Lacrosse vs. Penn State in Final Regular Season Game

Submitted by L'Carpetron Do… on

Michigan needs a victory over a struggling Penn St squad to make the Big Ten tournament next week at Maryland.  

M is down 4-1 so far in the 2nd qtr.  It is on B102Go if you get that...

L'Carpetron Do…

April 25th, 2015 at 6:56 PM ^

It should be on Big Ten network if I understand correctly.  

Rutgers beat Ohio State today in a pretty big upset but its not enough to get them out of the cellar.  So M andPSU are fighting for the 4th spot in the Big Ten tournament.  

At half they're down 4-1 (which sounds like an awful game) .  So they really need a strong second half surge to get back in it.... 

acnumber1

April 25th, 2015 at 7:44 PM ^

Just turned it on and saw King and Jackson.  Where the hell are Webber, Rose, and Howard?

 

Just went to 9-8 --- goal a palooza in the last few minutes!

Wolverine Devotee

April 25th, 2015 at 8:13 PM ^

Ignorant comment.

1) Lacrosse is in their 4th season. They were picked to finish last in the B1G and wound up winning a game. 

2) MBB and Hockey made the B1G Tournament so by that logic they both made the postseason?. Lacrosse has to qualify for the B1G Tournament, which is difficult when you still have club players on your roster going against Maryland and Johns Hopkins. 

 

Wolverine Devotee

April 25th, 2015 at 8:19 PM ^

If Ian King wasn't injured for, what, a quarter of the season........Michigan would have had maybe 7 or 8 wins instead of just 5.

Next year is when there are no club guys on the roster. I'm not expecting a big jump in wins but I hope they can at least make the B1G Tournament. 

If Michigan transitioned to DI Lax the correct way like Marquette who was RANKED at one point during this season in their 2nd or 3rd year as a program, things would be moving a lot quicker.

B1G schedule next year features a trip to Rutgers, OSU to play at their football stadium before their spring game, a trip to PSU. But home games against Maryland and Johns Hopkins (FINALLY).

 

Wolverine Devotee

April 25th, 2015 at 8:43 PM ^

Start a program from scratch. Which is exactly what the Women's program did and are already where the Men are in only their 2nd season.

Michigan jumped immediately into the deep end when they took their club team and made them a Varsity team. Guys who did not come to Michigan to be Varsity athletes suddenly became Varsity athletes.

What the Michigan Women did was hire a head coach that was an assistant at a successful Division I program, recruit for a couple years and then play as a team full of recruited, scholarship athletes. Sure the team roster was all freshmen last year, but they won 5 games in their first season. 

I blame it on DB being DB. Most likely it was his ignorance in terms of taking an excellent CLUB team and expecting them to be competitive against teams who recruit players. Those first two years were very, very hard to watch. Michigan went 2-26. God bless the guys on those teams because they had no idea what they were getting into. It must have been extremely hard on them mentally from going 20-0 in the MCLA every year to getting blown out every game. 

And as expected, once guys they recruited to come here specifically to play Lacrosse got here, they started winning more than one game per season.

 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

April 25th, 2015 at 10:42 PM ^

If we did it the "correct" way, this would be the second season, not the fourth.  Marquette was 6-10 in their second season.

There's nothing to blame.  You're just being impatient.  This was one of the few things DB did right.  This isn't DB being DB, because there wasn't a dime to be made doing this.  He didn't just throw them into the fire with no input from the program itself.  John Paul worked his ass off to build this program and deserved the chance to coach it rather than being tossed aside the moment his work paid off.  And I bet the club guys from the first couple seasons wouldn't trade it for anything.

Instead of being impatient and starting to throw things because the team isn't good in its fourth season, a better approach would be to consider this the "real" second season.  I'm glad they went about doing it this way.  I'd rather they do the right thing by the people who did the work to put this program together.  In short, I'm glad they were actually playing instead of waiting two years after the announcement to put the team on the field.

Wolverine Devotee

April 25th, 2015 at 9:54 PM ^

After doing season-end updates for my Lacrosse SuperGuide.....Ian King did a lot this season in just 9 games.

Today, he broke the Michigan single game records (set by himself) for goals (6) and shots (13).

Ian King set five Michigan single season records this year as well.

  • Points: 34
  • Points Per Game: 2.62
  • Goals Per Game: 2.55
  • Assists Per Game: 1.22
  • Shots Per Game: 8.56

King also led the team in hat tricks this season, having 4 of them this year including TWO double hat tricks.

L'Carpetron Do…

April 26th, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^

I disagree - there is no 'correct' way to do it.  M had a leg up as a top club team, giving them a decent talent base already on campus.  Despite what most on this board would say, there isn't a huge difference in skill and talent between top club players (which M had) and a middling D-1 program (which M is now).

The fact that Michigan had lots of club players isn't really an excuse for why they are struggling now.  A lot of the players in the club's hey day were recruited by varsity programs but chose Michigan for its academics and campus life.  Not every club player could've played for a varsity program, but I would say about 10 or 12 could have made a D-1 roster.  (Don't forget - the club's top faceoff man ended up playing professionally).

So, I don't think its reasonable or fair to pin the current struggles on the club players of the past.  The club was an advantage, not a hindrance, in helping launch the program.  

Marquette is pretty successful now, but we used to beat the crap out of them and I'm disappointed they're making better progress than Michigan.  

I'm not really sure what the problem is, but its not the club legacy.  And if Marquette, BU and Richmond can have success in such a short period, there is no reason Michigan can't.   

 

Old Lax Wolve

April 27th, 2015 at 4:26 PM ^

Lots of things to discuss regarding the "right way" to do it, but here's a few notes of fact from an insider.  Pretty basic stuff, nothing too earth shattering or hard to believe.  In a perfect world maybe "this" changes or "that" is done another way...

but it really all boiled down to this: Money talks

The team needed to secure commitment of ~$5 million, and did it in ~2 months.  2 big donors (i.e. >$1 million each) in particular had strings on their donation:

  • 1 insisted the jump happen immediately. Not coincidentally he had a son on the club team. (note: he also insisted that women's go varsity, but without the time table).
  • 1 insisted that JP get the chance to be the coach.  Not coincidentally he played on the club team with JP.