US Lacrosse Magazine released the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Preseason Top 20 on Dec. 17. Team-by-team previews will be unveiled on uslaxmagazine.com through the end of the month and will also appear as part of the magazine’s NCAA preview edition in February.
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No. 1 Penn State
2019 Record: 16-2 (5-0, Big Ten)
Coach: Jeff Tambroni (10th year)
Assistants: Peter Toner, John Haus, Peter Donley
All-Time Record: 544-522-8
NCAA Appearances: 5
Final Fours: 1
Championships: 0
2020 Schedule
Date |
Opponent |
|---|---|
| Feb. 1 | Lafayette |
| Feb. 8 | @ Villanova |
| Feb. 15 | St. Joseph's |
| Feb. 22 | Yale |
| Fe. 29 | @ Penn |
| March 8 | Cornell |
| March 10 | Furman |
| March 21 | Lehigh |
| March 29 | Maryland |
| April 5 | @ Ohio State |
| April 11 | @ Johns Hopkins |
| April 18 | Michigan |
| April 25 | @ Rutgers |
Save the Date
Feb. 22
This tilt will have a postseason edge about it. Expect Penn State to bring extra emotion to the fray. Yale handed the Nittany Lions their only two losses of the 2019 season and ended Penn State’s first-ever playoff run after scoring 10 of the first 12 goals in the NCAA semifinals.
It Feels Like the First Time
A year after his program went to places it had never been, before his team fell short of its ultimate goal on the next-to-last step of the journey it had envisioned, Penn State head coach Jeff Tambroni doesn’t hide from the notion that the Nittany Lions are — on paper — sitting in a very strong spot.
All of which has given Tambroni’s staff and players plenty to grapple with, well before the first faceoff launches a highly anticipated 2020 season.
Welcome to the world of elevated expectations, Nittany Lions. A year after you finally ended a long drought by winning the first NCAA tournament games in school history, and a year after setting the Division I world aflame with a high-octane offense that recalled vintage Syracuse squads led by guys with names like Gait and Marechek, you certainly appear poised to take the next step.
As for assuming at this early stage that Penn State is destined to win on Memorial Day at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Tambroni has made it part of his mission to put a lid on such talk and thinking.
Tambroni says he wants to foster the same type of fast and loose confidence — with a significantly more experienced team — that marked the Penn State fireworks during its nearly three-month winning streak last spring.
“I want our guys to have the same mentality they had last year — feel like it’s the first time again,” says Tambroni, recalling the school’s first Big Ten title, the all-time high of 16 wins and the first trip to a final four.
“Part of the essence of this group was the way they managed playing in such big games without ever having been there before, believing in something they hadn’t seen before. They have a choice — step back and get complacent, or keep that hungry perspective. Understand that, just because you win, it doesn’t mean you’ve played at a high enough level.”
Tambroni adds Penn State can’t assume the offense will be as deadly or that it will bury opponents with ease as regularly. He also has stressed the need to let go of the bitter disappointment that marked the Nittany Lions’ summer, following that 21-17 loss to Yale in the national semifinals.
During its fall retreat, the team even watched highlight clips of that loss.
“We tried to turn it into a positive.” Tambroni says. “We talked about what to learn from that game, feeling the pride in getting that far, and closing the book and moving forward. This isn’t about having a redemptive season. Let’s just play.”