Requiem For a Season: Michigan

This is from the other game against Arizona State, but whatever.

The Wolverines’ (presumed) sunset season in the MCLA didn’t come to a storybook ending, as Michigan fell to Arizona State in the MCLA Semifinals last Friday. Still, by any other measure, the season was an enormous success. Alas, after the past three seasons, any other measure of success is simply not good enough for the Wolverines – whether that’s fair or not.

The Regular Season

Michigan played – and beat – the best en route to the #1 seed in the MCLA Tournament. Colorado State (#2 seed), BYU (#3), Chapman (#4), Arizona State (#5), Michigan State (#6 – twice), Oregon (#8), Boston College (#10), and UC-Santa Barbara (#14) all took The Michigan Test and failed.

The Wolverines’ 16-0 record completed the third undefeated Michigan season in four years, and made them the overwhelming favorite to win their unprecedented fourth-straight National Championship – to the point that parents had t-shirts made in advance:

Oops.

(H/T: 412 Lax).

The Tournament

You know the story by now: beat 16-seed Lindenwood in the first round. Earned a comfortable win against Oregon (making up for the overtime thriller last time against the Ducks, though neither game was played in excellent conditions).

The entire season, then, came down to an Arizona State run in the third quarter of the semi-final game, when the Sun Devils won 5 consecutive faceoffs, and turned a 3-2 Michigan lead into a 3-6 Michigan deficit. Though the Wolverines were able to tie the game in the fourth, they spent everything in the tank to do so, and Arizona State earned the right to play BYU for the Championship.

Tempo-Free

From their cumulative statistics, Michigan’s tempo-free numbers on the year.

As a reference, in 2010 the Wolverines had 1042 possessions and scored 301 goals (.289 eff), while opponents had 742 possessions and scored 132 goals (.178 eff). Michigan had .584 of possessions last year, and .572 this season.

Part of that is due to less dominance on faceoffs. It’s unfair to ask Brian Greiner to be David Reinhard, and to finish above .600 was a definite accomplishment (Reinhard was at .701 last season). Though faceoffs weren’t the absurd strength they’ve been the past few years, they certainly weren’t a weakness.

In the clear/ride game, Michigan’s ride was actually better in 2011 than it was the previous year, despite what seemed to be less reliance on the 10-man. The clear, however, was a bit worse – though not significantly.

Michigan offense was slightly worse – partially a product of playing slow-down style against weaker opposition, and not taking the available “sure thing”-type goals against the likes of Toledo. The defense was slightly better – again, I think that might be because of some competition played (it makes you look like a dick to score at will against a weak team, whereas it doesn’t have the same effect to simply prevent the same team from scoring).

In all, the profile is not that different. One result in one game is all that stands between the greatness of the previous three years, and this year’s letdown.

Going Forward

So, are the Wolverines leaving the ranks of the MCLA for Division-1? It certainly sounds like it, with an announcement coming as early as this week. If so, this season was more about ultimately failing to cement their legacy as something that will never be matched. That said, the 76-2 run over the past four years will probably never be matched regardless.

Michigan’s seniors knew loss only twice in their Wolverine careers, and that won’t be the case in the future should they make the immediate jump to Division-1 next season. If they do make that jump, there’s certainly plenty more ink (pixels?) to be spilled about the future over the course of this offseason.