Wanted to follow up the dead-tree look at Maryland’s decision to drop Towson in men’s lacrosse by placing the Terrapins’ past and future scheduling into context.
For this year, the Terps will slide Marist into the early March slot occupied for more than a decade by Towson. Maryland has agreed to play Stony Brook home-and-home starting in 2013, and coach John Tillman said that series is likely to take that same place on the calendar.
SEE RELATED:
So what sort of transformation will be done to the schedule? It isn’t massive, but it is noticeable (*-actual Saturday date in 2011):
Date*
|
2011 |
2013 |
March 5
|
Duke
|
Duke |
March 12
|
Towson |
Stony Brook
|
March 19
|
UMBC |
Villanova |
March 26
|
North Carolina
|
North Carolina
|
April 2
|
Virginia |
Virginia |
April 9
|
Navy |
Navy |
April 16
|
Johns Hopkins |
Johns Hopkins
|
April 23
|
ACC tournament
|
ACC tourney? Open?
|
April 30
|
Open |
Open? ACC tourney?
|
There’s one major variable unaccounted for here, and that’s where exactly Syracuse (which accepted an invitation to join the ACC) will fit into the Terps’ slate?
Will it be a February date? Or in the Villanova slot (where Syracuse happens to play Hopkins every year)? Or will the ACC tournament be permanently shifted to the final weekend in April to open up an extra week of games? Or could that Navy slot be nudged open, with the Terps’ date with the Mids shifting to midweek (as Tillman suggested could be a possibility) or taken off the schedule altogether?
It’s tough to say. One thing is for sure: The tweaks to the Terps’ slate have started, but there are still more to come in the next couple years.
—- Patrick Stevens
