It took until this post for me to honestly, truly, digest what happened. Not to be dramatic, but both teams deserved to lose this game. Ohio State played utterly trash lacrosse for 3.75 quarters, and took advantage of TTUN's meltdown to make the game look close. The Wolverines utterly dominated for 3.75 quarters, and then quit playing DI lacrosse and barely hung on thanks to an unsettled goal in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. That was the game winner, and the only tally the Wolverines would have.
The Buckeyes struggled in all facets. Caleb Fyock was not up to his standard. The offense was its predictable garbage self. Faceoffs got brutalized until the 4th quarter. And then there was the defense.
For the life of me, I cannot understand this staff. I don't know who decided to just blatantly ignore fundamental lacrosse defense for years, but watching 4th and 5th year defenders be totally out of position, lack all sense of situational awareness, and lunge like middle schoolers when 1v1 made me physically ill.
No one needs to be Joe Fletcher or Brodie Merill. But to have absolutely no sense of what to do or how to do it boggles my flipping mind. I watched Jacob Snyder, who made the U21 roster that Myers rode to victory, get utterly bamboozled while chasing a stick. I saw Connor Cmiel, who is gonna play football(!), trying to hit the stick head of one of the best offensive players in the conference like a 5th grader. And I don't know that any player truly understands where the slide is supposed to come from, and how to properly recover. Still. In 2024!
Frankly, TTUN should have had more goals. They played good offense, and were unlucky to only have 13.
The faceoff game was absolutely brutal, also. Myers looked great with Year 1-3 Inacio after Jake Winters graduated. Year 4-5 Inacio was more rocky. And everything after Inacio has been dreadful.
The problem with this program is that it is unmotivated, undisciplined, fundamentally unsound, and completely lacks an identity.
If and when (I hope there's a when. God help me if there isn't one next week.) Myers is let go this season, I will dissect everything that he did poorly after 2017. And even before 2017.
Right now, issues with personnel identification and development undermine everything else. No one wants this program to fail. And no one is saying that the staff is full of bad apples. But the way the past 7 seasons have gone, it is obvious that change is necessary. And I think the discernable fanbase is feeling that way too. I haven't seen that much collective interest in anything related to Buckeye lacrosse.
These are the games that define coaches. And Myers record is really bad the last few years against the start up team in Ann Arbor. With all the really, really good coaches around, this off-season is the best shot the Buckeyes have at getting back on track. It will get a lot worse next year, no matter who is in charge. But man, I would hope the athletic department tries to get a new regime in here to fix the glaring issues all over.
Rematch coming up in the Big Ten tournament. In Ann Arbor. And the Buckeyes are brutal on the road under Myers. So... there's your foreshadowing for the next preview.
Go Bucks.
