Lacrosse Falls to Marist in OT, 7-6
Missing its two best offensive weapons, Ian King and Kyle Jackson, men's lacrosse fell 7-6 to Marist in the cold, driving rain in the Big House. Michigan held a 3 goal lead in the 4th quarter but couldn't hold off Marist despite a heroic effort by goalie Gerald Logan.
This was one of the last winnable games on the schedule before Big Ten play starts. The Terps come to the Big House next Saturday, April 2.
GO BLUE!
Announcers said Ian King is out, which is not good news for M. But Curran just scored. M up 1-0.
is Ozamataz Buckshank playing?
Yeah hes on the same defense as Bisketeen Triscuit & Busters Brounce
Ouch...it looks really cold and miserable. Yuck
Brighton girls lax are playing out behind my house. Its cold and raining.
I hope the school is behind your house, otherwise that is really creepy.
What happened with Kyle Jackson? It looks like he and Ian King are both out, which is like half our point scorers.
So far the defense has looked a little less spread out, and has let Marist make the mistakes rather than giving them opportunities. Offense is playing a ton of young guys though. Would be big to see some new guys step up.
KJ is very likely this teams MVP, but I wouldn't count out another win. We beat Rutgers last year, and they have had a few nice wins, but seem to be coming back down to Rutgers reality pretty soon. Penn State and Ohio State have both had some head scratchers this year as well, and we gave Penn State a good game last year.
The offense is looking pretty so far. Quick ball movement, decisive cuts, and they are playing fast. I know JP was stressing running the offense the right way lately, and things are definitely looking better. Execution still isn't quite there and timing of some things is slightly off, but things are looking better than I've seen all year.
Up 5-2 at this point, and the guys are playing with some fire. Like what I'm seeing.
Very slow pace game. Long possessions, which is a bit of a change-up for Michigan, but so far seems to be working.
Phew! M with a turnover and the ball with just over a minute left! They got lucky - Marist had a shot on the doorstep. I can't tell if Logan saved it or if they just flubbed it. Let's get it! Great hit #40!
Marist wins it in OT. 7-6 Final. Dude wound up with a wide-open shot in the middle of the crease to seal it. Bummer. Michigan had it. They gotta stop losing games like this.
"Wide open shot in the middle of the crease" was a theme for Marist.
It was bound to be tough without the top two on attack.
Yeah - anyone know what's up with them? If neither played all game (neither were in the starting line up) then I'm not surprised we lost. That's our offense right there. If they're out for any extended time, we're in trouble.
That said - we're not winning anything this season, and we lose KJ after this season so letting some of the frosh get extended PT against good teams will help us for next year. But damn, we need to stop looking toward next year with this team. I thought we'd be better than this by now.
If we want to be better than just trying to get to .500, it's going to be with a coach that has done it at the Division I level before and then some.
We now sit at 49 losses in not even 5 years. Two years where we had the same win total as the year prior and it looks like we're headed towards regression to a 3-win season.
Warde Manuel is gonna have some decisions to make. Why not go after assistants of the big time programs that have been there forever?
Can it really get worse than this?
Meanwhile the previously 0-4 Dartmouth Big Green, who got their first and only win vs Michigan on Saturday, turned around and lost to previously 0-9 NJIT last night. So that loss looks even worse now.
I'm afraid M may be one of the worst teams in Division 1 . I hope that's not the case.
March 23rd, 2016 at 10:39 PM ^
The more you look at this program, the more it's evident a change needs to be made.
We played good defense today because Logan made good saves and we barely shot the ball in the first half likely because of the top two players being out. So Marist had limited possessions.
110 people in a monsoon only to see a blown lead in the last four minutes and a loss to a school we should be ahead of by now.
People had hopes of MLax eventually becoming the #4 sport on campus. Right now, most people don't realize it exists. Which is a downgrade from what we were at the club level, as at least the club team was known for their insane 4-year run.
JP can be kept in some capacity, but not as head coach. It's just not working. Regression should not be happening in year 5 where the entire roster consists of scholarship athletes.
Begin Defense Rant:
I'm glad I got to watch a little bit tonight because it confirmed some of my suspicions about the defense.
1) This team does not do any of the fundamental things you learn even as a high school player. As a teenager it was ingrained into my psyche by shouting, chemically-imbalanced grown men to "get on his hands". This meant, get your stick out and badger the offensive players hands by poking, prodding, slapping or just basically smacking his hands. Lacrosse is a great sport because you can literally whack a dude's hands with a big ol' stick and its totally legal. If you don't do this, you're essentially taking the longstick out of your defensemen's hands.
This serves three purposes: 1) it can help dislodge the ball and your team can get it 2) it increases the possibility he will throw a bad pass or take a weak shot 3) it increases the likelihood he will ward off and create a turnover.
Stick placement/footwork/defensive angles are also a weakness. On Marist's tying goal- Michigan's defenseman let the attackman come around the top of the crease because he did not close off the path with his stick and then push him out. This is known as 'closing the gate' and Michigan doesn't seem to do it.
2) The design of the D is based on a confusing series of quick slides. I don't understand the purpose of this but I guess it is to confuse the offense so they don't know where the help is coming from. There is merit in this and when I was at the Penn game, the Quakers seemed a little befuddled by it. But, I think it also confuses Michigan themselves and sometimes you have two guys running to the same spot and no guys running to another. They also slide when they don't need to and switch off on picks when they shouldn't (exhibit A: the winning goal). On Marist's last possession in regulation, they ended up with a wide open dude on the doorstep who had a point blank chance at Logan. But the gods of defense intervened and he just biffed it. He got wide open thanks to a truly idiotic slide when a M defender left him to slide on a guy who was moving away from the goal and not a threat to score.
3) For a team that plays a defense predicated on sliding, they suck at sliding. This is because they don't "take the body" when they slide, ie. body checking the hell out of the dude with the ball. I did see a good hit here and there in unsettled play (one at the end that I was psyched about) but for the most part they are not physical.
I chalk this all up to coaching. I think Broschart is trying to install something that doesn't work, or at least is not working at Michigan. They have to change it up. Its a real shame because I think they have the talent to be a good defense, even if just a disciplined one. It especially sucks for Logan who is great but has to stop an onslaught of free shots coming at him for most of the game.
End Defense Rant.
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To your last couple points, I can't believe how many shots they give up either on the crease or from the middle of the field just a few feet out. And no one is ever punished with a hit for it because Michigan isn't even in the area...mostly because they walked away from their man or are just plain caught ball watching. It's amazing Logan kept it as low scoring as he did.
March 23rd, 2016 at 10:39 PM ^
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March 23rd, 2016 at 10:42 PM ^
Not quite the best talent but this should not be happening.
Losing to shitty Dartmouth should not be happening.
Not when teams that have had shorter existences are not only winning, not only beating ranked powerhouse programs but they're actually ranked themselves.
This is at smaller schools who would kill for the name we have.