D-Fly and Dixie check in a day early with a new episode of the Inside Lacrosse weekend preview, with an eye on a huge Thursday of conference tournament semifinals. The preview all of the conference semifinal games of Thursday and Friday, and invite Michigan head coach Kevin Conry in for the weekly conversation.

Dixie starts off with a story about gathering with the Marr family a few years back to take in conference tournament action, then they set the table for what’s at stake this weekend. Eight conference champions will claim Automatic Qualifiers (AQs), while other teams hope to make a case for one of the eight remaining at-large berths. The guys challenge the popular notion that the ACC is guaranteed five at-large spots, and that’s what makes this weekend so important for so many teams.

In the conversation with Conry, they talk about how the Wolverines have managed COVID in Ann Arbor, coaching against friends and the Hopkins alumni coaching lineage. As they turn the conversation to the 2021 Wolverines, Conry discusses All-B1G face-off specialist Nick Rowlett, the young dynamic duo of Josh Zwada and Michael Boehm, achieving “firsts” in program history, and of course the matchup with No. 1-ranked Maryland.

The semester is wrapping up, and Conry was well prepared to ace his exam when it came to the food discussion. He came with a list and notes for best road trip team restaurants, and he skillfully danced around a direct answer on his favorite sandwich at Zingerman’s, an Ann Arbor landmark. Solid A.