Predict Most Improved Programs In 2024

[gymman1031]

Which programs, regardless of how they did in 2023, will be much improved in-terms of overall results and wins?

[oldbartman]

I want to say my Statesmen. Though graduating 2 all conference D men leaves a huge ????

[faircornell]

Syracuse has brought on a lot of new talent. They should be improved. The key question for them is if they are improved enough to defeat teams like Duke, JHU,UNC and UVA who gave them trouble last season.

[Powellfan22]

Syracuse has brought on a lot of new talent. They should be improved. The key question for them is if they are improved enough to defeat teams like Duke, JHU,UNC and UVA who gave them trouble last season.

I sure hope you are right. I think a lot depends on the face-off situation. Mason Kohn should be an upgrade, but he's making the transition from DIII. It's a good sign he's been voted captain. Also they get a boost by bringing in Jake Stevens from Princeton and Steven Schmitt from Mt Saint Mary's, two players who have very good groundball stats.

I think the offense will be very good - year two bounce from the "super sophomores" plus Sam English, Chris Mule and Stevens should add some needed veteran presence. Midfield pairings should be interesting to watch.

The big question mark is SSDM play, which hasn't been very good lately. They lost their top guy in Brandon Aviles to Hopkins and only brought in one transfer (Jake Titus from DIII Union). The projected lineup doesn't have a lot of size either. If SU does falter, I think you could look here and see why.

I am curious about Ohio State. Their transfer haul last year didn't really work out for them, but I'm intrigued by some of the names they pulled this year. Loyola had one of the most up and down seasons in recent memory last year but they bring back a lot this year. I think they could be pretty good. Also think Richmond and Colgate could surprise people.

[coda]

Syracuse has brought on a lot of new talent. They should be improved. The key question for them is if they are improved enough to defeat teams like Duke, JHU,UNC and UVA who gave them trouble last season.

I sure hope you are right. I think a lot depends on the face-off situation. Mason Kohn should be an upgrade, but he's making the transition from DIII. It's a good sign he's been voted captain. Also they get a boost by bringing in Jake Stevens from Princeton and Steven Schmitt from Mt Saint Mary's, two players who have very good groundball stats.

I think the offense will be very good - year two bounce from the "super sophomores" plus Sam English, Chris Mule and Stevens should add some needed veteran presence. Midfield pairings should be interesting to watch.

The big question mark is SSDM play, which hasn't been very good lately. They lost their top guy in Brandon Aviles to Hopkins and only brought in one transfer (Jake Titus from DIII Union). The projected lineup doesn't have a lot of size either. If SU does falter, I think you could look here and see why.

I am curious about Ohio State. Their transfer haul last year didn't really work out for them, but I'm intrigued by some of the names they pulled this year. Loyola had one of the most up and down seasons in recent memory last year but they bring back a lot this year. I think they could be pretty good. Also think Richmond and Colgate could surprise people.

I like the Loyola call. One of those staff's it is easy to put faith in to improve..

I also liked the OSU call. They completely fell apart, when they lost their FOGO.

[PizzaSnake]

Any thoughts on the efficacy of high transfer rate and issues of team cohesion and performance? Which programs have demonstrated greatest success in realizing the benefits of this talent infusion? Is one of the benefits resource starvation of other programs?

[HopFan16]

I also liked the OSU call. They completely fell apart, when they lost their FOGO.

If you completely fall apart after losing one player, you have much deeper issues. One of the worst defenses I watched all year — could not cover anybody. They weren't exactly good in the first half of the season either, when they still had Blanchard. Got boatraced by every good team they played. And now they lose Jack Myers. Bringing in the FOGO Burke and some of these other transfers may help, but the roster has issues and I don't trust that staff to figure it out.

I'll go with Penn. Losing Sam Handley could be a blessing in disguise as it'll force them to be less vanilla and more creative on offense. Their freshman class is excellent, though TBD if Hoffman will be 100% to start the season. They return Carroll in goal, as well as Shipley, Furey, Rubin, Lavelle, Smith, and others.

[coda]

I also liked the OSU call. They completely fell apart, when they lost their FOGO.

If you completely fall apart after losing one player, you have much deeper issues. One of the worst defenses I watched all year — could not cover anybody. They weren't exactly good in the first half of the season either, when they still had Blanchard. Got boatraced by every good team they played. And now they lose Jack Myers. Bringing in the FOGO Burke and some of these other transfers may help, but the roster has issues and I don't trust that staff to figure it out.

I'll go with Penn. Losing Sam Handley could be a blessing in disguise as it'll force them to be less vanilla and more creative on offense. Their freshman class is excellent, though TBD if Hoffman will be 100% to start the season. They return Carroll in goal, as well as Shipley, Furey, Rubin, Lavelle, Smith, and others.

They got boat raced by UVa and ND.. They beat UNC and played a tight game with Cornell. They were below 40% on faceoffs. It was bad.. I think they improve. It is an easy call, since you just need 6 wins.

[HopFan16]

I also liked the OSU call. They completely fell apart, when they lost their FOGO.

If you completely fall apart after losing one player, you have much deeper issues. One of the worst defenses I watched all year — could not cover anybody. They weren't exactly good in the first half of the season either, when they still had Blanchard. Got boatraced by every good team they played. And now they lose Jack Myers. Bringing in the FOGO Burke and some of these other transfers may help, but the roster has issues and I don't trust that staff to figure it out.

I'll go with Penn. Losing Sam Handley could be a blessing in disguise as it'll force them to be less vanilla and more creative on offense. Their freshman class is excellent, though TBD if Hoffman will be 100% to start the season. They return Carroll in goal, as well as Shipley, Furey, Rubin, Lavelle, Smith, and others.

They got boat raced by UVa and ND.. They beat UNC and played a tight game with Cornell. They were below 40% on faceoffs. It was bad.. I think they improve. It is an easy call, since you just need 6 wins.

That final score vs. Cornell is misleading — OSU was down 9-3 at the half and still down by six deep into the 4th when Cornell took their foot off the gas and OSU scored some meaningless garbage time goals in the final few minutes when the game was already over. Cornell dominated. The Buckeyes won the FO battle but turned it over 21 times.

[JeremyCuse]

Real good question with in my opinion no real clear answer(s).

If you look at the two power conferences you would think OSU and RU and UNC and Cuse are 4 candidates.

As a Cuse fan I suspect I think they will be better but the ACC is really loaded and the OOC is stacked with Maryland, Hop, Cornell, maryland, Delaware etc. Cuse plays 7 of the top 10, with only PSU and Yale missing (plus themselves obviously). Gonna need to win some of the close games they couldn't quite get over the hump on last year. Questions at SSDM and third attack spot stick out.

UNC feels a lot like Cuse last year, good team with some really impressive young players but a lot of question marks and a conference loaded with veteran teams who don't exactly show mercy. Looks like Breschi dialed back the schedule which will help a young team but RPI not so much. Lots of questions defensively for UNC as well. Petro defenses usually need a year or 2 to get on track.

OSU was a hot mess last year but they did bring in a nice haul of transfers including Burke. That said much like Cuse they are looking at a daunting OOC schedule with ND, UVA, Cornell Denver etc. Feels like a program that will start off strong but begin taking on water once they hit the power teams in the OOC. You wonder if Myers is long for the program if this year is a repeat of last year.

Rutgers is a bit of a mystery. Again a good transfer haul but a lot of non D1 guys and their OOC is pretty weak save for Army and Princeton and Loyola. They did appear to shore up the FOGO spot but they lost a ton defensively and being so dependent on transfers can be a boom (see 2022) or a bust (2023). Hard to see them being significantly improved over last year especially with Mich, Hop and Maryland looking really good again.

For me I am looking at Harvard and Albany as two teams who could be significantly improved. Harvard flashed under Byrne in 2022 but looked bad last year. I would assume an uptick this year. Albany should also be improved as they return a lot of scoring from last year, their FOGO and a great LSM but that schedule is pretty brutal (only 5 home games). Also much like Powellfan I am high on Princeton, that frosh class looks really good and even though they lost a lot to graduation and really transfers that's a squad that by April will be an absolute menace.

[NNELax]

Improved: Marquette, UMBC, Carolina, Brown, Albany and OSU

[Farfromgeneva]

Real good question with in my opinion no real clear answer(s).

If you look at the two power conferences you would think OSU and RU and UNC and Cuse are 4 candidates.

As a Cuse fan I suspect I think they will be better but the ACC is really loaded and the OOC is stacked with Maryland, Hop, Cornell, maryland, Delaware etc. Cuse plays 7 of the top 10, with only PSU and Yale missing (plus themselves obviously). Gonna need to win some of the close games they couldn't quite get over the hump on last year. Questions at SSDM and third attack spot stick out.

UNC feels a lot like Cuse last year, good team with some really impressive young players but a lot of question marks and a conference loaded with veteran teams who don't exactly show mercy. Looks like Breschi dialed back the schedule which will help a young team but RPI not so much. Lots of questions defensively for UNC as well. Petro defenses usually need a year or 2 to get on track.

OSU was a hot mess last year but they did bring in a nice haul of transfers including Burke. That said much like Cuse they are looking at a daunting OOC schedule with ND, UVA, Cornell Denver etc. Feels like a program that will start off strong but begin taking on water once they hit the power teams in the OOC. You wonder if Myers is long for the program if this year is a repeat of last year.

Rutgers is a bit of a mystery. Again a good transfer haul but a lot of non D1 guys and their OOC is pretty weak save for Army and Princeton and Loyola. They did appear to shore up the FOGO spot but they lost a ton defensively and being so dependent on transfers can be a boom (see 2022) or a bust (2023). Hard to see them being significantly improved over last year especially with Mich, Hop and Maryland looking really good again.

For me I am looking at Harvard and Albany as two teams who could be significantly improved. Harvard flashed under Byrne in 2022 but looked bad last year. I would assume an uptick this year. Albany should also be improved as they return a lot of scoring from last year, their FOGO and a great LSM but that schedule is pretty brutal (only 5 home games). Also much like Powellfan I am high on Princeton, that frosh class looks really good and even though they lost a lot to graduation and really transfers that's a squad that by April will be an absolute menace.

Byrne is starting to build that D in his mold in Cambridge. They “could” finally achieve sleeping giant status that Princeton had under Tierney

[Wheels]

OSU's had serious locker room issues that haven't exactly been kept under wraps. Kinda known issues that even opposing teams have heard a lot about. Perhaps the graduation of certain players will help. The heavy reliance on transfers has not helped them like it has RU. The question I have is has Myers lost the room? They're more likely to end up in the B1G cellar, IMO, than even 3rd in the conference.

Most improved...from what metric? I guess I'll go with wins:

Albany (returns a lot of scoring), Providence (returns a lot of scoring that Benson can shape), Fairfield (returns a lot of scoring and a possibly above average goalie), Bucknell (same as Fairfield).

[Henpecked]

Real good question with in my opinion no real clear answer(s).

If you look at the two power conferences you would think OSU and RU and UNC and Cuse are 4 candidates.

As a Cuse fan I suspect I think they will be better but the ACC is really loaded and the OOC is stacked with Maryland, Hop, Cornell, maryland, Delaware etc. Cuse plays 7 of the top 10, with only PSU and Yale missing (plus themselves obviously). Gonna need to win some of the close games they couldn't quite get over the hump on last year. Questions at SSDM and third attack spot stick out.

UNC feels a lot like Cuse last year, good team with some really impressive young players but a lot of question marks and a conference loaded with veteran teams who don't exactly show mercy. Looks like Breschi dialed back the schedule which will help a young team but RPI not so much. Lots of questions defensively for UNC as well. Petro defenses usually need a year or 2 to get on track.

OSU was a hot mess last year but they did bring in a nice haul of transfers including Burke. That said much like Cuse they are looking at a daunting OOC schedule with ND, UVA, Cornell Denver etc. Feels like a program that will start off strong but begin taking on water once they hit the power teams in the OOC. You wonder if Myers is long for the program if this year is a repeat of last year.

Rutgers is a bit of a mystery. Again a good transfer haul but a lot of non D1 guys and their OOC is pretty weak save for Army and Princeton and Loyola. They did appear to shore up the FOGO spot but they lost a ton defensively and being so dependent on transfers can be a boom (see 2022) or a bust (2023). Hard to see them being significantly improved over last year especially with Mich, Hop and Maryland looking really good again.

For me I am looking at Harvard and Albany as two teams who could be significantly improved. Harvard flashed under Byrne in 2022 but looked bad last year. I would assume an uptick this year. Albany should also be improved as they return a lot of scoring from last year, their FOGO and a great LSM but that schedule is pretty brutal (only 5 home games). Also much like Powellfan I am high on Princeton, that frosh class looks really good and even though they lost a lot to graduation and really transfers that's a squad that by April will be an absolute menace.

Byrne is starting to build that D in his mold in Cambridge. They “could” finally achieve sleeping giant status that Princeton had under Tierney

I’m not so sure Byrne is building any D at Harvard. Last year the Crimson gave up 13.42 goals a game which was ranked 59th in D1 lacrosse. They looked completely lost at times. And he lost Chase Yager (his top SSDM from last year) to UVA. Every year people predict Harvard will be improved due to recruiting, but it never happens. I’ll wait and see.

[Unknown Participant]

OSU's had serious locker room issues that haven't exactly been kept under wraps. Kinda known issues that even opposing teams have heard a lot about. Perhaps the graduation of certain players will help. The heavy reliance on transfers has not helped them like it has RU. The question I have is has Myers lost the room? They're more likely to end up in the B1G cellar, IMO, than even 3rd in the conference.

Most improved...from what metric? I guess I'll go with wins:

Albany (returns a lot of scoring), Providence (returns a lot of scoring that Benson can shape), Fairfield (returns a lot of scoring and a possibly above average goalie), Bucknell (same as Fairfield).

I am not aware of those "serious locker room issues," maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention. In any event, OSU had a service academy transfer playing a prominent role. Whenever I see an academy transfer I suspect there is an underlying issue with the player's commitment to a team concept.

[faircornell]

I also liked the OSU call. They completely fell apart, when they lost their FOGO.

If you completely fall apart after losing one player, you have much deeper issues. One of the worst defenses I watched all year — could not cover anybody. They weren't exactly good in the first half of the season either, when they still had Blanchard. Got boatraced by every good team they played. And now they lose Jack Myers. Bringing in the FOGO Burke and some of these other transfers may help, but the roster has issues and I don't trust that staff to figure it out.

I'll go with Penn. Losing Sam Handley could be a blessing in disguise as it'll force them to be less vanilla and more creative on offense. Their freshman class is excellent, though TBD if Hoffman will be 100% to start the season. They return Carroll in goal, as well as Shipley, Furey, Rubin, Lavelle, Smith, and others.

I agree with the comments regarding Penn. While I'm not in the "Handley is over-rated" camp, I do believe that Penn returns a lot of offensive talent, as well as solid net minding with Emmet Carroll. My view was that the "get the ball to Sam" strategy was, on the whole, sub-optimal.

[DoubleD]

Real good question with in my opinion no real clear answer(s).

If you look at the two power conferences you would think OSU and RU and UNC and Cuse are 4 candidates.

As a Cuse fan I suspect I think they will be better but the ACC is really loaded and the OOC is stacked with Maryland, Hop, Cornell, maryland, Delaware etc. Cuse plays 7 of the top 10, with only PSU and Yale missing (plus themselves obviously). Gonna need to win some of the close games they couldn't quite get over the hump on last year. Questions at SSDM and third attack spot stick out.

UNC feels a lot like Cuse last year, good team with some really impressive young players but a lot of question marks and a conference loaded with veteran teams who don't exactly show mercy. Looks like Breschi dialed back the schedule which will help a young team but RPI not so much. Lots of questions defensively for UNC as well. Petro defenses usually need a year or 2 to get on track.

OSU was a hot mess last year but they did bring in a nice haul of transfers including Burke. That said much like Cuse they are looking at a daunting OOC schedule with ND, UVA, Cornell Denver etc. Feels like a program that will start off strong but begin taking on water once they hit the power teams in the OOC. You wonder if Myers is long for the program if this year is a repeat of last year.

Rutgers is a bit of a mystery. Again a good transfer haul but a lot of non D1 guys and their OOC is pretty weak save for Army and Princeton and Loyola. They did appear to shore up the FOGO spot but they lost a ton defensively and being so dependent on transfers can be a boom (see 2022) or a bust (2023). Hard to see them being significantly improved over last year especially with Mich, Hop and Maryland looking really good again.

For me I am looking at Harvard and Albany as two teams who could be significantly improved. Harvard flashed under Byrne in 2022 but looked bad last year. I would assume an uptick this year. Albany should also be improved as they return a lot of scoring from last year, their FOGO and a great LSM but that schedule is pretty brutal (only 5 home games). Also much like Powellfan I am high on Princeton, that frosh class looks really good and even though they lost a lot to graduation and really transfers that's a squad that by April will be an absolute menace.

I think Cuse D will be improved under new DC and his philosophy of letting his guys play the way they are comfortable as to Petro set in his way and that's it. Also getting Riley Figeuiros back is huge. Last yr they lacked a top lockdown pole to cover the top players in the ACC. Would like to see Olexo back at LSM which he's a huge threat in transitions. SSDM is a question mark but I wonder if Stevens plays some defense if needed. Also if Fogo is improved that alone will help the D as last yr they were on the field way to much. Teams had double the possessions then SU had. I think Maryland is gonna be back in the top 5 again. Getting Malever and McNaney back will be big and then young guys like Erksa and Spanos with a yr experience under the belts. I see them being very good again this yr.

[maddog29]

I sure hope everyone is correct about the Orange....I like Penn St to have a good year - great GK, good recruits and transfer catch ..time will tell...

[bearlaxfan]

I'm not predicting anything based on freshmen, or transfers (OSU, anyone?), but I will be watching Princeton with great interest. And not just because I have a rooting interest in the IL.

[PizzaSnake]

I also liked the OSU call. They completely fell apart, when they lost their FOGO.

If you completely fall apart after losing one player, you have much deeper issues. One of the worst defenses I watched all year — could not cover anybody. They weren't exactly good in the first half of the season either, when they still had Blanchard. Got boatraced by every good team they played. And now they lose Jack Myers. Bringing in the FOGO Burke and some of these other transfers may help, but the roster has issues and I don't trust that staff to figure it out.

I'll go with Penn. Losing Sam Handley could be a blessing in disguise as it'll force them to be less vanilla and more creative on offense. Their freshman class is excellent, though TBD if Hoffman will be 100% to start the season. They return Carroll in goal, as well as Shipley, Furey, Rubin, Lavelle, Smith, and others.

I agree re Handley. While a great player, not utilized correctly. My concerns are, and have been with the coaching.

The staff either couldn’t recognize the need for a offensive strategy shift when Handley was isolated, or they didn’t have the personnel. Either way, not good.