Lacrosse: Postseason Updates
Since I never got into season-wrapup stuff, I'll go into some of that, as well as some peripheral stuff that relates to Michigan lacrosse.
All-Americans, Departing Seniors
Here are Michigan's MCLA All-Americans for the 2010 season.
1st Team:
- Faceoff Specialist David Reinhard (1st Team last year).
- Defense Harry Freid (1st Team last year).
- Attack Trevor Yealy (1st Team last year).
2nd Team:
- Attack Kevin Zorovich (3rd Team last year).
- Midfield Anthony Hrusovsky
Honorable Mention:
- Goalie Mark Stone.
Each of Michigan's 1st-Team All-Americans were also named to the MCLA All-Tournament Team.
After yet another successful year, the Wolverines' roster will experience some turnover, as is typical in college athletics. Here are Michigan's seniors who exhausted their eligibility in 2010, along with a notable stat or two for each of them (stats updated through conference tournament unless otherwise noted):
- #2 Jordan Kirshner - M - 13G, 11A.
- #3 Jamison Goldberg - M - 11G, 15A.
- #7 Anthony Hrusovsky - M - 12G, 12A.
- #9 Kevin Zorovich - A - 14G, 26A, 88GB.
- #20 David Reinhard - FO - .721 Faceoff win %, 110GB.
- #23 Michael Bartomioli - M - 3G, 5A
- #35 Bob Diehl - D - 14GB, 0TO.
- #41 David Rogers - M - 9G, 8A.
- #44 Svet Tintchev - M - 13G, 5A (he impressed in the MCLA tournament, not included here).
- #45 Josh Ein - A - 22G, 9A.
There are also a few guys who are 4th-year students, but still have eligibility remaining. I'm not sure on any of their statuses for next year:
- D Zach Meuller
- A Clark McIntyre
- M Stephen Levitt
Meuller and McIntyre are major contributors, and having all three of these guys back would be a big help to next year's team. I'll go into more depth on next year's squad at a later date.
Local Lacrosse
AnnArbor.com ran a three-part series over the weekend about lacrosse in the area, mainly focusing on the growth in youth and high school participation in the sport. Had the site's editors been aiming for things like "good content" instead of "more pageviews," the pieces could have been combined into a cohesive essay with a central thesis throughout, and been very interesting. Of course, I would have liked that central theme to be Michigan and a otential Varsity Bump in the future, but anything cohesive would have been a huge improvement over the way the stuff was presented.
As it is, that article is still interesting from the standpoint of the overall growth of the sport in the state and area. Regardless of whether the author makes that connection (or any connections at all), the series is relevant to M lacrosse.
NCAA Final Four
As you may be aware, Notre Dame reach the NCAA Championship Game, after making the 16-team tournament as an unseeded squad from the #11 slot. The Duke Blue Devils managed to end the miracle run with a 6-5 overtime win, but the Irish even reaching the game could mean some things for midwestern lacrosse, and a Hypothetical Michigan Varsity Team.
We've talked over the course of the spring about whether MIchigan could be competitive on the varsity lacrosse scene, since the East Coast contains the hotbeds for the game, and the midwest is a bit barren (though improving, as noted above by AnnArbor.com). Notre Dame's run to the Championship Game shows that it's possible for midwestern teams to reach some of the highest levels of the game. Of course, this requires hard work on the recruiting trail, and Hypothetical Michigan Varsity Team wouldn't be successful right away.
HOWEVA, as positive as Notre Dame's run could be for Michigan, it also ramps up the intensity of the "now-or-never" sense of urgency for earning that varsity status. Now that midwestern teams have shown its possible to reach the pinnacle of the game, unless Michigan has an established program soon, other midwestern teams (including the Irish and Ohio State) will have a much easier time building up their programs to a level that Michigan should have trouble reaching.
Up Next
I'll look at season-wrap stuff sometime in the near future (though Michigan's team wasn't nearly as dominant as last year's), and looking into the future of Michigan lacrosse never ends.
Is there somewhere we can go to express support for evolving the program to varsity? I live in CA or I would definitely get out to some games.
I actually piddled around with LAX team a bit while at michigan. My friend Jeremy played on the club team back around '87-'88 and he tough me to throw/catch play a bit and I went and threw around with the team for some practices in the spring mini-season they had then. I sucked, but played a lot of basketball and hockey growing up and LAX was easily more fun than either.
Would love to see them get bumped.
I think one of the best ways to show your support is to keep commenting on these lacrosse posts, to show that there's legitimate interest among Michigan fans in a varsity lacrosse team here.
I don't think a direct e-mail campaign or something of that sort is a good course of action - if Brandon and MSC wanted to get e-mails about stuff like that, they'd advertise their e-mail addresses.
I thought there might be a petition/list somewhere for alumnus to sign or something of that nature.
Will comment as much as possible. Season is over, but if anyone has any notification of games being broadcast that helps, then i have something to talk about. I was able to catch a few games on TV.
I'll see if i can't drop them some $$ also, as I'm sure a show of outside support in fundraising helps also. If not, I'm sure it eases the burden of traveling the team if nothing else.
...would be awesome. I'd show up to their games.
seems like a great idea. i wonder though, why is there such a sense of 'now or never' urgency? I remember reading an interview with the coach that said he thought they had a small window for attaining varsity status. Is this cause the athletic department is fickle? i know this may be simplifying your argument Tim, but i dont think the AD would ever think they shouldnt go varsity because they cant compete with ND/OSU. So, why is this window so small? Also, have you spoken to anyone with 'authority' on the subject of the varsity bump (i mean coach paul or the athletic department)? i remember in the same article i referenced above (which i couldnt find to link to) coach paul said something suggesting varsity status is on the table, just wondering if there is any sort of official/unofficial stance on that coming from the athletic department...
anyway, appreciate the updates. great work.
because the coach, given his three-pete success, is ripe for the plucking to a more esablished program. Understandable for him if he builds such a great program and it languishes at the club level, he has to think onward and upward.
Also, with 3 NCs for the MCLA, they really have nowhere to go but down. If the program doesn't take the next step, it runs the risk of appearing to regress because winning a NC each year is hard, even for Michigan (good Lawd do I one day want to be able say that about the football team). That might erode support and cause people to think they are right where they belong.
Also, I would imagine that their current success, plus a jump to varsity level would be a massive recruiting boost to be able to bring in more players and keep or exceed the talent level.
The reasoning laid out in this post is part of the "now or never" mentality. If Michigan doesn't get varsity status before midwest teams show they can compete with the East Coast guys, the Wovlerines will be playing from very, very far behind should they ever get varsity status.
Along with the potential to lose Coach Paul, and the program stagnating with nowhere to go but down, if this program doesn't move up sometime soon, it will be next to impossible for them to become competitive in any reasonable timeframe if they do eventually receive varsity distinction.
If you're interested in more (non-cliff notes version), try going back and skimming some of the comments in previous lacrosse posts.
but the one that always seems to come to mind first is, damn, I'd really like to see how the Michigan program measures up to the elites now playing varsity. I think it would be very interesting.
Stephen Levitt will be returning to finish out his eligibility but Clark McIntyre and Zach Mueller will not.
Thanks.
And congrats on being named an All-American.
...Tim's comments. All-American says it all. What a fantastic accomplishment.
Thanks everybody. The team really appreciates the coverage mgoblog has been giving us, thank you all for the support!
Congrats!
I would definitely love to see D1 Michigan Lax
No doubt, I would love to see D1 LAX at UM. Make this happen!
Once again Tim, thanks for the coverage. A new wrinkle to add to the 'now or never" calculus:
PSU is hiring a new coach - it is highly likely that said new coach will return PSU to the land of relevance (not necessarily regular tourney success.) And while PSU is actually east of Charlottesville, so is still technically an "eastern" team, the sports world certainly sees them as mid-western. So, more competition for those recruits who are interested in schools with big time college sports.
I didn't want to start a new thread, as this may only be of interest to Tim's lax readership. But since Michigan just faced off against this guy:
Connor Martin (AKA Con Bro Chill) has been invited to play on a College All-Star team taking on Team USA as a lead-up to the Major League Lacrosse draft. He is also on Inside Lacrosse's list of draft eligible players - the only MCLA player on the list. The implication is that Martin can expect to be drafted. Is this all because of the hype he has created on his site, and IL pimping his blog?
Game roster - some ridiculous names here - and Martin is sandwiched between Max Quinzani and Steven Boyle.
http://insidelacrosse.com/sites/default/files/imagesimages/Roster_600.j…
Con Bro Chill definitely knows what he's doing marketing-wise. His videos are ridiculous. Have any other MCLA players ever been drafted to the MLL?
There have been a couple MCLA players that have played in the MLL (but haven't been drafted). The only MCLA to be drafted was Brekan Kholitz, who played at Michigan, in 2008.
I like the analysis in the article on Michigan's varsity hopes for lax. The one thing I disagree with is the implication that midwestern teams would have a difficult time recruiting in the East Coast for the top lax talent. That may be true for most midwest schools but not for Michigan. I've lived in Maryland for over 25 years and there is no doubt in my mind that Michigan could recruit here and elsewhere on the East Coast. Michigan, Notre Dame, and Northwestern are the three midwestern schools that attract many students each year from the East Coast for their academic reputation. Every year 50 or more students apply to UM from each of the high schools in my area outside DC and the same is true for the best public schools in the Baltimore areas. Many private schools in Maryland send students every year to Michigan. Many great lax high schoolers on the East Coast would love to go to Michigan if it had a varsity program. This may sound like more UM hubris but it's the truth. And Coach Paul would be great at recruiting these guys. If UM goes varsity, it's a top 20 program in 3 years.
I definitely agree with this one -- I had over 20 students from my (public) high school outside of DC go to Michigan. I'm not sure how many applied, but Michigan is an insanely popular destination for high school graduates in Maryland. I would probably agree that we could make top 20 in three years, but it would take a good deal longer to get to the top 10. Baby steps, I guess!
Connor Martin was a good MCLA player, but not "OMG, what is that guy doing in the MCLA?!?!?!" I would guess his cult of personality (and his sponsorship with Warrior, etc.) is what got him in the door.
MLL draft is underway - as of the late 4th round, Con Bro Chill has not been chosen. Great comment on the Inside Lacrosse liveblog: "he's probably the Brady Quinn of tonight"
Edit: Martin drafted in 7th round by Denver Outlaws. Makes some sense for them for reasons Tim listed above.
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