Look, there have been some disgustingly good teams in the last couple of decades – from the powerhouse Syracuse teams from the Gary and Paul Gait era to the COVID-eligibility, transfer portal ridden powerhouse teams of the last couple of years. But, all things equal, what is the best team of all time?
Now, before we get into this, I will once again caveat that I am a younger guy, so I am innately biased towards recent years. For similar reasons that I laid on in our prior piece “Best Men’s Lacrosse Player of All Time”, I think it is reasonable to say that current NCAA lacrosse teams would run circles around the teams from 30 years ago.
As such, we’re going to have two winners – straight up best of all time (meaning if they played any other team in history, they’d win) and a best of all time relative to competition at that time.
Undefeated Teams
Naturally, the place to start here is undefeated teams. These teams include:
- Maryland (1973)
- Cornell (1976)
- Cornell (1977)
- Hopkins (1979)
- North Carolina (1981)
- North Carolina (1982)
- Hopkins (1984)
- Syracuse (1988)
- Syracuse (1990)
- North Carolina (1991)
- Princeton (1997)
- Hopkins (2005)
- Virginia (2006)
- Maryland (2022)
As you’ll notice, there were a lot more undefeated teams back in the 70s and 80s than in the last couple of decades – this is primarily because they played less games, there were less teams, and much less people playing lacrosse (less talent).
Greatest Team Ever Relative to the Competition at that Time
This one kind of feels like a no brainer to me, but I mean that with the utmost respect for all the amazing teams that we’ve had the pleasure of watching go undefeated on their way to a national championship. With that being said, I think the greatest team ever (relative to their competition at the time) is the 1990 Syracuse Orange led by the all-mighty Gary and Paul Gait.
This Syracuse team finished the season with a 13-0 record and beat Loyola in the national championship by a score of 21-9, otherwise known as a certified ass-whooping. Now, there was some drama about Paul Gait’s eligibility or something like that, but I am ignoring all that jazz for the purpose of this conversation.
A runner up would likely be the prime Coach Tierney era Princeton Tigers in 1997 – this team had one of the most notoriously dominant attack lines of all time (Chris Massey, Jon Hess, and Jesse Hubbard). Further, their coach, the legendary Bill Tierney, is largely credited with innovating the core concepts of team defense we know today (man-to-man supported by slide packages). This Princeton squad finished 15-0 with a whopping 19-7 win over the Terps in the national championship.
The Greatest Team of All Time, Regardless of Era
Now, my bias may be showing since I am admittedly a Terp Fan, but I think it is hard to argue that any team in the history of lacrosse can even sniff the 2022 Maryland Terrapins. Don’t get me wrong, I acknowledge that this team’s success was a function of COVID-eligibility and the transfer portal, but they were RIDICULOUS.
This Terp team finished 18-0 and took down Cornell in the national championship 9-7. If you watch college lacrosse, you’ll know that Maryland loves to lose national championship games; however, this team was so absurdly talented that Maryland’s urge to choke wasn’t even enough to stop them from winning it all.
In 2022, the world of college lacrosse may have had more talent in it than ever because every elite team had 25 year olds on it. Maryland’s scariest win of this season was vs. Virginia in the quarterfinals, a game that ended 18-9, ending the hopes of a 3-peat for a Virginia team that had generational talent on it such as Connor Shellenberger, Peyton Cormier, Matt Moore, Xander Dickson, Petey LaSalla, and a stacked defense with guys like Cole Kastner, Cade Saustad, and Ben Wayer.
On the season, this MD team scored an average of 17.6 goals per game (318 total scored) and only allowed 9.0 goals per game (162 total allowed). This team was so good that Logan Wisnauskus, who is objectively a “system player”, won the Tewaaraton. If you ever want to know what positionless, unselfish offense should look like, you will not find a team better than this.
What Makes Great Teams Great?
Being absolutely loaded with talent is the simple answer. Lucky for us as fans, the entire NCAA is slowly becoming riddled with elite talent as more and more youth athletes are finding a love for lacrosse (and developing their game on NextRep, obviously). As such, it is becoming more and more difficult for teams to be in a league of their own vs. the rest of the competition.
There are two positions in lacrosse that are mathematically more important than the rest – goalie and faceoff specialists. Having an elite goalie can win you games that you have no business winning (e.g., the entire existence of the Carolina Chaos in the PLL with Blaze Riordan), and having an elite faceoff guy can create a “make-it, take-it” environment that allows good teams to dominate (e.g., 2019 Yale with TD Ireland, especially when they ran it up on Penn State in the first quarter of their final four game). So, every amazing team needs a great goalie and a great faceoff guy.
Every coach in existence who is worth the whistle they’re blowing will tell you that ground balls are the most important part of lacrosse, and they’re right. So it goes without saying that the greatest teams of all time can win GBs. However, what should also be noted is that elite riding and efficient clearing are often associated with the best teams. For example, Maryland is consistently a top three clearing team in the country, and they always find themselves in the final four (literally always). Further, UVA’s ride in 2019 and 2021 was the best in the country, leaning on variations of 10-man rides with wildly athletic attackmen such as Ian Laviano. Oh, and have you guys ever heard of Pat and Chris Kavanaugh? They were pretty good at riding too, and they have two national championship rings.
Lastly, every great team scores assisted goals, and more specifically, they score pass-to-assist goals. I love the great ball carriers such as Pat Spencer and Lyle Thompson, but they didn’t win national championships because the offense was predictable – those guys would dodge from X and either score, feed the crease, or throw a skip. The Maryland 2022 team was so scary because six different guys could beat you from all over the field, at all times.
Long story short, if you’re looking for the next great team, ask yourself three questions:
- Who has the best goalie and faceoff specialists?
- Who dominates the middle-third of the field (riding and clearing)?
- Who has the most dangerous 6-man offensive unit?