Lacrosse vs #11 Ohio State

Submitted by amir_6 on
Tied up at 4-4 right now.

Wolverine Devotee

April 12th, 2015 at 3:00 PM ^

Awful defense to the surprise of no one.

They'll have a chance to beat Penn State in two weeks. A win there will send them to the B1G Tournament.

Old Lax Wolve

April 13th, 2015 at 3:21 PM ^

Tied 4-4 with under 3 minutes in the first half, Michigan telegraphs a pass on the clear, OSU comes down and scores on a fast break. Then OSU wins the face off and the FOGO barrels down the middle unattended and scores 6 seconds later. OSU won another face off and added a final goal with about 30 seconds left in the half.  We didn't know it at the time, but that was the end of it for Michigan's chances.

Wolverine Devotee

April 12th, 2015 at 4:31 PM ^

8-13 final. 

Michigan can beat PSU. Both team's season will come down to that game. Winner's continues in the B1G Tournament, where they will surely get destroyed by top-5 ranked Maryland who is conveniently hosting the tournament. 

mlax27

April 12th, 2015 at 5:23 PM ^

The team looked very good at times today. Diving for ground balls, some nice plays on offense and some good saves from Logan. I didn't think the D looked all that bad to be honest. A few bad plays, but a number of bad breaks and penalties really hurt.

The biggest issue we had was face offs. I don't think we won one until the 3rd quarter, and they were able to possess the ball all day, and eventually get some good looks. Had face offs been even I'm guessing this game would have been a lot closer. We were definitely some looks, but didn't have the ball enough to generate them regularly.

laxalum

April 12th, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^

Defense is much improved over the last few weeks.  Not sure what people are seeing when they say awful defense.  Yes there were a few breakdowns, but overall you can see the improvement.  And other than Logan, they are doing it without a single guy who I would call great at that end.   No defense, I don't care who you are, can shut down a good offense (and Ohio State has a good, not elite, offense) if the other team has the ball a lot more than you do.  Faceoffs are the biggest factor holding this team back.  And today there were a few untimely turnovers, both on offense and on clears, that didn't help.  I loved the scrap in the first half.  Diving for loose balls and flying around.

They just played a muderers row of faceoff guys between Maryland, Rutgers and Ohio State.  They survived Rutgers because they actually are a slightly better team and they had just enough offense, but Maryland and Ohio State without the ball isn't going to work out too well.  I'm hopeful they can compete a little better for faceoffs in the next two weeks.  Hopkins and Penn State are good there, but not like these last three.

If this team beats Penn State and makes the Big Ten tournament that's a success for this year.  Everybody picked them to be last of six, and they already are positioned to be 4th or 5th.

Old Lax Wolve

April 13th, 2015 at 10:21 AM ^

Great point on the murderers row of face off guys. The B1G has the most elite FOGOs (the aforementioned trio) and the ACC has really just one who's elite (Duke) and no other conference really has any elite guys (I gathered from conversations with UM coaches).

OSU's guy is probably the best in the NCAA. Coach JP tried to mix things up - putting a pole in to face off and some other things on the wing - but said he didn't have the horses (due to injuries to our best defensemen) to execute well enough to counter OSU.

We should fare better at the X against JHU and PSU the next two weeks.

Also great point that faceoffs are the biggest factor holding this team back (defense being a close second). A great face off guy can make up for a lot of other deficiencies by limiting the other team's possessions (duh). Given how thin we are at D that would be nice. Also fewer unforced turnovers would be nice too.

chatster

April 12th, 2015 at 7:27 PM ^

In order to succeed in NCAA lacrosse, it usually helps to have a good faceoff specialist, although there always are exceptions, like this year's Virginia and Marquette teams that have been ranked in the top 20 most of the season.

If he can qualify academically, get Sam Talkow from Boston University (fifth in the nation in faceoff winnning percentage for a program in its second year of varsity play)  to transfer to Michigan for next season, and the Wolverines might be able to duplicate what Syarcuse has done this year with a transfer (Ben Williams from Holy Cross, like Boston University, a Patriot League school) "at the X."

Before today, Michigan was winning about 46% of its faceoffs. In today's game against Ohio State, Michigan won only 9 of 25 faceoffs. Talkow (a sophomore and former high school All American) wins around 67% of his faceoffs. Willliams (despite a rough second half against North Carolina in yesterday's loss when he won only 7 of 17 draws, after winning 14 of 18 in the first half) has been winning around 70% of his faceoffs this year for 'Cuse.