Lacrosse Is Back: Discussing Syracuse, Hopkins, the Media Poll & More (LaxFactor Podcast #270)

The 2024 college lacrosse season is upon us with games all kicking off next weekend. Syracuse and Johns Hopkins scrimmaged Michigan and UMBC respectively, so we’ll discuss what is known about those outings in addition to discussing InsideLacrosse’s media poll and positional breakdowns.

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L Factor The Lax Factor podcast what is up College across fans you’re watching episode 270 or so of The Lax Factor podcast I’m your host Ted host and today first day back after a Hiatus that involved a lot of golf a lot of fortnite with the kids and crap like

That uh but the season is upon us I cannot put this off anymore and we need to dive into this crap we’re going to start out today with a bunch of news uh Syracuse scrimmaged Michigan yesterday Hopkins scrimmed MBC Friday Maryland’s you know putting the number one on a

Defender for the second season in a row and I fully agree with that decision um we’ll talk about the media poll a little bit and how my media poll my my submission differed a little bit from the final poll Inside Lacrosse did a pretty decent write up uh you know

Position by position so I just wanted to talk about those rankings and where I agreed and disagreed and uh just generally we’re just going to ramble uh for a little bit try to get back into the groove because next weekend a week from to today I’m talking about games

With highlights and all of that crap so uh as always uh be sure to like subscribe you know you can watch us on Spotify you can watch the video podcast and listen YouTube has the video podcast of course and then you can get the podcast audio-wise anywhere where you

Can find your podcast if there’s a player or u a platform that I’m not on that you would like me to put it on let me know and I shall do that but uh I digress I want to dive into the news here I want to talk first about uh the

Syracuse and the Michigan scrimmage from yesterday now IID hoped the news was a little bit better uh the reports varied widely I heard one report it was as bad as 12 to six in favor of Michigan at one point uh the the story went no matter

What the report was because I heard it was 126 at one point but it was 86 by halftime uh I heard Syracuse may have started subbing out their defense uh at at the half whereas Michigan may have kept their guys in a little bit longer this is what you get from the Syracuse

Fandom side of things but the idea being 86 at the the half was I what I think to be the most credible report I heard 8 six or nine six at the half from two different sources here one of them in the Syracuse fan um forum and then

Another one uh via social media private message here uh I heard Syracuse had troubles clearing that was across the board everyone that talked about it that had any knowledge of it or so-called knowledge of the outcome said in the first quarter Syracuse cleared the ball terribly there was mentioned that

Michigan may have even been uh trying trying out a 10-man ride uh for portions of that first quarter although I can’t confirm that but I did hear pretty consistently Syracuse struggled to clear the ball but other than that both teams looked very good offensively both teams look solid defensively and uh Syracuse

Did well against wheat Feld and the Michigan Faceoff unit uh to the tune of either splitting or maybe even coming out a little bit better than what Michigan did so that would be a good sign but we got to wait till the real games are being played to know either

Way uh but any any good news uh from the face off dot for Syracuse is going to be good news for Syracuse fans so overall that’s really it there’s no no other nothing other else to report there may have been an injury at the defensive Midfield position didn’t say if that was

Uh Faceoff wise or if that was just straight up uh you know short stick D mids uh but no no report on who that is yet so we’ll see or how serious it even was so we’ll see how that goes but hey re reason to be optimistic here for

Syracuse fans uh we also had Hopkins scrimmaged NBC on Friday night this is I think their only tuneup before the season starts they turned a lot of heads last year you know I did not expect for Hopkins to do what they did and they they played well offensively with a blue

Collar group of guys and defensively they were one of the toughest defenses in the in the nation physical beat you up could take the ball away they got streaky goalie play but good enough for them to have the season they had last year now from what I heard in this

Scrimmage specific to the scrimmage because I’m going to talk about Hopkins offensively a little bit more uh angelis apparently had the mightest touch if you listen to the IL staff they were really hyped on angelis in the scrimmage they said he started out like two and two

Every time he touched the ball good things happened and with dignan angelis and M angelis and Melendez all back on Attack mixed with the fact that that Inside Lacrosse raided their Midfield the number one Midfield I’m not sure I agree with that but we’ll see as we dive

Into it a little bit more uh I don’t want to just continue to talk about Hopkins in a positive light non-stop but legitimately it does appear Hopkins is back because now that defense they’re not blue blue collar anymore they got Smith and SL uh uh suck back on close

Defense to Anchor that defense with Chase erlin who could maybe bring a little bit more consistency to cage uh in cage although I I would I would posit that even Erin’s a little bit of a streaky goalie but when he’s hot he put up backto back 21 save performances I

Believe for Cornell last year here so that’s that’s just huge for Hopkins to get that back to to to have the bulk of everybody back I believe they lose maone who was a physical leader down there but they bring back like I said Smith and suck and now they have erlin and cage

Who’s A A fifth or sixth year college student at this point the dude’s like 25 years old starting in cage for Hopkins so that’s going to be huge for them I fully expect Hopkins is going to be able to finish top three of the Big 10 and

Either or or maybe both they could win the the tournament and even the regular season Crown so watch Hopkins they’re going to be very very good in this upcoming season uh one thing didn’t surprise me I I hadn’t thought about who’s Marilyn going to give the number

One to and uh it turns out for the second season in a row they’re going to give the number one to a Defender uh they’re going to hand their famous number one to veteran defenseman and taker of his Pierce candy Ajax zapello zapello wore number 36 I believe a

Season ago and this year he’ll down the number one one of the best takeaway defenders in the country I think potentially the best overall defender in the country because he he you know you he can do anything you ask of him but anytime you’ve got a guy that can play a

Number one uh or maybe get lucky and get to guard a number two while you try to put someone else on the number one while he can kind of roam around and anchor a little bit more but he can also take the ball away just huge uh the bad news for

Maryland they’re used to having multiple top-notch Defenders that are at or above zapello skill level while also having an offensive player that’s usually one of the best players on the field uh they didn’t have that offensive threat last year hence Mak car getting the number

One and uh the same this year zapello is their obvious best player and they’re giving him the number one another huge thing for Maryland that I think isn’t being talked about enough or maybe it is and I’m just that douchebag now that says oh man you know the fronting on

Somebody uh is uh mcnany is back in cage Corning kid section 4 kid back in cage for for Maryland after winning a national title the season before that so mcnany is uh he’s going to bring some stability to not that Maryland was bad in goal last year uh they figured it out

By the end and they had a really good I believe their defense was what top 10 uh in terms of adjusted defensive efficiency so Maryland’s going to be good to go but having MCN and cage they’ve got to be excited about that and expect zapello to absolutely wreck

People here now this is where things start to get a little bit gross and I’m going to apologize to my Syracuse uh my fans that happen to also be Syracuse fans is once again I’ve got to talk about Hopkins because here was a gross thing about Hopkins in terms of this H

Is Hopkins back for a second season in a row uh debate here and this is not a typo uh what I’m about to say I believe it is accurate because I did see that Inside Lacrosse was talking about it as well Hopkins returns their top 11 scorers

From a season ago so as you’re looking at this the chance that the guy here if he’s one one of the top 11 on this list is back for the 2024 season I believe is a lock here um they haven’t had this much Firepower in a really long time and

Granted as we start getting down to the lower levels of this these aren’t guys that have put up a ton of points but still these are guys that have all played together multiple seasons in a row now have played within this system and uh that that’s nothing but

Good for Hopkins now angelis was last year’s top dog he put up 61 points 17 goals 44 helpers he facilitated did almost everything that Hopkins did to a degree outside of they had some mid Midfield Dodgers but they they really tried to push the ball a lot through X

With angelis and that was great when he was on point not so much when he wasn’t on point Hopkins went eight and0 when angelis scored three or more points when he was held to two points or fewer Hopkins was one and three now that that that’s obviously going to happen because

When your best player isn’t putting up points you’re not going to do quite as well that would also imply you’re playing against a defense that’s good enough to take him out of the mix and which means what else are they taking out of the mix and screwing up so

Obviously that makes sense but still angelis when he played well three or more points 8-0 when he didn’t one and three if he had two or fewer now lucky for the Jays though with all that said he scored three or more points in 11 of

The 17 games that he played in and from what we’re hearing from iil like I had talked about earlier he’s looking really good already and he’s got both of his linemates in degnan and Melendez back and you look here 61 points for him as a facilit primary primarily 17 and 44 was

What he put up here with a 32% shooting percentage that is excellent did not turn the ball over all that much 23 turnovers considering the amount of touches that he got the amount of offense that they tried to put through him uh and then you look at Russell Melendez 53 points 39%

Shooting dude could score highlight re level goals uh you know hustle Mendez whatever you want to call him here dude got it done Garrett degnan 41 and5 goal scoring threat dude has a cannon and uh all of these guys started pretty much the entire season Angelus and Melendez

Each missed the start but that’s it and then you look at melendez’s on uh shots on goal uh percentage 75.3% that’s pretty ridiculous now we get into the Midfield that was ranked number one Midfield in the country and you can kind of see why because we’ve got three midfielders here between uh Collison

Grimes and pesko that all put up 35 points 34 points and 21 points respectively all of them goal heavy but all of them can do either or Collison’s my favorite of the bunch uh he started 14 games last season I believe he was a freshman last year was last year as

Sophomore season I always forget and get mixed up because some of these guys now with Co have been here forever as we get deeper into the season you’re going to hear me say over and over again holy he’s still there Matt brandow of Yale I had no idea that brandow was

Going to be back at Yale which is crazy now because that attack unit at Yale between Brando brand lions and off hand here I’m forgetting the the third um that’s going to be a filthy attack unit I think we’re going to talk about them in a little bit here um so you get

Through to cison I think cison has midfielder of the Year level potential I was high on him a season ago I think he’s going to have a better season this year especially because once again he’s playing with all of these guys that he was used to playing with the last year

Brendan Grimes big name 20 and 14 last year Pesco 16 and5 and then you start getting down deeper we get into to the 78- N leading scores we we’re still looking at 16 points for Dylan Bower Ryan Evans put up 12 Casey McDermot put up uh 12 Brooks English who some are

Saying could be one of Hopkins best offensive players overall I believe is what iel was saying in that report unless I’m mixing him up he had 11 points last year and if they’re saying he’s progressed so much that he’s now one of their better offensive talents that’s just absolutely huge so yeah top

11 scorers from a season ago all back for Hopkins now this is an addition to erlin coming in to fortify the cage for Hopkins to their defense returning the bulk of everyone other than maone so once just nothing but optimism here coming out of blue jay land in Baltimore

Uh and we’ll get to see Syracuse play them here again now another thing I want to talk about and that is the media poll and the media poll pretty I don’t think there’s a whole lot of surprises I think the biggest mover upper in terms of you

Know where they finished the season last year to where they are now was definitely Syracuse but as I go through the poll here and we look at it I had Notre Dame Duke and Virginia I had Notre Dame Duke Virginia and uh Penn State and

Hopkins all in this order I I figured we had to Penn State surprised and I’m not sure what Penn State’s going to do this year uh but I felt feel I’ve always said this and I said this last year you got to reward the previous season’s success

In the preseason Poll for sure that’s just the way it works and uh I felt like that made sense I I saw even I think the like the USA lacrosse pole may have even had Maryland ahead of Hopkins which I thought was ludicrous but I felt like this was fair

And this is though where I break away from them now as we get into six through 10 I had Cornell and Maryland swapped here I had Cornell at five uh and then I had Maryland at number seven and then I had Army a eight so I nailed that one

Down this one right here I actually put Georgetown at nine I don’t know why it was partly rewarding last year’s success I I initially in one of my drafts had them further down so I pretty much got this one wrong they give that to Syracuse which I was glad about

Uh but I had this uh my number nine was Georgetown my number 10 was Syracuse Yale ends up picking that spot up here my number 11 was Princeton Michigan eats that one my number 12 was not Georgetown my number 12 was Michigan I forgot I realized for people who are only

Listening that I I lost you there with a couple of the spots my number 13 or 13 in the poll was Denver my number 13 was Yale and that was partly because when I did the poll I had not yet realized that Branda was back at Yale which is

Probably would have changed that for me as well um my so my 13 was Yale the number 14 in the poll is Princeton my 14 was Denver I nailed the Ruckers mine I had them at 15 and the pole did as well and then as we get down to the bottom

Here I had or the pole has Delaware at 16 I had Penn uh 17 is North Carolina I nailed it the pole has Boston you at 18 I had them I have Delaware at 18 Paul has Penn at 19 I had Boston you Paul has

Richmond at 20 I had Utah so I mean by by the time you get down to there who gives a crap I I tried to kind of do a mix of hey Utah made the tournament so let’s put Utah in the poll over Richmond even though I’m not sure if Utah can

Repeat that level of success so the ones I think mainly that I got wrong uh it was Michigan here Yale I probably should have had up a little higher but generally I think I did an okay job and I’m realizing as I’m reading this all

Off and talking about it that this was a terrible segment should not have done it or I should have done it more effectively and had a better plan and Cadence for it so let’s ditch the out of this here and this is where I get

Into to a degree flying by the sea to my pants so we will talk about some units here and we’re going to talk about the attack units for 2024 as per I and they think the top attack units are now they’re giving honorable mention to Syracuse Syracuse as everybody knows has

Spina and hilts back and Christian moule the transfer from uh Lehi and then Trey deer figure those four figure to factor in I believe from what I’ve heard it’s going to be Spina hilts and moule starting I think mle just fills that spot better because the problem the only problem I’ve heard

With deer is if you throw deer into that mix now you’ve got too many lefties you you don’t have a a guy that has proven that he can be just a legitimate and and absolute animal on the Dodge and I think mle and spina are both good dodging

Attackmen not that hilts can’t Dodge but hiltz is kind of a facilitator sloff ball scorer to a degree although he did a little bit more and mixed it up a little bit more last year in terms of carrying the ball partly by necessity Syracuse lacked a a really really solid

Elite Dodger on attack last year so I think moule is better than cursed in that spot I think he fits the the will gel with that Syracuse attack much better and then you can’t count deer out deer scoring threat probably will be a surprising feeder as well I hilts I

Always looked at as a guy that was going to score goals off Bell off ball snipe Lefty from wings and crap like that but he’s turned into a complete player and deer should be that as well as a freshman he’s an All-American out of high school here out

Of a I believe IMG is that where deer played um so they yep Syracuse gets honorable mentioned now Michigan I was surprised surprised to see them get mentioned except they bring in Lehigh grad transfer Justin Tian to replace losing big cat that we’ll talk about

Here in a little bit later so they got bone back Cohen back and this grad transfer uh and apparently that’s supposed to be a very good attack unit now bom was 45 and 28 or Bame I forget how to pronounce it I think it’s actually Bame uh 45 and 28 last season

Very good attackman overall uh Cohen 27 and 30 last season uh tiin 23 uh put up 23 yeah 23 points a season ago I believe so he’s going to probably fill it fill out that third attack spot apparently they looked very good against a sketchy Syracuse defense here come Saturday so

That’s all good things for M Michigan now Maryland they get maliver back from an injury last season maliver was supposed to be one of their better attackman last year he gets injured preseason doesn’t play at all uh but they get Braden XA Daniel uh Kelly uh

Danny maltz I don’t know who’s the crazy ball carrier in this mix it seems to me a lot of goalscoring guys I know Kelly can mix it up a little bit and last year’s Maryland offense they were still 11th in the country in terms of overall efficiency which lets you know the

System works now it’s just a matter of do they have the guys that can get Maryland back to the top of the Big 10 I’m not sure because Hopkins they bring all three of their attackman back as we talked about so I’m not going to wax nostalgic about them again but yeah

Hopkins being mentioned here in terms of one of the best attack units because they bring a very productive unit back you know full full full team okay we move on and now we get the this is where I’m not sure completely Cornell at number five obviously CJ

Cursed long and fth very formidable fth I believe is the kid of the group and cursed I mean 65 and 19 per my LAX Factor um attack rankings which I’ll put out here come next week and the week after we’ll start talking about them more cursed is actually the top ranked

Attackman per my computer generated rankings it’s really not computer generated rankings and it’s more a formula uh to to rank players and cursed is the best partly because he turns the ball over very little scores a boatload of points overall so his points per game is high but more importantly um between

Not turning the ball over he takes the ball away the gap between his shooting percentage and his Ong goal percentage is one of the smaller uh amongst the top attackman so that kind of brought him up to the top so cursed and that Corell unit will be formidable uh this unit

Here Leo Johnson Chris Lions I Miss Johnson and Matt brandow that’s a ridiculous attack unit brandow is like a a 30-year-old man at this point he’s been at Yale for 17 years uh officially so that’s nuts to have all three of those guys back brand was 37 and 33 a

Season ago which I felt like was a step back for him because I figured brandow was going to put up 90 plus I had him picked as maybe my Tartan favorite or one of my Tartan favorites last year I thought he was is going to have that

Kind of season being a you know 29-year-old attackman he didn’t because partly you know you got Leo uh Johnson and lions Johnson puts up 40 and 22 Lions 62 and 12 both huge leaps in their game brandow takes a little bit of a step back but very very very sick

Disgusting filthy attack unit here uh that Yale’s going to put on the field Virginia Connor shellenberger Payton Cormier Jack Boyen uh mccab Millan now I believe Millan uh in one of their scrimmages I read somewhere that it looked like Millan did play the entire game at attack so I believe that the the

Unit may end up being shellenberger Cormier and Millan primarily but boen will get worked in either at Midfield or you know as a fourth attackman rotating in through them I I don’t I’ve talked about them enough on the Pod you know shellenberger one of the best in the

Country Cormier the best finisher in the country and Millan uh transferring from North Carolina up to every wait did Millan transfer from North Carolina up to Virginia who knows but Millan is going to tear it up here Cormier was 52 and 12 last year uh shell Berger 84

Points 30 and 54 3.38 assists per game led the country so you know you know you know what it is here Virginia is going to be very good on attack yet again especially with shellenberger at X or up on the right wing opposite of Cormier going to be dirty now number two

I don’t this one I don’t agree with people are going to chirp the out of me I feel like Notre Dame you probably could have bumped Notre Dame down to five in terms of the attack you the grit and and oh my gosh I can just picture people coming after me for this

After saying all that out loud I almost feel bad myself because don’t get me wrong they’re one of my favorite attack units in the country one of the most fun attack units to watch in the country but to have them at number two I felt like wasn’t you know just from a statistical

Standpoint uh in terms of my LAX Factor attack rankings Kavanagh because of the wide Gulf in terms of his shooting percentage and his on goal percentage mixed with a lower you know points per game than what a lot of these guys have I I like it I like Jake Taylor it’ll be

Interesting to see what Jake Taylor can do in a full season because I don’t think he’s played a full season opposite of uh Kavanagh Kavanagh and then now Chris Kavanagh with him so while I love the Kavanaugh Brothers they’re the two toughest attackman in the country Taylor’s an absolute animal High

Highlight goal scoring freak Ricky ardelli is also very good I just not sure these guys deserve to be the number two unit in that way because I feel like if you were to pick units to build your team around I feel like you’re taking shellenberger and Cormier over those

Guys I feel like just because CJ Kurst overall I think is the second best attackman in the country maybe the third you know I I feel like you’d end up taking maybe even Cornell and then look at this unit in terms of quality all the way through Point production all the way

Through efficiency all the way through y’s units better so that was my only disagreement I I didn’t mind their order other than I felt like I would have bumped Notre Dame down the list and the no-brainer absolute no brainer whatsoever is Duke at number one O’Neal

The best in the game Dyson Williams in terms of off ball finishing one of the top three guys in the country not an outside shooter Cormier is unique not unique in terms of off Ball but Cormier is good in close uh off ball and will snipe you from all over the field out

Top on the left wing there William is not that crazy outside shooter he’s a true what you would kind of consider a crease and around the crease attackman madori bring uh finishes out that starting crew and then the transfer of Josh Zada now I don’t think we’re going

To see Zada play attack I think we’ll see the trend continue where a guy like Zada may end up playing Midfield but because uh Andrew madori was a midfielder in high in high school I believe played both attack and Midfield you may end up seeing macador anchor

That first Midfield unit and then then Zada play attack Z Zada just a huge transfer the kid from Michigan here so madori 36 and 25 on attack last year Williams UH 60 and five O’Neal 55 and 42 best player on the list for sure but uh zada’s numbers I don’t see zad numbers

In here um yeah doesn’t show Zas but make no mistake he’s going to fit in perfectly at Duke heady kid uh can do everything can shoot from outside a little bit he’s not doesn’t have the the biggest snipe but he he has range to him and he can probably just about fill

Every role being the veteran that he is so 100% I’m on board with that like I said Notre Dame I just don’t think they deserve to be quite that high uh but they’re definitely I think one of the top five units overall partly just because of their toughness team

Leadership now they’ve won a national title for uh the Irish uh so chirp me chirp me I deserve it I I accept it it’s just the one place I disagreed with them now we get into Midfield rankings and once again uh we get into who they mention as honorable mention here uh

Yale with Thomas Bragg who’s got just an absolute Cannon and then the rest of these guys you know not huge names or whatnot but they’re they they provide depth they’re generally interchangeable and all of them can put some points up Cornell Aiden Blake Hugh kellerer Spencer wortheim I don’t think they’re going to

Have depth at Midfield and I’m surprised they get mentioned but you got to throw him in here Georgetown gets Alexander vardaro from Princeton they got Graham Bundy Dylan Hess um so all those guys are very good lacrosse players TJ Haley um on attack is going to be good but in

Terms of Midfield units Georgetown they deserve the mention here uh Bryant they mentioned Princeton lost all their midfielders to other people so they still have some depth apparently but let’s dive into the the real the real numbers here number five by I by I is mar Mar’s unit of Jack korus Zack

Whittier Eric Spanos Jack Brennan Owen Murphy Elijah stoa stobo however the hell you pronounce that onto I don’t I don’t know much about these guys honestly I know Maryland surprised offensively considering how far I thought compared to where I thought they were going to end up offensively to how

They finished and that H obviously has to do with all the team team depth we know that Maryland has no chumps on this team period but that one I’m not sure about I know chorus here it says 21 goals eight helpers Brennan 7 and 11 so not a whole lot of absolute proven

Talent but absolute solid dogs that can play and provide depth and we’ll get the job done and we’ll play Within that system now the one I’m excited about obviously number four here Syracuse and I’m not sure how they’re going to break this up because per the scrimmage it it

They didn’t really say but what they’re showing here and I’m sure there’s you know some logic uh plugged in here maybe even from gate personally the Midfield line Finn the first line Finn Thompson Jake Stevens Michael Leo Leo broke out both Thompson and Leo were freshmen last

Year Leo I believe anchored the second line but was one of the best Dodgers on the team for Syracuse last year Finn Thompson played opposite Alex Simmons a Canadian and they played an excellent two-man game on that first Midfield line so it made sense to me that they would

Have Stevens and Thompson on that first Midfield line again because both Canadians can kind of play opposite of each other in that two-man game and you can have Leo be the initial Dodger and kind of the main Dodger of the offense from out top and then you got Luke Roa

Who played well Sam English transfer from Princeton a very good player has been injured but he’s you know he’s should be back and looking good and then Jackson Bert whistle who uh produced a lot of points for cuse and then they have guys even below that that’ll

Probably work into the mix here but Leo 18-8 last year Thompson 19 and 14 a very good feeder especially out of that two-man game as a midfielder so all sorts of depth would when you add Stevens and English Stevens can go both ways so expect him to even get some

Points maybe in transition from time to time so Syracuse there with the number four Army we’ve got Evan Plunkett Jacob morren bileo Conor Moren had a big season last year and then some depth to go through once again I don’t know enough about all these guys to to go

Crazy outside of punk P punet plunket was 21 and 25 he’s a special player uh like I said Jacob morren is a veteran he was 36- six last year so two very good midfielders to Anchor that morren took freaking 116 shots on the season burying

31 of them uh Gunner fellows was 23 and six last year as an attackman but it looks like he might run a little bit of Midfield so all things to think about Notre Dame and uh I think that just because of Jacob Eric Dobson alone you could put Notre Dame up here Dobson’s

One of my favorite midfielders in the country but what Notre Dame has here is a good mixx of tough midfielders Dobson the big cat but uh Jaylen Seymour who looks like he’ll get line two time he was 5 and one last year uh Dobson uh as

Their top dog last year at the Midfield 34 and 11 and it seems like Notre Dame always has that big monster the big tough uh midfielder that can light it up like an animal from out top you know so Dobson’s got 100 plus mph speed on a

Shot can get up and down can die a little bit here and there um but off ball just as a sniper you find him out top with his hands free he’s going to murder people but he’s also going to beat you on the Dodge just because he’s

A big beast uh gray 16 and three those are the known Commodities uh per what they said and once again I feel like National Champion winning I I don’t know that Notre Dame that their Midfield has the depth let’s say that even a Syracuse Midfield does in terms of Point

Production but the fact that they’re playing well within a system and they are the returning national champs gets them up here that’s the only one I can’t say I disagree though because of Eric Eric Dobson alone he’s that good I think that he my probably my top pick by the

Time all of a sudden done for a shot at you know gaining midfielder of the year so on and so forth and then we already talked about it Hopkins here Matt Collison I think is one of the other top five midfielders on this list here Brooks English Pesco all coming back

From a year ago Brennan Grimes uh all of these guys are really good I think in terms of if you look at top to bottom they they probably do deserve to be the number one uh ranked Midfield unit I think that the sleeper here and I I say

This and everyone’s going to roll their eyes I think the sleeper here is Syracuse only because these young guys played incredible last year with a rough go you know they were all young trying to figure it out they didn’t have the the best attack unit overall simply

Because they were still trying to figure out where everybody fit and the midfielders really I think carried this team last season to that 8- seven record or whatever they finished so these these are my sleepers all and and they’re only my sleepers because of Jake Stevens

Being added to the mix and because of Sam English being added to the mix Thompson Leo Roa ber whistle all very good players and I think would have maybe warranted the fifth spot even without bringing in Stevens and English and you bring those two in and I I agree

With their with them putting them at four but I think by the time all of said and done in terms of points production that you could see this unit be one of the best maybe top three in the country boom defensively I didn’t really like any of these rankings obviously they uh

Inside Lacrosse has Navy and army kind of honorable mentioned here they mentioned Cornell who lost the best defender in the country the number one pick in the PLL draft they lose their goalie so I don’t know I I don’t know that Cornell has ever had that much

Depth at defense that they could lose their three-year starter in cage and their the nation’s best defender and then still be right on the outside of a top five defense but that’s what iel had here now number five Virginia I feel like because of their because of castner

And kogi Cole Cole Kastner Griffin cogi transfer from Richmond played for vgin Virginia last year did very well Kastner now steps into that top role uh on the defense as sad leaves you got Matt Nunes who’s a streaky goalie but he’s a goalie that’s got experience like none other

And has played in every big game possible I really like the Virginia Defense and I think that them them at number five didn’t necessarily make sense to me uh I think partly they end up giving up a lot of points because of the way they play defense but I think

If you pop cner and kogi on any team in the country they’re potentially that team’s best defender and will play well in any system um so anyway Virginia sitting here at number five Maryland I just because of zapello alone I felt like Maryland should probably be a

Little bit higher uh but the problem being that zapello is the guy they know they no longer have two top All-American talents here they’ve got now got zapello and then three guys in I I like berce uh schaer and alviti I don’t know a lot

About but I do like Colin blace and uh you know zapello two of the top Defenders or zapello definitely I think the best defender in the country in my opinion right now in terms of allaround ability to cover a man and take that guy candy away from him and then you bring

Back Logan mcnany All-American goalkeeper injured a year ago won a national title bringing him back I think is huge so I guess that’s maybe not too bad of a placement here especially with mcnany coming back from injury Hopkins Scott Smith we already talked about it Smith uh suck and stoer look to Anchor

The defense Chase Erin coming in from Cornell very good goenda of getting hot and putting up 20 plus saves did it last year twice at least um so that’s a very good unit North Carolina I I actually know nothing about this North Carolina crew other than has been their starter

For you know what the last three seasons or whatnot uh Andrew Gart uh what is it gerer a Maryland transfer leading Advocate Andrew I don’t know gerer I forget where geer’s from oh gard’s a brown graduate so yeah that apparently everyone’s thinking real highly about this defense with c and

Cage at number two I sound like a here at this point and then the Notre Dame defense I probably agree with Conlin very good Defender very good allaround Defender does everything well uh bergm once again a very good Defender but you’ve got Liam entman returning in

Cage I Will Not front on Liam entman ever again uh I thought he was overrated a year ago and he I think he his regular season may have kind of lined up to a degree with what I was talking about but his performance through the tournament

Um shut me up he wins a national title as a goalkeeper for Notre Dame was a big reason they won that national title and uh so I will shut up about them I’m totally cool with Notre Dame in terms of a system being one of the better defensive systems in college across

Because every year they’re putting up a a very good defensive team they do lose Chris fake but I wouldn’t worry too much about that because timon’s back Conlin is very capable and I believe every player on this list is pretty much worthy of uh wearing uh the gold helmets

And and rocking defense for Notre Dame so boom that is what I think about Notre Dame let’s get into my Quick Pick here uh in terms of I just wanted to throw out some some quick crap here uh uh Tartan favorite my Tartan favorite for 2024 before the season gets under way

Here is O’Neal I think you’d be crazy not to have him at the top of your list um especially because he brings all his boys back and some to help him out again here uh I think that you got to throw shellenberger in the mix in there uh you

Could throw uh who else I don’t even know I think those are the two favorites and I think one of those two probably win The Tartan I think the problem um with guys like Kavanaugh uh are just going to be Point production isn’t going to be there you know in order to win

That that it’s been proven over and over again to win The Tartan you need to put up a shitload of points and be on a team that is very good uh you know so that’s that’s the key here you either have to lead the country in scoring by quite a

Bit or you have to be one of the top five scorers in the country uh top 10 scores in the country and play on a team no top five let’s go back to top five scores in the country and play on a team that is you know it to final four

Weekend so that ends up being how that works now my schedule here for the week is I think I’m going to more than likely live stream a show uh I’m I’m going to live stream I think one of the shows I may live stream Sunday morning because

The idea being it’ll just make it easier to get the show out and then it just exists in The Ether and then I’ll put out a quick like uh preview show every Thursday is what the plan is right now so as I get into the season and get into

The flow and I figure out which day of the week I want to do the weekday show I’ll put that show out and we’ll decide but I’m I’m leaning heavily into maybe live streaming Sunday morning’s show uh just to make it easier on me you know

Because then I don’t have to cut things up after I can just kind of do the show it lives out there in The Ether afterwards and we’re good to go so that’s it I’m going to shut the hell up here first first day back I’ve rambled

For 37 minutes so far I am I have no idea if this entertained you are you not entertained I don’t know so let me know everybody start hitting me with questions I need questions to answer uh in segments so hit me up on social media

Hit me up in the comments here ask me whatever tell me what you want me to talk about I will talk about it tell me teams you want to see get more coverage I will try to cover them just boss me around for the most most part but like I

Said I’m going to shut the hell up here and get out so thank you for watching thank you for listening come back Thursday Thursday we will do the preview show for the games that are upcoming here uh on Saturday and then obviously come back Sunday for the big shebang the

First weekend pre uh review show and uh that’s it thank you for watching thank you for listening and host is out La Factor the LA Factor Podcast