Yes, this is cherry-picking variables a bit, but what else can we do in the middle of an off-season laced with despair? There's got to be positives, dammit, and I will be on the hunt for as many as we can find until February 2022. So here goes.
With the formation of the Big Ten Lacrosse Conference in 2015, Ohio State and the other remaining official Big Ten lacrosse programs found themselves a part of an elite conference for the first time. That's a loaded sentence I will do my best to explain. The conference came about because of the additions of Maryland and Rutgers to the Big Ten, along with Johns Hopkins as an affiliate member. As a result, literally half of the conference came from outside the traditional footprint for Big Ten schools.
At the time, only Ohio State, Penn State, and TTUN were left as Big Ten universities with DI lacrosse programs. And TTUN had just started its program a few years before after moving up from club status. Sparty had a few decades of DI lacrosse, but folded the program in the late 1990s.
With the addition of the Terrapins, Blye Jays, and Scarlet Knights in 2015, Big Ten lacrosse not only became a thing, but brought about a huge new platform for the game in the Midwest.
As we have followed the past few years, each team not named Maryland has seen itself rise to the national conversation, except for TTUN. Ohio State did it first and, in my opinion, best. Then it was Penn State's turn. And this year, it was Rutgers' time to shine. The Wolverines, I am sure, will have a year in the next ten where they are at the forefront of the second tier.
But the fact remains, no other non-new member of the Big Ten has had a better single season performance than Ohio State did in 2017. You may remember that magical run to the national championship game, and the gif it spawned that lasted a few years before petering out.
The Buckeyes were one player on offense away from being national champions that year. Their defense was stellar, but the offense wasn't championship caliber. That, however, was the most complete title-contending team to come out of the conference that wasn't named Maryland.
You may remember the 2019 version of Penn State. The Nittany Lions featured a player in Grant Ament who was making the most of his injury redshirts. Ament changed the game, and cemented his status as the best passer of the ball in college lacrosse history by shattering the assist record. He obliterated it.
And still, the Nittany Lions flamed out in the Final Four. An underpowered defense probed to be Penn State's undoing, and the Nittany Lions promptly fell off a cliff after Ament entered the professional ranks on 2020.
Rutgers, in all its Rutgers-y glory, managed to do even worse this year. And yes, I know they're not really Big Ten yet. But it's still fun to crap on them.
The Scarlet Knights brought back 7th-year Adam Charalambides, 5th year Kieran Mullins, and added a slew of transfers, including one of the best midfielders to come through college lacrosse in a while. With a senior-laden defense, experienced midfield, and a bright young freshman named Knobloch, this team was all in. Do or die. Ready for war.
And it all fell apart. Jealousy is certainly an ugly emotion, but schadenfreude is glorious and I'm going to revel in the crapping of the bed we saw by Rutgers against UNC. The boys from Piscataway didn't even make a Final Four with the best team they will ever see. It's not even close. There will never be a talented team like that for Rutgers.
To keep Charalambides around for nearly a decade, a talented sidekick, and then add a steamrolling A/M to the lineup, only to get sent home as a quarterfinalist, is peak Rutgers. It's glorious. The#1 seed was on the ropes, but Rutgers couldn't figure out how to clear and now they're done. And now that entire squad will be gutted. The top three goalscorers, accounting for 103 put of 175 goals scored, are all gone. Starting goalie is gone. Multiple defenders could be gone.
The Knights had one shot, and totally blew it. No other way to describe. And, to bring this whole circus full circle, it cements Ohio State's status as the holder of the best season non-title winner in the Big Ten. TTUN has yet to have a winning season, so we are secilure knowing they're just trying to break even.
We'll be back with some actual content later, but I had to just twist the knife a little.
Maryland is in the Final Four again, and will either win by 4 or lose by 8. We will see which. No conference pride here, going all in for Duke next Saturday.
Enjoy the madness.
