Michigan Lacrosse Wins B1G Championship - Qualifies for NCAA Tourney
I went to college at a school with a proud lacrosse tradition, so Michigan's rise to a D1 program has felt special to me. Lacrosse is a hugely underrated sport IMO with its fast tempo, physicality with minimal protective equipment (for men's), and "just-right" scoring balance (every goal matters, but a game will rarely come down to a fluke goal).
Lacrosse is also a sport where the blue bloods tend to dominate year-in and year-out. So with Michigan coming into this season with exactly ZERO B1G wins in program history, the expectations were low.
Tonight, though, Michigan did the unthinkable by beating -- scratch that....demolishing -- 6th ranked Maryland to win the B1G tournament championship.
š±šøš¶ šš“š½ šš¾ššš½š°š¼š“š½š š²š·š°š¼šæšøš¾š½š
ā Michigan Men's Lacrosse (@UMichLacrosse) May 6, 2023
No. 15 Michigan 14, No. 7 Maryland 5
ā NCAA Tournament Bound
ā Big Ten Tournament Champions#GoBlueć½ļø pic.twitter.com/Xrv6quUeOj
Maryland scored exactly ONE goal after halftime as Michigan used its speed advantage and phenom freshman goalie Hunter Taylor to salt the game away.
Next step! The FIRST NCAA Tournament in program history. Hail to the Victors!
Not a huge fan but watched when on B1G network because itās Michigan. I will start to pay attention more. Both the menās and womenās teams
HAIL TO THE VICTORS!
This was a HUGE win, easily the biggest win in program history.
Not hard to see this as sustainable success toward becoming a more consistently good team. A decent showing at the NCAAs would help recruiting get a bump.
Go Blue!!!
Give them hell ladies.
Unfortunately the Lady Wolverines lost in the semis.
What the hell is a "Lady Wolverine?"
Hell yeah! We need a spring sport for when softball/baseball aren't peaking. Total dominance today. That frosh goalie coming in at halftime of the PSU game then starting today was incredible. Zawada excellent as always, will be a shame to lose him. Unless he gets a COVID year?
He's a 2019 HS graduate. I don't know the rules around COVID years, but he was off to a great start as a freshman when that season got cut short.
The difference between lacrosse and the other spring sports you mentioned: whereas the B1G is always fighting uphill for respect in those sports, we're easily in the top 3 conferences in men's lacrosse and year in year out, we should be right in the conversation for "best conference" with the ACC and Ivy. It's one area (maybe the only one?) where the Maryland/Rutgers additions really paid off, as it also allowed for the addition of Hopkins.
Awesome. I've been a lifelong lacrosse player/coach/fan and grew up knowing that playing at the college level ruled out the possibility of going to Michigan (My grades would likely have played a role as well, but I digress...) because we didn't know about the MCLA, etc. We saw D1, D2, D3 NCAA, the end.
Watching Michigan establish a D1 program and now advance to the national tournament for the first time by beating one of the bluest of blue bloods (Terps are the flagship school in the most fertile recruiting region) is a unique fan experience.
There's something about rooting for the niche sports. I don't know any other Michigan lacrosse fans (unlike football/basketball/ice hockey.) So being able to attend the game today, for example, required scheduling everything in my own life to wrap up in time to drive to Homewood, plus the drive time back home. During football season, people get it.
Anyway, hopefully this is the start of building a powerhouse program... but either way, thanks to the team and coaches for giving me a fan experience I never believed would be possible!
An outstanding game to watchā¦ long stretches of dominance in all phases. It was back and forth for the first hace of the 1st quarterā¦ but only because Michigan is was not doing great at the faceoff circle. That switched quickly and Michigan built a lead. The first half was Michigan punishing Maryland defense around the netā¦ finding cutters with quick hands. Second half, it was like Rocky switching to southpawā¦ just starting ripping step down shots from the outside. The faceoff wins piled up and even caused the Maryland faceoff specialist to jump early, giving M free possessions.
Sorry for the word vomit recap, it was just very exciting to watch Michigan win some hardware for the first time since moving to D1. This team can make some noise in the NCAA tournament.
Story concerning faceoff winsā¦ a few years back I was talking with a former UM asst. coach up in the stands about the fiasco that was our faceoffs. He said our one decent FOGO ( faceoff - get off) was hurt so we were just conceding them and basically playing whack-a- stick - let them win the FO and then converge and goon it up- bowl them over, whack repeatedly whatever and hope for the best. It rarely worked. This year with two quality FOGO ās the results are night and day difference.
F*** the Bubble - WE GOIN TO SIZZLER!!!!!
Do you think Michigan has a chance to sneak into the top 8 and host?
It might be my maize glasses, but looking at where inside lacrosse had their bracketology this morning, Michigan now has a nicer looking record (2 wins over Maryland, and 1 over PSU) than quite a few teams ahead of them with no top 5 wins. With the B1G getting 4 teams in, it would look pretty silly for the conference winner to not be hosting a 1st round match.
I think without the Marquette loss they're hosting for sure.
The few bracketologists I've seen have them playing on the road at the 8 seed- so right on the line of hosting a game.
I will sure as heck be making every effort to attend if we get a home game. If we donāt Iād be worried that we get ND who is a really tough matchup for us. I believe that the 1 seed gets the play in game winner, but after that the initial round games are often the seeded team against the geographically nearest unseeded team to save travel costs, which would give us ND.
hoff, good q. It's crazy: Going into it, I was like "if they hang tough and XYZ goes our way in the bubble, they could get in". And then late in the 3rd quarter I said to myself "Oh my god, could they end up hosting a game now?"
THey are certainly one of the hottest teams in the country right now. And a bunch of teams ahead of them went down over the weekend so I wouldn't be surprised if they end up with the 7 or 8? It's not outside the realm of possibility. But either way, I am very intrigued about who their first round matchup will be.
Most of what Iām reading leads me to believe that Michigan, Cornell, Yale, and Georgetown will in some order comprise seeds 7-10 in the 16-team field.
Right now, two of those teams (Gtown/Michigan) are conference champions. If Princeton beats Yale tomorrow in the Ivy finals, I think Michigan and Gtown are 7-8 (just guessing on that order)ā¦ but I think a Yale victory would send Michigan on the road to Georgetown.
If youāre on Twitter, @fieldystick is a great follow for lax bracketologyā¦ thatās the source from which Iāve read much of this information. Three ACC heavyweights (ND, UVA, Duke) likely the top 3, with PSU/Maryland/Hopkins 4-6.
I donāt rule out the committee jumping Michigan all the way to 6 due to a 2-0 record vs. Maryland, but those in the know havenāt mentioned that possibility, and as defending national champs I see no way Maryland goes on the road to start.
Screw the Maryland head coach (Tillman) who blew by our coach in the handshake line, barely making eye.
Stay classy!
I saw it live and rewound 10 times to make sure I wasn't seeing things.
https://twitter.com/LacrosseNetwork/status/1655008117371936768?t=IGuvCFn44nQ0EvXM4d6IOg&s=19
Stay classy Mary Landā¦
Some say thereās bad blood streaming from Conryās exit from UMD to coach Michigan. Rumors that Tillman (MD coach) still hasnāt given Conry his ring from Marylandās 2017 championship.
This doesnāt confirm any of that, but it doesnāt refute it eitherā¦
WHOA!! Never heard that. Scandalous...
Not giving him the championship ring he earned? Fucking bizarre. What did Conry do? Pants Tillman and say ālater fucker!ā on his way out the door 6 years ago?
I will say the Twitter comment suggesting Tillman was upset that Conry was running up the score is my favorite. Obviously not true (only 4 second half goals) but it just shows how close this program is to becoming a power when they are being accused of running up the score on Maryland!
Zero Big Ten wins in program history? False. Zero last year, yes.
That's my bad.
Harbaugh got his boys together and taught the lacrosse team how to halftime adjust.
Go Blue!
exactly ZERO B1G wins in program history
Wellā¦ thatās not true. We won a B1G game in the inaugural B1G season. 1 each in ā18 and ā19. And won 2 in ā21.
So, Michiganās lacrosse team scored two TDās and converted the extra points, while holding Mary Land to a field goal and a safety?
When I was in school it was when the club team was just dominating people. Honestly I thought they would've gotten here sooner, but even with the early struggles you knew eventually they'd get the right combo of coaching and roster to breakthrough. I'm hopeful this is the start of a long run of Michigan being nationally relevant
Congratulations to the Wolverines.
Elsewhere in college lacrosse - The Ivy Championship, Princeton is up by 10 over Yale, 13-3 at halftime.
P.S. - after three quarters, Princeton maintains a ten goal lead, 16-6.
I didnāt know who they had raise the championship trophy until I saw this tweet from former coach Jon Paul.
From Joe Hennessyās profile on mgoblue:
āHennessy, a 2003 graduate of Michigan, volunteered in the U-M athletic media relations office from 1999-2003, working with the hockey program. Following his graduation, he moved to U-M Rec Sports serving as the media relations director for all club programs. In 2007, Hennessy became the director operations for the men's lacrosse program, as position he has held since.ā
So awesome to see Coach Paul and other club/varsity alums share in the celebration of this moment which is the culmination of the blood/sweat/tears they out into building it.
I was going to make a comment about this, because I noticed that move by coach Conry as well.
As a former (club) lax player at UM who has followed and occasionally interacted with the progam over the years, I can tell you that the program owes so much to both John and Joe. While JP was almost singlehandedly responsible for bringing in the funding to establish the program, people in Joes position are incentivized to move around in order to move up the ladder but he chose to stay and is now the singular through line for a program that has been through a lot of growing pains.
UM lax has, fairly or unfairly, been viewed as underachievers; a moniker which imo is really unfair on a number of levels, but especially in the case of Joe and he other staffers who have worked so hard with the team.
Iām so happy for the progam that this label can in large part be put to rest. Also, given the way they have been trending on the field, I think they are going to make good use of the house money that they have in the coming weeks.
To you and all the other former players and staff on here, congrats on the championship. As Coach Conry and the players said in the postgame, this championship is just as much yours as it a theirs.
I havenāt followed lacrosse enough to hear the underachiever talk, but unsure what the expectations were? As I recall, when they moved to D1 I remember hearing itād likely take 6-10 years before they were competitiveā¦ especially considering the strength of the conference. In my mind, itās be like a FCS team moving to FBS and joining the B1G or SEC.
In my mind, itās be like a FCS team moving to FBS and joining the B1G or SEC.
I wouldnāt go that far. Michigan has far more resources and connections to the East Coast (where Lax is huge) than an FCS team joining the B1G or SEC would. Michigan is still a premier brand and offers a premier education. I donāt think itās a good comparison at all to an FCS school.
The underachiever talk stems from how long it took to become competitive, while Marquette (started their program the year after we did) made the NCAA tournament twice in their first five seasons and had a winning record by year 3. Itās year 12 and weāre just making our first tournament and just secured our first winning season since 2018 and just our 3rd overall.
The B1G is a very, very good lacrosse conference. I just donāt think anyone expected us to toil at the bottom for as long as we have. Weāre 7-38 overall in regular season B1G play, and still havenāt posted a winning season in-conference. This, after going 1-10 in the ECAC.
I donāt think itās unfair to say the program had underachieved. But the hope is this conference championship and NCAA appearance is something that changes the momentum and allows Michigan to become a respectable program.
How good a coach is Conry? He seems to be quite good (top ten-fifteen nationally?), but perhaps itās too early to tellā¦ How is he recruiting?
He was a well respected assistant at Maryland, but Michigan is his first head coaching job. Seems like a pretty significant stretch to put him in the top 10-15 category. This is year 6 at Michigan and he is 35-41 overall and just 6-24 in conference play. Iād think he needs to do something of note to put himself in that top 10-15 category.
Recruiting has been good, not quite elite but itās been good. Again, the hope is more that this is the turning point for the program more than anything. This season looked like more of the same following a loss to Marquette and squeaking out a win over Hofstra.
Are there things they have been doing differently since they scuffled early on this year? Seems like face-off play and attack play and goaltending have been solid. Transition D against Maryland seemed to be solid. Is the turnaround more of a feelingsball kind of thing though ā they finally found the moxie to close out a tight win against Maryland the first time around, and now theyāre playing with a belief thatās never been there before?