Trevor Yealy sports HEADstrong cuffs on his Warrior mittens
After an encouraging performance against Providence in their Fall Ball opener, my expectations for Michigan’s inaugural varsity campaign crept ever-so-slightly upwards. The Wolverines’ performance in their final two scrimmages of fall ball, on the other hand, have readjusted the prospects downward once more.
Michigan lost 9-5 to St. Joseph’s and 15-2(!) to Towson at the classic, thoughthey sported some fresh new Warrior gloves. And really, looking good is what counts, right? No? OK.
I’ll round up some reports tomorrow, but from the sound of things, defensive depth was a huge issue (no surprise, considering only four long-poles – including LSM – played in the Providence game) and there were more issues in the clearing game. It sounds like some, but not all, of their issues will be correctable going into spring.
Disappointing, but not surprising. As I keep saying, it’s going to take time. Recruiting will solve a lot of their issues over time. I wonder how much their defensive depth can be solved. If they are still starting Healy, a 2nd or 3rd line middie the past three years, at defense in the spring they will probably be in trouble. Hopefully there’s some help coming from currently injured players and the one transfer we know about.
Lattimore is a great O coach. I’m sure they are adjusting to him. But other than Yealy it’s not like they have a roster of guys who would be starting for a team like Towson.
Any word on how the goalies played? They graduated two guys who started for three years. If Weiss is the answer they are putting a lot of pressure on a freshman, especially if D is the weak spot.
Tim, Towson is a fairly prominent program, so I was surprised by your close prediction. I knew they would reach double digits and that the score wouldn’t be close. Despite it being a scrimmage, I’m sure they also came out full steam, otherwise a close game to a new team would be a national embarrassment for their program.
The main reason I was expecting a close game is because I thought Towson (the slowest team in America last year) would choke the life out of the game, and be content to put it away early, just to get out of there. On the other hand, I guess it makes more sense that they’d want to run through as much of their playbook as possible during a fall ball scrimmage, to get the players comfortable with it.
The one thing I wasn’t expecting was a complete blowout, and for Michigan to look lost on the field.
Complete coaching staff change at Towson and a commitment to play up-tempo explain the difference in style. Don’t expect the Tigers to play slow-down any more.
Michigan may surprise a few times this year, but when the wheels fall off they are probably going to really fall off.
I think they’ll stand a chance (of varying degrees) against Detroit, Air Force, Jacksonville, Bellarmine, and Rutgers – and God help us all if they don’t blow out Mercer – and maybe surprise for 1-2 other wins.
It’s about building for the future, more than anything. If the coaching staff can continue to recruit the way they have been, a solid, consistent program should be established within 2-3 years, and then they can build toward the NCAA Tournament from there.
I don’t know a lot about 3 of the teams you mention, but no way they take down Bellarmine. Last season was chaos w/ the passing of Coach Getrick at the end of fall ball and an overwhelmed coordinator being given the reigns. This season they bring in a new coach and bring back: their 7 top scorers, the top two FOGO’s, top goalie, their top 2 LSM’s and 4 close D with starting experience.
Tons of experience, depth and a lot of guys trying to prove that last season is behind them. I just don’t see them keeping this one close.
UDM is another one. They lose only 1 player from last year in Shoemaker, they get back 2010 MVP Matthews and add some much needed midfield depth in Birney, Hicks and Harper (the later 2 from Long Island). I’m not sure if the new coaches Tully and Zimmerman will be an upgrade over Karwick and Kozara but everything else is back.
Michigan will have a much higher ceiling long term over these programs, but in the 2012 season I don’t see it.
UDM and Bellarmine are both chances to be competitive. That doesn’t mean likely wins (like I said, the only one of those on the schedule is Mercer), but games in which they have a shot to pull in a victory.
Tim,
I’ve watched Detroit. They have two excellent Canadian attackman that this team will have no answer for. I want them to win the game, but it’s something that they really haven’t experienced (outside of a few Simon Frasier players) before. Bellarmine, and Jacksonville have silmiar players, and Rutgers has a new coach who has been a great coach at Siena. 1 win against Mercer, and then a long run after that is my prediction.
Let’s all hope for a great year 2!
It must be tough for the three time National Champions to have lost to three teams with an average record of 2-13 last year. However, they will persevere because they have the successful tradition of winning lacrosse to build upon at Michigan and their coaches and players understands what it means to wear the blue and maze.
As CK said, Towson is a prominent program. They play a tough schedule every year – Hop and MD are yearly opponents. While Towson rarely prevailed against Hop, my overriding memory of Hopkins-Towson games were of hard fought games, in which Towson never quit. Although the series is extremely uneven, watching Towson play Hopkins was never comfortable for me.
Hap,
1. It was only a scrimmage. Not bad for a first-year varsity team (with previously limited recruiting ability).
2. What happened to your “Michigan will get absolutely destroyed by lower level D-1 teams” predictions?
3. Whether it was a double-digit loss to Towson this year, or 6-7 goal losses (with a true club team) to Hopkins and West Point in 2007, it’s only Fall Ball.
It’s all about adjusting and trying new options on offense, which isn’t the best thing when it comes to a team like Towson, BUT how else will a team learn and have something to build on? For people like me who have played at a high level, and others, we know you have to get you butt kicked so you know what it takes to play at the highest level and perform. They now know, they will play better, injuries will heal, transfers will come, and their gameplay will not only need to get better, but it will get better because passing in the MCLA on most teams is horrible, while in the NCAA it has to be flawless and crisp.
Hey Club Kid Laxalum I did say lower level. Towson is not the Towson on the 80s/90s and they did smoke them in fall ball, no scouting, film, schemes and Towson played the walk ons. You can try to build up Towson, but they are in the bottom third of DI programs. So I will give you this, the club kids didn’t get killed by the bottom 5 teams in DI such as Providence and St. Joe’s, but they didn’t win either. Other than scheduling Mercer they won’t win a game in the Spring. And as Timmy tried to suggest that they could be eligible for the NCAA as long as the ECAC excepted them this year into the league that was a complete pipe dream.
Towson’s Laxpower rankings:
2011-30th, 2010-19th, 2009-27th, 2008-31st, 2007-14th, 2006-14th, 2005-12th, 2004-8th, 2003-8th, 2002-17th, 2001-9th, 2000-27th, 1999-18th
Hapless,
Your inaccuracy/dishonesty is disturbing. Towson has actually been in the Top 1/2 as well as Top 1/3 of Division 1 teams over the past 13 years. Furthermore, what team uses scouting/film in Fall Ball? And what team has enough walk-ons to only play them and no one else? By the way, Michigan was accepted into the ECAC (therefore ‘eligible’ for the conference NCAA bid). Regardless, as a D1 program, they would be ‘eligible’ for an at-large bid just like any other program.
Lets be truly honest here. Towson fired their hall of fame coach because they were terrible. St. Joe’s went 0-fer for last year, and Providence is the doormat of the big east. A lot of people are blowing sunshine up this program’s rear end, but they are going to be very bad in D1 this year.
The recruit video that I watched was underwhelming. If this is a promising recruit, it’s going to be a long haul.
Go Blue, but PICK IT UP! and soon hopefully!
Watching the video of the guy who appears to be the weakest recruit in the class is probably not an accurate gauge of the overall recruiting effort.
And who’s to say that the kid in that in that video was even recruited? Michigan can’t comment on recruits. He may be a “preferred” walk-on or not even in their class for all we know. Based on a lot of their other recruits that have been identified, I’d say they are doing pretty well in that area. They’ll get better in a year and significantly better by years 3 and 4.
Towson underperformed over the last few years. That’s why Seaman was fired. They were a better team than they demonstrated. Their scores, even in losses, show that. Rolling over a club roster is not that surprising. I have to wonder about Michigan’s goalie play though. Tim said Weiss looked good against Providence, but it doesn’t sound he was that great last weekend. If they don’t have good goalie play this year, it will be much uglier.
Reghartner is right about their potential in the long run.
re: goalie play, one of the people I talked to who watch Saturday’s scrimmages said it might have just been a bad day for Weiss. He looked good against Providence, so I tend to believe it. The early start time for his second competition against D-1 opponents could have played a role in struggles (as could a subpar day for the defense, which everyone who e-mailed me agreed upon).
Of course, we’re not wise to what goes down in practice, so who knows for sure.