M Lacrosse vs #11 Ohio State 7PM Tonight on BTN
Men's lacrosse heads to Columbus to take on #11 Ohio State in the regular season finale. The game will air on the Big Ten Network at 7PM (at least I think so? I don't know about cable, but it looks like it will be on via Fox Sports on Roku at least). Michigan beat the Buckeyes in the Big Ten tournament last year and the way things are shaping up this year, it looks these two teams could play each other again in the first round of the tournament, which would be later this week.
Ohio State is 8-4 on the year and is coming off a solid beating at the hands of Maryland. Their only other losses are to Cornell, Denver and Rutgers all of which are good teams. Ohio State blew out UNC early in the season and also beat ND and are 2-2 in the conference. So, they're pretty good but not unbeatable, so Michigan has a chance.
Michigan is 7-6 and staring down the possibility of ending the season on a 7-game losing streak. They've gotten great faceoff and goalie play all year but the offense has really struggled lately. Michigan's attack has gone ice cold after a hot start. Their season is not technically over however, as they could win the conference tournament to earn the auto bid for the NCAAs (but that would require them to win 3 games, one of them likely against an undefeated Maryland team). Michigan is coming off two painful one-goal losses against Penn State and Rutgers so they'll be hungry for a win.
GO BLUE!!! BEAT THE BUCKEYES!!
I would expect a decent weather delay! Strong storms moving into AA region.
Go Blue!!!
It's kind of depressing this is the last game already. I'm a big-time complainer about the start of spring sports but consider this: Michigan's last regular season football game was November 27th and the last regular season game for basketball was March 6th. That's a difference of 99 days (3 mos., 7 days). Compare this with lacrosse which finishes 49 days after the regular season finale for basketball.
Things are a little different this year because all of the conference teams qualify for the B1G tournament so it may be ending earlier than usual. But still, that's a big contrast and I think it's similar across most sports and seasons- there is likely a huge gap between fall-winter and winter-spring.
Oh, my bad, I thought it was in AA. Game is at Columbus.
Go Blue!
They play everyone very close just can't get over the hump. This Michigan Lax season reminds me of Nebraskas football season.
14-12 Ohio State, again a tough way to finish. They had some good looks and opportunities to cut it to 1 with under 3 minutes but Ohio State's goalie made some spectacular saves.
Anyway, weird season. I really think this team could have won 4 games in the league this year but they kind of got in their own way. Against Penn State and Rutgers they played pretty poorly for most of each game, but made furious comebacks only to fall short. THe same thing happened today as Michigan went down 6-0 before getting on the board. I can't help but wonder what those games could've been like if they put together more complete games.
The good news is they get to play for revenge this week.
What a long, strange trip it’s been for Michigan men’s lacrosse in 2022.
Michigan’s seven straight wins to start the season, five of which came in February, were against teams that currently are a combined 24-65, with only Delaware having a winning record (8-5).
In games decided by three goals or fewer, Michigan was 1-4, with the four losses coming by a total of seven goals.
Five of Michigan’s seven losses were against currently-ranked teams: 12-0 Maryland (1), 12-2 Rutgers (4), 6-4 Notre Dame (9), 9-4 Ohio State (11) and 8-3 Harvard (17).
In games against teams that were ranked at the time Michigan played them, Michigan was 1-4 with the only win coming by ten goals (18-8) against Delaware that then (March 5) was ranked 18th. BUT those last two losses, 13-12 against Rutgers (now ranked 4th) and 14-12 against 11th-ranked Ohio State showed that Michigan was capable of staging late-game comebacks after going down by five or more goals.
April 25th, 2022 at 10:07 AM ^
To those with more knowledge here, is the coach on any kind of hot seat? This is a varsity program going on a full decade now, with academic and facilities advantages that should have given it a leg up but the men's team has yet to sniff the NCAA Tournament or contend for the conference.
Genuinely curious, I'm a big fan of the sport but there isn't a whole lot of coverage.
April 25th, 2022 at 11:09 AM ^
A) a decade isn't a lot of time.
B) and we're at a pretty large geographic disadvantage against the rest of the conference/country.
The NCAA tournament is small in lacrosse, only 16 teams, and there are enough Blue Bloods (the entire ACC, much of the Ivy League, half the Big Ten plus teams like Denver, etc) that making the tourney is pretty tough even for those mentioned above.
All that said, I think some thought we'd be at least a little better at this point than we are, and this season started out looking promising. It was also pretty close to being pretty good, as a poster above showed (lots of close losses to good/very good teams). BUT - one of these years we need to start turning those close losses into wins more than once a year.
April 25th, 2022 at 12:52 PM ^
The "geography of lacrosse" really cannot be over-stated ...... only 3 schools west of the Appalachians have ever made a Lacrosse Final Four. Denver, OSU, and Notre Dame.
It's an east coast dominated sport and even though U-M gets a lot of students from the east coast, geography is still a significant structural disadvantage for the Wolverines.
No doubt. A big part of that is that unlike football, most of the team is not on full scholarship (many contributors aren't on scholarship at all. This gives schools like Maryland, PSU, even OSU and Rutgers to an extent, etc. who have great in-state HS lacrosse a huge advantage because they can recruit instate kids who will pay the same in tuition as a half scholarship at Michigan.
This is by no means the only (or even the main) reason, but it contributes for sure. If Michigan offers a half-scholarship to a kid from Cleveland or Baltimore, and their in-state school does the same, that recruit would be paying less than half as much to go to OSU or Maryland, setting aside the other advantages of those schools (and of staying closer to home). Michigan has far less instate talent to do that with.
April 25th, 2022 at 11:13 AM ^
The problem is that M has great academics and facilities but so do the other programs in the Big Ten. And the top programs around the country are also strong academic institutions as well. Whereas in other sports, coaches can point to U of M's academic reputation as a recruiting advantage, in lacrosse Michigan is competing for top players against programs like Princeton, Cornell + the rest of the Ivies, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Hopkins, UVA, UNC, Duke and the service academies. So, Michigan doesn't necessarily have an advantage in this case, it's just another strong school in a sea of them.
But, I think this coaching staff has gotten them so close to where they want to be. This season was really disappointing because I think they're so much better than a 7-7 team. And I thought if they took one from Harvard or ND and won 2 conference games they might be in the conversation for the NCAAs. The opportunities were there but they just didn't put together complete performances. Their season is not over though and weirdly, I think they're perfectly capable of winning multiple games in the conference tournament (and if someone takes care of Maryland for them, they could even win it!)
They may have lost the match however Michigan's uniforms were on point! Lacrosse not the greatest sport for television.
Really? I disagree with that, I think it's about the best sport for TV. Not too long, there are built in breaks, and it's pretty easy to follow (assuming you understand the game from a rudimentary standpoint). Since the ball is almost always in someone's position, it's easier to follow than say hockey where the puck can be tough to find (or is behind the boards).