Tuesday Morning Brews: Sail away

Happy Tuesday, folks. Welcome to Morning Brews. We’re back with a weekend-centric batch of content for your Tuesday morning, plus a little reflecting on men’s basketball, the way their season ended and what comes next for John Beilein and crew. Without further ado...

Let’s get to it:

Women’s lacrosse tops Johns Hopkins. The No. 8 Wolverines topped the No. 18 Blue Jays this past Saturday, Michigan’s thirteenth win in a row as they keep their undefeated season going. It was also the Wolverines’ sixth win against a ranked team this season. Caitlin Muir led the way for Michigan with six goals, and Maggie Kane contributed four, en route to the 16-11 victory. The team now stands at 13-0 (3-0) on the season. They’ll be back in action at Maryland on Saturday.

Softball sweep Rutgers for eleventh straight. Michigan softball is on a roll, grinding out 11 straight wins—the latest three coming courtesy of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The Wolverines uncorked a whooping this past weekend, never trailing in the three games and outscoring Rutgers by a combined 24-6 margin. The wins improve Michigan’s record to 23-10 (6-0) on the season. They’ll next play against Toledo on Wednesday.

Baseball beats MSU twice, third postponed. Michigan weather in March, amiright? The Wolverines pounded on the Spartans for two straight days before cold temperatures on Sunday caused the teams to take the day off. On Friday, Michigan jumped out to a 3-0 lead before cruising to a 6-3 win. On Saturday, the Wolverines scored the first six en route to a 16-2 victory. But on Sunday, the resurgent wintry weather caused the game to be postponed; a makeup date has not yet been scheduled. After the weekend, the team stands at 19-7 (2-0) on the year. They too will next play against Toledo on Wednesday.

Men’s lacrosse stumbles to fifth straight loss. The hits just keep on coming for men’s lacrosse, as the Wolverines squandered a 5-3 lead after the first quarter to lose 8-14 to No. 18 Johns Hopkins in the Big Ten opener. After scoring with 0:31 left in the first quarter, Michigan didn’t score against until there was 13:40 left in the fourth. The loss was the team’s fifth in a row, a streak dating back to March 10th. The team is now 3-6 (0-1) on the season. They’ll next play at Maryland on Saturday.

Here’s a bit of basketball post-op from Nick Baumgardner over at the Free Press. Despite nominally being a success—after all the Wolverines won 30 games and were back in the Sweet Sixteen yet again—the season leaves a bad taste in the mouth due to the way it finished. So what does Baumgardner think is in store for next year? He says, “Beilein’s latest group started the season with massive holes to fill after a run to the national title game, and still finished with 30 wins. Michigan basketball adapts and changes constantly. Often out of necessity. That’ll probably be the case again.” For the full take, check out the article linked above.