Great Lax State

I’ve seen a whole lot of Michigan this year. GLS regular Reg Hartner has seen a whole lot of Detroit. We each gave the other a few questions that could come into play in tonight’s in-state showdown.

Tim: What is the Titans’ health like at SSDM, and who will be out there in place of Nick Garippa (and it sounds like Troy Dennis)? Will MacLean/Sible have to go most of the game?

The short answer is… who knows? Garippa was a rock on the wing on faceoffs, good in the clear and a real difference maker on man down, the ride and D. There is a reason he was preseason All-MAAC. Expect to see it by committee. Davenport has been huge on the wings on faceoffs. Joey Mac and Sible have experience, speed and awesome matching knee braces. Troy is a tremendous athlete and with the emergence of Andy Hebden he’s not getting the looks on offense so he’s been a real difference maker on D. I would also expect some of the younger athletes like Demattia, Spuller and Perry to fill in. Not sure who will get the call, but Tim Robertson has been very effective with the action he’s seen, too.

Tim: The faceoffs have run hot and cold all year for the Titans, but it seems like Damien Hicks has a lot of potential. Is the expectation that he takes the majority of the draws once more?

I think so, but I can’t say for sure. Before Corcoran got injured he was the clear #1 guy and if he’s back I expect him to take the majority of the draws. The FOGOs have gotten much better this year and I think a big part of it is 2 things. 1) The wing play has been much better. Davenport has been HUGE on the wings. He’s a veteran that knows how to keep the other team from getting the ball up, is fearless when the ball is on the ground and seems to come up with big GBs when they need it. 2) They are not afraid to throw a veteran in there like Davenport and Jordan Yono with the long stick. I can’t believe that kid didn’t get recruited more because he’s great on D and has had some critical man down faceoff wins for them.

Tim: Shayne Adams’ injury initially looked like it would submarine the offense – a la Joel Matthews last year – how have the Titans recovered from that to improve in the past few games?

They’ve had middies step up and are working well in Zimmerman’s offense. For all the talk about the youth of Michigan, UDM is doing it with youth too. Players and coaches. There is a direct correlation between the middies stepping up and Graham Adams working with them. Alex Maini and Masterson are at attack and the only guys that are upper classmen in the top scorers (and still only juniors). They are quality players and finally getting time because Joel is gone and Shayne is out. Zimmerman’s offense makes sure it’s not like Tully where you dump it down to X and then get out of the way.

Yes, they get some good play out of a senior in Nemes, but everyone else is young and finally hitting a groove and dodging from up top. The offense is coming from sophomores Birney, Drummond, Wilson and Beauregard and then freshmen Hebden and Melucci. I think this year they are showing their potential and next year will be a huge explosion.

Tim: The Titans looked poised to finish the year on a great run, especially with a 9-6 lead in the third against Siena. What happened during the six-goal Saints run, and is there any worry that it might shake Detroit’s confidence?

A big part is the strength and conditioning issues they have had and relying on underclassmen. They had a great S&C coach in Nick Wilson that was a casualty of the last AD and her exit. The guys respected Wilson and worked their butts of for him. The new guy Marcus Williams is very good, but he has not had the time to work with them for a full off season. It will get better, but their injuries and their youth are the blame. The go-to guys late like Garippa, Adams and Corcoran were not out there late in games and youth from the guys I mentioned before and the some of the long sticks has hurt them. I really hope they turn the corner late in the season and play like veterans as they’ve gotten good PT, but we’ll see.

Tim: This is obviously a young rivalry, but it already seems like a heated one. What’s the perception of Michigan among the Titans from a program perspective?

I’m not sure there is a true “program” perspective. Holtz and JP have a history from their club day. They want to beat each other. The seniors like Hebden, Dwyer, Houtby and Levell just want to win. They don’t care against who since Michigan wasn’t even a D1 team when they started. Most of the younger guys just want to win the MAAC and make the NCAA tournament, but there is a lot of home town pride there. Most of the Detroit roster is home grown where most of Michigan’s recruiting class is from out of state. That might be the one chip on their shoulder. They pride themselves as the hometown team since they are from here.

Just like Michigan they want to make sure they win the winnable games, but I don’t think there is an emphasis on this game like there is at Michigan. I think this is the only game Michigan thinks they have a chance in, but for UDM they just want momentum and to keep getting better going into the home stretch and to make sure the make the MAAC tournament.

Then we turned the thing right around and I answered some of Reg’s questions:

Reg: Can Michigan create goals and play team offense right now. It seems most of their goals are broken plays, transition or great individual efforts.

The offense has moved in fits and starts all year. There have been great individual efforts (mostly from freshman middies Kyle Jackson and Mike Hernandez, along with experienced attackmen Will Meter and Thomas Paras), as you mentioned. The problem with Michigan’s offense in the grand scheme has been a lack of viable weapons across the board. Defenses aren’t afraid to slide early to Jackson, for example, because the other threats aren’t nearly as dangerous in their ability to finish.

At this point, Michigan is relying on those few playmakers, along with whatever they can get out of transition, the ride, etc. As expected with that gameplan – about which the coaches don’t have much choice – there have been some excellent days (compared to expectations) and some poor ones. As more talent arrives in the next couple years, so too will the consistency.

Reg: Is Logan healthy and ready? He’s seen a lot if shots this year. Is he going to hit a freshman wall?

Logan’s game against Ohio State was one of his worst this season, so that could be seen as hitting a wall of sorts. On the other hand, I think it has a whole lot more to do with Logan Schuss than anything Logan did or didn’t do. He was banged up against Bellarmine, but is back to full health by this point in the year. His confidence doesn’t seem to be shaken, so I expect more of what we’ve seen from him all year: excellent ball-stopping, and decent enough clearing.

Reg: Can Lott get the job done on faceoffs? If he struggles, who steps up?

This has been the big question for me much of the year as well. There have been times when Lott was outstanding, and times that he struggled. Anyone will have a bad day against Johns Hopkins standout Unstoppable Faceoff God Mike Poppleton, but some of Lott’s struggles have been less explicable. He has done an excellent job winning the clamp most of the year, but hasn’t really been able to get it out to his wings well enough. That’s a product of missing the entire fall and much of pre-spring with injury, and not having the chance to build that chemistry.

If Lott’s ineffective (and as mentioned above, if he is, I think it’s more likely to be kicking the ball out in the right direction, rather than winning clamps), Michigan has a few options. First is to use Kevin Wylie as a true FOGO. He hasn’t seen a whole lot of success in most of his appearances, but faceoffs can be a weird thing, and you never know. Another option is playing a pole – it’s been mostly freshmen Chase Brown and Charlie Keady this year – on faceoffs to create a 50/50 ball and be ready to play defense if they don’t come up with the win.

Reg: Will JP try to go back to the 10 man ride that worked so well in club ball?

The 10-man has been used in spurts this year, but not nearly as much as it was last year (when it seemed to be the base ride). The Michigan coaching staff seems to employ it more to slow things down and hope for an execution error by the clearing team, rather than to go out and cause a turnover themselves.

The problem with the 10-man has been the transition opportunities for the opponents when they break through that ride. U-M has been close in several games this year, then suddenly there’s a 4- or 5-goal run by the opposition, mostly on transition, that kills them and breaks their will. Doing things that are boom-or-bust when it comes to the transition game lead to that tendency, and have mostly been avoided this year. Once Michigan has a fully healthy, fully recruited defensive corps and midfield, I bet they’ll go back to it on a more regular basis.

Reg: What is the Michigan take on the “rivalry”? Is this a must win game? Guys like Meter and Sardelli were teammates with some UDM players and were recruited by The Titans, but do the rest of the guys care?

This is a must-win for Michigan, not just because of the rivalry factor, but also because there aren’t a whole lot of opportunities left for that win to come for U-M this year. Saturday against St. Joe’s is the only other reasonable opportunity (this Michigan team ain’t beatin’ Denver: I’ll call it now).

As for the rivalry itself, it sort of reminds me of on the football field when Michigan State beat Michigan four years in a row from 2008-11. The Michigan players feel like it’s not the natural order of the world for them to be losing to the rival… but they’re just not good enough to do a whole lot about it yet. There’s a sense that, once Michigan has their full complement of recruited players, this won’t be as heated a game.

Thanks to Reg. I’ll have more content about tonight’s game over the course of the afternoon.