IL's Top 50 Men's College Lacrosse Players For 2024

[Powellfan22]

Mackesy, Brandau and Lyons are in that mix.
Zappitello Will be in that 6-10 group

Michael Boehm completes the list?? That seems high, but I can not imagine him not making the list.

How is Spallina on list?

Don't love the hype he gets, but he had 55 points as a freshman and it's not a leap of faith to think he'll get better as he gets older. You can argue he's not ranked right, but he's in the top 50 players in the country.

Lorin exists to be a troll. Spallina actually had 68 points last year as a freshman.

[Farfromgeneva]

Mackesy, Brandau and Lyons are in that mix.
Zappitello Will be in that 6-10 group

Michael Boehm completes the list?? That seems high, but I can not imagine him not making the list.

How is Spallina on list?

Don't love the hype he gets, but he had 55 points as a freshman and it's not a leap of faith to think he'll get better as he gets older. You can argue he's not ranked right, but he's in the top 50 players in the country.

Lorin exists to be a troll. Spallina actually had 68 points last year as a freshman.

Putting my hobart hat on for a second here…screw that dude!

Now back to reality: https://www.tiktok.com/@lacrossenetwork ... 9869967662

[10stone5]

Mackesy, Brandau and Lyons are in that mix.
Zappitello Will be in that 6-10 group

Michael Boehm completes the list?? That seems high, but I can not imagine him not making the list.

How is Spallina on list?

Don't love the hype he gets, but he had 55 points as a freshman and it's not a leap of faith to think he'll get better as he gets older. You can argue he's not ranked right, but he's in the top 50 players in the country.

Spallina actually had 68 points last year as a freshman.

I’m not so sure anyone out-works that guy.

[lorin]

Mackesy, Brandau and Lyons are in that mix.
Zappitello Will be in that 6-10 group

Michael Boehm completes the list?? That seems high, but I can not imagine him not making the list.

How is Spallina on list?

Don't love the hype he gets, but he had 55 points as a freshman and it's not a leap of faith to think he'll get better as he gets older. You can argue he's not ranked right, but he's in the top 50 players in the country.

Lorin exists to be a troll. Spallina actually had 68 points last year as a freshman.

Very true lol

[coda]

Scott Cole must be in the 6 - 10 range.

I forgot about Cole.. Cole or Boehm not beign on the list is a massive oversight.
Feel like this list undervalues the Big 10 offensively, outside of Ross Scott which was a What the heck

[GaitsRightHand]

Only one player in Division 1 had over 40 goals and 40 assists last year. Yet he will not come close to making the IL top 50 list. Shows how lame this list is.

O'Neil had 55 and 42.

I think Melendez could be ranked a little higher no?

yes

Melendez at #41 is a crime. Should be #26 instead of Scott... or #23 instead of Spallina.. lol

[Henpecked]

Anyone who has a problem with Spallina on this list probably never watched him play. There are several players on this list that are a joke in my opinion. You probably know who they are and it’s not my place to badmouth anyone.

But not to belabor a point I made earlier, how do you leave a guy off this list that had 72 points (40 goals 32 assists) his first year starting in ‘22 (while scoring the winning goal over #2 Georgetown in the first round of NCAA) and had 85 points last year (42g 43a) while leading the team to a second straight tournament?

157 points in two years is hard to ignore. IL writers have probably never seen him play a game. Which is surprising since he played his High School ball in their backyard at McDonogh. Hard to miss at 6’2” 210.

[Powellfan22]

Anyone who has a problem with Spallina on this list probably never watched him play. There are several players on this list that are a joke in my opinion. You probably know who they are and it’s not my place to badmouth anyone.

But not to belabor a point I made earlier, how do you leave a guy off this list that had 72 points (40 goals 32 assists) his first year starting in ‘22 (while scoring the winning goal over #2 Georgetown in the first round of NCAA) and had 85 points last year (42g 43a - the ONLY 40/40 player in d1) while leading the team to a second straight tournament?

157 points in two years is hard to ignore. IL writers have probably never seen him play a game. Which is surprising since he played his High School ball in their backyard at McDonogh. Hard to miss at 6’2” 210.

Contrarian point of view is that Ward put up a lot of his points against subpar competition. He scored 10 points against Hampton, eight against Mount Saint Mary's, seven against Marist. Against Hopkins and Duke and Michigan he combined for only seven points.

[AreaLax]

Full list
50) Will Coletti Army
49) Jacob Piseno Albany
48) Tommy Burke OSU
47) Vince D'Alto Boston U
46) Matt Collison JHU
45) Pace Billings Princeton
44) Brett Martin JHU
43) Evan Plunkett Army
42) Chayse Ierlann JHU
41) Russell Melendez JHU
40) Jack Boyden - Virginia
39) 39 Matt Knote - UMass
38) Andrew Geppert - UNC
37) Chris Kavanagh - Notre Dame
36) Tyler Carpenter - Duke
35) Sam English - Syracuse
34) Ben Ramsey - Notre Dame
33) Shane Knobloch - Rutgers
32) Richard Checo - Lehigh
31) Luke Wierman -Maryland
30. Mason Woodward - Marquette
29. Logan McNaney - Maryland
28. Payton Cormier - Virginia
27. Beau Pederson - Michigan
26. Ross Scott - Rutgers
25. Jack Posey - Penn State
24. Graham Bundy - Georgetown
23. Joey Spallina - Syracuse
22. Michael Gianforcaro - Princeton
21. TJ Malone - Penn State
20. Scott Smith, Johns Hopkins
19. Jake Naso, Duke
18. Jack Fracyon, Penn State
17. Dyson Williams, Duke
16. Jake Stevens, Syracuse.
15. Cole Kastner, Virginia
14. Roy Meyer, Boston U
13. Eric Dobson, Notre Dame
12. Andrew McAdorey, Duke
11. Kenny Brower, Duke
10. Michael Boehm, Michigan
9. Matt Brandau, Yale
8. Coulter Mackesy, Princeton
7. Alex Vardaro, Georgetown
6. Ajax Zappitello, Maryland
5. Pat Kavanagh - Notre Dame
4. Liam Entemann - Notre Dame
3. CJ Kirst - Cornell
2. Conor Shellenberger - UVA
1. Brennan O'Neil - Duke
[/quote]

[10stone5]

Anyone who has a problem with Spallina on this list probably never watched him play. There are several players on this list that are a joke in my opinion. You probably know who they are and it’s not my place to badmouth anyone.

But not to belabor a point I made earlier, how do you leave a guy off this list that had 72 points (40 goals 32 assists) his first year starting in ‘22 (while scoring the winning goal over #2 Georgetown in the first round of NCAA) and had 85 points last year (42g 43a - the ONLY 40/40 player in d1) while leading the team to a second straight tournament?

157 points in two years is hard to ignore. IL writers have probably never seen him play a game. Which is surprising since he played his High School ball in their backyard at McDonogh. Hard to miss at 6’2” 210.

Contrarian point of view is that Ward put up a lot of his points against subpar competition. He scored 10 points against Hampton, eight against Mount Saint Mary's, seven against Marist. Against Hopkins and Duke and Michigan he combined for only seven points.

That’s probably ILs take.

But, I think Hen guy is arguing many or most have not seen Ward play, Ward makes that offense go - he was the missing link, a true distributor - and really rose up from a relatively unheralded position coming into Newark.

[HopFan16]

I actually think Melendez at #42 or whatever is appropriate. From a pure *talent* perspective I think he's top 10-20 but because of the Hopkins offense/his role, he's not going to put massive point totals over the course of an entire season, and probably maxes out as a 3rd team AA. Angelus directs things from X and there's a crowd of shooters/finishers in Degnon, Collison, Grimes, etc., so he's not asked to carry the load. It will be interesting to see how he evolves in 2025 after Angelus leaves — he'll probably be needed to do a lot more and we could see his point totals jump from 50-60 to 70-80 or so.

IL dropped its top 10 — Boehm and Vardaro are in. Lyons, Zawada, and Cole are not. Not sure how Princeton went 8-7 with a 1st round exit with two top 10 players in Mackesy and Vardaro and then a swath of other top 50 guys in Pederson, Gianforcaro, Stevens, English, etc. Seems like that group as a whole is probably a bit overrated, otherwise they really screwed the pooch last year because that is championship caliber talent equal to or better than Duke/ND. I know English missed the end of the year, but sheesh. That's a disappointing result for having all those dudes.

[Henpecked]

Anyone who has a problem with Spallina on this list probably never watched him play. There are several players on this list that are a joke in my opinion. You probably know who they are and it’s not my place to badmouth anyone.

But not to belabor a point I made earlier, how do you leave a guy off this list that had 72 points (40 goals 32 assists) his first year starting in ‘22 (while scoring the winning goal over #2 Georgetown in the first round of NCAA) and had 85 points last year (42g 43a - the ONLY 40/40 player in d1) while leading the team to a second straight tournament?

157 points in two years is hard to ignore. IL writers have probably never seen him play a game. Which is surprising since he played his High School ball in their backyard at McDonogh. Hard to miss at 6’2” 210.

Contrarian point of view is that Ward put up a lot of his points against subpar competition. He scored 10 points against Hampton, eight against Mount Saint Mary's, seven against Marist. Against Hopkins and Duke and Michigan he combined for only seven points.

Did they discount Brennan O'Neill's 7 points against Bellarmine, or his 9 points against Merrimack? He only had 3 points in two games against Notre Dame. You can cherry pick any statistic. McAdorey is ranked pretty high as a attackman who had 2 goals and 2 assists in five games against Syracuse, UNC, Virginia, Penn State and Notre Dame. See how cherry picking works?

JP Ward is the quarterback of a very successful team and played great throughout the last two years. Ward had 3 g 2 a against Villanova, 2 g 1 a against Michigan, 4 g 2 a in the CAA championship game against Stony Brook. In '22 he had 4 goals against Duke, had 4 g 2 a against Villanova went 4 g 4 a against Drexel in the CAA tourney and scored the winning goal against Georgetown in the NCAA tourney. He is arguably better than at least 5 guys on this list.

And BTW, saying he ONLY had 7 points in three games against Duke, Michigan and Hopkins is not really a terrible stat.

[Chousnake]

According to this list, the top talent gap between the ACC/B10 and the Ivies is massive. Ivies have 5 players in the top 50. The ACC has 18 and the B10 17. I'm not sure I buy that.

How many players on this list are grad transfers? That seems to be a major criteria for some on the list. If you believe that a 23 year old is going to be that much better than a 20-21 year old because of maturity and physical development, I guess you go there.

Cornell and Yale are preseason top 10 teams (I know how little this means), but have only 1 player each in the top 50? I have not examined who was left off the list that should be there and who is on the list that should not, but the numbers don't make sense to me unless the Ivies have a ton of players in the 51-100 ranking.

[Henpecked]

According to this list, the top talent gap between the ACC/B10 and the Ivies is massive. Ivies have 5 players in the top 50. The ACC has 18 and the B10 17. I'm not sure I buy that.

How many players on this list are grad transfers? That seems to be a major criteria for some on the list. If you believe that a 23 year old is going to be that much better than a 20-21 year old because of maturity and physical development, I guess you go there.

Cornell and Yale are preseason top 10 teams (I know how little this means), but have only 1 player each in the top 50? I have not examined who was left off the list that should be there and who is on the list that should not, but the numbers don't make sense to me unless the Ivies have a ton of players in the 51-100 ranking.

Do you count transfers Jake Stevens (Princeton), Sam English (Princeton), Alex Vardaro (Princeton) as Ivy League players? Makes the numbers look more even.

[Chousnake]

According to this list, the top talent gap between the ACC/B10 and the Ivies is massive. Ivies have 5 players in the top 50. The ACC has 18 and the B10 17. I'm not sure I buy that.

How many players on this list are grad transfers? That seems to be a major criteria for some on the list. If you believe that a 23 year old is going to be that much better than a 20-21 year old because of maturity and physical development, I guess you go there.

Cornell and Yale are preseason top 10 teams (I know how little this means), but have only 1 player each in the top 50? I have not examined who was left off the list that should be there and who is on the list that should not, but the numbers don't make sense to me unless the Ivies have a ton of players in the 51-100 ranking.

Do you count transfers Jake Stevens (Princeton), Sam English (Princeton), Alex Vardaro (Princeton) as Ivy League players? Makes the numbers look more even.

No I did not. Those players are not playing for Ivy League teams in 2024. It does not even out anything. Changing uniforms did seem to make some of these players climb up IL's list though (or IL underates the talent in the Ivy League in the preseason).

[Henpecked]

According to this list, the top talent gap between the ACC/B10 and the Ivies is massive. Ivies have 5 players in the top 50. The ACC has 18 and the B10 17. I'm not sure I buy that.

How many players on this list are grad transfers? That seems to be a major criteria for some on the list. If you believe that a 23 year old is going to be that much better than a 20-21 year old because of maturity and physical development, I guess you go there.

Cornell and Yale are preseason top 10 teams (I know how little this means), but have only 1 player each in the top 50? I have not examined who was left off the list that should be there and who is on the list that should not, but the numbers don't make sense to me unless the Ivies have a ton of players in the 51-100 ranking.

Do you count transfers Jake Stevens (Princeton), Sam English (Princeton), Alex Vardaro (Princeton) as Ivy League players? Makes the numbers look more even.

No I did not. Those players are not playing for Ivy League teams in 2024. It does not even out anything. Changing uniforms did seem to make some of these players climb up IL's list though (or IL underates the talent in the Ivy League in the preseason).

It's a BIG10/ACC world! We are just living in it.

[Farfromgeneva]

According to this list, the top talent gap between the ACC/B10 and the Ivies is massive. Ivies have 5 players in the top 50. The ACC has 18 and the B10 17. I'm not sure I buy that.

How many players on this list are grad transfers? That seems to be a major criteria for some on the list. If you believe that a 23 year old is going to be that much better than a 20-21 year old because of maturity and physical development, I guess you go there.

Cornell and Yale are preseason top 10 teams (I know how little this means), but have only 1 player each in the top 50? I have not examined who was left off the list that should be there and who is on the list that should not, but the numbers don't make sense to me unless the Ivies have a ton of players in the 51-100 ranking.

Do you count transfers Jake Stevens (Princeton), Sam English (Princeton), Alex Vardaro (Princeton) as Ivy League players? Makes the numbers look more even.

I’m a high velocity transfer world this is an interesting aspect. General relationship to institutions and frankly evaluating the level of contribution between organic and longer tenured player and “rentals”. The thing many wonder about and a few Rutgers fans get all insulted over as if it not a interesting and important question to ask.

https://www.si.com/college/2023/11/22/w ... am-hartman

[Powellfan22]

Anyone who has a problem with Spallina on this list probably never watched him play. There are several players on this list that are a joke in my opinion. You probably know who they are and it’s not my place to badmouth anyone.

But not to belabor a point I made earlier, how do you leave a guy off this list that had 72 points (40 goals 32 assists) his first year starting in ‘22 (while scoring the winning goal over #2 Georgetown in the first round of NCAA) and had 85 points last year (42g 43a - the ONLY 40/40 player in d1) while leading the team to a second straight tournament?

157 points in two years is hard to ignore. IL writers have probably never seen him play a game. Which is surprising since he played his High School ball in their backyard at McDonogh. Hard to miss at 6’2” 210.

Contrarian point of view is that Ward put up a lot of his points against subpar competition. He scored 10 points against Hampton, eight against Mount Saint Mary's, seven against Marist. Against Hopkins and Duke and Michigan he combined for only seven points.

Did they discount Brennan O'Neill's 7 points against Bellarmine, or his 9 points against Merrimack? He only had 3 points in two games against Notre Dame. You can cherry pick any statistic. McAdorey is ranked pretty high as a attackman who had 2 goals and 2 assists in five games against Syracuse, UNC, Virginia, Penn State and Notre Dame. See how cherry picking works?

JP Ward is the quarterback of a very successful team and played great throughout the last two years. Ward had 3 g 2 a against Villanova, 2 g 1 a against Michigan, 4 g 2 a in the CAA championship game against Stony Brook. In '22 he had 4 goals against Duke, had 4 g 2 a against Villanova went 4 g 4 a against Drexel in the CAA tourney and scored the winning goal against Georgetown in the NCAA tourney. He is arguably better than at least 5 guys on this list.

And BTW, saying he ONLY had 7 points in three games against Duke, Michigan and Hopkins is not really a terrible stat.

No, what you are doing is cherry picking and you are being disingenuous with what I said.

I pointed out that Ward scored seven points against three NCAA tournament teams (the only ones Delaware played last year, minus Marist). You left out that O'Neill scored nine against UVA, seven against Michigan, four against Penn State. That is miles better and more impressive that what Ward put up last year against NCAA Tournament teams.

McAdory is probably an other story, In comparison to Ward, he scored 10 points against UVA, Delaware and Michigan. Those were the best performances he had against tournament teams last year.

I merely pointed out what IL might be thinking - I never even said I agreed with it. With Ross Scott on the list I think a lot of offensive players could certainly make a case to be on this list, and I would put Ward on here before Scott. That said, I think Scott Cole, Chris Mule and Chris Lyons get in over Ward. Lyons might be the biggest snub on the list.

[Farfromgeneva]

I actually think Melendez at #42 or whatever is appropriate. From a pure *talent* perspective I think he's top 10-20 but because of the Hopkins offense/his role, he's not going to put massive point totals over the course of an entire season, and probably maxes out as a 3rd team AA. Angelus directs things from X and there's a crowd of shooters/finishers in Degnon, Collison, Grimes, etc., so he's not asked to carry the load. It will be interesting to see how he evolves in 2025 after Angelus leaves — he'll probably be needed to do a lot more and we could see his point totals jump from 50-60 to 70-80 or so.

IL dropped its top 10 — Boehm and Vardaro are in. Lyons, Zawada, and Cole are not. Not sure how Princeton went 8-7 with a 1st round exit with two top 10 players in Mackesy and Vardaro and then a swath of other top 50 guys in Pederson, Gianforcaro, Stevens, English, etc. Seems like that group as a whole is probably a bit overrated, otherwise they really screwed the pooch last year because that is championship caliber talent equal to or better than Duke/ND. I know English missed the end of the year, but sheesh. That's a disappointing result for having all those dudes.

Chris Lyons not being in the top 50 is insane to me.

[Typical Lax Dad]

I actually think Melendez at #42 or whatever is appropriate. From a pure *talent* perspective I think he's top 10-20 but because of the Hopkins offense/his role, he's not going to put massive point totals over the course of an entire season, and probably maxes out as a 3rd team AA. Angelus directs things from X and there's a crowd of shooters/finishers in Degnon, Collison, Grimes, etc., so he's not asked to carry the load. It will be interesting to see how he evolves in 2025 after Angelus leaves — he'll probably be needed to do a lot more and we could see his point totals jump from 50-60 to 70-80 or so.

IL dropped its top 10 — Boehm and Vardaro are in. Lyons, Zawada, and Cole are not. Not sure how Princeton went 8-7 with a 1st round exit with two top 10 players in Mackesy and Vardaro and then a swath of other top 50 guys in Pederson, Gianforcaro, Stevens, English, etc. Seems like that group as a whole is probably a bit overrated, otherwise they really screwed the pooch last year because that is championship caliber talent equal to or better than Duke/ND. I know English missed the end of the year, but sheesh. That's a disappointing result for having all those dudes.

Like anything associated with IL, it’s ranking inflation. Also, I believe it’s a forward look versus a backward look. As much as I like Vardaro, he’s not a top 10 player. Where were these players on the 2023 post season AA list? Chris Lyons not being on this top 50 list is just stupid but probably due to Yale slipping a little as a team because of course, if the team does well, the players are all better…..as for the Princeton exit. Lack of a productive zone offense costs them….not necessarily a lack of quality players.