Robert Morris men's lacrosse embraced 'gift' of challenging independent season; relishes new conference in 2022
May 12—If there is one thing every D-1 college coach wants right now, it's a return to normalcy. Perhaps none more than Robert Morris men's lacrosse coach Drew McMinn.
The last time his Colonials finished a season in a pre-pandemic world, they were taking on Virginia in the 2019 NCAA tournament as two-time defending Northeast Conference Champions.
Since then, coronavirus shut down their 2020 campaign. The university left the NEC. And his Colonials spent 2021 wandering through a cauldron of a schedule as an independent before taking up with the newly configured Atlantic Sun Conference for 2022.
"It was a much different year after being able to come off winning the NEC championships the last couple years in a row," McMinn said Monday after his team wrapped up its 7-6 season with a 21-14 loss at Syracuse. "But we tried to make sure we kept the focus with the guys on taking every opportunity as a gift to be able to play during the pandemic — to have the opportunities that we had. A much different make-up than normal. But we certainly feel like we got to test ourselves against the top teams in the country and see where we fare."
The nomadic life of being an independent was one thing. Piecing together a schedule of renowned NCAA lacrosse powers was another. Among those the Colonials played in 2021 were Notre Dame, Duke, Virginia and Syracuse. Those teams have 19 titles between them. All four made the NCAA tournament this year, as did two other Colonials opponents (Drexel and High Point).
RMU went 0-6 in those games but won all seven of their remaining contests. And they hung with Virginia and Duke until the end, falling to the Cavaliers 14-12 and the Blue Devils 16-12. Duke is the No. 2 seed in this year's tournament and Virginia is the fourth seed.
Beefing up the strength of schedule was something McMinn felt he had to do if the Colonials had any shot at qualifying for postseason play as an independent.
"We had the support from our administration to go out there and do our best to put together a schedule that was as competitive as possible. Being an independent (that was necessary) to still have a chance to make the NCAA tournament," McMinn said.
"We felt confident in the way that we were going into those games and certainly felt like we had the talent to give each of those teams a fight and be successful against them."
That said, McMinn is looking forward to rejoining a conference schedule and structure next year when they begin Atlantic Sun competition. Not to mention having the opportunity to play in a conference with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament yet again.
RMU will join that conference with other new additions such as Air Force, Bellarmine, Cleveland State, Detroit Mercy and Utah.
"Geographically, throwing in one flight a year (Air Force, Utah) isn't too difficult to deal with, and having those other schools with such proximity makes a lot of sense. Even though, optically, it may not appear that way right away," McMinn said. "In comparison to what we've had to do in the past with 10-hour bus rides to Bryant — or eight and nine hours to Connecticut and Staten Island — it's really going to shorten our travel."
The ASUN also has cross-over alignment games with the Southern Conference, so the Colonials will continue to play the likes of High Point and Jacksonville whom they played this year.
McMinn joins me for Wednesday's "Breakfast With Benz" podcast. We talk about the expansion of NCAA lacrosse and the corresponding changes in the recruiting landscape. We also look at the challenges the program will face when it comes to replacing existing talent such as all-time leading scorer Ryan Smith who just finished his graduate-student season. And McMinn previews the NCAA tournament (which starts this week) from the unique perspective of having faced six of the 16 teams in the field.
Listen: Tim Benz and Drew McMinn talk about Robert Morris men's lacrosse and what's ahead
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
