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Message: [QUOTE="JeremyCuse, post: 3218742, member: 43"] Finally getting back to the rest of the schedule and giving some thoughts. Due to the amount of time will likely go team by team starting with Hop: JHU - Hopkins has looked a lot like UNC the last few years in that one week they look like a top 5 team and the next your wondering how Petro still has a job. A lot like UNC this year its hard to get a feel on where they will ultimately end up. They came on late last year beating Maryland twice and taking PSU to OT. Epstein will obviously be the main guy and he looked impressive last year especially toward the year. Question is does he take that next step again or does he hit a bit of a sophmore slump? Some Hopkins players have developed a bad habit/trait of taking a step back when it appears there ready to break out. Look no further then Cole Williams who after a breakout Sophmore season took a big step back last year, though he did flash a bit late in the year when he started playing up top more. Then you have Desimone who scored 16 goals as a Frosh middie but was a disaster last year finishing with only six goals and a god awful shooting percentage. Hopkins offense seemed to really miss Joel Tinney and they never really figured out until later in the year when Epstein really took over and Williams started to play more like his Soph year but even they reverted back in the NCAA tourney when ND hammered them. That said they should have enough offensively especially at attack to do damage. Epstein and Williams are a good combo but the 3rd attackmen might be a true frosh or a bumped middie. Midfield is where they have enormous question marks. Evan Zinn looked decent in limited time but he didn't get a lot of run for some reason and played mostly SSDM when he did. Desimone was a disaster as noted, Concannon there most productive middie does return but he is a smaller guy at 5'5 and struggled in big games. I believe Forry Smith played both spots so they may run him at middie to get some experience and scoring ability there as he had 26 pts last year tied with Concannon. Owen Murphy is a touted frosh who could get some run at attack especially if they have to keep Smith at middie as Keogh another upper class guy is injured I believe and his status for 2020 is murky at best. Defensively Hopkins would appear to be in a world of trouble. There defense was historically bad last year by Hopkins standards and Foley their AA cover guy did not come back as there was a question of whether he had one final year of eligibility. They also lost their starting LSM Kuhn who was a decent defender who almost never came off the field and their top SSDM Danny Jones who while admittedly struggled at times was their top SSDM as noted. I suspect Hubler will be one of their SSDMs but god only knows on the second guy. I assume Rapine and Colwell will start at close but neither is really an elite defender. Hopkins may/will likely struggle to cover elite offensive players. Hop does return both of their top two specialists at FOGO and Goalie but the FOGO situation is in a much better spot then in Goal. Darby was under 50% for the year and Giacolone the Sr may get first crack at it for the Jays. Goalie, LSM, Second SSDM and that third close defender are the major question marks for the Jays on a defense that struggled mightily for most of the year last season. Petro has put together a couple of real nice recruiting classess for 2020 and 2021, especially D players for 2021, but that won't help them at all this season. Faceoffs should be good though for them. Hopkins has potential as shown by their play down the stretch last year but to me they have enormous question marks defensively and at middie. This is a game I think SU should win. [/QUOTE]

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