This is the inaugural year of the B1G Conference. Sure there’s only six teams in the men’s conference play but they represent 56 National Titles. Johns Hopkins who’s one of the most dominate program in the NCAA, having 44 National Championships, joined the B1G for lacrosse. Big Ten newcomers Maryland has 11 National Titles with Rutgers having 1. Might be safe to say that the B1G is going to be a power conference along with the ACC and Ivy Leagues.
The woman’s conference is just as formidable. Also having six teams like their male counterparts difference being Northwestern instead of Johns Hopkins. The other teams that represent both the men and women are Maryland, TTUN, Ohio State, Penn State along with Rutgers. The women’s teams of Maryland has 11 National Titles, Northwestern with 7, followed up by Penn State’s 2.
Pretty impressive what the Big Ten teams representing the conference have done in lacrosse.
Speaking of impressive both the men and women have pulled off the upsets to play in the Inaugural B1G Conference Tournament Championship Matches. The #3 seed Buckeye men (11-5) play top seeded Johns Hopkins (8-6) tonight at 8pm meanwhile the #4 seed Buckeye women (13-6) face #2 seed Penn State (13-4) at noon tomorrow.
How did we get here? The men pulled off the upset over #2 seed Maryland by coming back in the second half with a final score of 9-6. Far cry from what happened in Columbus when they last met on April 18 in from of thousands of fans where the Terps pulled off the comeback taking OSU to overtime and winning that match.
The woman Buckeyes also beat Maryland to advance beating the previously undefeated and #1 ranked Terps 11-10 yesterday giving them their biggest win in history.
I am not going to pretend I know much about lacrosse but I have started to enjoy more after watching the Spring Games plus fellow twitter followers have been helping me (you know who you are). Why buy the fight tonight,unless you have money to burn, when you can watch it next week on HBO or Showtime since folks like me already pay for them (Hope its on next week)? You can watch your favorite school tonight take on a top program in a exciting sport for free!
By the way the men’s team did beat Johns Hopkins earlier this year so they have a legitimate shot at this meanwhile the women only lost by one their last meeting against the Nittany Lions.
Good Luck Buckeyes and bring home the hardware!!!
Videos courtesy of BTN.com
