Game Notes | JHU Welcomes Michigan for B1G Game on ESPN2 March 28, 2024

The Game
•  Johns Hopkins (6-3, 1-0 B1G) welcomes Michigan (6-3, 1-0 B1G) to Homewood Field for a key Big Ten game.  The game will air live on ESPN2 (12 pm).

When Last We Saw Them
•  Johns Hopkins snapped a two-game losing streak with a 13-8 win at Rutgers on Sunday in its Big Ten opener.
• The Wolverines opened Big Ten play with a 12-11 win over Maryland last Saturday at home in its Big Ten opener.

The Facts
•  This is the 137th season of Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse.  JHU first fielded a team in 1883.
•  Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game with an all-time record of 1,022-373-15 (.730).
• Johns Hopkins is the only men’s lacrosse program in the nation with 1,000 or more all-time victories.  The Blue Jays picked up the program’s 1,000th victory with an 11-10 win over Loyola on February 19, 2022.•  JHU owns 44 national championships with nine NCAA titles, 29 USILA titles and six ILA crowns to its credit.

Poll Position
• Johns Hopkins is ranked in the top 15 in the nation in both major national polls as the Blue Jays are 11th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 8th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll this week.
• The NCAA also released its first RPI rankings of the season this week.  Through games of March 27, Johns Hopkins has the #4 RPI in the nation.
• Michigan is also ranked in the top 20 in both polls as the Wolverines check in at 15th in the USILA Coaches Poll and 14th in the Inside Lacrosse Media Poll.

Poll Notes of Interest
• Including this week’s poll, the USILA has issued 539 polls since the debut poll in 1973.  Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 20 in 519 of those 539 polls and has been ranked in the top 10 in 439 of the 539.
• The Johns Hopkins Athletic Communications office uses the USILA Poll to reflect JHU’s official national ranking at the time of a game.  The poll dates to 1973 and is the longest-running, continuous men’s lacrosse poll in the nation.

Series History
• Johns Hopkins and Michigan will be meeting for the 12th time this week.  The series dates to a 17-8 Johns Hopkins victory in 2013 and the Blue Jays are 10-1 against the Wolverines.
• A complete look at the series history can be found on page 17.

On This Date
• This week’s game will be the 12th game Johns Hopkins has played on March 30.  The Blue Jays are 9-2 all-time on this date and have won their last two games played on March 30.
• In JHU’s last game on this date, the Blue Jays topped Michigan, 14-8, in 2017.

Showing Our Depth
• The Blue Jay depth has been on display this season as 20 different players have appeared in all nine games and 25 have appeared in eight of the nine.
• Close games have not resulted in fewer players appearing.  In the six games JHU has played that have been decided by four goals or less, at least 26 players have appeared in five of the six.

Offensive Notes of Interest
• Since the start of the 2022 season, the Blue Jays are 23-5 when they score 12 or more goals.
• In 108 full quarters since the start of the 2023 season (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 86 quarters and four or more in 48 quarters.
• This season, in 36 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have scored two or more goals in 30 quarters and four or more in 17 quarters.
• Johns Hopkins is averaging 12.56 goals per game this season (27th in the nation) with at least 11 goals scored in eight of nine games thus far.
• In nine games, the Blue Jays have gotten goals from 15 different players and 20 different players have at least one point.
• Johns Hopkins averaged 12.56 goals per game in 2023.  That output was the highest scoring average for the Blue Jays since 2015, when Hopkins averaged 13.0 goals per game.  The 12.56 goals per game are also the second-best mark at JHU since 2004.
• As a team, Johns Hopkins shot 32.9% in 2023, a mark that ranked 14th in the nation.  The 32.9% shooting percentage was the highest for JHU since 2015 (.331).

39 Straight For Degnon
•  Graduate student attackman Garrett Degnon will carry a school-record 39-game goal-scoring streak into this week’s game against Michigan after he scored four goals in the game at Rutgers.  The streak is currently the second longest active streak in the nation.
• During his 39-game goal-scoring run, Degnon has scored 104 goals and has 32 multi-goal games and 25 games with 3+ goals to his credit.
• Degnon’s 39-game run is the longest in school history after he broke the previous record of 37 against Navy.  Terry Riordan originally set the mark at 37 games from 1992-95 and Ryan Brown matched that with a 37-game run from 2013-16.
• The 39-game goal-scoring run for Degnon and the 37-game runs for Brown and Riordan are the only three goal-scoring streaks of 30+ games in Johns Hopkins history.

Strength of Schedule
• The Blue Jays’ 13 regular season opponents are currently a combined 75-32 for a win percentage of 70.1%.  This gives Johns Hopkins the second-highest cumulative opponent winning percentage in the nation (does not include results against Johns Hopkins).
• Using this week’s USILA Poll as a gauge, the Blue Jays will play eight games against teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation.  The eight include Virginia (2nd), Syracuse (3rd), Penn State (4th), Georgetown (8th), Denver (9th), Maryland (12th),  Michigan (15th), and Rutgers (19th) and.  Towson, North Carolina, Navy and Loyola are also listed as receiving votes.

Causing Trouble
• In nine games thus far, the Blue Jays have 70 caused turnovers to their credit (7.78/game) with 10 coming in the 13-5 win against Towson, nine in the 11-9 win at Georgetown, 12 against Loyola and 11 at Virginia.  The 12 CTs against Loyola are tied for the second-most in program history, while the 11 at UVA marked the 22nd time in program history that the Blue Jays have been credited with 10 or more CTs in a game (CTs became an official stat in 2009).
• JHU currently ranks 33rd in the nation – and fourth in the Big Ten – with its 7.78 caused turnovers per game.
• The 135 CTs the Blue Jays amassed last season are a JHU single-season record, while the 7.50 CTs/game narrowly missed the school-record of 7.63 (2022).  Caused turnovers were first kept as an official statistic in 2009.

Defensive Notes of Interest
• The Blue Jays have held their first nine opponents scoreless for a period of 10 minutes or longer a total of 16 times.  Nine of those 16 streaks have been 12+ minutes in length.
• In the last eight games, the opposition has gone scoreless for a stretch of 10 minutes or longer 15 times with four of those coming against Towson and two each against Georgetown, Loyola , North Carolina and Rutgers.
• Dating back to the start of the 2023 season, the Blue Jays have held their 27 opponents scoreless for a period of at least 10 minutes 40 different times – 31 of those have come in the last 20 games.
• This season, in 36 full quarters (does not include overtime periods), the Blue Jays have allowed two or less goals in 23 quarters and four or more in just six quarters.
• The five goals the Blue Jays allowed against Towson were the fewest JHU has surrendered since Hopkins topped Ohio State, 6-5, in the 2018 Big Ten Semifinals.
• Johns Hopkins is 20-1 under head coach Peter Milliman and defensive coordinator Jamison Koesterer when holding the opposition to 10 goals or less.

Lacrosse’s Winningest Program
•  Johns Hopkins enters this week’s game with an all-time record of 1,022-373-15 to rank as the all-time winningest program in college lacrosse history.
• With the win against Loyola on February 19, 2022, Johns Hopkins became the first men’s college lacrosse program to reach 1,000 all-time wins.
•  JHU is one of just seven schools with 700+ victories, one of just six with 800+ wins and one of two that has won 900 or more games.
•  The seven schools with 700+ wins in Division I men’s lacrosse history are listed below.