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Too bad they didn't get to

Too bad they didn't get to play the Detroit game.  Have to think that would have been a W.

There were not actually 9

There were not actually 9 faceoff violations for Vermont.  That's wrong.  I'm thinking maybe 2 in the first half and 3 or 4 in the second?

I thought the defense played pretty well against a very good offense except for a couple of mistakes late or when O mids got trapped.  Man down was perfect.  Vermont makes you pay in transition.  That's how they scored a lot of their goals.

Since IMG is such a sports

Since IMG is such a sports factory does anyone know of athletes there who are committed to Michigan's various other teams?  I ask because I know of one for lacrosse, Zach Schwartz, who is an Ann Arbor kid in the 2017 class.

Any for soccer, track, tennis, golf, baseball, basketball?

I would agree they probably

I would agree they probably made a run at Perkovic, but at that time the Michigan program was just starting out.  They did get Alessi from the same Brother Rice team, who was arguably even better, but he ended up decommitting to go play football.

I've posted this before, but look at future Michigan classes.  There are Michigan kids, Long Island kids, MIAA kids (Ryan Brown's brother, Jason, is coming next year - Ryan is the best player on Hopkins).  Ryan Prior in next year's class is from Michigan, but goes to Culver.  In the 2017 class Schmidt is from Brother Rice and Schwartz is from Ann Arbor, but goes to IMG.  They have three public school Long Island kids in that class too, two from Manhasset and one from Northport.

And then the 2018 class gets here, which is supposed to be top 5.

http://recruitingrundown.com/

I do think it's important to remember that this team is doing it now with no more club guys (I was one, and no way I would have helped this team) but with recruiting classes that have not been on anyone's elite lists yet.  Good classes, but not great.

It's interesting to me how

It's interesting to me how different lacrosse teams use their 17 allowable dates.  Some teams scrimmage once in the fall.  Some twice.  Some scrimmage a bunch in the spring/late winter before they start their regular season.  (Michigan seems to usually be 2x in the fall and 1x preseason).  Some teams don't scrimmage at all (Duke) and then cram more games into the season by playing more multiple-game weeks. 

I'm sure every coach has his philosophy on scheduling, but for some teams it must also have to do with budget and class misses in the off-season.

One of the weirdest scheduling things, to me at least, is that the ACC and at least one other conference hold their tournament a week before everyone else.  So they play their conference tournament, then have another regular season non-conference game (or no game) the next week before the NCAA tournament starts.

ND, Ohio State, Penn State,

ND, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan.  I think that's it for indoor football practice facilities that lacrosse teams get to use.  I think a few programs (Harvard maybe?) have bubbles they put up, but not sure how many are full field or could host a game.

Detroit practices and plays early season games at an indoor soccer facility in Pontiac.

Cuse has the dome, so they are the only ones who have an indoor facility that was actually built to host games.  They also just built an indoor practice facility.

Marquette does not have one, but I think they are building one?  If they are that would be a pretty big investment in lacrosse since they don't have football.

It's an advantage for sure, but the flip-side of that is the teams that deal with the weather conditions for practice are more prepared for those conditions than a team that has been in a cozy indoor environment for the preseason.  Something to watch in early season games.

How many beers did you have

How many beers did you have at Citi Field that day?  I was there too and didn't remember it that way.  Just looked it up.  Score was 10-7 and the teams traded 4 goals each in the 2nd half.  Might have been Michigan's best game in their first two years.  Peter Baum was still on that Colgate team as a senior, the year after winning the Tewaarton.  They held him to 2 and 1.

Definitely a great win today. As someone else mentioned, even better to know they had a few players suspended and still got the W.  Really good to see Logan bounce back after last week.

Does anyone know where his

Does anyone know where his lacrosse offers came from?  Did Michigan lacrosse recruit him?

If we're inviting someone

If we're inviting someone from the poker world, then I'd be 100% in support of Norman Chad.  But he has to commentate the event.  That I would watch.

Agree with all except the

Agree with all except the weak schedule part.  SOS has been very high all of the first few years.  MUCH higher than any of the other newer programs.  The wins have mostly come against lower ranked opponents, and there are no big name wins yet, but the losses have mostly come against very good teams.

Even better, watch this.  His

Even better, watch this.  His freshman year football highlights.

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/4273179/highlights/210150401/v2

They've only been around 4

They've only been around 4 years, so define "awhile."  Until this year, they still had club guys on the roster.  This is the first year with four recruiting classes, and none of those classes was considered elite by anyone.  They have one guy (King) that was considered a top 50 kind of player out of high school.  They have developed guys like Schlosser, Jackson and Logan, none of whom were on any recruiting lists.  They still haven't had anyone make any better than honrable mention all-conference.  And who has left?  I can't think of anyone.

Last year they came a goal away from making the Big Ten tournament against teams that have been around forever.  The year before they made the ECAC tournament with half of the roster being club guys.  I'd say they are tracking pretty well, and this level of recruiting coming in the future bodes really well.

Looking at these classes

Looking at these classes compared to the programs they have to compete against (Hopkins, Maryland, etc) in order to achieve "serious winning" I'd say the 2018 class is the first one that gets the talent here that is comparable.  They will need a few of those classes at Michigan to be even.  So probably another 4 or 5 years.  If you can take a program from club to varsity and be competing with the big boys (Hopkins has like 50 national championships or something ridiculous) in only 9 or 10 years, that's pretty good.

I think it's impressive they are getting these kinds of commitments without even having facilities yet.  I've been in the trailer where the lacrosse offices are.  Yes it's Michigan, a lot of lacrosse people doubted they would be stealing east coast kids from the established powers so fast.

Remember that they did it

Remember that they did it pretty differently than many of those others you mention, plus they've played a much tougher schedule, starting in year one, than most new programs do.  As a club team alum I'm thankful they did it the way they did.  I feel included.  I'm confident that in a few years, with the recruiting they are doing (they are putting together elite classes that will start arriving in a couple of years according to many in the coaching world) and the new facilities finally completed that they will leapfrog some of those other new programs you mention.  They are going to have to.  None of those other teams are playing in the Big Ten.

WD, Nice work.  Did you put

WD, Nice work.  Did you put this together from the schedules released by everyone else?  JP sent out the schedule to alums a few weeks ago and indicated it would be released soon.  Wondering what the holdup has been.  I imagine this kind of thing will be eased when they have their own facility.  It has to be more difficult to put all of this together when you are using shared facilities.

Last year the team was on TV quite a bit, especially down the stretch.  Any idea what the TV schedule will be?

Those first three games are going to be tough.  We'll see early how much the team has improved.

My sense is this team has all of the pieces necessary to compete this year except for an elite faceoff specialist.  That's a big hole though.  That and goalie are arguably the two most important factors.  I'm not saying they match up with Hopkins and Maryland and the like yet.  They don't have a single preseason AA and those teams are loaded with them.  But they can play with them.  Even with some glaring weaknesses they came within a goal of beating Penn State to make the Big Ten tournament last year.  I'm sure they'll be picked by everyone to finish 5th or last, but it's not out of the question to sneak into that 4th spot.  I'd feel a bit more comfortable if it was last year's schedule with PSU, OSU and RU at home.

According to this article and

According to the article below and some other things I've read Michigan is definitely making some noise in recruiting now.  Being included in a top 5 class list with the likes of North Carolina, Duke, Virginia and Johns Hopkins is rarified air.  (Grain of salt disclaimer: the 2018 class is still 2 1/2 years from getting to college.)

http://recruitingrundown.com/2015/10/16/early-look-at-the-top-five-2018-recruiting-classes/

Ford is a legit prospect.  His finalists were reportedly UM, UNC and ND.  But I would hope that the Michigan staff could land a Ford at Michigan.  Seems like a no-brainer decision unless he didn't want to deal with being a legacy, no?

Cool maybe, but I always hate

Cool maybe, but I always hate lacrosse lines over football lines.  Plus, Michigan stadium, as cool as it is, is just too big a space for lacrosse.  Even if they get 10,000 fans, it still would feel empty.

There are others that regularly play in football stadiums.  Ohio State does.  So does Harvard.  I'm sure those programs would all love their own facilities like Michigan is building though.  Huge recruiting sell.

I also wonder about the logistics of sharing anything with football.  I would assume that football has priority 100% of the time, which they should.  That has to be a challenge.  I also assume this new facility will put things like team locker room, coaches office, meeting rooms and stuff like that all in the same place, which has to help in planning daily schedules.

2000 is definitely on the

2000 is definitely on the small side for lacrosse, but I don't know that it's too small for Michigan right now.  Those bigger stadiums are all out east where lacrosse has more of a fan base.  Hopefully they are planning to expand it if crowd sizes here get consistently bigger.

Notre Dame's stadium seats 2500, but they can fit 4500 if they seat people on the berm and bring in temporary bleachers.

Denver's stadium seats 2000 plus standing room areas.

In contrast Homewood Field at Johns Hopkins seats 8500, and Virginia's Klockner Stadium seats 3500 in the grandstands and another 3600 on the hillside.  Ridley at Loyola seats around 6000.

 

My guess is that it has

My guess is that it has occured to people for a lot of Michigan promo videos.  Michigan has always promoted the fact that JEJ is an alum. Perhaps it just took Harbaugh's celebrity to make it happen.  The story here isn't that they thought of it (who hasn't?).  It's that they did it.

A quick google turned up this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4w8GfvR8Uo

I've always wanted to play Michigan football, and now i want to go to the dental school too.

I seem to recall a promotional video for the university (not just football) with his voice, but I can't find it.

I am no soccer expert, but I

I am no soccer expert, but I enjoy watching the sport from time to time.  It seems from the stats that Michigan dominated play, but came up short anyway.  In a low scoring game like soccer, is that unusual?  

All it takes is one bad goal or a hot goalie on the other end, and it seems like that could swing a game despite controlling play.  I think of hockey, where a hot goalie or a bunch of pipes or a fluke goal off a skate can make a lopsided looking game go the opposite way from how it looks.

I also wonder how much of a let-down game this was after coming so close on the road to Maryland.  Obviously you hope that never happens, but the reality is it does to everyone at some point.

More of this.  I enjoy the

More of this.  I enjoy the football and basketball stuff on the site as much as the next guy, but hearing about other Michigan sports (even aside from my sport, lacrosse) is always welcome.  Thank you.  Hope to make it to a game or two this year.

It has to be "Aussie Aussie

It has to be "Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi" doesn't it?

The decision was easy for me.

The decision was easy for me.  NFL Sunday Ticket = DirectTV.  If they didn't have the monopoly on that I'd shop around.

The heavy rain issue is annoying, but it doesn't happen enough to make we want to trade it in and lose access to Sunday Ticket.  We did have a crazy snowstorm a couple of winters ago that buried the dish, and it's at a spot on the roof that was too tough to get to.  So we lost the signal for a week.  That sucked, but it hasn't happened any other time.

I guess time will tell.  It's

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.  

Does it have any eligibility?

Does it have any eligibility?

I agree with Brian.  I liked

I agree with Brian.  I liked the concept but thought it could have been executed better.

I do have a few questions...

How long do we predict Michigan football will be around?  My assumption is for a long time.  So what's the plan when we start running out of numbers?

Also, to the people who thought the legends jerseys were a money grab, how much do you think the athletic department actually made off of them?  Assuming they get a small percentage of each sale, they would have to sell hundreds of thousands of them to make enough of a profit to make it purely about money wouldn't they?

This video is a year old.

This video is a year old. They played a shorter version at every game last year.

While I disagree with you

While I disagree with you about the potential payoff for lacrosse versus soccer (even this game ended with 15 total goals scored), I do agree this was a boring game.  It was bound to happen when two of the slowest pace of play teams in the NCAA played each other on one day of rest.  Hopefully more people tuned into the semifinals on Saturday.  Both were incredible games with great finishes.

They didn't say that's where

They didn't say that's where it NEEDS to happen.  They said that's where it is GOING TO happen.  We'd all love to see the big football schools add men's lacrosse.  That won't happen very frequently for a lot of reasons.  In the past 36 years it's happened exactly twice, at Notre Dame and Michigan.  Meanwhile a couple of dozen or more smaller D1 schools without football have added men's lacrosse.  That will continue to be the trend.

Women's lacrosse will continue to be added at big football schools with regularity.  Great Title 9 add.

How many roster spots does a

How many roster spots does a men's rowing team have?  I just glanced at the Wisconsin roster, and it's huge.  You would probably have to add two or maybe even three women's sports to offset those numbers.  Can't see that happening.

Great write up L'Carp.  
It

Great write up L'Carp.  

It was a really good weekend for the Big Ten.  From a conference that struggled a bit through the season and wasn't expected to get more than one bid to having three bids and all three advance to the final 8.  Shows the level that Michigan still has to get to, which obviously won't happen overnight.

For me Albany is the team to watch.  They play the game the way it's meant to played...fast.  It's very entertaining.  Reminiscent of lacrosse in the 80s and 90s.  I would love to see them beat ND and get to the final four.  Tall order though.  ND is probably the most balanced team in the tournament.

Hopkins turned a corner when they played Michigan.  Earlier in the season they were losing close games to ranked teams, mostly because their goalies couldn't save a beach ball.  Their senior starter played really well against Michigan, and since then you could argue they are playing the best lacrosse of anyone in the tournament.

But is Michigan strong enough

But is Michigan strong enough yet to take advantage of that weakness?  I think so, but I would be a lot more confident if they were winning faceoffs this season.

As a club team alum I love

As a club team alum I love this.  JP and the athletic department are clearly building the varsity program (Team Four and all that), but they are also making a real effort to honor the past.  It's smart.  The club alums are the donors and job network for the current players.  The guys from my era had a lot of fun and made great friends playing, and the guys from the last few club teams have a lot of pride in the championships they won.  And in Michigan's case, which is kind of unique in lacrosse, the D1 program came about in large part because of the way the club team was built.

Defense is much improved over

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.

Release says attendance was

Release says attendance was 800 and some change.  To be expected I suppose on Easter Sunday.

I seem to recall that the date of the spring game was changed within the last couple of months, so I would guess that had something to do with it.  That and the regime change with both new Jims taking over.  Probably other factors too having to do with the Big Ten starting up.  I suspect they have less flexibility with their own conference scheduling than they did with the ECAC.  I'd love to see them do what Ohio State does with their spring game and lacrosse game combo.  They play the lacrosse game first, then have a real game for the spring game, which helps draw huge crowds for both.  Winning also helps I suppose.

Huge win yesterday though.  Nice to have King back.  They got dominated at faceoffs for the second straight week, but this time found a way to overcome that.

Ohio State looked great last night against Hopkins.  Chances for an upset depends on which Buckeye team shows up on Sunday.  The one last night or the one that laid a goose egg against ND and lost to Detroit.  Hopkins, as much as they are struggling, will be a really tough out, especially on the road.  That game is their homecoming (yes, they have their school homecoming in the spring at a lacrosse game).  Penn State seems to be the best chance to get another win and hopefully lock down a tournament spot.

Got to go to the game

Got to go to the game yesterday.  Maryland is a top 3 team for a reason.  To be fair, three of Michigan's losses this season are to the current #1, #3 and #10.  This is still a much improved team in its fourth year.  They just don't have the horses and skill sets that the elite teams do yet.

A few thoughts from this one.

1. Maryland is loaded on offense, but they don't wow you there.  They are very methodical.  Where they kill you is on faceoffs, where Raffa is a complete animal, and defense/goalie.  Michigan didn't get the ball much because of Raffa, and when they did they had a lot of trouble generating quality shots.  The Maryland goalie ate up most of the shots they did manage.  They are giving up less than 5 goals per game this season, which is insane.

2. Michigan really misses King.  As I said, they had trouble getting good shots and then burying them.  It can't help to be missing their one legitimate great player on that end, especially against the best defense in the country.  I thought the Michigan players were athletic enough to make some things happen offensively, but their sticks let them down a lot with turnovers or bad shot placement, and Maryland jumped all over mistakes like a top-5 team should.  Kyle Jackson made some things happen, but he can't do it alone.  Shlosser is really fast and explosive, but his stick needs to improve.

3. It was a good crowd, maybe 3,000 or so.  Lots of Michigan people.  Byrd Stadium is too big for lacrosse, like Michigan Stadium, but they do a good job with the event there as you would expect at a school where lacrosse is really important.

Here's the

Here's the release;

http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-lacros/recaps/100811aaa.html

I think your memory is a little sketchy.  That was their second D1 scrimmage.  They played Providence at home before that, losing 11-10 in OT.  The score against St. Joe's was 9-5.  They were down 5-3 at the half.  Granted, that was not yet a good St. Joe's team back then.  Both teams have been steadily improving since then, but obviously St. Joe's had a big head start as an older program.

They did get smoked 14-2 by Towson that day.  Maybe you're remembering that one.

Either way, this was a good win for this team right now.  St. Joe's was 11-4 last year and thumped us at home.  They almost beat Virginia earlier this week.  To win this one on the road without a guy like King after losing two in a row says a lot about their fortitude.

Watched the stream.  You can

Watched the stream.  You can really see how much the offense misses King.  Schlosser was great until St Joes put their pole on him.  Then there weren't a lot of other offensive options.  Would really like to see Jackson get back on track.  He was so promising the past couple of years but seems like he's mostly ineffective this year.  Is he playing hurt?

Great to see the defense step up.  Logan is part of that, and he played great, but the defense has been so inconsistent.  They played well today, even without regulars like Hatton and Moore (assume both are hurt?).  Slides and recoveries were better.  Generally better on ball.  Were forcing a lot of shots that Logan could save.  He did bail them out a few times, but great goalies do that.

Lott had a good faceoff day today, and that made a huge difference.  I thought the St Joes guy who was having success late was moving early every time, but they only got the call a couple of times.

Hard to tell from the angle they showed if the Joseph goal in the first OT should have been good or not.  It was close.

He has a nice comment about

He has a nice comment about our lacrosse team in that article.  Anyone know if Coach Paul had also offered him back when he accepted the OSU offer?  Could he play both?

Coach Paul needs to teach

Coach Paul needs to teach Mama G how to spell lacrosse.

Nice to the see the boys pulling away from teams that they were close with last year.  Definite signs of improvement.  Next step is playing close games with top-10 types of teams.  That might still be two or three years away, which would still be fast for a new program.

Was wondering when Kyle Jackson was going to blow up in a game.  Hadn't happened yet this season.

You are projecting a loss to

You are projecting a loss to Drexel?  You're right, that will be a tough one.  Although they did lose in a blowout to Albany today.  I think Brown and St. Joe's could both be really tough as well.  Hopefully these next two are wins.  Even starting 4-1 with the only loss to one of the top teams in the country is a HUGE step forward.

IrishLax,
Really appreciate

IrishLax,

Really appreciate this post.  I think you nailed it about the the ND team.  I was hoping for an upset this week based partly on the GTown score and partly on Michigan's two blowout wins, but reality hit today.  ND was a national finalist (and ACC champ, which is no joke) last year for a reason and is better this year.  Michigan is a fourth year program with three recruiting classes and only one superstar.

The only thing that really surprised me was the faceoff struggles until Michigan apparently started using a pole there.  They are an above average faceoff team.  But that's often a matchup thing that can sometimes go either really well or horribly wrong despite prevous stats and match-ups.

It's way to early to say if JP is not the guy.  As you say, the team is showing very steady improvement and from all reports they are blowing the doors off in recruiting (which Paul is ultimately responsible for) starting with their 2016 class.  I played club with him and have so much respect for all that he's accomplished.  But who knows?  I'd love to see what he can do with a team that is loaded with ND level talent.

I am really happy to see this rivalry starting.  As Michigan's program gets better, it's going to be great to see these games turn into battles.  Congrats to Coaches Paul and Corrigan for getting it going.

Oosterbaan is definitely an

Oosterbaan is definitely an advantage, but since the lights were replaced a few years ago I'm always amazed at how bright it is in there compared to the old days.  Plus they painted the walls blue recently, which makes seeing the ball a lot easier than most indoor buildings (Penn State, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Ultimate where Detroit plays) that have white walls.  

I may be wrong here, but I believe that Notre Dame practices and plays on a narrow field in Loftus as well, so the "tight confines" may not be such an advantage.  They definitely have a track around their indoor field, so the building is bigger, but I believe they play the football sidelines.

Completely agree that the early season success is encouraging, but Notre Dame is a whole different level.  Will be very interesting to see if the boys can hang.

Freddie Hunter.
Also, even

Freddie Hunter.

Also, even though he didn't play a ton and ended up playing football for Bo after a couple of years, Paul Jokisch was always throwing himself around.

"what set them apart was

"what set them apart was undying school loyalty, a fatherly love of their players, and the utmost integrity off the field."

I think you just described Brady Hoke.

The characteristics you listed were all true of them and many other great coaches, but I believe what set Bo apart (and Woody to be fair) were personalities that were at once unassuming - not wanting to be celebrated, but at the same time filled a room.  And they won.  That always helps in the fond memories department.

On a related and more serious

On a related and more serious note, the lacrosse team actually has Gerald Ford's grandson Christian committed to their 2016 class.  He's a top 50 recruit from San Diego.  Pretty solid legacy situation there.  Wonder if he'll wear 48?

How is this unique?  I don't

How is this unique?  I don't know of any college coach who misses a day for being sick unless it's a serious illness.  It's part of the job and not all that weird.

Since when does Denver have

Since when does Denver have just one D1 sport?  Their two "major" sports (the ones they consider their big-time sports) are hockey and lacrosse.  In fact lacrosse is preseason #1 this season and has made the final four a couple of times in the past few years.  

It was added because Brandon

It was added because Brandon wanted to add it and because JP had built a monster of a club program that was successful both at winning and raising money. DB always said he was adding it for business reasons. He thought the growth trends showed lacrosse would be a much bigger sport in the future and wanted to be on the front end of that. The money that was raised was not nearly enough to endow the program. That would take 20 or 30 million at least. DB said it was just to offset costs the first couple of years.

If the average cost of a scholarship is about $50k, and lacrosse gets 12.6 (the NCAA limit), that would make the annual cost to the athletic department $630,000. Not insignificant, but won't break the bank.

Can't answer that, but I do

Can't answer that, but I do know the team won the department's community service award two years ago.  Since then they switched to recognizing individuals, and Jeff Chu was one of the winners last year.  So they take that role seriously.