The UDM season started off as well as can be expected, but midway through the year, things took a turn for the worse. That slide was ultimately permanent, and it came to an end – along with UDM’s season – on Friday.
Tempo Free
From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:
| Canisius – MAAC Tournament 2012 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Canisius | Detroit | ||
| Faceoff Wins | 12 | Faceoff Wins | 13 |
| Clearing | 16-18 | Clearing | 13-16 |
| Possessions | 33 | Possessions | 31 |
| Goals | 12 | Goals | 10 |
| Offensive Efficiency | .364 | Offensive Efficiency | .323 |
One of the quiet storylines over the second half of the season was Detroit – despite their struggles in winning games – actually rounding into a solid faceoff team. They’ll have to do it over the course of a season for it to be meaningful, but that unit should no longer be a liability, especially if they can pull it off against pretty good faceoff teams with limited depth.
Speaking of that depth, I mentioned in the preview that I thought the Titans would fade in the second half thanks to depth issues (brought about by tons of injuries), and that came to fruition. At halftime, Canisius had two goals on 17 possessions (.118 efficiency), but Detroit’s lack of bodies on D caught up with them after the break, and they faltered, allowing 10 goals on 16 possessions, simply a brutal .625 efficiency mark.
At the end of the day, the game lived up to expectations, and Detroit just didn’t have quite enough left in the tankto finish the deed.
In-depth tempo-free stuff from TempoFreeLax:
Notes
Detroit’s downward spiral over the back half of the season came to its conclusion with this upset. Despite playing some of the worse teams on the schedule over the final month-plus, UDM could only muster a 1-goal win over Jacksonville. That’s due to a combination of many factors – primarily injuries – but it’s disappointing nonetheless.
It was a very balanced offensive day for the Titans, and by far their most efficient since the mid-year swoon started. Ten different UDM players made the scoresheet, with eight different goal-scorers. Scott Harris (two goals on three shots), Alex Maini (two goals on seven shots and an assist), Brandon Beauregard (a goal on two shots and an assist), and Scott Harris (a goal on three shots and two assists) were your multi-point performers.
Not a super-efficient day shooting the ball for UDM, despite the pretty good offensive efficiency number (backing up missed shots and getting offensive GBs can do that for you). In addition to Maini’s shot total mentioned above, Shayne Adams scored a single goal on eight shots, and only put two of them on the cage. Maini managed to take home All-Tournament honors.
Defensively, your star performers were either completely out (Jamie Hebden) or limited due to injury (Jordan Houtby). SSDMs Joe MacLean and Tom Sible -among others – were also out due to injury, so it’s easy to see why the defensive performance was weak, especially once the depth got tested. Jon Bemben led the way with two caused turnovers and five GBs.
A.J. Levell made 14 saves while allowing 12 goals, a pretty strong performance backstopping a depleted defense. He was named to the MAAC All-Tournament Team, the capper on an excellent junior season.
As mentioned above, faceoffs improved over the back half of the season, and Friday’s game was no exception. Tyler Corcoran won 10 of 15 draws, a banged-up Brandon Davenport won three of nine, and Nick Garippa lost his only draw. At the beginning of the swoon, UDM was winning just 39% of faceoffs, and they finished the year at nearly 43%. Although ending the year on backslide doesn’t feel great, some elements definitely improved during the stretch.
Of course, Joel Matthews didn’t play, and it seems that one can be chalked up to injury, like with many of the Titans who missed the contest. Concussions are serious business, so hopefully he’ll be able to continue his lacrosse career in the future. Otherwise, somebody will have to step up offensively for UDM.
Elsewhere
Boxscore. UDM Recap. Levell, Maini All-Tournament Team. Canisius recap. Video evidence:
Canisius actually went on to upset Siena in the Tournament final, earning the MAAC’s bid to the Big Dance.
Up Next
The season is over for Detroit, and though it looked like a sure bet to be the best in school history in late March, it ended in disappoinnment. The slide included embarrassing losses to (what should have been) overmatched opponents, a seven-goal rout, and giving up a four-goal lead with just a few minutes to play.
It’s easy to see where this team can get better in the offseason, and you can be certain I’ll analyze just that – along with plenty of other breakdowns – over the summer and fall. Up first, coming later this week (or more likely, early next week) will be the “Requiem for a Season.” You can see last year’s edition here.
One can only conclude this was a poor showing after starting the season with such high expectations…The really sad thing was that Canisius took advantage of a weak MAAC to get the NCAA AQ. Hats off to the Griffs for taking the cheese and hanging in against Detroit and besting Siena to go to the dance… Injuries are a big part of the game, so making excuses only takes you so far… But you can kind of see how a team can get outscored 10 to 5 without an outstanding pole like Hebden in there, and the depth, McLean and Sible gave… not to mention Houtby not at 100% Credit to the other kids who were banged up and still played hard. Also want to give a shout out to Tyler Cocran for an outstanding day on face offs… He really improved over the last few weeks, and I was knocking the face off guys all year, and they should be commended…The Titans need to get some things fixed in their house… I think the kids gave a great effort in every game, but the coaches have to take a look and examine their role with this team this year, Own up to mistakes and get things right for next season. Kids will do stupid things, but the leaders have to lead. I am talking about the Coaches. It always seemed like the kids had great commraderie out there. They faught for each other, and not all teams can do that. It’s frustrating because you looked at what they did last season and you thought they would continue the progression. Sad to hear about the injuries, and I hope the guys make a complete recovery. Glad that Hebden, McLean and Sible have some good years remaining. Thanks to the Seniors who are a big part of the Titan story. There are some great young players out there and I hope Detroit gets some kids who want to be a part of the Red, White and Blue. They have a great core coming back and the next step is still within their grasp. Onward!!!!
I think it’s fair to say that missing this many players for big parts of the season wasn’t an “excuse” – it’s just reality. Yes, injuries happen and have to be overcome, but it’s also easy to see why this number of them would submarine a season.
At the end of the day, the slide over the back of the season is a disappointment, no matter how it happened. Nothing can change that now, and the players who are returning will have to use the year as a learning experience and try to capture next year what eluded them in 2012.
Could not agree more Tim… Thanks for your in depth coverage of Titan and Wolverine Lax all season. Nobody gives as good a detail to the D1 programs in the area. I would love to see the Freep and News give some mention to our two D1 teams… Not to be overlooked is the other college teams and the HS scene reporting you do…. It has to be a passion and it is deeply apreciated…Well Done!!!!