel era was a disaster in 2010, they exited in 2013 in ugly fashion, the tinneys gave us a ff, and now gave way to whatever this foley/williams inconsistent mess has been.

it's been obvious for some time umd was better at early recruiting than the rest of them.
so you are saying he should be embarassed that umd was better at projecting 9th graders... right?

When I’m watching a game, I’m most concerned with GBs. Jays went from even 5/5 in the 1st qtr to losing the ground battle 9/18 in the 2nd and 3rd qtrs. For the game, Hop were routed on GBs 31-20 (39%) and CTs 10-4. Jays are not going to win many games if they can’t compete on the ground. The only two GB bright spots were Delaney (4) and Reinson (3/2) who happen to be the most athletic defenders. Lack of foot speed dooms #28, #37 and #16.

Both teams cleared at a 77% rate.

DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:31 pm

primitiveskills wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:26 pm

DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:19 pm
P.S. BTN+ announcers are good, but the technical quality of the broadcasts suck. I pay $14.99/month for that cr*p?!?

It's a little egregious to ask that price for something that looks like someone filming on their cellphone

Plus, the typical moon shots at “Maryland Stadium” (the new name for the Stadium-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named) didn’t help either. Isn’t it time for Maryland to play in a more lacrosse-appropriate stadium?

DocBarrister

They spent the farm revovating Cole and now COVID is ravaging athletic dept budgets. So that's not happening, unless there is a super-wealthy lacrosse-obsessed donor I don't know about.

DocBarrister wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:46 pm

a fan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:40 pm

Ruffled_Feathers wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:26 pm
The weakest points of this team continue to rear their ugly heads which certainly gives credence to the idea that week to week coaching decisions of the prior staff weren't the only thing standing in the way.

I'd say all those blaming Benson for Hop's inability to score were wrong.

Hopkins scored plenty during Benson’s tenure. The newly-installed motion offense in 2014-2015 was one of the best coaching jobs I’ve seen. Offense isn’t why Pietramala lost his job.

Plus, it’s obvious that Benson made some excellent adjustments today in the second half.

DocBarrister

Benson's offense is a perfect fit for Maryland's personnel this year. He couldn't have landed in a better spot.

You mean Reppert’s offense with Benson on the sideline.

a fan wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:40 pm

Ruffled_Feathers wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:26 pm
The weakest points of this team continue to rear their ugly heads which certainly gives credence to the idea that week to week coaching decisions of the prior staff weren't the only thing standing in the way.

I'd say all those blaming Benson for Hop's inability to score were wrong.

Yeah, it doesn't matter how high powered your offense may or may not be if you aren't getting them the ball. That isn't to say the offenses we have had over the last few years have been anything amazing but they have usually been serviceable enough. Some decision making and execution today fell apart a bit but even with the personnel we have there were looks to be had. Maryland goalie play didn't do us any favors but Epstein may have himself taken 50% too many ill advised shots and for every great play Williams made he also threw the ball away with frequency. Same as it ever was there really.

re: Groundballs My general assumption at this point is we really must have the worst stick skills of any long stick corp in Division 1 that even feints to be a contender. When the ball hits the floor in our offensive end its going the other way thanks to the other guys 6 ft sticks, when the ball hits the ground in our defensive end we have 3 or 4 guys take a stab at it, slap it around and then an opposing offensive player comes up with it. In terms of how this further shows up in the clearing game one thing I am beyond sick and tired of watching is a long stick right next to where the ball goes out makes a B-line for the box instead of picking up the ball and getting it in motion. We have enough problems clearing with initiative, stop giving the opposing team any extra time to setup their ride. This has to be a coached behavior and the only imaginable reason is we don't trust certain poles handling the ball at all. This was a staple under Petro at least in the last few years and something I wish would just die, but maybe some of them just really cant be trusted to touch the ball...

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 3:08 pm
Williams had 5 pts today from the midfield. Take a walk. Get some fresh air. Just stop posting.

Had a feeling MD would short stick him today. He made them pay with a good game. Milliman's game plan is probably what teams will now try to do against Maryland. Force them to defend an entire shot clock, clog up the middle when the Terps on are offense, and don't let the Terps run. They executed that game plan about as well as could be expected in the first half. They held the Terps to 17 shots in the first half. Once the Jays couldn't get possession in the 3rd, the Terps started to get rolling. They had 15 shots in the 3rd quarter alone. The play in the crease with Szuluk and Wisnauskas, IMO, sparked Maryland. The game got out of control from there.

Think for Hop to be more successful the rest of the way in, their game plan from the first half is their way to go. Long possessions on offense where Epstein, DeSimone, and Williams can win one-on-one match-ups, try to stifle transition, and clog the middle on defense so Kirson sees shots from further out.

I mean other than the 10-0 run in the middle of the game, we won, right? I couldn't watch beyond the 1st quarter, and was looking at the IL scoreboard on my phone: 7-7, OK; 5 mins later, 9-7, OK; 5 mins later 15-7, refresh, refresh, what? Hence the Ron Burgundy quote.

From the IL box, a lot of new faces today though - Keneally, Martin (1A), Dunn, Raposo and Smith. No Deans (why?) or McManus (I think I'd take him over Lyne) and still no Glassmeyer this year. Was this all in garbage time or do we think some of these guys may end up getting some more runs? Still tend to think that as the year goes on, some of the older guys (who were probably better prepared to play at the beginning of the year given the lack of practice time) will give way to some of the younger guys, who may be more able to address the athleticism gap. Thinking in particular that Smith and Martin could be very helpful on GBs and clearing.

This team will be significantly better in May than it is now.

Next week will be a very interesting measuring stick.

No idea - just going off of IL's box, which is great to have, though not perfect. FWIW, though, Deans is 46 and Hawley is 26. Per IL, neither played. Why no Hawley on the wings?

nyjay wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 4:51 pm I mean other than the 10-0 run in the middle of the game, we won, right? I couldn't watch beyond the 1st quarter, and was looking at the IL scoreboard on my phone: 7-7, OK; 5 mins later, 9-7, OK; 5 mins later 15-7, refresh, refresh, what? Hence the Ron Burgundy quote.

From the IL box, a lot of new faces today though - Keneally, Martin (1A), Dunn, Raposo and Smith. No Deans (why?) or McManus (I think I'd take him over Lyne) and still no Glassmeyer this year. Was this all in garbage time

New faces were in garbage time.

Martin and Deans played with no entries in the box score. Jaronski had an excellent fast break assist to Deso. Smith and Raposo each took a face off.

-Just to be really clear. Marylands last year in the acc they took in $73 million, their first year in the big ten they took in $93 million. I pay for the big ten network year round which goes to maryland and nothing to Hopkins. I paid $15 to watch today and our next games which goes to maryland and not Hopkins. I don't enjoy as an alum coming on here and hammering some of our guys especially when I'm helping fund our rivals.
-My first impression was that milliman clearly had a better game plan than tilliman and that was encouraging. That could/should've easily been a 9/10-5 game to start. Delaney and Epstein were everywhere. Benson and tilliman have seen more of 97 percent of our guys than our staff has and yet on the road we were the better team. Kirson was agressive, maryland cashed in, regained momentum and here we are.
-Petro always made a big deal of the belichek philosophy that games are decided by who dominates at the end of the first and start of the second halves and we had 2 defensive stops before reinson who after years in the program failed on the 3rd which turned into a goal and that was the game. No fall ball, corona, scrimmages, 10-0 runs aren't about those things. It's about a lack of leadership and several other things we've seen for too long.
-I don't care what hf16 thinks. this staff didn't recruit these kids. they don't owe them anything and zinn should be done. This is 2 staffs now where he can't get it together. it really felt like williams was on every offensive possesion w/degnon subbing for either keogh or angelus every other one and then baskin and zinn every 5th or 6th.
-looked like we played 2 on 3 on every faceoff. This was supposed to be a weakness of theirs according to their bloggers and their guy that played well today was benched last week after 0/6 start.
-williams always gets his garbage time points, he also gets his regular time turnovers
-they believe in grimes which is nice but he's a cub on a field w/a roster full of veteran alpha lions and he doesn't seem to want to do any hunting.

nyjay wrote: ↑Sat Mar 06, 2021 5:10 pm No idea - just going off of IL's box, which is great to have, though not perfect. FWIW, though, Deans is 46 and Hawley is 26. Per IL, neither played. Why no Hawley on the wings?

Never look at IL’s box. No telling what you might see down there.