Notre Dame’s playing Duke right now for the national championship in men’s lacrosse. It’s the third opportunity for the program to grab its first national title, the previous two—in 2010 and 2014—also pitting the Irish against the Blue Devils to win it all.
We’ve talked before about how few Division I men’s lacrosse programs there are, and about how relatively easy it is to excel in sports like that, and about the discomfort with potentially being a “lacrosse school.” Many of the reactions among certain Notre Dame circles to Saturday’s overtime win over Virginia were mocking in nature. For example: “Amazing moment for ND lacrosse. Crazy how far these guys have come. From high school JV football to this.” Or:
(The video isn’t of Notre Dame or Duke kids, Jim Weber’s just a guy who went to Michigan trying to make a joke.)
The deal with men’s lacrosse is that if you, personally, are good at it, you have to live with the lax bro identity or change some perceptions. The other deal, similarly to fencing, another sport where Notre Dame excels, is that it’s a numeric truth that it’s easier to be among the best lacrosse players in the country than it is to be among the best football players or basketball players or even probably divers. The real shame in being a “lacrosse school” isn’t that it means you’re douchey (that’s an implication, but it’s a more subjective issue). It’s that it means you’re only good at sports other schools don’t have.
Obviously, we want to beat Duke. We want a national championship. National championships are great, we’ll take them wherever we can get them, there’s something kind of nice about being able to bully the same people winning your school its titles.
But.
Can women’s basketball go win another one? Could baseball have please broken through these last two years? When’s the last time we grabbed one in soccer?
Winning the national title in football is obviously the dream, but for the moment, it’d be nice to win another one in a sport that’s either unanimously cool—like hockey—or played by enough schools that it means something.
We want this lacrosse national title.
We’d just like it to be a smaller deal.
Quick Hitters
- Micah Shrewsberry did not land Jesse Zarzuela, and there isn’t any other loud buzz about other transfer portal prospects. They’re probably out there, but they also might not be. Adding short-term players who will only be around for a year is probably the goal, since recruiting for the Class of 2024 is buzzing, but the one-year guys who’d make much of a difference are in shorter and shorter supply. It might just be a very small roster this year. Maybe a bunch of walk-ons.
- Four-star defensive lineman Owen Wafle decommitted last week on the same day four-star defensive lineman Loghan Thomas committed. You would think those are probably connected?
- Former Penn State running back Devyn Ford is transferring to South Bend, bringing with him two seasons of eligibility after featuring more heavily in State College as a freshman and sophomore than as an academic junior and senior. It’s always nice to have depth, and James Franklin consistently spoke highly of Ford’s character.
This Week
The baseball team lost both its ACC Tournament games, the first to Pitt and the second to Wake Forest. The Pitt loss likely cost the Irish an NCAA Tournament berth. They were not selected today for the 64-team tournament.
Sebastian Dominko lost in the second round of the NCAA men’s singles tournament in tennis. He and Connor Fu lost in their doubles opener as well.
Nine track and field athletes advanced from regionals to the NCAA Championships next week here in Austin. Olivia Markezich won the women’s steeplechase, with Katie Thronson also advancing in that event after finishing fourth overall and winning her heat. Carter Solomon took second in the men’s 5K. Siona Chisholm took fourth in the women’s 5K. John Keenan was sixth in the men’s javelin. Michael Shoaf was ninth in the men’s shot put. Erin Strzelecki was eleventh in the women’s 10K. Madison Schmidt finished twelfth in the women’s high jump. Tom Seitzer advanced in the men’s steeplechase by finishing in the top three in his heat.
