On The Banks Podcast Episode No. 138: Rutgers men’s lacrosse NCAA Tournament preview

Episode No. 138 of the On The Banks podcast is our NCAA Tournament preview for Rutgers men’s lacrosse. The No. 6 seeded Scarlet Knights (13-3) are headed to their second consecutive NCAA Tournament and will host Harvard (8-4) in the First Round. The game will be played at Yurcak Field on Sunday, May 15 at 5:00 p.m. The winner of this matchup will face the winner of No. 3 Penn-Richmond the following weekend.

Rutgers finished in second place in the Big Ten during the regular season and made the Big Ten Tournament Championship game for the first time since 2016. They beat four ranked foes and had seven players named All-Americans by USA Lacrosse Magazine. They include Ethan Rall named to the First Team with Second Team selections for Ross Scott, Shane Knobloch, Jaryd Jean-Felix, Brennan Kamish, Colin Kirst and Ronan Jacoby. The Scarlet Knights also lead the nation in clearing percentage and average the fewest turnovers per game nationally as well.

Joining this episode to ahead of Sunday’s First Round game is head coach Brian Brecht and captain Ryan Gallagher.

Coach Brian Brecht led the program to its first NCAA Tournament victory in three decades last season and did a tremendous job replacing the top four scorers from that team with key additions from the transfer portal. In addition, he was able to keep a strong core in place and this season Rutgers earned the No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Rutgers Athletics

Ryan Gallagher has been a fixture in the midfield for Rutgers as they’ve ascended to NCAA Tournament regular. He has started 59 games in his career and is second on the team with 17 assists this season while serving as one of the captains.

Rutgers Athletics

Topics discussed this episode include Brecht’ insight on the progress made this season, the impact of certain players, the lessons learned from the loss to Maryland in the Big Ten title game, the excitement of hosting an NCAA Tournament game at Yurcak Field, the keys to playing well against Harvard and much more. With Gallagher, he discussed his reasons for choosing Rutgers, the impact his class has made on the program, the key to the team having success in the postseason and much more.

Thanks so much to head coach Brian Brecht and Ryan Gallagher for taking time out of their busy schedules to discuss the season so far and the challenge ahead in the postseason. And thank you for listening!

To purchase tickets for Sunday’s First Round game between Rutgers and Harvard, click here.

To listen to our Rutgers women’s lacrosse NCAA Tournament preview episode with Big Ten Coach of the Year Melissa Lehman and All-American Meghan Ball, click here.

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