LaxPower Back-Up Stick

Big Dog wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 11:49 pm
small nit, but BU is not in the same academic class as Georgetown and Hopkins. Moreover, you are cherry-picking FBS football, as Georgetown is D1 in the 23 sports that they offer, but football is FCS, just like the Ivies.

I agree with all this, but I'm honestly trying not to cherry-pick. I'm trying to create a reasonable reference class, with the understanding that no two schools are identical. If we accept both your caveats, Hopkins ends up with no comparators at all, because the only other school with D1 mlax and D3 football is Hobart, and Hobart is (ducks to avoid eggs) "not in the same academic class as Georgetown and Hopkins."

I guess my underlying assumption here is that schools with FCS football have more in common with schools with D3 football, at least as far as the resources they have available for D1 lacrosse, than either has in common with a school like Maryland or Ohio State. If you prefer, we could look only at non-football schools, and relax the academic requirement such that the reference group is BU, Denver, Loyola, and (Lord help us) Drexel.

My point is, let's not cherry-pick in the other direction and create a class of "schools that can't succeed in D1 lacrosse" that's gerrymandered to only include Hopkins.

I believe what everyone is missing the most important element of an athlete's decision making when it comes to the final reason to commit to a school... the recruits "connection" with the head coach and the coaching staff. Most of the posters here are citing school attributes, scholastics, prestige etc... Of course, all of that factors in, but the connection to the coaches is what really seals the deal. If a player is highly desirable as a D1 lacrosse player, he is likely being courted by a few schools so it comes down to him (and the parents) feeling good about the players comfort with the coaching staff. Why do you think the transfer portal exists? Because sometimes a player makes the "wrong" decision (for him) or there is a coaching change. An athlete sometimes goes to a school and finds they don't click with the coach or the team. They may look to make a change for a better fit. That's why UVA, MD, now even Rutgers (and many more) are so successful. The culture created by the coach (and his staff) and the connection they create with each athlete. I hear Tillman in every interview praising the scout team, the contribution of every player on his team. It's about creating a culture. Tiffany is the same way, the players love that guy.

Hail to the Victors wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 10:59 pm

LaxPundit07 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 7:08 pm

Hail to the Victors wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 6:49 pm

LaxPundit07 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 3:27 pm ...
See my response to that above. In response to someone attacking his low EQ, which is laughable, I explained his family dynamic (wife, kids, and their political perspective) directly refuted that notion.

As inconceivable as this may be to you, I do not believe that those words mean what you think they mean.

Please explain. My small mind doesn’t understand your point.

No argument here.

I considered pulling a DocBarrister and earning myself a timeout…but I don’t think you are worth it.

Hail! To the victors…..who lost 8 straight to end the season.

Scholarships. There are 12.6 athletic schollies. At Hopkins they are generally split into quarters. Hopkins has only given 2 full rides i am aware of. I don’t know about the last few years but i doubt anyone but maybe Epstein.

I have not seen pro formas breaking down net cost between HYP and Hopkins. The alumni directory for these schools and other ivies are pure gold and well worth a price differential.

The coach is a crucial piece but not determinative. For example, I assume Duke will continue to trot out Coach K to close if needed.

Some kids want the big school athletic experience. Hopkins as recently as a few years ago had a reputation as a school where you had to work to stay in school comparatively speaking. There are a few players who chose Princeton or Harvard or Yale bcs they said they would not have to work as hard. Disclosure my daughter went to Yale. She worked hard

Some kids want to get away for school. Close enough but not too close. Danowski before leaving for Duke was having to deal with the why aren’t you keeping the talent home questions.

It looks to me the Ivies have put the effort into figuring it out based on recent results. For a long time few in the league seemed to make the effort.

Hopkins is not a destination school for most but it does have strong academics, a good social life if you want to make the effort, pro sports, proximity to DC, Philly, and NYC, a symphony, several good theaters and so on.

Kikin wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:45 am I believe what everyone is missing the most important element of an athlete's decision making when it comes to the final reason to commit to a school... the recruits "connection" with the head coach and the coaching staff. Most of the posters here are citing school attributes, scholastics, prestige etc... Of course, all of that factors in, but the connection to the coaches is what really seals the deal. If a player is highly desirable as a D1 lacrosse player, he is likely being courted by a few schools so it comes down to him (and the parents) feeling good about the players comfort with the coaching staff. Why do you think the transfer portal exists? Because sometimes a player makes the "wrong" decision (for him) or there is a coaching change. An athlete sometimes goes to a school and finds they don't click with the coach or the team. They may look to make a change for a better fit. That's why UVA, MD, now even Rutgers (and many more) are so successful. The culture created by the coach (and his staff) and the connection they create with each athlete. I hear Tillman in every interview praising the scout team, the contribution of every player on his team. It's about creating a culture. Tiffany is the same way, the players love that guy.

And that's what's missing for us. One of the reasons I thought Marr would have been a good fit was that the players liked him. That's important. Critical really. You have to have the charisma and concern for the players and passion for the game. Chic may have been harsh at times but his players wanted to play for him. He had fire and passion for the team and the game.
I'm just not seeing any of that with PM. He can yell at the players but I don't think he can inspire them. This lack of charisma, personability, EQ or whatever you call it puts us behind the 8 ball with recruiting and the transfer portal.
Also, when your team is losing big to your biggest rival you have to be able to call timeout and fire up your team.
This is why Tilman and Tiffany are so successful, because they are engaged and concerned. They care. They have passion and charisma.
PM just doesn't have that, I'm sorry. Maybe he was the best coach JB could get to come here, but I just don't see him as a fit at Hopkins.
His lack of success so far does not bode well for the future and I just don't see this getting better anytime soon. Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses and move forward.

I'm sorry, John Tillman is not particularly charismatic. He's the best coach in the country IMO, but it's not because of his personality.

Winning cures all ills but there was *lots* of talk about Tiffany rubbing players the wrong way when he first came in. Not everyone was a fan of his approach and some still aren't. What he's done has clearly worked but that doesn't mean everyone is a happy camper all the time.

The players liked Scott Marr because he's their friend's dad. Albany is 5-8, lost to UMBC and Binghamton by a combined 17 goals, and, somehow, lost to Maryland by an even worse margin than we did.

"Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses and move forward." — LOL. What, pray tell, do you think will happen if they fire this staff after 2 seasons? Is that what's going to convince Andy Shay or Joe Alberici to come on down to Homewood? It's a little disturbing how you're unable to game this scenario out. We'd have to hire the JV coach from Sts Peter & Paul because that's the only type of candidate who'd take the job after the last guy was canned without even getting one full recruiting class of his own in the door.

Milliman was 28-10 at Cornell, made the quarterfinals in his first year and had the looks of a potential title contender in 2020. The idea that he can't be successful because of certain perceived personality inadequacies is mind-numbingly stupid. When the team isn't playing well you can come up with all sorts of cockamamie reasons why based on zero evidence. The reason is staring you right in your face. We don't have an offensive player who can draw slides. I think Maryland slid once that entire game (and it led to a goal! funny how that happens) The one guy who could force defenses into uncomfortable situations on a consistent basis tore up his knee and has never been and never will be the same player. We don't have a good goalie. Petro left the roster in shambles. Let PM get his guys in there and then see if anything changes. Our best player on the field this weekend (Callahan) was a late add whom PM identified up at Victor after Petro's recruited FOGO bailed for Towson. He went 50% against Maryland's probable 1st or 2nd team All-American.

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:50 am I'm sorry, John Tillman is not particularly charismatic. He's the best coach in the country IMO, but it's not because of his personality.

Winning cures all ills but there was *lots* of talk about Tiffany rubbing players the wrong way when he first came in. Not everyone was a fan of his approach and some still aren't. What he's done has clearly worked but that doesn't mean everyone is a happy camper all the time.

The players liked Scott Marr because he's their friend's dad. Albany is 5-8, lost to UMBC and Binghamton by a combined 17 goals, and, somehow, lost to Maryland by an even worse margin than we did.

"Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses and move forward." — LOL. What, pray tell, do you think will happen if they fire this staff after 2 seasons? Is that what's going to convince Andy Shay or Joe Alberici to come on down to Homewood? It's a little disturbing how you're unable to game this scenario out. We'd have to hire the JV coach from Sts Peter & Paul because that's the only type of candidate who'd take the job after the last guy was canned without even getting one full recruiting class of his own in the door.

Milliman was 28-10 at Cornell, made the quarterfinals in his first year and had the looks of a potential title contender in 2020. The idea that he can't be successful because of certain perceived personality inadequacies is mind-numbingly stupid. When the team isn't playing well you can come up with all sorts of cockamamie reasons why based on zero evidence. The reason is staring you right in your face. We don't have an offensive player who can draw slides. I think Maryland slid once that entire game (and it led to a goal! funny how that happens) The one guy who could force defenses into uncomfortable situations on a consistent basis tore up his knee and has never been and never will be the same player. We don't have a good goalie. Petro left the roster in shambles. Let PM get his guys in there and then see if anything changes. Our best player on the field this weekend (Callahan) was a late add whom PM identified up at Victor after Petro's recruited FOGO bailed for Towson. He went 50% against Maryland's probable 1st or 2nd team All-American.

The game has changed in the shot clock era, and your last paragraph gets to the point. Gone are the days where you can endlessly grind a team down when you have the ball. Denver is having the same problem. Heavy off-ball motion offenses before the shot clock could force defenses to break down. With the shot clock now, you need someone to draw a slide to make all of the off-ball motion work more quickly. You can tell that Milliman and JGJr are trying to find the players to do this as they move players around. There just aren't enough players to win match-ups. The current Hop offense also doesn't even do a ton off-ball anymore. They seem to be stuck between offenses right now, and it's not easy to watch.

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:50 am I'm sorry, John Tillman is not particularly charismatic. He's the best coach in the country IMO, but it's not because of his personality.

Winning cures all ills but there was *lots* of talk about Tiffany rubbing players the wrong way when he first came in. Not everyone was a fan of his approach and some still aren't. What he's done has clearly worked but that doesn't mean everyone is a happy camper all the time.

The players liked Scott Marr because he's their friend's dad. Albany is 5-8, lost to UMBC and Binghamton by a combined 17 goals, and, somehow, lost to Maryland by an even worse margin than we did.

"Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses and move forward." — LOL. What, pray tell, do you think will happen if they fire this staff after 2 seasons? Is that what's going to convince Andy Shay or Joe Alberici to come on down to Homewood? It's a little disturbing how you're unable to game this scenario out. We'd have to hire the JV coach from Sts Peter & Paul because that's the only type of candidate who'd take the job after the last guy was canned without even getting one full recruiting class of his own in the door.

Milliman was 28-10 at Cornell, made the quarterfinals in his first year and had the looks of a potential title contender in 2020. The idea that he can't be successful because of certain perceived personality inadequacies is mind-numbingly stupid. When the team isn't playing well you can come up with all sorts of cockamamie reasons why based on zero evidence. The reason is staring you right in your face. We don't have an offensive player who can draw slides. I think Maryland slid once that entire game (and it led to a goal! funny how that happens) The one guy who could force defenses into uncomfortable situations on a consistent basis tore up his knee and has never been and never will be the same player. We don't have a good goalie. Petro left the roster in shambles. Let PM get his guys in there and then see if anything changes. Our best player on the field this weekend (Callahan) was a late add whom PM identified up at Victor after Petro's recruited FOGO bailed for Towson. He went 50% against Maryland's probable 1st or 2nd team All-American.

You are probably right that letting PM go now is probably not a good move long term for the program. Not sure it will work out long term for him. Will have to wait and see when he gets his guys in. Just a question for you has your seem to have a good handle on the program. How would you rate PM’s first recruiting class? You mentioned Callahan above, but I don’t think there is any other significant contribution from any other freshman this season.

This years freshman group isn't really even a "Milliman Class", the incoming freshman next year are his first actual yield. This years was somewhat patchwork pieced together of later commits and leftover Petro recruits that didn't decommit. In theory the highest ranking high school standout was/is Todaro who we haven't even seen on a scrimmage field yet right?

Thats not to say the current freshman class is going to be entirely devoid of talent when all is said and done but the class was not full of can't-miss recruits and you can't really say with a straight face that PM and company had a fair shake at landing a big fish, at the end of the day we're hoping to have found some hidden gems.

From the fall Stu Phillips seemed to get a real long look and generally looked the part in scrimmages. Nick Kaufman is a hulk that can gobble up GBs which hopefully we see more of next year.

HappyGilmore wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 9:32 am You are probably right that letting PM go now is probably not a good move long term for the program. Not sure it will work out long term for him. Will have to wait and see when he gets his guys in. Just a question for you has your seem to have a good handle on the program. How would you rate PM’s first recruiting class? You mentioned Callahan above, but I don’t think there is any other significant contribution from any other freshman this season.

The first half of your post is perfectly reasonable and I think is all anyone should expect. I don't know if it will work out long term either. But he deserves an actual shot to find out.

It's been tough for freshmen around the country — not just at Hopkins — to be major contributors this year. On top of losing a key year of development as juniors in high school during Covid, they now have to deal with bloated rosters full of 25-year-olds. So it's tough just to get on the field.

With Hopkins specifically, after the coaching change, the majority of the class (then HS juniors) switched, meaning the new staff had to look for late bloomers in some unconventional places to fill out the class as Ruffled just mentioned. Milliman flipped two guys from his Cornell class, one from Binghamton, one from Vermont, and kept three of Petro's guys (Kaufman, Todaro, Teachout). Todaro, the highest ranked player in the class, broke his foot and missed all of fall ball. So he's never really been an option. He's healthy now but at this point you probably redshirt him. Reen, Bowler, Hicks, and Wong have also dealt with injuries. Callahan is clearly already making an impact, and I think Kaufman will eventually (he's too huge and rangy not to). Todaro when healthy should have a role at some point. I don't know about anyone else, but it's still early. I think this incoming 2022 class — which PM and co. recruited entirely on their own on a normal timeline — will be fair game to judge.

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:50 am . Petro left the roster in shambles. Let PM get his guys in there and then see if anything changes. Our best player on the field this weekend (Callahan)

Man, if only someone had been pointing that out for last 7-8 years of Petro's tenure. This wouldn't be an issue. And what I miss this weekend to generate all this talk...I'm not sure why anyone is surprised on this. It has been quite evident the program was going downhill way back in the early teens. This is just culmination of bad decisions Petro made. It is why I beat the drum for so long (which most disagreed with me on).

Whether Millman is the answer, i don't know but it was clear Petro wasn't. His hands are still all over the program because it is mainly his recruits playing a large portion of the games. As the saying goes it ain't the Xs and O's, it is the Jimmy and Joes. The offense is really bad...I'm not sure how getting a couple of Canadian kids (not exactly known for their speed - stick work yes...speed not so much) changes that dynamic. Offensively, they look lost. As I said, next year is not going to be better and I think it will be worse.

Then you add in COVID which accentuates the great teams because the best players get another year while the programs that are struggling keep their players that aren't so good. The transfer portal doesn't help either - just allows top programs to pluck players from other schools at their whim. Sure, coaches aren't allowed to "talk" with players not in the portal but you don't think communication doesn't happen, you are kidding yourself.

The big questions are really about PM's ability to run a program to the fact, you can argue that last year's team was much better than this year's team. I think last year team was.

But, questions arise like
- self scouting/evaluation. Why did Hopkins play the toughest, or one of the toughest schedules in the country this year.
- why did the team play not one but two 48 hour games. The argument that the team is preparing for a FF weekend. Again, goes to self-evaluation
- Why wasn't there more interest in looking at the transfer portal.
- is it true only winning pressers are posted online - that seems a little thin skinned.

steel_hop wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 9:57 am - Why wasn't there more interest in looking at the transfer portal.
- is it true only winning pressers are posted online - that seems a little thin skinned.

- How do you know there wasn't?
- Not true — we generally only post pressers from home games. There also isn't always a press conference, it depends how many media people are there. They've been doing this for years and it pre-dates Milliman. Regardless, they posted the full presser after the Maryland game. It's on the website if you're a masochist

Thankfully some sense has been added to this board with Homer/16/Wheels etc.. Between DocB's incessant claims every year that Hopkins has as much talent as anyone and it must be poor coaching or not "putting it together" - last 4 years record 8-8/2-4/4-9/6-8 is alot of bad coaching and not putting it together - Sag's manic depression (he doesn't even realize a month ago he was president of the Milliman fan club) and whatever lurks in '06's mind (lest we all forget he once posted on LaxPower that Hopkins was failing to appropriately "compartmentalize" Jeremy Huber's death) this place is hard to take anymore.

The bottom line is Hopkins has literally no chance of defeating this Maryland team in the shot clock era. Only hope would be if there was no clock/goalie stood on his head and you won 80% of the face-offs and you had some folks that could handle the ball and not treat it like live ordnance. To put some numbers to it - in the last 6 games before Saturday - Maryland played 5 teams that were on Hopkins schedule - the other 4 BIG teams and UVA - they were 6-0 and scored 121 goals and allowed 58. in the past 6 weeks Hopkins played Navy/Delaware and the 4 BIGs - scored 65 goals and allowed 69. What did you think was going to happen????? This is not a case of A beating B and B beating C and trying to argue that A may not beat C. This is A beating the absolute dog crap out of 5 teams with which C struggled (except for Penn State). These numbers tell me on average a Maryland double digit win is almost a certainty. They are going to get to 20 and Hopkins is going to struggle to get to 10. If Hopkins can keep a rematch to 8 or less it would be a moral victory. If they do play in a BIG semi - Maryland has to be aware of having another game in two days and they may not score 3 goals in 10 seconds again so it might not be 15 goals but it will be bad and there is nothing Mr. Scott/Chic/Zim/Petro could do about it - the talent disparity is simply that wide.

Also ludicrous is this notion that Milliman should have been able to stock the roster with whomever he wanted. We should have Gray/Donville/Khan/Bowen etc. etc. all running around in light Blue and Black. Horse hockey. Let's get back to reality. First, there was a roster in the high 50's approaching 60. Then you have the players that have played for Hopkins for several years that want their COVID eligibility. Then you have a very small school with more limited graduate school opportunities than a state university with 30-50,000 people running around. Then there's money - both in the cost of the school and what scholarship money can be allocated. Then with a new coach, a 2 year previous record of 6-13 maybe the guy who wants his shot at a ring doesn't pick Hopkins because he thinks they won't get there.

Look - if Jesus Christ himself was the coach of the team and Hopkins was 6-8 and lost to Maryland in double digits - Sag A would bbq him on his low EQ and say get St. Peter in there but the following statements are true:
- Milliman did not orchestrate Petro's dismissal so I don't know why anyone has such a grudge against him
- He may not have been someone's first choice and I am sure that there are many stories about who was interested and not interested and sorry - Marr/Nadelen/Gallagher whomever would be sitting in virtually the same place as Milliman because no roster changes could have been really affected - Murphy is your only bullet in that regard. Yes Zinn looks better - I would look better playing with those guys
- He was hired in the middle of a major pandemic/health crisis where for months he couldn't even meet his team in person
- He could not recruit really - he couldn't meet with any potential defectors for the 21 class - there were no recruiting events to go to - and unlike virtually every other coach he had to cobble together a 21 class and the 22 class from scratch.
- The roster he was presented was and is not well constructed - he has been forced to go through a very painful process of eliminating some roster spots - the previous coaching administration had brought in 36 kids in the last 2 classes - Absurd
- He tried to fix two of the most glaring issues facing the team - through transfers - goalie and LSM - he couldn't fix everything
- He has clearly made mistakes - his handling of Epstein has been wierd to say the least, in hindsight scheduling 2 sets of 2 games in 48 hours during the season was probably not the best decision (though when it was announced I distinctly recall posts about how brilliant this was to prepare the team for the rigors of May
I think you have to let Collison/Marquis/Ayers/Iler etc. etc. come through and see if anything improves - '16 is 100% correct - fire him now and it will be a cold day in a very warm place before any quality coach thinks Hopkins is the right place.

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:50 am I'm sorry, John Tillman is not particularly charismatic. He's the best coach in the country IMO, but it's not because of his personality.

Winning cures all ills but there was *lots* of talk about Tiffany rubbing players the wrong way when he first came in. Not everyone was a fan of his approach and some still aren't. What he's done has clearly worked but that doesn't mean everyone is a happy camper all the time.

The players liked Scott Marr because he's their friend's dad. Albany is 5-8, lost to UMBC and Binghamton by a combined 17 goals, and, somehow, lost to Maryland by an even worse margin than we did.

I don’t think that’s entirely fair. They may have met him because they played with Kyle but every player I know that went up to Albany or has interacted with him at a camp or recruiting event has described him as the ultimate players coach.

Homer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 11:24 pm

InsiderRoll wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 1:40 pm
Look I agree that they should have and could have played in fall of 2020. However I think your losing perspective if you think that Hopkins lacrosse is looked at by it’s administration the same way SEC football is looked at by administrators. There’s plenty that they can do better in terms of managing the program from the administration down. But Hopkins is really up against it in the B1G. They’re facing bigger budgets and a sea of resources, along with the fading mystique of Hopkins Lacrosse.

A lot of people say stuff like this, but I'm not all that persuaded. If you look at Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan -- as a group their stature in the sport today collectively seems about the same as it was in 2015, back when Hopkins last made the FF. I'm sure a spigot of crazy football money is a nice thing to have, but it doesn't look like any more of a prerequisite for success today than it was a decade ago.

More broadly, I guess I could be persuaded this is wrong, but just eyeballing it I don't get the sense the mix of teams in the top 5-10-20 that have P5 resources vs. those that don't has changed much over the years. Just the names on the front of the jerseys. If it's 20 years ago and I say, "there's an expensive urban private university in the Mid-Atlantic that doesn't have FBS football, not an Ivy, that's 12-1 and #3 in the RPI right now," you'd have said, sounds about right. Only you'd have guessed Hopkins, not Georgetown.

InsiderRoll wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 1:40 pm I just think that the Hopkins faithful have a false reality about what this program can really be year in and year out. And although Hopkins is an amazing academic school, for some reason the highest academic kids still seem to prioritize the Ivy in the recruiting process.

Okay, fine, let's say for purposes of argument that the Ivies are an inappropriate comparison. I'm not sure that I agree, but let's stipulate. What's the relevant peer group? Who should Hopkins, completely apart from any crap about tradition or mystique or whatever, be benchmarking against?

If the peer group is "urban schools, no big-time football money, relatively high academic prestige but not Ivies," that includes:

Boston U
Georgetown
Johns Hopkins

Am I missing anybody? You could maybe sort of shoehorn Villanova or Lehigh or Richmond in, but I think the three we've got are a pretty natural comparison group. I notice two of those three having pretty nice seasons this year. I think in any year, if two out of the three are doing well, the third's entitled to say, "Why not us?" So why not us?

I agree with what your saying generally. But I think you’re kinda making my point. Is BU really much better than Hopkins this year? Probably not, but they Don’t play a schedule as close to as hard as JHU. JHU is in someways outgunned by their direct competitors for an AQ over the long term. Georgetown probably has less resources than Hopkins, but by comparison to the rest of the big East they may be top dogs in regards to resources. The Hopkins schedule is extremely daunting and top recruits don’t want to go to programs that are 8-8 every year. I’d be shocked did BU could pull off a 6-8 record against Hopkins schedule. But yes at some point you have to win the games.

Also, Georgetown was very close to firing Warne just a few years ago, they gave him another year, made him fire his staff. Turned out to be the best decision ever for them. Sometimes the light is darkest before the dawn.

jhu06 wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 10:00 pm -Second of all a lot of kids when I was there really hated the athletes and in particular the lacrosse players who were viewed as aloof, elitist and not as bright as the rest of the student body and that was a decade before Daniels went after alumni admissions. I always liked most of them, but never cared for the fact that a lot of the female student athletes seem to contribute nothing to campus except walking around in sweatpants between classes dorms and the northwest end of campus.

Around 300 of these "not as bright as the rest of the student body" alums were at the women's game on Saturday to honor their coach at her last game on Homewood Field. Among them are doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and C-level executives.

Last season 28 of the players were named Academic All Big Ten, 18 were Big Ten Distinguished Scholars, and 9 were on the IWLCA Academic Honor Roll. The team as a whole had a 3.62 GPA for the 2020-2021 academic year. They achieved this while dedicating 20-30 hours a week to a D1 sport, something the rest of the student body doesn't have to do.

16 years is a long time to hold a grudge for being rejected by one (or more) of these sweatpants wearing women. I think it's time to let it go.

HopFan16 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 8:50 am I'm sorry, John Tillman is not particularly charismatic. He's the best coach in the country IMO, but it's not because of his personality.

Winning cures all ills but there was *lots* of talk about Tiffany rubbing players the wrong way when he first came in. Not everyone was a fan of his approach and some still aren't. What he's done has clearly worked but that doesn't mean everyone is a happy camper all the time.

The players liked Scott Marr because he's their friend's dad. Albany is 5-8, lost to UMBC and Binghamton by a combined 17 goals, and, somehow, lost to Maryland by an even worse margin than we did.

"Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses and move forward." — LOL. What, pray tell, do you think will happen if they fire this staff after 2 seasons? Is that what's going to convince Andy Shay or Joe Alberici to come on down to Homewood? It's a little disturbing how you're unable to game this scenario out. We'd have to hire the JV coach from Sts Peter & Paul because that's the only type of candidate who'd take the job after the last guy was canned without even getting one full recruiting class of his own in the door.

Milliman was 28-10 at Cornell, made the quarterfinals in his first year and had the looks of a potential title contender in 2020. The idea that he can't be successful because of certain perceived personality inadequacies is mind-numbingly stupid. When the team isn't playing well you can come up with all sorts of cockamamie reasons why based on zero evidence. The reason is staring you right in your face. We don't have an offensive player who can draw slides. I think Maryland slid once that entire game (and it led to a goal! funny how that happens) The one guy who could force defenses into uncomfortable situations on a consistent basis tore up his knee and has never been and never will be the same player. We don't have a good goalie. Petro left the roster in shambles. Let PM get his guys in there and then see if anything changes. Our best player on the field this weekend (Callahan) was a late add whom PM identified up at Victor after Petro's recruited FOGO bailed for Towson. He went 50% against Maryland's probable 1st or 2nd team All-American.

"these aren't PM's kids" has to be one of the worst takes on this forum (and there's a lot of competition). He had two years to overhaul this roster. Rutgers, maryland all sorts of more established staffs took knives to their rosters and kids they'd recruited. He gave these kids jerseys for these last two seasons and put them on the field.

flalax22 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 10:30 am I don’t think that’s entirely fair. They may have met him because they played with Kyle but every player I know that went up to Albany or has interacted with him at a camp or recruiting event has described him as the ultimate players coach.

Except if you're TD Ierlan or Tehoka Nanticoke apparently, their two best players since the Thompsons graduated. Anyway, being a player's coach is great — I didn't say he wasn't. He seems like a cool guy. But he and Nadelen (who is NOT known as a players' coach, btw) are Sag's go-to "the grass is greener" choices and neither have acquitted themselves particularly well lately. That was my only point really. Also, with each graduating class fewer and fewer guys on the team have any idea who Marr even is. Were they supposed to let the outgoing senior class determine a theoretically longterm coaching hire?

I distinctly remember some people here freaking the f*ck out that Galloway was a finalist for job, let alone that he was even being interviewed. Turns out he might be a pretty good coach so maybe Baker and the search team had some idea of what they were doing. Of course now you'll have hindsight experts declaring they should have hired Galloway instead, when I'm sure we can go back and find out what they really thought of that idea at the time.

InsiderRoll wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 10:35 am

Homer wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 11:24 pm

InsiderRoll wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 1:40 pm
Look I agree that they should have and could have played in fall of 2020. However I think your losing perspective if you think that Hopkins lacrosse is looked at by it’s administration the same way SEC football is looked at by administrators. There’s plenty that they can do better in terms of managing the program from the administration down. But Hopkins is really up against it in the B1G. They’re facing bigger budgets and a sea of resources, along with the fading mystique of Hopkins Lacrosse.

A lot of people say stuff like this, but I'm not all that persuaded. If you look at Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan -- as a group their stature in the sport today collectively seems about the same as it was in 2015, back when Hopkins last made the FF. I'm sure a spigot of crazy football money is a nice thing to have, but it doesn't look like any more of a prerequisite for success today than it was a decade ago.

More broadly, I guess I could be persuaded this is wrong, but just eyeballing it I don't get the sense the mix of teams in the top 5-10-20 that have P5 resources vs. those that don't has changed much over the years. Just the names on the front of the jerseys. If it's 20 years ago and I say, "there's an expensive urban private university in the Mid-Atlantic that doesn't have FBS football, not an Ivy, that's 12-1 and #3 in the RPI right now," you'd have said, sounds about right. Only you'd have guessed Hopkins, not Georgetown.

InsiderRoll wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 1:40 pm I just think that the Hopkins faithful have a false reality about what this program can really be year in and year out. And although Hopkins is an amazing academic school, for some reason the highest academic kids still seem to prioritize the Ivy in the recruiting process.

Okay, fine, let's say for purposes of argument that the Ivies are an inappropriate comparison. I'm not sure that I agree, but let's stipulate. What's the relevant peer group? Who should Hopkins, completely apart from any crap about tradition or mystique or whatever, be benchmarking against?

If the peer group is "urban schools, no big-time football money, relatively high academic prestige but not Ivies," that includes:

Boston U
Georgetown
Johns Hopkins

Am I missing anybody? You could maybe sort of shoehorn Villanova or Lehigh or Richmond in, but I think the three we've got are a pretty natural comparison group. I notice two of those three having pretty nice seasons this year. I think in any year, if two out of the three are doing well, the third's entitled to say, "Why not us?" So why not us?

I agree with what your saying generally. But I think you’re kinda making my point. Is BU really much better than Hopkins this year? Probably not, but they Don’t play a schedule as close to as hard as JHU. JHU is in someways outgunned by their direct competitors for an AQ over the long term. Georgetown probably has less resources than Hopkins, but by comparison to the rest of the big East they may be top dogs in regards to resources. The Hopkins schedule is extremely daunting and top recruits don’t want to go to programs that are 8-8 every year. I’d be shocked did BU could pull off a 6-8 record against Hopkins schedule. But yes at some point you have to win the games.

probably no need to pull boston down into this morass.
hopkins wins this year are vs this year's versions of:
- jax!!!, towson, loyola, cuse, mich and psu.
shocked if the terriers could pull off 6 wins? they actually had 2 common opponents, and the results vs hop were decidedly in bu's favor.

jhu06 wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 10:44 am "these aren't PM's kids" has to be one of the worst takes on this forum (and there's a lot of competition). He had two years to overhaul this roster. Rutgers, maryland all sorts of more established staffs took knives to their rosters and kids they'd recruited. He gave these kids jerseys for these last two seasons and put them on the field.

You keep complaining about this but offer no insight, alternative, or solution. Point me to the standout freshman on another team you wanted the staff to poach? Direct us all to the people in the transfer portal you would have convinced to come play here?

If you were the coach what does your 2022 Blue Jays roster look like?