The biggest reason Canadian players haven't historically found their way onto Michigan's roster is that they generally didn't have the grades to get into UM. With the admissions standards likely somewhat relaxed from regular students it will be up to JP whether or not to recruit these guys based on the style of offense he wants to run. There's a pretty good history of box players transitioning well to field play (see: Grant, John). Historically UM has had a few players who exhibit typical box characteristics so JP is familiar with using these types of guys in an offense. Denver and Syracuse are two prominent programs who have used box players effectively (at SU they draw on the Iroquois nation, which also largely plays box) but, without trying to sound like a snob, those schools aren't Michigan (or Hopkins, UVA, Duke, etc.) so it's a little easier for them to get those guys in.
First- Great to see mgoblog covering lax. Saw it from the team's twitter feed. Wasn't there on Saturday but wanted to make a quick comment re continued mention of Bellarmine's scholarship support. While I'm not surprised that UM was the better team (when I played we destroyed a D1 team at a similar level to Bellarmine during a real game) I would caution being impressed by the fact that they beat a team with scholarship support. At Bellarmine's level they probably have somewhere around 3-4 full rides to spread across an entire team of roughly 30 guys. Given the academics, current visibility of the program and excellent recruiting by coach John Paul and his staff, I would maintain that Michigan has access to, and recruits, players that are much more talented, on average, than you would see on D1 team at the level like Bellarmine. Most guys would rather get a degree from Michigan than get 5k a year from a school like Bellarmine (no offense). Lacrosse is funny in that the top 5 or so D3 teams are much better than the lower level D1 teams. I have no idea how good Ohio Wesleyan is supposed to be this year but they're generally a top 15 D3 team and I would suggest that the game against them will be a better barometer for Michigan and that a general comparison against upper echelon D3 teams is more appropriate than lower level D1. All that said, being hands down the best team in the MCLA is what it's all about for this team and they've proved that they deserve that moniker over the last two seasons.
Recent Comments
The biggest reason Canadian players haven't historically found their way onto Michigan's roster is that they generally didn't have the grades to get into UM. With the admissions standards likely somewhat relaxed from regular students it will be up to JP whether or not to recruit these guys based on the style of offense he wants to run. There's a pretty good history of box players transitioning well to field play (see: Grant, John). Historically UM has had a few players who exhibit typical box characteristics so JP is familiar with using these types of guys in an offense. Denver and Syracuse are two prominent programs who have used box players effectively (at SU they draw on the Iroquois nation, which also largely plays box) but, without trying to sound like a snob, those schools aren't Michigan (or Hopkins, UVA, Duke, etc.) so it's a little easier for them to get those guys in.