Maryland 2024

[Essexfenwick]

^^
Brennan might not be quick enough to be a shortie

[jrn19]

Maybe not! But if you want him to be on the field, that's the role for him. Try it out now, see what you can get out of it. If it works, great. More depth. If it doesn't, okay. That's the point of these games right now.

But he can't be playing offensive midfield anymore. It's unfortunate, I don't really know what happened with the guy because he was a valuable contributor at one point in time, but that time has long passed.

[Wheels]

Erksa's turnovers have to come down. 1 or 2 in the interest of aggressiveness is something you can "live" with; more than 3 per game and the way he has them off just basic catching/passing mistakes are not acceptable.

Right now the offense is stuck in this tough middle ground where they obviously need a quarterback of the offense to truly make this system click at the speed/tempo it needs to be effective - it's just a .5 second slow basically everywhere and it's killing them - but neither Malever nor Erksa for different reasons are there yet. Malever is the natural fit in terms of his passing and lacrosse IQ but he clearly isn't quite yet back up to his best as a dodger. It was good to see him aggressively attack the shortie matchup today. But if he's not going to yet be a real dodging threat; you get the problem Georgetown has with TJ Haley. Meanwhile, Erksa is clearly the best dodging threat they have; but as evidenced by his turnovers, his vision and lacrosse IQ are not near in sync with his physical tools yet. So there's not a natural answer to the question and they're stuck. If Malever can get back to 100% game speed and get his confidence back and go after poles, they'll be ready cause he can run the offense from X and Erksa is freed up to just be a dodger. If Erksa can find the additional parts of his game to go with the physical tools, then he becomes a true weapon and it will open everything else up. It'll come I believe; but it takes time. Rambo didn't do it till really early in his junior year; though he flashed some end of 2015.

Agreed on the offensive midfield as well. Brennan needs to be a shortie. They could use some depth there and he is a non-threat to score. At some point loyalty has to go out the window and it's gotta be about putting dudes out there who give the team the best shot to threaten the other team. 2 goals in the last 12 games when you have a guy like Stobaugh who received the hype from people inside the program he was getting isn't enough. Kelly running out of the box is not a good use of his skills. He's not going to beat a guy off the dodge and he can't invert. He's a shooter from a specific spot. Put him man-up or on the point in transition. Siracusa has been a real positive, but it may be time to think about balancing out the midfields and moving him back to the 2nd to give that group a dodging threat. Maybe put him, Stobaugh, and Murphy together. Those are also potentially your 3 best shooters from the midfield as well. Then maybe bump Whittier back up to the 1st with Spanos, who he showed a lot of good chemistry with last year. Needs some tinkering.

Aside from the vomitous clearing, the defense got caught ball-watching 3 times in the first half for easy goals. I was really surprised to see so much hedging and early sliding to Pat Kavanagh. I thought they'd try to turn him into a goal scorer instead of a facilitator. The defense was so bad in the first half that it made the offense press a lot in the second half. Several of Entenmann's saves in 2H were really poor shots.

One thing is clear to me. The Terps lack shooters. Because Notre Dame didn't respect any Terp shooter, they pretty much sagged in on defense. This made it hard for Erksa, especially, to dodge. Spanos seemed hesitant to attack his match-up all day, even though he had a physical advantage on the Irish LSMs all day.

Malever took a run or two through the box in the 2nd half, and I think letting Erksa do that is a good idea moving forward. He really could have used more space to use his speed, and he could have done that coming downhill out of the box. I wish they do that a little more with Erksa, maybe when Murphy is running at midfield. Insert Murphy on the right wing, run Erksa through the box.

Totally agree that they need to tighten that 2nd midfield line. If Kelly and Brennan continue to struggle, I think we'll see Whittier and Stobaugh in there permanently with Murphy. Just a bad, bad game for the Terps.

[Finster]

Erksa's turnovers have to come down. 1 or 2 in the interest of aggressiveness is something you can "live" with; more than 3 per game and the way he has them off just basic catching/passing mistakes are not acceptable.

Right now the offense is stuck in this tough middle ground where they obviously need a quarterback of the offense to truly make this system click at the speed/tempo it needs to be effective - it's just a .5 second slow basically everywhere and it's killing them - but neither Malever nor Erksa for different reasons are there yet. Malever is the natural fit in terms of his passing and lacrosse IQ but he clearly isn't quite yet back up to his best as a dodger. It was good to see him aggressively attack the shortie matchup today. But if he's not going to yet be a real dodging threat; you get the problem Georgetown has with TJ Haley. Meanwhile, Erksa is clearly the best dodging threat they have; but as evidenced by his turnovers, his vision and lacrosse IQ are not near in sync with his physical tools yet. So there's not a natural answer to the question and they're stuck. If Malever can get back to 100% game speed and get his confidence back and go after poles, they'll be ready cause he can run the offense from X and Erksa is freed up to just be a dodger. If Erksa can find the additional parts of his game to go with the physical tools, then he becomes a true weapon and it will open everything else up. It'll come I believe; but it takes time. Rambo didn't do it till really early in his junior year; though he flashed some end of 2015.

Agreed on the offensive midfield as well. Brennan needs to be a shortie. They could use some depth there and he is a non-threat to score. At some point loyalty has to go out the window and it's gotta be about putting dudes out there who give the team the best shot to threaten the other team. 2 goals in the last 12 games when you have a guy like Stobaugh who received the hype from people inside the program he was getting isn't enough. Kelly running out of the box is not a good use of his skills. He's not going to beat a guy off the dodge and he can't invert. He's a shooter from a specific spot. Put him man-up or on the point in transition. Siracusa has been a real positive, but it may be time to think about balancing out the midfields and moving him back to the 2nd to give that group a dodging threat. Maybe put him, Stobaugh, and Murphy together. Those are also potentially your 3 best shooters from the midfield as well. Then maybe bump Whittier back up to the 1st with Spanos, who he showed a lot of good chemistry with last year. Needs some tinkering.

Aside from the vomitous clearing, the defense got caught ball-watching 3 times in the first half for easy goals. I was really surprised to see so much hedging and early sliding to Pat Kavanagh. I thought they'd try to turn him into a goal scorer instead of a facilitator. The defense was so bad in the first half that it made the offense press a lot in the second half. Several of Entenmann's saves in 2H were really poor shots.

One thing is clear to me. The Terps lack shooters. Because Notre Dame didn't respect any Terp shooter, they pretty much sagged in on defense. This made it hard for Erksa, especially, to dodge. Spanos seemed hesitant to attack his match-up all day, even though he had a physical advantage on the Irish LSMs all day.

Malever took a run or two through the box in the 2nd half, and I think letting Erksa do that is a good idea moving forward. He really could have used more space to use his speed, and he could have done that coming downhill out of the box. I wish they do that a little more with Erksa, maybe when Murphy is running at midfield. Insert Murphy on the right wing, run Erksa through the box.

Totally agree that they need to tighten that 2nd midfield line. If Kelly and Brennan continue to struggle, I think we'll see Whittier and Stobaugh in there permanently with Murphy. Just a bad, bad game for the Terps.

Murphy has a great shot.

[TN911]

Agree with everything, Wheels. Notre Dame was really packing it in defensively- Begging the Terps to shoot from the periphery. Murphy took a few step-downs but seemed like easy saves for Entenmann stick side with no change in level. Defense looked unorganized - Quick slides with no rotation.
The most frustrating thing was the man down defense. They ran the same play 4 times and the Terps made no adjustments to it. Would love to see Shaller play regularly but I'm sure the coaching staff doesn't love the penalties.

Also, Notre Dame created numerous offensive opportunities with their ride. Failed clears lead to multiple goals and good looks. We choose not to ride? I guess its coaching philosophy but hard to understand.

[FiveZeroEight]

Also, Notre Dame created numerous offensive opportunities with their ride. Failed clears lead to multiple goals and good looks. We choose not to ride? I guess it’s coaching philosophy but hard to understand.

Totally agree, it would be nice to see some pressure on the ride. I think the reason we don’t comes down to personnel. First, we don’t have a ton of speed at attack outside of Erksa. An ND-type ride requires three guys that are quick and can cover ground quickly to put pressure on the goalie / poles. Second, we’re playing a lot of guys at midfield that I think Tillman doesn’t want to have caught on the defensive end. Have to balance the desire to be aggressive with the risk of having guys like Kelly, Murphy, etc. stuck on the defensive end.

I think the team generally needs more athleticism on the offensive side of the ball. We have a lot of good lacrosse players but lack top end athletes at the attack and offensive midfield. The next couple of recruiting classes look really strong and should hopefully help to improve in that area.

[coda]

Agree with everything, Wheels. Notre Dame was really packing it in defensively- Begging the Terps to shoot from the periphery. Murphy took a few step-downs but seemed like easy saves for Entenmann stick side with no change in level. Defense looked unorganized - Quick slides with no rotation.
The most frustrating thing was the man down defense. They ran the same play 4 times and the Terps made no adjustments to it. Would love to see Shaller play regularly but I'm sure the coaching staff doesn't love the penalties.

Also, Notre Dame created numerous offensive opportunities with their ride. Failed clears lead to multiple goals and good looks. We choose not to ride? I guess its coaching philosophy but hard to understand.

That was a bit perplexing. I know Dobson can shoot, but if you have a All-American quality goalie, I would rather take my chances with Dobson from 15+ yards than Traylor from 4.

[sportsfan]

Shooting was terrible. Thought Malevar and Koras both played well and carried the offense.

Erksa had a tough game and stupid turnovers. Those need to get cleaned up because some were on basic passes. Tillman is giving him a long leash on that where he wouldn't allow it for others.

[keno in reno]

Looks like Burlace came about a centimeter away from an on-field tragedy. That was close.

[masondixonlax]

Shooting was terrible. Thought Malevar and Koras both played well and carried the offense.

Erksa had a tough game and stupid turnovers. Those need to get cleaned up because some were on basic passes. Tillman is giving him a long leash on that where he wouldn't allow it for others.

yea, i checked the stats. he has the 2nd highest turnover ratio per game in Division 1 lacrosse. It's odd because last year he wasn't even in the top 30

[youthathletics]

Looks like Burlace came about a centimeter away from an on-field tragedy. That was close.

So true….glad he ducked his head and not turned it. Coached a kid that had a similar issue and it broke his jaw.

[youthathletics]

Shooting was terrible. Thought Malevar and Koras both played well and carried the offense.

Erksa had a tough game and stupid turnovers. Those need to get cleaned up because some were on basic passes. Tillman is giving him a long leash on that where he wouldn't allow it for others.

Tills has a ton of OT work to put in on helping get the O buttoned up. I’d argue the OC needs some direction and pivot from his SOP. #PhippsEffect

[AreaLax]

Shooting was terrible. Thought Malevar and Koras both played well and carried the offense.

Erksa had a tough game and stupid turnovers. Those need to get cleaned up because some were on basic passes. Tillman is giving him a long leash on that where he wouldn't allow it for others.

Tills has a ton of OT work to put in on helping get the O buttoned up. I’d argue the OC needs some direction and pivot from his SOP. #PhippsEffect

What is your issue with Phipps?

[keno in reno]

Shooting was terrible. Thought Malevar and Koras both played well and carried the offense.

Erksa had a tough game and stupid turnovers. Those need to get cleaned up because some were on basic passes. Tillman is giving him a long leash on that where he wouldn't allow it for others.

Tills has a ton of OT work to put in on helping get the O buttoned up. I’d argue the OC needs some direction and pivot from his SOP. #PhippsEffect

Seems like there's some personal animosity. Honestly, the offense seems fine as far as getting open looks. Malever's assist to Spanos was beautiful lacrosse. Unfortunately they just shoot about as well as the basketball team.

[jrn19]

Erksa's turnovers have to come down. 1 or 2 in the interest of aggressiveness is something you can "live" with; more than 3 per game and the way he has them off just basic catching/passing mistakes are not acceptable.

Right now the offense is stuck in this tough middle ground where they obviously need a quarterback of the offense to truly make this system click at the speed/tempo it needs to be effective - it's just a .5 second slow basically everywhere and it's killing them - but neither Malever nor Erksa for different reasons are there yet. Malever is the natural fit in terms of his passing and lacrosse IQ but he clearly isn't quite yet back up to his best as a dodger. It was good to see him aggressively attack the shortie matchup today. But if he's not going to yet be a real dodging threat; you get the problem Georgetown has with TJ Haley. Meanwhile, Erksa is clearly the best dodging threat they have; but as evidenced by his turnovers, his vision and lacrosse IQ are not near in sync with his physical tools yet. So there's not a natural answer to the question and they're stuck. If Malever can get back to 100% game speed and get his confidence back and go after poles, they'll be ready cause he can run the offense from X and Erksa is freed up to just be a dodger. If Erksa can find the additional parts of his game to go with the physical tools, then he becomes a true weapon and it will open everything else up. It'll come I believe; but it takes time. Rambo didn't do it till really early in his junior year; though he flashed some end of 2015.

Agreed on the offensive midfield as well. Brennan needs to be a shortie. They could use some depth there and he is a non-threat to score. At some point loyalty has to go out the window and it's gotta be about putting dudes out there who give the team the best shot to threaten the other team. 2 goals in the last 12 games when you have a guy like Stobaugh who received the hype from people inside the program he was getting isn't enough. Kelly running out of the box is not a good use of his skills. He's not going to beat a guy off the dodge and he can't invert. He's a shooter from a specific spot. Put him man-up or on the point in transition. Siracusa has been a real positive, but it may be time to think about balancing out the midfields and moving him back to the 2nd to give that group a dodging threat. Maybe put him, Stobaugh, and Murphy together. Those are also potentially your 3 best shooters from the midfield as well. Then maybe bump Whittier back up to the 1st with Spanos, who he showed a lot of good chemistry with last year. Needs some tinkering.

Aside from the vomitous clearing, the defense got caught ball-watching 3 times in the first half for easy goals. I was really surprised to see so much hedging and early sliding to Pat Kavanagh. I thought they'd try to turn him into a goal scorer instead of a facilitator. The defense was so bad in the first half that it made the offense press a lot in the second half. Several of Entenmann's saves in 2H were really poor shots.

One thing is clear to me. The Terps lack shooters. Because Notre Dame didn't respect any Terp shooter, they pretty much sagged in on defense. This made it hard for Erksa, especially, to dodge. Spanos seemed hesitant to attack his match-up all day, even though he had a physical advantage on the Irish LSMs all day.

Malever took a run or two through the box in the 2nd half, and I think letting Erksa do that is a good idea moving forward. He really could have used more space to use his speed, and he could have done that coming downhill out of the box. I wish they do that a little more with Erksa, maybe when Murphy is running at midfield. Insert Murphy on the right wing, run Erksa through the box.

Totally agree that they need to tighten that 2nd midfield line. If Kelly and Brennan continue to struggle, I think we'll see Whittier and Stobaugh in there permanently with Murphy. Just a bad, bad game for the Terps.

Murphy has a great shot.

Murphy is one guy. And he's not exactly a range shooter, though he can hit them. They 100% lack shooters who can stretch the defense from outside, it's been just as big of a weakness as the oft-mentioned lack of a quarterback the last 2 years

[jrn19]

Agree with everything, Wheels. Notre Dame was really packing it in defensively- Begging the Terps to shoot from the periphery. Murphy took a few step-downs but seemed like easy saves for Entenmann stick side with no change in level. Defense looked unorganized - Quick slides with no rotation.
The most frustrating thing was the man down defense. They ran the same play 4 times and the Terps made no adjustments to it. Would love to see Shaller play regularly but I'm sure the coaching staff doesn't love the penalties.

Also, Notre Dame created numerous offensive opportunities with their ride. Failed clears lead to multiple goals and good looks. We choose not to ride? I guess its coaching philosophy but hard to understand.

We rode quite a bit. It caused Notre Dame some issues, they failed like 2 clears I think and also barely got away with a few more. We don't have the full court press ride Notre Dame does, but we also don't have guys like the Kavanaghs. Carc mentioned it, it's more of a soft pressure, they pinch and double towards midfield. They've forced multiple failed clears in every game since Loyola, you don't do that without riding. No one really rides the way Notre Dame does.

[Finster]

Agree with everything, Wheels. Notre Dame was really packing it in defensively- Begging the Terps to shoot from the periphery. Murphy took a few step-downs but seemed like easy saves for Entenmann stick side with no change in level. Defense looked unorganized - Quick slides with no rotation.
The most frustrating thing was the man down defense. They ran the same play 4 times and the Terps made no adjustments to it. Would love to see Shaller play regularly but I'm sure the coaching staff doesn't love the penalties.

Also, Notre Dame created numerous offensive opportunities with their ride. Failed clears lead to multiple goals and good looks. We choose not to ride? I guess its coaching philosophy but hard to understand.

We rode quite a bit. It caused Notre Dame some issues, they failed like 2 clears I think and also barely got away with a few more. We don't have the full court press ride Notre Dame does, but we also don't have guys like the Kavanaghs. Carc mentioned it, it's more of a soft pressure, they pinch and double towards midfield. They've forced multiple failed clears in every game since Loyola, you don't do that without riding. No one really rides the way Notre Dame does.

I realize the Richmond game was before Loyola, but Maryland allowed the Spiders to clear with zero resistance. A bizarre sight.

[AreaLax]

High school game tomorrow. Boys Latin vs St. John’s

Boys' Latin (Md.)
‘24 Spencer Ford A #18
‘25 Matthew Higgins A #36

St. John's (D.C.)
‘24 John Draley M #2
‘24 John Offutt M #25?
Believe the game is at 4:15

https://www.youtube.com/@blmd822/streams

[AreaLax]

The Maryland Lacrosse Show, presented by the Greene Turtle, is set to kick off tomorrow on March 7. The show will feature both men's and women's lacrosse and will be headlined by coach John Tillman and coach Cathy Reese, with Brendan Hartlove as the host.

The show will stream live virtually at noon five different times, beginning on Thursday, March 7. It will also air at noon on March 14, March 28, April 11 and April 25. Similarly to the Maryland football and basketball radio shows, each show will look ahead to upcoming games, break down those from the week prior, and feature current and former player guests.

The show will stream live on Maryland Athletics' Facebook page.

[Paddy Terp]

Here’s the link to the new show, episode 1. https://www.youtube.com/live/4BU1zMP1R2 ... onf_zIvANZ