Comments on: Michigan Lacrosse: The Difference One Year Can Make

By: Guest

Guest — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:31:00 +0000

Walk around any high school or summer camp in the Northeast and you will see all kinds of clothing sporting the Michigan Maize and Blue. I believe I recently read that Michigan has more living alumni than any other school (with one of the largest out-of state contingents coming from the great lax state of New York). Laxers who grew up watching Michigan on Saturdays feel the pride. I have met many Michigan alumni and not one has ever had a bad experience at the school. Couple that with its nationally ranked academics and the fact that when Michigan athletics decides to do something, they never do it half-assed (how many new or old lacrosse programs are planning both indoor and outdoor state of the art lacrosse facilities) and you have a winning combination for awsome recruiting. I don’t believe anyone seriously thought that Big Blue would repeat its MCLA successes in the first few years of D1 but it is certainly very possible that within the decade we will see Michigan in the final 4. Give J.P. some time. He has certainly earned it. Let’s see what he can do after he has had the opportunity to get a few recruiting classes under his belt.

By: Lax Links 10-29-11 | Great Lax State

Lax Links 10-29-11 | Great Lax State — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:07:45 +0000

[...] Wilson of Lacrosse All-Stars ruminates on the difference between Michigan’s MCLA team in 2011 and the forthcoming inaugural year of varsity play. I [...]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:50:00 +0000

You have 10 semesters to play 4 competitive seasons (8 semesters) in a sport at the Division 2/3 level. Your clock begins each time you enroll for a semester as a full time student

Assuming you graduated on time (8 semesters), you still have 2 semesters (1 competitive season) left on your clock. HOWEVER, you must meet the NCAA’s one time transfer exception to get to an NCAA School. You must be a grad student, full time, and be contiguous residency on campus (you go full time from school 1 directly to full time at school 2). You cannot transfer from one NCAA D3/D2 program to another NCAA D3/D2 program using the one time transfer rule. You can only use this to go D1 from another D1 school or from D3/D2 to D1.

the rules are nasty – see here with more clarification – http://forums.insidelacrosse.com/showthread.php?t=212284

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:18:00 +0000

That’s right. Plus, Michigan is a national school (draws it’s student body from everywhere). ND is also. OSU and PSU are much more regional. That, along with the academic reputation, matters in recruiting.

From what I hear they are also going to build ridiculous facilities. If they are head and shoulders above what anyone else is doing, then that will also make a difference.

By: Swank Lax

Swank Lax — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Disagree completely on the recruiting. Michigan has the advantage of being a superior academic school to either OSU or PSU, which should help them significantly in terms of recruiting. A more apt comparison than OSU or PSU for me would be Notre Dame, and they seem to be doing just fine.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:42:00 +0000

I agree that it will be a challenge, but I also think they will be fine. Matt Holtz, who was in a completely different realm than JP as an MCLA coach, is doing pretty well as a D1 coach with very few resources. Plus, Michigan hired an assistant with over 10 years of D1 experience in Lattimore. I doubt Lattimore is going to suddenly forget how to prepare a team at the D1 level. One of the things UM was known for in the MCLA was how prepared they were compared to most of their opponents. Will they have to be more prepared to compete in D1? Absolutely. Can any good coach prep their team? Of course. JP and his staff will adjust.

More important is what guest alluded to above. The biggest adjustment is recruiting. It’s going to take them some time to build a D1 roster.

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:43:00 +0000

they are going to be like every other Big10 school that has a lacrosse team. you would expect them to be dominant and get tons of top top recruits due to the facilities and that nonsense, but they will be mediocre.. osu and psu for example.

By: Swank Lax

Swank Lax — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Beyond the talent, the biggest challenge will be game prep for JP. Good NCAA ball is a whole ‘nother world in terms of scouting, film study and game strategy. This won’t show up in the fall scrimmages, but will definitely manifest itself in the spring for better or worse. I don’t know JP as a coach so I can’t say whether he will sink or swim, but being an MCLA coach for as long as he has doesn’t give me a lot of confidence.

By: Ben Mayo

Ben Mayo — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:00:00 +0000

I guess I’m ok with this

By: Cam

Cam — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:46:00 +0000

So could he play DII, DIII, or NJCAA? I joke to my self about walking on NJCAA for fun and to defer college loans, even though I exhausted my MCLA eligibility

By: Tom Huppmann

Tom Huppmann — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:49:00 +0000

I’m also curious to see their schedule. If I’m not mistaken, they will play in the ECAC, so their competition should include Loyola, Denver, Ohio State, Air Force, Hobart, Fairfield, and Bellermine in conference. That’s no cupcake schedule and I fully expect that Michigan will get throttled by a couple of these teams. Towson definitely called off the dogs in their scrimmage. I was at the game and I’m pretty sure it was 7 or 8-0 after one abbreviated quarter.

By: Cam

Cam — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 14:54:00 +0000

My first reaction was to stand up for Michigan since they tend to over-achieve, but I just looked over laxpower and remembered how small and exclusive DI is. Providence, St. Joes, and Towson each had terrible records last year while playing mostly awesome teams- each playing about 5 ranked teams (Towson played 6). There’s no room in DI to win games while playing mediocre lacrosse, while the same can’t be said about the MCLA.

I think the first couple games are going to show the difficulties of the jump and how much harder it is to score on DI defenses and goalies- especially the goalies. In Michigan’s defense, they kept the goals allowed around the 10 goal mark in 2 of the 3 games, and more importantly only let in 14 in the Towson game, as opposed to 20+.

I can’t wait to see their schedule, and I think that the culture of the UM program is going to be a tremendous asset through the learning experience. In that sense, these guys are ahead of where Mercer and Jacksonville started, and I have a feeling that they might get impressive attendance at their games, but I could be wrong.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:21:00 +0000

Look at their goalie commits for the next two years. 2012 Gerald Logan from Sachem and now PG year at Hotchkiss. 2013 Robbie Zonino from Conestoga. I’d say they’ve taken the need to upgrade their goalies pretty seriously.

But they need to upgrade everywhere if they are going to get competitive. Recruiting is the key.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:17:00 +0000

bsigmund is right. Yealy only has one year left. Your NCAA clock starts in D1 the day you take your first college class.

By: Butchc19

Butchc19 — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:59:00 +0000

I think you lose eligibility when you play in the MCLA. I could be wrong, but I know a few kids who have moved from the MCLA to the NCAA and lost those years of eligibility…