Johns Hopkins 2021

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Are these guys classically trained journalists - of course not - but the journalism and news lines have clearly been blurred by web-sites, blogs, podcasts, social media etc. Journalism is the wrong word probably but they are the most recognized media outlets for lacrosse news and lacrosse opinion. So, IMO, they are somewhat subject to the integrity component of the journalism definition which is "Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on current events based on facts and supported with proof or evidence." So do I think the New York Times or the Washington Post should hire Quint/Carc/Anish because they are journalists? Absolutely not - of course not. But do I think they should be obligated to either preface pieces like they did on the Epstein thing with blinking lights that this is absolute speculation and nonsense OR maybe try to get some facts along the way? Yes. Like it or not - IL - IL's web-site and QK/Carc are how ALOT of people consume their lacrosse "news".

I fully agree with 51 here.

I will add this:

If you were to pin QK down on key people who have significantly influenced his career, there is one name that I would hope he would mention early and prominently.

In the early days of WMAR-TV coverage, QK had Scott Garceau as a mentor. He would do well to remember and apply what he learned from those days with Mr. Garceau.

I have no idea how and where Carc and Anish popped into the broadcast world. Maybe it was just volunteering, raising their hands and yelling “Me! Me! Me!” That’s sure as how hell their broadcasting comes off, centered on being the focus.

You are supposed to be the Storytellers, not the Story.

And Professionals, not Amateurs.

The one who came out of the WMAR work and learned the most from Scott Garceau and others is Mark Dixon. He gets it.

Didn't Anish win some sort of ESPN "American Idol" type stunt? That would make sense.

Good God - I didn’t think anyone could say anything that made me think less of someone, but if true, there you go. I am no fan of those Idol like broadcasts. I had to put up with that crap when I was in Korea.

What strikes me about Anish is his voice is a dead ringer for one of the earlier ESPN anchors. I forget which one - would have to look him up.

I think Scott Van pelt and others also won the american idol of announcers for espn. Was when I started pulling back from non live game events on that channel when they cared so much about themselves to create a become a new announcer program.

Don’t care for SVP either - Maryland fan.

[Farfromgeneva]

Boys with Kevin Plank who doesn’t have the best reputation these days either.

[51percentcorn]

I would say a disparity in roster talent. As I recall, Towson lost a lot of players to graduation from 2019. But they were doing pretty well before that and beating HOP. I think Nads gets more out of his roster than Petro was getting out of his. That's what you want from a Coach.
You can't argue with Towson's trajectory this year. It's the opposite of Hop's trajectory.

The other issue is, any good coach knows that you adjust the system to your roster, not the roster to your system. The latter is forcing square pegs into round holes.

Oh - so roster talent matters all of sudden? I thought coaching matters. This is absurd - you give Nadelen a pass for an absolutely horrible half season when every player on the roster was never in any other Towson system than Nadelen's and they had a fall in '19 and a spring practice in '20 but Milliman who couldn't even SEE his new team until what - 5/6 weeks before the season started and then had it interrupted for a week - never coached the players before - never coached with those assistants before - was saddled with 57 players of a roster construction he had nothing to do with other than 3 transfers - one who blew out his knee - is supposed to automatically spin gold? Absurd Absurd Absurd.

And let's be clear - I am not denigrating Towson's schedule in any way - as last year's schedule shows he doesn't duck tough OOCs. But it is a fact of life that a 3 game winning streak is not exactly threatening the McDonogh girls' team streak and one of those wins was a 1 goal victory over 2-7 Fairfield. Towson is doing great - nothing against the Tigers or Nadelen but give me a break.

[10stone5]

Did anyone post the transfer yet,

Ty Xanders
@tyxanders
·
3h
Former
@AmherstLacrosse
goalie Gib Versfeld will head to
@JHUmenslacrosse
as a grad student, per
@BlueStarLax
. Versfeld (6'4, 210 lbs.) took over as the starter for the DIII runner-up in 2019, stopping nearly 55 percent of the shots he faced.

A SE PA player, looks like he went to Episcopal (PA)
then Hun school.

[jhu06]

http://www.towntopics.com/wordpress/201 ... iii-final/

Interesting pickup. Some good quotes here.

Doubt they just hand him the job after the way Kirson has worked out for them. Marcille could get his chance. It would be negligent to not get someone for next year considering you would otherwise be going into the season with (1) unknown young goalie, (1) unknown true freshman, and (1) 5th year who you already know isn't getting the job done.

-I suppose someone could use the wayback machine for millimans 2018,19 cornell recruiting lists on IL including kids to consider for names we should be watching out for. the ones the staff already has familiarity with like this goalie you'd think would be the first they might consider.
-Don't really know how those conversations go between PM and the 68 that 51 mentioned earlier this week and how many we probably need, can or should shed.
-if you haven't seen the cuse forums here and other places it's like reading this the last few years. The orange were pretty quick to pull the plug on pasqualoni when he slipped into mediocrity despite the harrisons, freeneys and mcnabbs he brought in. Wonder what deskos future is.
-school shouldn't be reading kids ig pages. this is a certain kind of administrator w/a certain agenda trying to justify their non essential job.
-svp worked his way up in journalism, always seems humble and big supporter of rabils pll stuff. QK should be cut off from homewood except for what he gets as part of his espn responsibilities. He has an agenda and it's not that of a media member.

[HopFan16]

-school shouldn't be reading kids ig pages. this is a certain kind of administrator w/a certain agenda trying to justify their non essential job.

Someone sent the video to the Hopkins administration unsolicited. This is all in the public court filing but I know you don't like to read especially when it doesn't confirm your preconceived notions. There was no agenda. One of the kid's friends ratted him out.

Re: announcers/commentators—I miss Ryan Boyle. Not sure where he's been this season. But he is great.

[51percentcorn]

And - I can't wait for this one - please please enlighten all of us as to the square pegs round holes - roster/system issues because given what he has to work with and the time he had to do it - maybe Milliman's most impressive accomplishment is showing how he can identify round pegs for round holes - e.g. DeSimone - maybe one of the best and most obvious examples of Square peg round hole for the past 2 years I've ever seen. He also was left over virtually no pegs for the SSDM hole or the LSM hole once Fernandez became injured. Who found Delaney? Junior/Milliman arrived at a pretty reasoned way to deal with the Williams/Grimes issue at the beginning of the season but Grimes being out for over two years must have really hurt his devopment and they had to keep Williams out on the field - pretty good recognition of pegs and holes to me. And yes there are gads of attack square pegs running around in mid-field round holes - WHOSE FAULT IS THAT? Milliman's? Not on your life.

Of course we come down to the glaring peg issue? Epstein - as certainly Hopkins' most celebrated player - it could have been a difficult transition for him to switch positions on the field but the switch is not without some justification. In 2019 the round peg round hole Epstein and the octagonal peg no hole DeSimone combined for 5.5 points per game - almost all of it Epstein 73 of the 90 points. In 2021 that combo is now close to 6.5 points per game - now while you might like it higher because they both now play attack - the extenuating circumstances of the season are clearly a big factor. And it's not like Epstein doesn't get to shoot anymore: his shots are down only from 8 to almost 7 per game and he still leads the team in shots by 15.

[Sagittarius A*]

Oh - so roster talent matters all of sudden? I thought coaching matters. This is absurd - you give Nadelen a pass for an absolutely horrible half season when every player on the roster was never in any other Towson system than Nadelen's and they had a fall in '19 and a spring practice in '20 but Milliman who couldn't even SEE his new team until what - 5/6 weeks before the season started and then had it interrupted for a week - never coached the players before - never coached with those assistants before - was saddled with 57 players of a roster construction he had nothing to do with other than 3 transfers - one who blew out his knee - is supposed to automatically spin gold? Absurd Absurd Absurd.

And let's be clear - I am not denigrating Towson's schedule in any way - as last year's schedule shows he doesn't duck tough OOCs. But it is a fact of life that a 3 game winning streak is not exactly threatening the McDonogh girls' team streak and one of those wins was a 1 goal victory over 2-7 Fairfield. Towson is doing great - nothing against the Tigers or Nadelen but give me a break.

I'm not asking the guy to spin gold, just improve over the course of the season.
Backward regression and other factors to not give hope for the future.
2-9 is not a great look and not seeing how things improve any next year.
Maybe in a couple years the team looks competitive but I fear we are in with a long wait with no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

[Sagittarius A*]

And - I can't wait for this one - please please enlighten all of us as to the square pegs round holes - roster/system issues because given what he has to work with and the time he had to do it - maybe Milliman's most impressive accomplishment is showing how he can identify round pegs for round holes - e.g. DeSimone - maybe one of the best and most obvious examples of Square peg round hole for the past 2 years I've ever seen. He also was left over virtually no pegs for the SSDM hole or the LSM hole once Fernandez became injured. Who found Delaney? Junior/Milliman arrived at a pretty reasoned way to deal with the Williams/Grimes issue at the beginning of the season but Grimes being out for over two years must have really hurt his devopment and they had to keep Williams out on the field - pretty good recognition of pegs and holes to me. And yes there are gads of attack square pegs running around in mid-field round holes - WHOSE FAULT IS THAT? Milliman's? Not on your life.

Of course we come down to the glaring peg issue? Epstein - as certainly Hopkins' most celebrated player - it could have been a difficult transition for him to switch positions on the field but the switch is not without some justification. In 2019 the round peg round hole Epstein and the octagonal peg no hole DeSimone combined for 5.5 points per game - almost all of it Epstein 73 of the 90 points. In 2021 that combo is now close to 6.5 points per game - now while you might like it higher because they both now play attack - the extenuating circumstances of the season are clearly a big factor. And it's not like Epstein doesn't get to shoot anymore: his shots are down only from 8 to almost 7 per game and he still leads the team in shots by 15.

Wow that's a lot of excuses!

[51percentcorn]

Still waiting on that education

No excuses - BTW just stats and facts

You want the excuse? Hopkins is not very good - they have limited offensive talent and it often has to be mis-used because there are no better options.

If you think that is the current coaching staff's fault - well I can't help you

[HopFan16]

2-9 is not a great look and not seeing how things improve any next year.

You don't see how things could possibly improve next year?

Let's see...

- Maryland loses Bernhardt
- Rutgers loses Mullins and Charalambides
- Ohio States loses LeClaire and Terefenko
- Penn State loses O'Keefe and Arceri
- The Blue Jays actually have a fall ball
- The coaches have more than a few weeks to install schemes

It's amazing that "literally not having a fall ball and losing three months of in-person prep time that 90% of other teams had" is seen as some kind of unreasonable excuse that had no bearing on the results we're seeing now. It is in fact the most legitimate excuse in the history of excuses. The coach didn't even meet the players until a month before the season. Give it a rest already.

[Catbird]

I think the speed with which the overall record "situation" improves is heavily dependent on settling the goalie question with someone we can rely on. Otherwise next year might look better still but not end up much better in the rankings. The stink at that position the last several years has had a deleterious effect everywhere else on the field and somehow statistically got even worse this year. You think the whole team doesn't feel it when they know that almost anything the other team puts on the 6x6 is going in?

Lets hope Marcille gets his chance this week and surprises some people. He's an energetic player so if he gets rolling then maybe the team can feed off it, stranger things have happened.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Keep in mind, Marcille could get more than one crack at this beyond the MD game - he could start in B1G tourney game(s).

[Catbird]

Keep in mind, Marcille could get more than one crack at this beyond the MD game - he could start in B1G tourney game(s).

I expect MD is going to be the dry run with the lineup they intend to use for the B1G tournament, so I would expect you're right unless it goes completely sideways. Good spot to be in versus #1 & undefeated coming up. Meaningless if we lose, means everything if we win.

[WOMBAT, Mod Emeritus]

Milliman update out. Perhaps the shortest, meatless statement I’ve ever seen. Basically just says “Maryland week”.

Yeah, duh.

[51percentcorn]

Essentially 48 hours to a Maryland game and all is quiet - not much hope in Mudville I guess - it's all Milliman's fault - hoser - if only we had a Baird man coaching our Baird men things would be so much different. C'mon Jen!!

On a slightly more serious note - I ran across TX's first write-up of 2023 5 stars. I guess it was first put out there a couple weeks ago but I only just found it. Got me to wondering what Milliman's approach and structure to recruiting will be and how will it be different from what he did at Cornell? I used to have more than one reason to be at some of the bigger summer/fall tournaments in the mid-atlantic area and one thing you had to say about Petro - I almost always saw him or one of the AC's - but my one editorial is that since often Hopkins class would be full - they didn't appear very interested in the play on the field - more in BS'ing with their friends/brethern. But that could be true for many coaches that I didn't notice. With respect to the players themselves - I know nothing - except that Mark Millon's son is apparently the "one" from that class and while I initially thought maybe Hopkins had an outside chance if somehow Millon and Junior were friends or something like that but I have come to understand that most will be really shocked if the young man doesn't end up at Penn State (Grant Ament continues to torture). There's one kid on the list that can bring it at 100 mph - there's a skill Hopkins needs in the worst way.

Wombat: What would you want Milliman to say? I know some would like an in depth analysis of the current roster - others feel they deserve an explanation of the Epstein episode and others would like clarification on why he is not Sean Nadelen. I don't think he owes us any of those things.

[nyjay]

Watched the Georgetown/Denver game last night. Really good game. But what stuck out to me was the pre-game stats for the goalies - Denver's guy was sporting a nifty .560 save% and Georgetown's guy was at .567. If Hop's goalies were at those levels, it would mean 30 fewer goals conceded. 30 fewer goals. When their aggregate goal differential is currently -22. And don't forget Kirson was at .584 for the aborted 2020 season (.502 for 2019).

We would be having an entirely different conversation about the team, the direction of the program, the state of the roster, PM's hiring, Daniels, Baker, everything - if we had only gotten decent goalie play. You can't win with the worst goalie play in D1.

51 - I've seen the 100+ mph kid (Tucker Kellogg) play live - Trinity-Pawling played Brunswick a couple of weeks ago. Good size, moves pretty well and the quality of the kid's shot is not being overstated at all, at least in terms of sheer velocity. TP also Stu Phillips (a Canadian 21 JHU commit). Didn't stand out as much as Kellogg, tbh.

[random observer]

Millon is good but IMO his last name has boosted his profile. My feeling is someone else will be the top dog in that class whether IL recognizes it or not. Both he and Kellogg are reclasses who should really be 22s. Kellogg in particular would be on the older side of the grade above him (having said that his shot is legit; he was clocked at 102 mph as a 13 year old).

[jhu06]

51, thought you answered that last year. He wants guys that can execute his system which means we're not supposed to expect IL cover boys anymore. The other questions are
-how he rebuilds. Grad students (amherst goalie) vs kids already enrolled at other schools (fernandez) vs true freshmen (next years freshman class), vs trying to fit guys he already has at homewood (the lineup this year).
-whether he continues the Petro tradition of getting a few guys on the roster every year whose fathers played at homewood.
-how he brings it all together. Going to be a lot of turnover next few years on top of everything this season.

[flalax22]

Milliman update out. Perhaps the shortest, meatless statement I’ve ever seen. Basically just says “Maryland week”.

Yeah, duh.

That sounds like a white towel being thrown.