Post by RusskyHoya on Jul 18, 2024 8:35:09 GMT -5
www.usalacrosse.com/magazine/college/men/ncaa-rewind-georgetown-shows-stability-while-maxing-out-roster
GEORGETOWN
USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: No. 12/No. 8
2024 record: 13-4 (4-1 Big East)
What went right: Graham Bundy Jr. (37 goals, 13 assists) became the first player in program history with four 30-goal seasons. Aidan Carroll had an old-fashioned breakout senior year, sharing the team lead in goals with Bundy while tacking on 23 assists. TJ Haley remained an exceptional feeder (40 assists), while Princeton grad transfer Alexander Vardaro (31 G, 18 A) was a valuable addition to the midfield.
Yale transfer James Ball (.592) provided an emphatic answer on faceoffs, and freshman goalie Anderson Moore (.512 save percentage) collected the Big East’s freshman of the year award.
And, of course, Georgetown tied 1989-94 North Carolina as the only Division I programs to win six consecutive conference tournaments, squeezing past Providence and Villanova to make it back to the NCAA tournament as a No. 8 seed.
What went wrong: There was another slow start this year, though this only lasted two games (against Loyola and Johns Hopkins) before Georgetown ripped off 13 of its next 14. And it had the misfortune of running into Notre Dame in the NCAA quarterfinals, a round the Hoyas have reached but not advanced out of in three of the last four seasons.
Season highlight: Carroll’s overtime winner on Feb. 25 lifted Georgetown to an 11-10 victory over Notre Dame. The Hoyas would turn out to be the only team to defeat the Fighting Irish this season, and that feat was a major part of Georgetown landing a home game in the NCAA tournament — a game the Hoyas would eventually win, 12-9 over Penn State.
Verdict: Less than an hour after falling 16-11 to Notre Dame on Long Island in the quarterfinals, Hoyas coach Kevin Warne said that had he been offered a trip to the tournament’s second weekend a year earlier given all that Georgetown lost, he would have instantly signed up for it. Rightfully so.
This Georgetown team wasn’t as loaded with proven veteran talent as its two immediate predecessors, and it certainly lived dangerously at times (most especially in the Big East tournament). But it stitched together a strong year despite entering it with more than its share of unknowns and arguably maxed out.
That’s the sign of a program on exceptionally stable footing.
GEORGETOWN
USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: No. 12/No. 8
2024 record: 13-4 (4-1 Big East)
What went right: Graham Bundy Jr. (37 goals, 13 assists) became the first player in program history with four 30-goal seasons. Aidan Carroll had an old-fashioned breakout senior year, sharing the team lead in goals with Bundy while tacking on 23 assists. TJ Haley remained an exceptional feeder (40 assists), while Princeton grad transfer Alexander Vardaro (31 G, 18 A) was a valuable addition to the midfield.
Yale transfer James Ball (.592) provided an emphatic answer on faceoffs, and freshman goalie Anderson Moore (.512 save percentage) collected the Big East’s freshman of the year award.
And, of course, Georgetown tied 1989-94 North Carolina as the only Division I programs to win six consecutive conference tournaments, squeezing past Providence and Villanova to make it back to the NCAA tournament as a No. 8 seed.
What went wrong: There was another slow start this year, though this only lasted two games (against Loyola and Johns Hopkins) before Georgetown ripped off 13 of its next 14. And it had the misfortune of running into Notre Dame in the NCAA quarterfinals, a round the Hoyas have reached but not advanced out of in three of the last four seasons.
Season highlight: Carroll’s overtime winner on Feb. 25 lifted Georgetown to an 11-10 victory over Notre Dame. The Hoyas would turn out to be the only team to defeat the Fighting Irish this season, and that feat was a major part of Georgetown landing a home game in the NCAA tournament — a game the Hoyas would eventually win, 12-9 over Penn State.
Verdict: Less than an hour after falling 16-11 to Notre Dame on Long Island in the quarterfinals, Hoyas coach Kevin Warne said that had he been offered a trip to the tournament’s second weekend a year earlier given all that Georgetown lost, he would have instantly signed up for it. Rightfully so.
This Georgetown team wasn’t as loaded with proven veteran talent as its two immediate predecessors, and it certainly lived dangerously at times (most especially in the Big East tournament). But it stitched together a strong year despite entering it with more than its share of unknowns and arguably maxed out.
That’s the sign of a program on exceptionally stable footing.