The 2019 college lacrosse season is upon us and everything is right with the world. As Chris noted in his post yesterday on stories to follow this weekend, we’re calling this weekend Week 0 of the 2019 season. This is due to the fact there are only ten games today, as many teams don’t start their season for another week or two. Frankly, I don’t really see a reason why every team shouldn't be playing this weekend. But that’s for another post.

Anyway, let’s dive into the Big Board for today, which you can find directly below. As usual, clicking on the team name will take you to that team’s homepage, while clicking on the Stream/TV cell will take you to the broadcast of that game. Additionally, clicking the Live Stats cell will take you to the live stats of that particular game. All times East Coast Standard, per usual. Let’s go to the Big Board!! (Ed. Note: The PSU game has been moved indoors to Holuba Hall and there will not be a stream as Holuba does not have the technical capabilities. H/T @BodeRea.)

Also check out our first #CollegeCrosseGameday episode of the 2019 season!

Games To Watch

• St. Bonaventure vs. High Point: Lost in all the hoopla surrounding Utah’s debut yesterday (check out this little video Chris posted last night after the Utes’ first game), was the fact that the Bonnies begin their inaugural season this year as well. Head coach Randy Mearns and his team traveled all the way to North Carolina for their program debut against the High Point Panthers. Despite the long distance, today’s game will be a much more reasonable test for a first year program, as opposed to Utah’s game against a very good Vermont team yesterday. Regardless, we should learn a great deal about St. Bonaventure as they get started on their non-conference schedule before focusing on MAAC games later in the season.
• Penn State vs. Villanova: This is probably the most interesting game today. The WIldcats went to the NCAA Tournament last year, but have to replace many pieces, while Penn State struggled in 2018, but is ranked in the preseason top 10. We’ll see if Penn State has learned anything from giving up a late lead to Villanova last year.

Penn state is pretty loaded this season. The Nittany Lions return 9 starters from the 2018 squad, including one of the best face-off men in the country in Gerald Arceri. Additionally, the NIttany Lions also get back star Grant Ament who missed all of 2018 after racking up 60 goals in 2017. Ament’s return will obviously be a boon for Penn State’s attack, but it also means that Nick Spillane can move back to his natural midfield position. Give me the Nittany Lions in this one.

• Maryland vs. Bucknell: Maryland holds a 7-1 advantage in this series, but this will be the first time these two have met since Bucknell stunned UM in double overtime to upset the #1 ranked Terps. Bucknell will have its hands full today. The Terps return four preseason All-Americas in Jared Bernhardt, Curtis Corley, Bubba Fairman, & Justin Shockey. Additionally, Sophomore Logan Wisnauskas will also play a key role in 2019 after he and fellow sophomore Bubba Fairman combined for 61 goals as freshmen, the most-ever by a pair of Terps freshmen in program history.

College Crosse Week 0 Picks

Adam posted our Week 0 picks yesterday. You should check them out.

It’s here. NCAA men’s D1 lacrosse starts today, people. Not tomorrow. Not soon. Today. This year, the gang at College Crosse will make their picks in the top 5 games each week, and we’ll post those picks here for you to either commend our lacrosse aptitude or laugh at our ineptitude. (More likely the latter.)

We’ll also keep track of everyone’s record throughout the season, so we can see which one of us is the worst at picking and troll him on Twitter. (Let’s be honest, it’s going to be Eri_Barrister.)

Though this is the first week of the season, and the first week we’ll make picks, we’re calling this “Week 0” since only a handful of teams are playing this weekend. “Week 1” will begin Feb. 6 when Duke takes on High Point.

Attachments

Everyone was going gaga for Utah yesterday.

Make sure you read Chris’ recap of yesterday’s game.

I always love seeing lacrosse articles in the Washington Post: Maryland lacrosse gets scoring push from players who felt the pull of football.

In early 2016, Dwayne Haskins decommitted from Maryland, choosing to play quarterback at Ohio State instead, after it became clear that Michael Locksley, the team’s interim coach at the time, would not stay with the program. Three years later, Terrapins football fans wonder — and they wonder loudly — how the decision of the 2018 Heisman Trophy finalist might have changed the trajectory of the program.

Then there’s Logan Wisnauskas, who plays lacrosse at Maryland but somehow has his own place in this story, too.

Wisnauskas started at quarterback for Boys’ Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore and attended the Terps’ football camp in the summer of 2015, just before his senior year of high school. He was one of the top quarterbacks at the camp, said his dad, Trent, and once Haskins decommitted, Wisnauskas thought maybe he’d get a call with a scholarship offer. He loved lacrosse and always thought that’d be the sport he pursued at the next level, but Wisnauskas was ready to change plans because, as he said, “Who wouldn’t want to be a starting college quarterback?”

BEARS!!

Georgetown looks to build off of last year’s breakthrough season.

Last season, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team pulled off a dramatic turnaround. After a disappointing 2017 season in which the Hoyas finished 4-10 and last in the Big East conference, the team put together a 12-5 season in 2018, including a Big East championship and an NCAA tournament berth. This season was the first time the program has achieved these feats in over a decade.

The turnaround came on the heels of a stifling defense led by goalie Nick Marrocco and young players like junior attackman Jake Carraway stepping up on the offensive end.

Georgetown’s first game of this regular season will be against Sacred Heart on Feb. 9 at Cooper Field. The next game, also at home, will be played against Robert Morris, who finished last season ranked No. 19. The Hoyas beat RMU by a single goal in last year’s matchup. In conference play, the men’s team will face off against a slate of perennially strong programs, including Marquette, Denver, Loyola and Villanova, all of whom finished in the top 25 in 2018.

No business like snow business.

The Philly Four weekly post is back!!

As many of you know in 2015 & 2016 we did a weekly post following the four Philly area Division I men’s lacrosse programs as they battled for postseason glory. The Final Four was in Philly both of those years which was the main reason for doing the series. Chris continued it in 2017 as well but we suspended it for the 2018 season. Seeing as the Final Four is back in the City of Brotherly Love in 2019, we’ve decided to renew the series.

2018 was a pretty good year for two of the four Philly schools. Villanova made the NCAA Tournament & St. Joe’s bounced back with an 11-4 record last season after enduring a difficult 2017. However, both Penn & Drexel finished below .500 last year.

Hopefully having Championship Weekend at the Linc in 2019 motivates all four teams into having better records this season. Adding more spice this year is the fact that city bragging rights are up for grabs, as the four schools will participate in a double-header weekend on March 8-10 as part of the … wait for it …. PHILLY 4 LACROSSE CHALLENGE! #WeDidIt

Ryan & Skyler dropped a great women’s lacrosse Crossecast yesterday.

We’ve still got another week until the 2019 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse season kicks off as at least the women’s coaches are slightly saner than the men’s in terms of knowing when to start the season. That being said, we know you still want the podcast to get you set for the season. That’s where we come in.

I’m joined by College Crosse women’s lacrosse insider Skyler Gilbert as we kick off part one of our NCAA Women’s Lacrosse preview. In this episode we go through the media poll (1:05) before Skyler goes through his top 20 (4:30), top 10 (27:30), and how he thinks each of the teams in the poll shakes out heading into the year. He also dives into the contender tier and dissects who he thinks will emerge out of the pack of Boston College, North Carolina, Maryland, Stony Brook, Florida, and defending national champion James Madison. We also take a look into the early favorites from the Tewaaraton (46:37) before we pick our initial Final Four and NCAA champions (53:08).

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGNER looks to begin a new era.

The Wagner men’s lacrosse program, under the direction of first-year head coach and former Monmouth assistant, Bill McCutcheon, will kick off the 2019 season at Bellarmine University in Lexington, KY on Saturday, February 2 in a 1:00 p.m. start. The 2019 Seahawks will be led by a trio of senior captains in attackman John Norton, midfielder Spencer Kaufman, and defenseman Kevin Doherty.

The 6-4, 205-pound Norton was Wagner’s No. 2 scorer from a year ago and is the Seahawks’ top returning point man, having tallied 24 points on 20 goals and four assists. The Catonsville, MD native scored career-high three goals on three occasions - vs. Lafayette (2/16), Dartmouth (3/3) and Sacred Heart (4/14). He also found the back of the net two times in four different games, while collecting 12 ground balls and four caused turnovers.

Here’s the post-game interview with coach Holman after Utah played Vermont.

Song Of The Day

The 2019 college lacrosse season has begun. It’s party time in America! Let’s go, Miley!!