🔙 LEGENDARY COACH RETURNS

The Philadelphia Waterdogs made a SPLASH on Thursday with the hiring of seven-time NCAA Champion Bill Tierney as their next head coach and GM.

This news is so big, even SportsCenter covered it…

Tierney is arguably the greatest college lacrosse coach of all time. He built a dynasty at Princeton, where he won six NCAA titles from 1992-2001. Then, he went west and lifted Denver to a National Championship in 2015. He is the only coach in the history of NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse with seven total titles.

Tierney retired from college coaching last year, but he was in the booth for multiple PLL weekends last season. When former Waterdogs head coach Andy Copelan unexpectedly resigned following the 2024 Championship Series, the perfect landing spot opened for Tierney to make his return to the sideline.

“The Waterdogs have been very successful without me,” Bill Tierney said in an official statement released by the team. “My job is to keep that culture going.”

The Waterdogs have appeared in each of the past two PLL Championship games, winning it all in 2022 and falling short against the Archers in 2023. They also played in the 2024 Championship Series final, where they lost to the Boston Cannons in overtime.

Tierney will have some familiar faces on his Waterdogs roster. Attackman Ethan Walker and midfielder Jack Hannah both played for Tierney at Denver. Both players are rising stars coming off career-high point totals in 2023.

If Tierney, 71, is able to keep the Waterdogs near the top and potentially claim a PLL title, his head coaching résumé will rival the all-time greats across any sport.

📺 Watch ‘THROUGH X’ With Izzy Scane

On Thursday, we dropped a new episode of THROUGH X with Northwestern star Izzy Scane, who is on pace to shatter Charlotte North’s NCAA record for career goals.

You can watch the full episode here:

In the episode, ESPN analyst Paul Carcaterra digs in and reveals a lot about Scane. She grew up in Michigan — an unlikely lacrosse hotbed — and began her career at Northwestern playing defense. When they get on the practice field together, Scane explained several of the techniques that make her such a lethal scorer.

Last season, Scane scored 99 goals while leading Northwestern to its first NCAA Championship since 2012. She won the Tewaaraton Award and is now looking to become the sixth women’s player to win it multiple times.

So far this season, Scane leads all of NCAA Division I Women’s Lacrosse with 49 goals.

🆚 Easter Sunday Showdown

As we wrap up the final days of March, the weekly college lacrosse slate is now littered with conference matchups. On Tuesday, we discussed the implications of Syracuse vs. Notre Dame, but one other matchup that deserves some serious attention is Maryland vs. Penn State on Easter Sunday.

Here are five total games to watch this weekend:

Maryland might already be in a must-win situation. The Terps have dropped three of their last four games, including a loss to Michigan last weekend that put them at 0-1 in Big Ten play. Now, they’re hitting the road to play a red-hot Penn State team that has won seven games in a row.

Right now, Penn State is DOMINATING in TLN Pick ‘Em with 74.5% of the fan vote. We’re not sure whether that’s because people are giving up on Maryland, or if Penn State fans heard that we’re giving away two Grant Ament jerseys to one lucky fan who submits picks with us this week.

If you want a chance to win, click the button below and submit your picks.

🥍 March Madness Connections

If your favorite college basketball team has been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament, here are a couple of lacrosse connections worth rooting for through the rest of March Madness.

The first one is NC State guard Michael O’Connell, who was once committed to Maryland to play lacrosse. He played for the Blair Academy (NJ) and was a 4-star recruit at Inside Lacrosse, described as “an absolute horse of an athlete.”

O’Connell talked about the lacrosse-basketball crossover in 2023, via On3.com:

O’Connell’s NC State Wolfpack are on a crazy run right now as an 11-seed in the Sweet 16. They tip off Friday night against 2-seed Marquette.

The other connection is Cam Spencer, the younger brother of college lacrosse legend and current Golden State Warriors player Pat Spencer. Cam plays guard for 1-seed UConn and is the best three-point shooter on the team.

Like his older brother, Cam Spencer’s college career started at Loyola (except on the basketball court). He transferred to Rutgers in 2022, then transferred again to UConn before this season. In high school, he played lacrosse for Boys’ Latin.

Check out some of Cam’s senior year highlights in the video below.

📺 Weekend TV & Streaming Info

NCAA streaming info courtesy of Inside Lacrosse (all times Eastern):

Friday, March 29:
7 p.m. — Lehigh at Loyola (ESPN+)

Saturday, March 30:
11 a.m. — Marquette at St. John’s (FloSports)
11 a.m. — Mercer at Robert Morris (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Army at North Carolina (ACCNX)
12 p.m. — Lindenwood at Bellarmine (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — UMass Lowell at Binghamton (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — NJIT at Bryant (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Canisius at VMI (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Colgate at Navy (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Dartmouth at Princeton (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — Delaware at Hampton (FloSports)
12 p.m. — Denver at Villanova (FloSports)
12 p.m. — Queens at Detroit Mercy (No Streaming Info)
12 p.m. — Georgetown at Providence (FloSports)
12 p.m. — Virginia at Harvard (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — High Point at St. Joe’s (ESPN+)
12 p.m. — UMass at Hobart (Hobart All-Access)
12 p.m. — Michigan at Hopkins (ESPN2/ESPNU)
12 p.m. — Siena at Wagner (Wagner All-Access)
12 p.m. — Stony Brook at Towson (FloSports)
12 p.m. — UAlbany at UMBC (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Boston U at Holy Cross (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Cornell at Penn (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Fairfield at Drexel (FloSports)
1 p.m. — Monmouth at Hofstra (FloSports)
1 p.m. — Manhattan at Marist (ESPN+)
1 p.m. — Richmond at St. Bonaventure (ESPN+)
2 p.m. — Yale at Brown (ESPN+)
2 p.m. — Lafayette at Bucknell (ESPN+)
2 p.m. — Sacred Heart at LIU (ESPN+)
2 p.m. — Syracuse at Notre Dame (ACC Network)
2:30 p.m. — Merrimack at Vermont (ESPN+)
3 p.m. — Mount St. Mary’s at Quinnipiac (No Streaming Info)
4:30 p.m. — Ohio State at Rutgers (B1G+)

Sunday, March 31:
2 p.m. — Cleveland State at Air Force (ESPN+)
7 p.m. — Maryland at Penn State (BTN)