Men's Lacrosse In B1G Champ. Game vs Penn State, Tonight 8PM
For the second straight year, Michigan men’s lacrosse finds themselves in the Big Ten Championship game, where they’ll face the Penn State Nittany Lions tonight at 8PM. The game will air live on the Big Ten Network. The winner claims the conference’s automatic qualifier bid into the NCAA tournament and despite beating Hopkins - ranked #2 in the country - on Thursday, Michigan still likely needs to win this one to get in.
I got caught up in an insane amount of work this week, probably the busiest I’ve ever been in my life, and I didn’t get a chance to preview Thursday’s semifinal or get out to watch until about 7pm. It turns out this was Michigan’s best game of the season, a 10-7 takedown of Johns Hopkins, who had been on a five game winning streak having gone undefeated in the B1G in the regular season. The game followed a peculiar storyline in which Michigan started in a 6-1 hole and then just took the game over and outscored the Jays 9-1 over the final three quarters. By the time I sat down it was 6-5 JHU and then Mikey Boehm, who had a fantastic 5-goal game, did this…(please ignore the boomer Happy Days commentary)
https://youtu.be/bmPOnmSZCgY?si=hVJSZwPJW7XQJVDA&t=453
And then this…
https://youtu.be/bmPOnmSZCgY?si=ilRBMm3eEjQeMSOt&t=474
So, I’ve been extremely conflicted about whether I should post a preview again. Maybe I’ve been the problem this whole time.
Despite getting doubled up on faceoffs which is highly unusual for this team, Michigan looked strong in all phases. They played patient lockdown defense and held the nation’s best shooter to a donut (he had 4 dimes though), they got tough ground balls all over the field and most importantly, they took care of the ball and only had 9 turnovers.
The bad news is: Penn State is strong to quite strong and have quietly had a very good season. Plus, they’re coming off an obliteration of Maryland in the semis. The Lions’ best player, TJ Malone, has an astounding 73 points this season, good for 3rd nationally, and is projected to go top 10 in the pro draft and he leads one of the most efficient shooting teams in the country. They also have the #7 scoring defense in the country anchored by an excellent veteran goalie, Jack Fracyon, who stoned Michigan earlier this season, putting up a career high 19 saves.
So, Michigan has their work cut out for them. They shot sub-15% in their first matchup with PSU and I think that is unlikely to reoccur. But, if they can play like they did Thursday they can definitely repeat as B1G champs.
GO BLUE!!
Also - I assumed M needs the AQ to get in but a W over JHU who was #2 in the polls might be enough for an at-large now? Maybe if they lose a tough OT game or something? The metrics seem to like their strength of schedule and strength of record so [Jim Carrey-you're-telling-me-there's-a-chance dot gif] ?
Unfortunately, Army lost in their conf tournament last night and other at large bids could go up in smoke if Villanova and others win upsets in their tournament. So that hurts the at-large argument for M.
Thought about going but decided on baseball today rather than 9 hrs in the car. Go Blue
Go Blue!
GAME ON! Already up 2-0!
Somehow Boehm slips behind the goal undefended takes the feed and makes it 4-0. PSU answers quickly and Michigan takes the ensuing FO. 8:10 1st
4-1 Good guys with 3:00 remaining in the 1st
Brown uses his speed to dust his defender at the wing and fires a scorcher to make it a 5-1 lead
5-1 end of the1st
Pole goal! Roberts bounces one from a very tough angle and surprises the Penn State goalie to make it 6-1 early 2nd.
I started a fresh thread since this one got so buried. Go Blue! 6-1
Great man up play finds Aronson 1on1 with the goalie and he buries it. 7-3
8-3 now half way though the 2nd