Lax Factor Lacrosse Podcast

Todays episode we’re going to talk about my #13, #12 and #11 picks, getting us ready for the episode this Sunday covering the top 10.  The season is close so I have to rip through these, and of all my picks so far, I’m really questioning two of them I’ll talk about today and may end up making an adjustment to my list before handing in my first poll.

#13 Denver: Denver was a team last season that fell victim to a new term I'm coining "schedule creep". This means some of the games you scheduled that would traditionally be wins ended up turning into more losses than expected due to your own issues mixed with teams simply being better than expected. 

#12 Brown: Brown had a “come to Jesus” moment and rattled off 6 straight wins to end the regular season.  They dropped Penn, Yale, Cornell, Bryant and Dartmouth over that stretch.  That got them into the Ivy League tournament where they lost to Penn in a rematch, but that was enough to get them into the NCAA tournament.

#11 Ohio State: I really like what I see on paper for Ohio State.  Jack Myers is one of the best five attackmen in the country in my opinion and the addition of LIU transfer Richie LaCalandra is going to go a long way in making sure Ohio State doesn’t lose a lot of steam offensively.

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Continuing on with the LaxFactor College Lacrosse Division I Pre-Season Top 20, I’m ripping through #17, #16, #15 and #14 in today’s podcast/blog post.

Like Army, North Carolina has to deal with losing a guy that put up 6.3 million points in 2022, Chris Gray and many of his fellow top scorers for the Heels are also gone leaving a number of holes that must be plugged in order for UNC to stay ranked or better climb the rankings.

The more I dug into Boston University, the more I feel me putting them where I did is doing them dirty.  They bring back almost everyone from last years 12-5 squad that won the Patriot League tournament and advanced to the NCAA tournament.

Harvard has a roster makeup very much like Boston U’s.  They bring back almost everyone.  The big loss is last seasons starting goalie, Kyle Mullin departing to play for Rutgers in 2023.  But beyond losing their starting keeper their roster is looking pretty nice on paper in 2023.

A trend is developing in the middle of the pack here between 10 and 20.  All of the teams bunched together in this region of my poll bring back a boatload of talent and Delaware returns the best overall group of attackmen in the country.

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In this episode I'll talk about legendary lacrosse coach Bill Tierney announcing his retirement after the 2023 college lacrosse season.  We'll also talk about USA Lacrosse Magazine's Preseason All-Americans for 2023.  Lastly, I'll do a run down of the NLL and PBLA action with a quick highlight of the Syracuse Spark's Skkylar Thomas as he has turned some heads in the Spark's first two losses of the season and has been a big bright spot for them. 

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I've been blessed with a vote in Inside Lacrosse's D1 Media Poll for the 2023 season and in this episode I want to rip through and talk about my "first team out" as well as my picks for #20 through #18. I won't waste any more of your time and will let you dive right into my first team out...

#21 Syracuse: My first team out because they were terrible last season and despite an improved offense in 2023, they still have a ton of question marks on defense.

#20 Army: Army lost a ton of offensive firepower with the graduation of Brendan Nichtern (101 points in 2022) but we all know that no teams in NCAA lacrosse epitomize the "next man up" mentality more than the military academies, so I think Army has earned my #20 spot.

#19 Richmond: What I like about Richmond is they've proven they can hang year in and year out despite roster turnover. What I don't like about Richmond is some of those roster losses will be tough to overcome without some guys seriously stepping up.

#18 Jacksonville: Jacksonville is a tough read because offensively they look like they could actually be better in 2023 than they were in 2022. But they lost some high end long poles to graduation. I still think they'll be able to "outscore" their opponents in 2023 and think they deserve to remain in the top 20 despite losing to Richmond in the SoCon finals in 2022 nixing their chance of an NCAA Tournament bid.

*The Full Blog Post*

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The Binghamton Bombers defeated the Elmira Renegades by a score of 15-14 at the Visions Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton this past Friday and I was in attendance and had an incredible time.

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My top three picks for the goalies in 2023 that are most likely to snag the top three all-american spots are pretty solid and I presume that many if not most will agree with me, at least for 2 of my 3.

No question, Logan McNaney of Maryland has benefited greatly from having one of the best defenses in the game standing in front of him. But what I like about McNaney is he’s up to the task and he can hang and help lead right along side some solid all-american defensive talent.

Liam Entenmann had an incredible season in 2022.  He finished 8th in the country with a save percentage of .572 and I’m a big fan of the defense they’ll be putting in front of him in 2023 which I think gives him a solid chance of improving upon his stats.

Danny Hincks was an honorable mention last year for Dartmouth. His transfer to Georgetown could see his already solid save percentage improve greatly, maybe as much as 5% thanks to the beasts that Georgetown will put in front of him.

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The Team USA Roster was announced and there were a couple of surprises in terms of guys that got cut.  In the end I think that the roster they went with is solid as hell. Could you argue that some of the guys that were cut could potentially outperform some of the guys that made the roster? You bet. But the roster they went with is still 100% certifiably filthy and I can get behind it even with the guys that were left off being huge names.

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Talking about how Luke Wierman, Zach Cole, Mike Sisselberger, Petey LaSalla, Tommy Burke and James Reilly are my top six favorite returning face-off guys for 2023.

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College lacrosse teams are finalizing and releasing their 2023 schedules and I couldn't be more excited about how Syracuse's 2023 schedule looks and sets this young team up to have a little bit of success.

Syracuse's schedule last season was a disaster in terms of flow. They opened with an easy one against Holy Cross before playing #1 Maryland, #2 Virginia and #13 Army West Point. A terrible way to start the season.  This year, they start with 3 winnable games against Vermont, Albany and Holy Cross before playing Maryland, North Carolina, Duke and Hopkins. Then they get 3 more winnable games against Hofstra, St. Bonaventure and Hobart before finishing the regular season with another gauntlet with Notre Dame, Princeton, Caroina (again), Virginia and Duke (again).

Still a tough schedule, but they do a better job of breaking it up into segments that will allow for the team to improve and get some flow before going into the more brutal games.

Cornell's schedule is similar to Syracuse in the sense that they play a series of very winnable games leading into the meat of their schedule. The Big Red open with Albany, Lehigh and Hobart prior to playing Ohio State, Penn State, Yale and Penn. Then the have Dartmouth, Harvard and Marquette before finishing their season in a brutal fashion with Army, Brown and Princeton.

But like Syracuse, Cornell is putting their guys in a position where they have a chance to do some team building and get some momentum heading into the toughest stretches.

Penn's schedule?  I'm not a big fan. Last year it worked out for them overall, but they open with Georgetown and Duke which continues a tradition of playing a couple of killers to start their season out. It used to be Maryland and then Duke, usually followed up by in-state rival Penn State.  Last season, and again this season, it's Georgetown, Duke and then Penn State before playing Saint Josephs and Villanova.

So in reality, Penn has no "gimme" games before they get into their Ivy schedule with Princeton, Cornell, Yale, Brown and Harvard all coming back to back to back.

Only bright spot is they get to close with Dartmouth and Albany, two teams Penn should beat.

And I close this episode with Denver. I see them finishing up about the same as last year. Denver's issue is that their non-conference schedule is so weak, they have no choice but to pick up a win against one of the 4 or 5 killers they play.  The Pio's non-conference slate includes killers like Duke, Carolina, Yale, Ohio State and Georgetown. If they want any shot at making the tournament, they'll have to beat at least 2 or 3 of those teams while also making sure to NOT drop any of the other non-conference games against teams like Utah, Air Force and Towson.  If the Pio's lose even a single game that they "shouldn't", it will make it very tough to make the NCAA tournament without winning the Big East tournament. I see no at large team coming out of the Big East.

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Time to discuss the three defenders that I believe will end up being the 1st-Team All Americans in Division I come the end of 2023. No hot takes, just some good ol fashioned prognostication that I think most will agree with overall. We're going to talk about a guy from Georgetown (Will Bowen), a guy from Cornell (Gavin Adler), and a guy from Maryland (Brett Makar).

All three of these guys were 1st-Team All Americans in 2022, so this isn't a hot take, and Cole Kastner (Virginia) is the only other guy I think that is legit in the mix in 2023. Will Bowen is a lock for 1st-Team and probably will repeat as Defensive Player of the Year.  I think Makar's longevity as a starter of every game in his career at Maryland is going to help him.  Adler will likely also improve and pick up a 1st spot.  But if anyone is going to end up on the 1st-Team that isn't one of my top 3, it's Kastner.

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