It was a turning point for Syracuse. Coming off of a loss to Hobart, the Orange trailed a lesser Georgetown team at halftime in Washington, D.C. SU could’ve rolled over. A season with so much potential could have faded into nothing.

Brian Megill isn’t one for halftime speeches. He’s a vocal leader, but he saves that for the field or conversations with individual players, not extravagant locker-room preaching. But with Syracuse down at the break on April 20, Megill had no choice.

“That game was one that was really on my —” He catches himself.

It was a frustrating game, but it’s only a memory now. He gathers himself.

“I really questioned the team’s integrity on whether they like losing or not, and I think it showed,” he continued. “I like to think it hit home and showed at the half. I just hope all the guys can take away all the positives I give to them.”

Since then, the Orange’s defense has been otherworldly. With Megill as its backbone, the SU defense has allowed just 19 goals since halftime of its win over the Hoyas.

But some time in the next three weeks, Megill’s spectacular Syracuse career will come to an end. One of the best defenders in program history will play his final game at some point during the NCAA tournament top-seeded Orange’s run at a national championship. The passionate leader of SU’s suddenly elite defense will end his time at the university.

His one-liners and hyper-passionate quips before and after games often seem cliché, but they’re completely genuine. Away from the game, he’s quieter and more subdued, but in the lacrosse world — on the field, in the locker room or in the weight room — he’s the zealous leader he appears to be.

“What he says is what he thinks, and all he really wants to do is get out of here with a championship,” said Syracuse goaltender Dominic Lamolinara. “And that’s all he’s talked about since fall.”

Despite the accolades — two All-Big East selections and an All-American honor — it’s one of the glaring holes in Megill’s resume. As of now, his class is the first since 1987 to not win a national title. He’s never even reached a Final Four. It nags at him, even if he pretends it doesn’t matter.

“I try not to think about it,” Megill said. “I don’t want to come out and try and do too much and hurt my team.”

A NCAA championship is something his brother, Ray, couldn’t achieve, either. Ray Megill was an All-American defender at Maryland in the mid-2000s. He played in a pair of Final Fours, but never brought home the hardware.

Megill said his older brother, now playing with Major League Lacrosse’s Ohio Machine, is “living vicariously” through his last hurrah in college.

“He wants me to get that ring and I want to get it for my family and everyone that’s helped me come up,” Megill said said.

His whole family shares the same passion Megill does. They’re at the stadium tailgating four hours before the game. They’re outside tailgating four hours after.

“Maybe it is something that just runs in our blood,” Ray said.

When Megill was in high school and Ray was playing at Maryland, his parents took Megill down from their Clark, N.J., home to College Park, Md., on weekends to watch Ray and the Terrapins play.

This was during a time before ESPNU, before college lacrosse was a staple of springtime television. Megill played at Arthur L. Johnson High School, a small school of less than 1,000 students. Johnson was far from a traditional lacrosse power, and when others had to rely on just the teachings of coaches, Megill was taking in the game at one of its highest levels from the bleachers in Maryland.

“When he was at the high school level, he was basically a sponge,” said Louis Van Bergen, who coached Megill at Johnson. “ … He would come back and he was just doing things naturally on the lacrosse field where we’d be like, ‘We haven’t talked about that yet.’ His instincts would just naturally take over from watching so much lacrosse.”

It’s made him the spectacular leader he is — the best leader Syracuse attack Derek Maltz has ever seen.

Now, Megill is a film junkie. Coaches watch film on iPads, but they have a program set up in which players can watch film online. On bus rides home from games, he always tries to get ahold of one of those iPads, and when he’s back at SU, he takes to the laptop to watch what went right, what went wrong and what needs preparation for his next game.

Megill takes any opportunity he can — before bed, during classes — to watch film on his laptop. It makes him easy to coach and play with.

“He actually talks to the coach and gets us in the right defense if we change up the defenses,” Lamolinara said, “so it’s like having a defensive coordinator out there.”

But for all of the knowledge Megill has of the game, it’s the heart and emotion that sets him apart. Even SU head coach John Desko, winner of 10 national championships, said Megill is as good a leader as he’s ever had.

Megill came to Syracuse as the No. 74 player in his class, according to Inside Lacrosse. He ranked behind Joe Fazio, another captain, and Kyle Carey as the Orange’s third best defender in the class. But he’s the one who’s become the vocal and outspoken leader of the SU defense.

In the past three weeks, that defense has carried Syracuse to the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and turned the Orange into the favorite to bring home the national title. The whole way, Megill’s been locking down opponents’ top scorers, directing the back line and, when needed, rousing his teammates.

Said Lamolinara: “Halftime of the Georgetown game is the definition of Brian Megill.”

Published on May 9, 2013 at 12:21 am

Contact David: dbwilson@syr.edu | @DBWilson2