Brown Lacrosse Schedule: The Road to 7-7?

PROGRAM SCHEDULE PROPAGANDA: UNRELEASED
THIS IS WHY WE FIGHT: THE SCHEDULE

Brown is 37-34 over the last five seasons, averaging a 7-7 record in that span. What's unique about that aggregated and average record is that Brown has been amazingly consistent at finishing a game or two above or below .500 since 2010:

Obviously the separate iterations of the Bears in each of these seasons looks a little different when examining more than the team's superficial records, but Brown has still been right around the same mark for a half-decade of seasons. Bruno has been a known quantity in terms of expected final record, and it'll be interesting to see if the team's slate this season throws the Bears into a similar situation once the spring comes to its conclusion.

Here are some schedule highlights and games of note:

Smallest State, Biggest [Whatever]
April 14: at Providence; April 21: at Bryant

Brown annually competes with Providence and Bryant for the Ocean State Cup, a gigantic mass of trophy that looks like a chowder pot attempting to dress up for a wedding that it wasn't invited to. Brown took home the championship last season after sweeping the Friars and Bulldogs, but something is hollow about Bruno's ownership of the trophy: Shouldn't Rhode Island's three Division I teams play for something a little more Rhode Island-y? I'm just spitballing here, but here are some options that the three schools can pursue to elevate their intrastate competition to an elite level:

• Losers have to supply the winner with a year-long supply of Rhode Island's greatest natural resource: Del's frozen lemonade. Del's is quite possibly the most important thing ever to come out of the Ocean State, easily outpacing the shoe polish that Narragansett Brewery is unleashing on the nation. If there was a diet that consisted solely of Del's, I'd be on it immediately and keep on it forever (until I die of having too much deliciousness all the damn time).
• A golden ticket that allows the winner to move out of Rhode Island.
• Instead of the trophy currently being issued, how about a sack of money with Buddy Cianci's winking image on one side and a green dollar sign on the other? Even better: The sack o' cash goes not to the team that wins on the field but the team that knows the most people that hang out in the back rooms of restaurants in Federal Hill. "You'll keep quiet if you know what's good for you, Bryant."

For Club and A Capella Team
March 14: Harvard; March 28: at Princeton; April 4: Pennsylvania; April 11: at Yale; April 18: Cornell; April 25: at Dartmouth

Brown has made two appearances in the Ivy League Tournament: In 2010 -- the inaugural year for the conference's postseason playdown -- following a 4-2 effort in Ivy competition and in 2012 after a 3-3 drive through the league. Other than that, Bruno hasn't had an especially great existence in Division I's most ascot-and-brandy-snifter concern: 2-4 finishes have dominated Brown's reality in years in which the program has failed to advance to a May adventure. In a conference expected to feature leveraged competition in 2015, Brown has an opportunity to take advantage of a situation where a "super team" won't eviscerate the Bears' universe.

The difficulty in Brown's league slate this coming spring, though, is that Bruno will need to build momentum without using Dartmouth as a pivot or platform point on the slate: The Big Green, in transition under new head coach Brendan Callahan, appear at the tail-end of the Bears' schedule, forcing Brown to move through the gauntlet of the Ivy League's stronger teams for just over a month. The only relief that Bruno will enjoy is the relief that it creates for itself.

Two Weeks of Torture
March 14: Harvard; March 17: Bucknell; March 21: Manhattan; March 24: Marist; March 28: at Princeton

Oof: That's five games over 14 days (averaging a game almost every third day), with two important and potential matchups starting the stretch -- home dates against the Crimson and Bison -- and a valuable trip to meet the Tigers closing the span. Four of those games are in Providence with two looking highly manageable, but that's still a ton of lacrosse featuring a majority of tough opponents that Bruno must try and navigate. The Bears' season may ultimately be defined by how well Brown makes it through that portion of the schedule.