Johns Hopkins vs. North Carolina: Three things to watch
Both Johns Hopkins and North Carolina have been buoyed by fairly important victories last Saturday. The No. 6 Blue Jays (6-2) snapped a six-game losing skid to then-No. 2 Virginia with a 12-11 decision, while the No. 5 Tar Heels (7-2) scored a decisive 11-6 win against No. 9 Maryland. Johns Hopkins has dropped the last four meetings in this series. Here are a few factors that could influence the outcome at the Konica Minolta Big City Classic at The New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday.
1) Balance on defense. The first priority of many opponents is to try to take North Carolina senior attackman Billy Bitter out of the equation. But there’s a risk as the Terps learned last Saturday when Bitter were shut out, but the Tar Heels’ freshmen class accounted for seven goals and seven assists. That’s why Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala is cautious about focusing too much attention on Bitter. “If you want to take away Billy Bitter, then you’re going to have to deal with [freshman attackman and leading scorer] Nicky Galasso,” Pietramala said. “If you want to take away Nicky Galasso, then you’re going to have to deal with Billy Bitter. [Junior attackman] Thomas Wood did not play, and when he gets back into the fold, that’s a pretty talented group that seems to be playing very well. So do you want the freshmen to be the ones to beat you? You’ve got to pick your poison, and you’ve got to decide how you’re going to defend them and what you want to try to take away. In doing so, you’re going to give up something elsewhere, and the question is, what’s the right thing to take away and what’s the right thing to give up. Up until this point, they haven’t lost many times, and they’ve seen two poles, they’ve seen a bunch of zones. They’re playing very, very well offensively, and we’re going to have to do a very good job of being careful.”
2) Opportunities in unsettled situations. Johns Hopkins is blessed – or cursed – with a reputation for managing the tempo of games and slowing them down to almost a glacial pace. But the Blue Jays jumped on chances to run with the Cavaliers, and at least two goals occurred in unsettled situations. Pietramala said the team will pounce on those opportunities. “While I know that the perception is we play slow, I don’t think we played slow against Virginia,” he said. “I thought we were willing to go up and down with them when those opportunities arose. Carolina is a very senior-laden group defensively. … So you can’t go into this game and think you’re just going to square off six-on-six and win the game from the restraining line to the endline. You’re going to have to find other ways to score.”
3) Strategy against the zone. One factor in the Tar Heels’ win against Maryland was the unveiling of a zone defense that shut off the interior and dared the Terps shooters to score from the perimeter. Pietramala confirmed that Johns Hopkins has been studying North Carolina’s defense, which is not limited to just one type of zone, he said. “Carolina doesn’t play just one zone. They play two or three different zones, and then they play a defense where they go to a zone and then back to man,” he said. “So they do some different things, and [Coach] Joe Breschi’s been notorious for trying to mix things up defensively and not give you a steady diet of any one thing.”
Categories: Johns Hopkins, Three things to watch
