2023 Men's Top 30: How Johns Hopkins Fared vs. Projections

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2024, our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking one last look at 2023.

After all, you have to look at the most recent results before making projections for what’s to come. To do that, we’re taking a journey through the top 30 teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse — what went right, what went wrong and what we should all think of that team’s season.

Was it a success? A failure? A mixture of both? You’ll find out our thoughts over the next month or so.

JOHNS HOPKINS MEN’S LACROSSE

Nike/USA Lacrosse Preseason/Final Top 20 Ranking: Unranked (also considered)/5
2023 record: 12-6 (4-1 Big Ten)

WHAT WENT RIGHT

The Blue Jays’ top transfer portal acquisitions — defenseman Alex Mazzone (team-highs with 77 GBs and 18 CT) and attackman Russell Melendez (37 G, 16 A) — proved brilliant. Jacob Angelus (17 G, 44 A) did a fine job of setting the table on offense. First-year offensive coordinator John Crawley found creative ways to utilize plenty of versatile options. Hopkins won at Maryland to close out the regular season, almost a year to the day of a humiliating 15-goal loss to the Terrapins at Homewood Field. Hopkins earned its first NCAA berth since 2019 and won its first postseason game since 2018 when it blasted Bryant 22-8 in the first round.

WHAT WENT WRONG

Very little compared to the last few years. Injuries contributed to (but were not solely to blame) for back-to-back losses to North Carolina and Loyola in February. After that, Hopkins didn’t drop consecutive games, and three of its four losses (including a quarterfinal setback against Notre Dame) came against eventual championship weekend teams. Falling at home to Maryland in the Big Ten tournament was the exception.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT

It was a good spring for payback, as the Blue Jays beat six teams it had lost to in 2022 — among them, Georgetown, Navy, Delaware, Rutgers and Ohio State. But the 12-11 victory over Maryland in College Park was arguably the sweetest moment given the rivalry’s recent history and also secured Hopkins a share of the Big Ten regular season title.

VERDICT

While there were some fine individual performances, what stood out about Hopkins was how it found help from many places on its roster. It was fitting coach Peter Milliman often described the Blue Jays’ goal as having the best role players in the country. Hopkins appears to be back on track after enduring three consecutive losing seasons and a coaching change in the middle of a pandemic.