Win Two.
Tempo Free
From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:
| Saint Joseph’s 2013 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Saint Joseph’s | Michigan | ||
| Faceoff Wins | 9 | Faceoff Wins | 13 |
| Clearing | 10-14 | Clearing | 10-10 |
| Possessions | 23 | Possessions | 27 |
| Goals | 8 | Goals | 11 |
| Offensive Efficiency | .348 | Offensive Efficiency | .407 |
I’ll be honest… either stats were improperly kept for this game (I know the team’s primary statistician was not available), or an insanely slow game that featured exactly no defense. I lean toward the latter without having seen the game, because such a performance is just so far out of character for Michigan.
Notes
In a game where the offense practically explodes (despite playing by far the fewest possessions of any game this year, Michigan hit double-digit goals for the second time this season), it’s tough to give too much credit to the D, but… Gerald Logan, man. His .652 save percentage is pretty impressive on its own, but taking a look at his late-game heroics really draws that into perspective. He faced 13 shots on goal in the second half, and saved 11 of them. After his team went down 8-7, he saved the final nine shots on goal while his teammates rallied with four straight goals to seal the win. That’s huge.
Also huge in turning the momentum: faceoffs. Michigan was mediocre in the first half, finishing just below .500 (Kevin Wylie was exactly .500 with a win on two draws, while Brad Lott was 5/11). After that, it was dominance, with Lott taking 7/9 after the break. Lott also scored his first career goal in the game. His lack of experience (missing all of fall and most of the pres-season practices due to injury, then missing the first game due to suspension) was the bigger issue than a lack of talent all year. He’ll be a bright spot going forward.
As for the bulk of the offense, look to the usual suspects. Senior midfielder Thomas Paras has three goals and two assists, and freshman midfielder Kyle Jackson has two goals and two assists. Sophomore attack Will Meter had two goals. Freshman middie Mike Hernandez didn’t have a huge day, with just a single goal. Speaking of Paras, he was not listed among the Senior Day honorees… it would be huge for this team in 2014 if he were to use his fifth year of eligibility.
Volume shooting is still a thing for this Michigan team, with Meter and Paras each launching eight (five on goal) and Jackson putting up nine – only four on goal. Quite a bit more research is required to determine whether missed shots (on or off goal) are necessarily a bad thing, what with clean saves, backup, etc. coming into play. I’m not ready to do that research just yet, but definitely keep an eye on this team’s tendency going forward.
Michigan limited the turnovers in a huge way, committing only seven for the game. That’s two straight with single-digit TOs, a huge improvement over some of the sloppiness earlier in the year. Five of those were caused by the Hawks, so only two uncaused in this win.
Michigan also didn’t force a whole lot the other way, with St. Joe’s committing only eight total, and five caused by Wolverines. Going forward, the identity of this defense will not rely on caused turnovers, but the numbers will nudge upwards when Michigan has more talent at its disposal.
Mike Francia put in work on GBs, leading all players with six on the day. More impressively, he didn’t rack that up by playing the wing on faceoffs (only one GB he won was on the faceoff), so it was mostly old-fashioned hard work. Chase Brown, David Joseph and Brad Lott – all of whom did play significantly on faceoffs – had three apiece.
For the Hawks, attack Kyle Williams had a goal and two assists, while Matt Sarcona, Pat Swanick, and Johnny Simanski had two goals apiece. Dustin Keen made 12 goals between the pipes, but needed a couple more to get the win for his squad.
Elsewhere
The official boxscore. Michigan official site recap. Postgame notes. Official photo gallery. SJU recap. You can re-watch for “not free.” Play-by-play from Gametracker.
Up Next
Unfortunately, just as soon as Michigan capitalizes on building quite a bit of momentum… they have one game left, and it’s against the recently-dethroned No. 1 team in the country. The Wolverines will have to use that momentum to stay competitive against Denver, then build in the offseason.
The days of winning one game a year are likely over, but 2013 will end that way.
I think the UM stats show the Wolverines with a big ground ball advantage in the game. That plus the face-off advantage noted above had been two problems that plagued the team in prior games. Good to see UM with an advantage in both areas.
It can be argued that volume shooting is necessary in todays game to keep the stall warning/shot clock from being a factor. I don’t think that players are regularly trying to miss the cage on purpose to prolong possession. Its more of an idea that coaches I have talked to are less discriminatory of the shot selection but much more strict about the placement. Either score or miss the cage. Shoot for the corners/pipes. A bad shot on cage is just as bad as a turnover, and with the way the rules are now not shooting can lead to a turn over as well.
Yeah, I’m not ready to say one way or the other whether volume shooting is definitely a bad thing until I get the chance to do a little more offseason research. With the nature of shot backup in lacrosse, you can basically get an offensive rebound (and often a guaranteed offensive rebound if you have someone at X who can back things up) on a shot off the cage.
I’d have to take a look at some of the film and talk to some people about the philosophy behind it to see if “good” and “bad” volume shooting are two separate things, and if there’s an easy way to differentiate between the two. That’s definitely a summer project.
From reading some of your comments on volume shooting, it seems that you define volume shooting as lots of shots coming from the same player.
Looking at the stats from Hopkins last game against Navy, they have 9 players take the majority of shots (45 out of 47). thats basically starting attack and 2 offensive middie lines. 6 players took 5 or more shots.
My thought is, if you are Michigan, who has a starting attack and basically one offensive middie line, you need to take those same 40+ shots, but only have 6 guys on the field to take them. And given the talent disparity even among those 6 guys, some guys will get more shots than others.
In my opinion, the volume of shots is not a bad thing as long as your best players are taking the most shots. If I was coaching and only have 3-4 players who had matchups I thought I could exploit, I would have those 3-4 players taking nearly every shot. I suspect as the talent fills out the rosters at Michigan and to a lesser extent UDM, and they have 6-9 credible scoring threats, the shots will spread out amongst more players. I don’t think it’s bad decision making, just lack of options.
I’m defining volume shooting as a lot of shots turning into not a lot of goals. Michigan was one of the pickiest teams last year when it came to shooting (their raw shooting percentage of goals/shots was, I believe, the highest in the country by a significant margin – they just didn’t get a whole lot of shots off). If one guy is going to take 8 shots and score 6 goals, that’s not volume shooting, because he’s using those shots to score goals.
Volume shooting is taking a bunch of shots that are either saved or miss the cage. As I said in the previous comment, volume shooting may not necessarily be a bad (or a good) thing, it’s just a thing that requires a little further research.