There are a lot of similarities between Jackson Morrill and his father, Mike.
Both grew up in Baltimore to US Lacrosse Hall-of-Fame fathers. Both are and were stellar attackmen. Both played with a high IQ to outsmart opponents and earn big roles. But one similarity came to fruition only this past season when Jackson made the decision to spend his fifth year of eligibility at Denver to play for coach Bill Tierney, who coached Mike as an assistant coach at Johns Hopkins in the 1980s.
Tierney and Mike won the 1985 and 1987 national titles with those dominant Blue Jays teams. Now, Jackson is going into the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament looking for his second ring. For that chase to be under the same coach who helped his dad get two of his own isn’t lost on just how incredible that would be.
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(Photo Courtesy Georgetown Athletics)
In one moment, Georgetown coach Kevin Warne was clutching his hat and anger and cursing himself. The next, his hands were in the air, praising above for his freshman Dylan Hess.
The Hoyas are back-to-back-to-back Big East Tournament champions after topping top-seeded Denver, 10-9 on Saturday at Providence’s Chapey Field.
The Kings of the East closed out the Kings of the West with a 6-2 run in the second half. Georgetown locked up an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament, while Denver (12-4) is still expected to land a seeded spot as an at-large selections.
(Photos Courtesy of Villanova Athletics)
Everything was set up for a thrilling game heading into Thursday night’s Big East Semifinal between Georgetown and Villanova.
The teams had met twice prior once a blowout, once a close Hoya win.
They came in with contrasting paths as Georgetown dropped its last outing with a disappointing performance vs. Loyola. Villanova, meanwhile, was earning some well-deserved buzz after drubbing Lehigh.
The stakes were there, too. With the Big East’s AQ the ultimate goal, the semifinal game also had tremendous potential to boost an at-large resume with another quality win.
Throw in a nice night, a sizable, raucous crowd of fans inside Providence’s Chapey Field, a national TV platform and it’s hardly a surprise that Georgetown’s 14-12 win was one of the most exciting of a full slate of conference tournament games this week.
Denver players had to sit in the stands in the season opener to adequately social distance.
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Bill Tierney has seen a lot.
You’re bound to when your coaching career began in 1976 at Great Neck South High on Long Island. But nothing in the intervening 45 years during which Tierney has reached the height of his profession several times over not the seven NCAA Division I championships, the nine title game appearances or the 15 final four berths as a head coach prepared him for when he looked up into the stands of Denver’s Peter Barton Stadium on Jan. 30 after the longest offseason he’s ever experienced.
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