For Notre Dame Lacrosse The “Time To Be Great” Starts Now

The Irish lose to Syracuse in the ACC tournament; the Buckeyes loom in the first round of the NCAA tournament

Photo Credit: Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse Twitter

We are in the month of May.

For the Notre Dame Men’s Lacrosse team, whether you want to look at it this way or not, as the Irish head into the NCAA tournament, they are the two-time defending national champions. That means the Irish are looking to defend their title and go back to back to back.

As Coach Corrigan says, each squad enters a new season and is its own team. The current version of the Irish have won nothing. While that is correct, from here on in, the talk around our Irish will be that they are going for the three-peat, that they are looking to do what no team since the 1996-1998 Princeton Tigers has done: win three championships in a row.

The Irish get the tournament underway this Sunday as we head to Columbus, OH to take on the #4 seeded Buckeyes in a Mother’s Day matchup at 12 PM EST. It will be a rematch of our game from earlier in the season as Ohio State came up to South Bend on March 8th and beat our Irish by a final score of 10-9. It was a game that came down to the final whistle as OSU scored with 7 seconds to go to get the win. From there, the Buckeyes have rolled as they ended with a 14-2 record and finished as the Big Ten regular season champions and also the Big Ten tournament champions.

Our Irish find themselves on the road for the first time in a while in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. We got here due to a 14-12 loss to Syracuse on Friday of the ACC tournament. The Cuse would go on to win the tourney by beating Duke a couple of days after taking down the Irish.

Okay folks, let’s get into it by talking more about the Syracuse loss, what’s been happening of late and finally getting into some tournament talk.

And if you want to get even more caught up on things, be on the lookout for the “Exit 77” podcast as David Brogan and I will be recording on Friday the 9th to get you ready on the ND vs OSU matchup. We will also look at the other matchups in the first round.

What Took Place down in Charlotte against the Cuse

It was another tough outing against the Orange. For the second time this year, the Cuse took it to our Irish, and while the final score was 14-12, it was 14-10 with a little under 2 minutes to go before the Irish got two goals back in the final 30 seconds.

Let’s start with some of the things our Irish can improve upon:

There is no mincing words here: we have to get the man-up figured out and do so in very short order. While we finished 2-6 on the day, the first four man-up opportunities were tough. Nothing was working and we probably need a reset as to what we are doing out there and who is on the unit. Lots for the coaching staff to decide this week around everything; we will find out soon enough what they are thinking.

If you are searching for the way a man-up unit should look? Check out the tape of how the Cuse moved the ball and scored as they went 2-3 on the day.

It was a tough all around day at the faceoff dot. Tons of credit to John Mullen who went 21-26 on the afternoon and looked really good.

Three goals for the Orange in 21 seconds in the 2nd quarter. That put Syracuse up 7-4 and really set them on their way after our Irish had gotten even at 4-4.

What did I like about this game? Here are a few things:

Freshman Luke Miller got some early run and finished the day with one goal and one assist. He looked confident out there and was able to beat his man a for a score and also assist on Max Busenkell’s goal.

I am not the coaching staff and I have no idea what we might see this Sunday, but I for one would not be surprised if we saw Luke out there in the first quarter along with Jake Taylor and Chris Kavanagh. He would provide that lefty attackman on the wing, and when he was put in against the Orange, he provided a pretty big spark. By moving him to attack, we would then move Devon McLane back to midfield which would solidify the top two middie lines:

Faison-McLane-Angrick

Maheras-Seymour-Busenkell

I loved the hustle and play from Ronan Doherty when he was called upon late in this game. He caused a turnover and looked good out there as he was running with some intensity. Great work by Ronan who has been nothing but ready when his name has been called by the coaching staff.

Really nice rebound goal from Brock Behrman when he was out there. He was fired up when that went in, as he should have been. It was a heady play as he got the ball past Jimmy McCool to get the Irish within one in the first quarter.

Notre Dame’s first goal of the second half, which got the score to 8-7, was a beauty. Great ball movement on the fast break and an awesome finish from Devon McLane from in close. That was the precision passing we have come to expect from our Irish.

So good to see Will Angrick get a couple of goals. He finished the day with four points and after a few games without scoring, it was great to see Will look a lot like the player from earlier in the season. Looking forward to that continuing against the Buckeyes.

What else is happening in the world of Notre Dame lacrosse

Matt Kavanagh hung it up this week as he retired from professional lacrosse. An amazing career for him as he will go down in history as one of the best to ever suit up in the game of lacrosse. It cannot be overstated enough how Matt forever changed Notre Dame lacrosse. Congrats to him on all his unreal accomplishments. Hopefully the below from me conveys everything that I feel about Matty Ice:

Three Irish players had their names called on Tuesday night in the PLL Draft. Huge congratulations to:

Jake Taylor who went at #9 to the Waterdogs

Chris Kavanagh who went at #10 to the Redwoods

Ben Ramsey who went at #28 to the Cannons

So cool and definitely excited to see the PLL when it comes to Evanston, IL in July.

What’s Next and the NCAA Tournament

I am just going to get right into it. Here is the bracket:

Here are my first round winners:

Cornell

Richmond

Penn State

Notre Dame

Princeton

Syracuse

Georgetown

Maryland

Which leads me to our Irish versus the Buckeyes:

I am not going to lie, I have been down on OSU for much of the year and week in and week out they have proven me wrong. Outside of their opening season loss to Utah, they have only lost to Maryland. They have won 14 of their last 15 games and come in off a high after beating Maryland to win the Big Ten tournament.

They have a very good overall team and they have a solid defense led by a goaltender who has been excellent this season. They move the ball unselfishly on offense and they have nine players who have double digit goals. They will be ready to go with a home crowd and they most certainly will be playing with a chip on their shoulder. Many think they were not rewarded with an easier opening round game after how they finished in beating Maryland.

I could talk more on the Buckeyes, but I will let David handle a lot of that on our podcast. What I do know is about our Irish and here is what I expect on Sunday:

A team playing with urgency.

A team playing physical lacrosse.

A team doing the simple things well.

A team who finishes possessions with goals.

A team wanting to prove itself.

A team going hard after every last ground ball.

A team winning runouts to the end line.

A team riding with an unwavering commitement.

A team playing overall excellent team defense.

A team knowing that the next game is not a given.

A team that is unselfish.

A team that refuses to quit.

A team looking to avenge an early season loss.

A team playing for each other.

I trust the coaching staff and I trust the boys that this Sunday will be the start of a run toward Boston and a spot in the Final Four. Good teams can win NCAA tournament games, but good teams with great leadership can win championships.

There is not much more to say. “It’s Time to Be Great.”

It’s time to show everyone else what makes Notre Dame lacrosse so special.

Let’s get a win on Sunday.

Let’s Go Irish!