Lacrosse: Javon Johnson Commits to Michigan
The Wolverines added a verbal from 2018 attackman Javon Johnson, a shifty skilled scorer from the St. Anne's-Belfield program in Virginia.
Johnson joins a loaded 2018 class featuring players from both coasts. The full list of 2018 commits is:
J.P. Lannig, A, Syosset (N.Y.)
Alex Bamford, A, Brunswick (Conn.)
John John Lombardi, M, Irondequoit (N.Y.)
Luke Summers, M, Central Catholic (Pa.)
Zach Johnson, M, Landon (Md.)
Emmett Jones, D, Lakeridge (Ore.)
Rich Dion, D, McDonogh (Md.)
Devin Gilligan, D, Shipley School (Pa.)
Jack Schlendorf, G, Oregon Episcopal (Ore.)
Cool.
I was somewhat excited until I saw 2018, I don't think I'd even get excited for a 2018 football commit, in fact, I know I wouldn't. Do we even have anyone committed in 2017 or 2018 in football?
Anyway, congrats to Johnson on becoming a Wolverine and getting a chance to live out his dream!
How many starz?
Thanks for the update! For those of us who are still a bit ignorant of the lacrosse world, how does our recruiting stack up nationally, and how does it stand in terms of meeting the expectations we have for the program's progress?
It's my understanding that we are continually getting better classes, but still not on the elite level.
It's only a matter of time though until we reach the elite level in my opinion. Look at the 2014 Top 100 Freshman in lacross. Now look at this year's Michigan Freshman Profile released by UofM.
Michigan has the name recognition in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic which is king for lacross - what we don't have is the historically good program at a varsity level. In time we'll get there.
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I'm from that area. Always found it interesting how Rochester and Syracuse are hotbeds for lacrosse talent but nearby Buffalo is a no name
Is that right? That is very odd.
Rochester and Syracuse are big on lacrosse. Buffalo seems to primarily generate hockey talent which I suspect is a direct result of the Sabres being in town (notably Steve Racine and Joe Cecconi of Michigan Hockey fame are both from the Buffalo metro). Lax is for sure popular out in Buffalo too, but people aren't going D1 like the kids from Rochester, Cuse, and the Reservations do.
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Is this our second year playing lacrosse as a varsity team? Looking forward to some good progress, just like baseball.
Now that he's getting more legit talent, JP needs to get these kids to put it together on the field. He's had enough recruiting classes now that lack of talent can't be blamed if they don't win.
(in my personal opinion, I think they need more public school kids - especially from upstate NY- those kids are unreal)
Based off what I saw last year the guy isn't a good enough coach for d1. The defense was getting beat because they were not good enough which is whatever but the offense was incredibly stagnant and had little to no creativity, that isn't a talent thing all these guys can throw and catch well enough to run an offense.
I guess time will tell. It's pretty hard to compare when you don't have the same talent level. There is one great offensive player on the Michigan roster, King, and he was injured for a big chunk of the season (and still led them in scoring). They have some nice midfielders, especially Jackson and Schlosser. Conor Ford is their third offensive coordinator in four years (first one is now a D1 head coach, and second one left for a national club outfit I'm assuming for a lot more money and less pressure). Ford did great things at Drexel and was an All-American at Hopkins himself. Let's see what he does with a year under his belt and more talent coming.
Last year, by the way, their goals per game went up despite no impact freshmen and a lower faceoff percentage. That tells me the offense improved quite a bit.
I agree they definitely need an upgrade in defensive talent, and hopefully that's coming through recruiting.
The 2016 class was ranked in the top 5 at one point by Inside Lacrosse, for what it's worth. Not sure if it's still considered that good, but I'm hearing great things about the 2017 and 2018 classes.
Somehow missed this yesterday. Looks like a talented kid.
He's still a kid though. Just finished his freshman year of high school. So it'll be a while before he's on campus, and longer still before he's an upper classmen.
Very interested to see how some of the blue chip guys coming in this year do. Curran, Noseworthy and Sutherland all look like they could be good. Hopefully a few others too.
August 5th, 2015 at 10:30 AM ^
Is it weird that the kid is going into his sophomore year and he has already committed? And we have a bunch of other kids from that year who are signed already too? The recruiting timeline is crazy different now.
When I was a player and going through the recruiting process the rule was that coaches could not reach out to speak with an athlete until June 1 of their junior year. They could communicate through letters but they couldn't actually call them on the phone. I assume if they couldn't talk to them, they couldn't offer them scholarships either. Of course, this was the late1990s, but does anyone know when that rule changed?
I also knew a handful of guys who were big-time, Javon-calibur recruits who were getting letters from schools like Hopkins and UVA when they were in 8th grade. But, they couldn't actually talk to the coaches until the summer between junior and senior year so it was kind of up in the air. I think some guys could commit via letter, but it was still a toss-up as to whether they would actually be admitted or not. Back then, dudes didn't make the decision until well into their senior year, and sometimes not until April or May.
I think its crazy and weird that M already has a bunch of kids locked up who won't graduate for another two years. I can't imagine going into my sophomore year of HS already knowing where I would go to college. I mean I'm glad we got Javon, but thats so weird to me.
(On a weird side note, I had a dream last night in which I didn't get into Michigan, or any other good school. It was depressing and alarming. The dream occurs fairly frequently.)
There are some UVA fans disappointed to have missed out on this guy. Part of it is that STAB is almost literally UVA's backyard.
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Welcome to the 21st century
Is this a club sport at Michigan?
Definitely one to keep an eye on. Will likely be the 4th most popular M sport after not too long. Lots of lacrosse fans at Michigan and this team will be good. If the BTN contnues to up their TV coverage, that will only help.
EDIT: The Big Ten has a lot of very good lacrosse teams, so Michigan is guaranteed to play a number of very good lacrosse teams every year (Maryland, Hopkins and OSU were all tourney teams last year and PSU is traditionally good as well).
August 4th, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
Unlikely.
The mere presence of a single uncompetitive team makes that point null.
The B1G can probably join the Big East as the next level, maybe win a natty or two in the next ten years, but has much farther than you think to knock off the ACC.
August 5th, 2015 at 11:16 AM ^
I'm not sure the presence of one uncompetitive team is enough to make the point null, mostly because we have one more team, but I agree with your overall point. If our top 5 was as good as the ACC, then you'd have to say we're even.
That said, I agree that it won't happen for a while. This past season, the Big Ten was very good, and our top 3 were as good as the ACC's top 3 (the tournament showed that) but it was a major fall off from there. The next two ACC teams were sure-fire tournament teams, whereas PSU, Michigan and Rutgers were not close.
That said, I think our immediate goal is to be the no-doubt #2 league after the ACC and I think we're almost there. I think we're already ahead of the Big East but I think the Ivy League is a bigger challenge. The Ivy is a lot deeper than the Big East, and is more established. I don't think the Big East teams, outside of Denver and Georgetown, have enough cache to stay competitive as the sport grows. Going forward, teams like Marquette and Villanova won't be able to compete with PSU, OSU and Michigan for recruits and they'll be left by the wayside.
A good number of Michigan alums in Rochester plus a power vacuum of no big college programs / followings in NYS. Cuse is nothing special and the city sucks. Michigan has a good sell
August 18th, 2015 at 12:44 PM ^
This is a video of a Michigan 2018 recruit in a three-team braveheart tiebreaker this summer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I4kIZF9TG8 His team also has UNC, Hopkins, Maryland and Denver recruits. They had the Michigan recruit do the tiebreaker. There is lots of video of lacrosse recruits. Not sure where the first opponent he beat is going, but the second (longstick) just committed to Duke. This looks good for Blue!