2023 NCAA Lacrosse Rankings: No. 3 Georgetown (Men)

The 2023 college lacrosse season is almost here. As is our annual tradition, we’re featuring every team ranked in the Nike/USA Lacrosse Preseason Top 20.

Check back to USALaxMagazine.com each weekday this month for new previews, scouting reports and rival analysis.

TOP RETURNERS

Will Bowen, D, Gr.

Last year’s Schmeisser Award winner is one of college lacrosse’s most known quantities at any position, and he heads into his second year at Georgetown having split the fall between the Hoyas’ practices and tryouts for the U.S. national team. “I also think the USA experience has absolutely allowed him to grow and analyze and figure things out,” Kevin Warne said. “A million things have allowed him to get better because of that experience, and he’s brought that back to practice every day.”

Graham Bundy Jr., M, Sr.

The captain of the U.S. team that won gold at the U21 world championship in Ireland over the summer, Bundy rested during the fall. His place in the Hoyas’ offense is secure. He delivered 45 goals and 25 assists last season, and his 70 points led a team that ranked fifth in the country with 15.06 goals per game. Bundy will again anchor Georgetown’s first midfield line.

James Reilly, FO, Sr.

Already Georgetown’s career leader in faceoff wins (693) and ground balls (397), Reilly is back for a fifth season after winning 60.5 percent of his draws in 2022. The Hoyas anticipate another heavy workload for Reilly this season, which is why he spent much of his fall as an offensive midfielder. “They’re like SEC running backs,” Warne said. “These guys have only so many miles on their bodies, and we know we’re going to need them in the spring. And he’s a guy who can handle it.”

KEY ADDITIONS

Tucker Dordevic, A, Gr. (Syracuse)

One of the biggest fish in the transfer portal this offseason was Dordevic, who had 47 goals and 12 assists for Syracuse in 2022 and is one of several graduate students to land at Georgetown. Dordevic has midfield experience, but it’s likely he begins the season on attack for the Hoyas.

Daniel Hincks, G, Gr. (Dartmouth)

The Dartmouth transfer started 28 of 29 games for the Big Green and owns a .541 career save percentage, so he’s a viable option to replace the graduated Owen McElroy in the cage.

Jacob Kelly and Nicky Solomon A/M, Gr. (North Carolina)

Kelly (20 G, 15 A) and Solomon (20 G, 17 A) were both mainstays on offense for North Carolina last season and will wrap up their careers at Georgetown. Both provide some versatility and experience to an offense that has some proven options (Graham Bundy Jr., TJ Haley and Declan McDermott, among them) back in the fold.

KEY DEPARTURES

Graduations: Zachary Geddes, SSDM; Colin Morin, A; Owen McElroy, G; Gibson Smith IV, D; Alex Trippi, A/M
Transfers: Alex Mazzone, LSM (Johns Hopkins); Dylan Watson, A (Jacksonville)

STORYLINES TO WATCH

How much did last year’s NCAA tournament light a fire in this program?

Warne said the fall was about fixing some things internally, more connected to the mental side of the game than the physical.

And considering Georgetown largely breezed into the postseason as the No. 2 seed, only to lose to Delaware in the first round, the most obvious fix is figuring out exactly how that combination came to be paired together.

After a relatively stress-free regular season in 2022, complacency is a foe Warne doesn’t want to deal with again.

“I think that’s the biggest thing for us: Are you still hungry?” Warne said. “Do you have enough humility to realize you’re not where you want to be, but also have the confidence to know if you put in the work and pay attention to details, work your tail off and compete, you can play with anybody in the country? There’s a fine line between those two things. Trust me.”

Do the new pieces mesh?

Georgetown embraced the portal again, and it might have picked up four eventual starters from other teams. That means there will naturally be a lack of familiarity.

Not helping matters: The Hoyas’ various grad school class commitments meant they practiced as a full team only about 15 times in the fall, so things haven’t entirely been sorted out.

“Our guys are older guys, so they have experience but not experience with each other,” Warne said. “That’ll be the biggest thing. What I hope and think will happen, we could be better later on in the season as we start to get acclimated.”

Another major element is where everyone fits in. The likes of Tucker Dordevic, Jacob Kelly and Nicky Solomon all have attack and midfield experience, so there is some flexibility. Nonetheless, there’s only so much time to tinker with positions in the spring.

“With the fifth-year guys, when you bring them in, you can tweak,” Warne said. “It’s not a major overhaul. You have to figure out what they do best and go from there.”

Who wins the goalie competition?

Georgetown has at least some experience returning in the form of sophomore Michael Scharfenberger, who started victories over Lehigh, Denver and Providence in place of Owen McElroy and posted a .597 save percentage in eight games.

But there were also moments in the fall when Warne was reminded why the Hoyas signed Dartmouth transfer Danny Hincks — including a Friday night scrimmage when Warne was standing at the midfield line.

“Someone was dodging down the alley and I had a perfect view of what that offensive guy was looking at in the goal and all I saw was Danny Hincks,” Warne said of the 6-foot-5, 215-pounder. “I was like, ‘Where the heck are we going to shoot the ball?’”

Warne wasn’t willing to commit to a starter in December but acknowledged he felt more comfortable with two solid options rather than one. Whoever wins the job will have experience in front of him, with Will Bowen and James Donaldson returning as starters on the close defense.

ENEMY LINES
WHAT RIVALS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE HOYAS

“Stacked. I heard another team refer to this team as having North Carolina’s starting attack playing as its second midfield. I thought that was a pretty good one. There’s no doubt with the recruits they brought in and the transfers they have, with the experience they’ve got at all ends of the field — including the middle — if they’re not favored to win it all, with Virginia and Maryland, certainly in that 1-2-3 spot.”

“I think they can win the whole thing. I think they’re the most talented team. I think they have something to prove. I think they know who they are. I think losing early last year is the best thing for them in the long run because it brought them back to earth a little bit and forced them to focus on the details even further than Kevin has. I do believe they have all the pieces to be the last team standing.”

BEYOND THE BASICS
POWERED BY LACROSSE REFERENCE

86.8%

We saw what Rutgers did last year with a bunch of incoming transfers, and now we get to see if Georgetown can do something similar with Tucker Dordevic coming to town. It’ll be a new look Hoyas offense with Dylan Watson, Connor Morin and Alex Trippi all moving on. But with the addition of Dordevic and friends, Kevin Warne is bringing in the second-most transfer production of anyone in Division I men’s lacrosse. Ultimately, though, this is not a team for whom the underlying statistics are that relevant. They’ve been great over the past two seasons, right up until they weren’t. Not to dredge up bad memories, but the projections had Georgetown with an 86.8 percent chance to beat Delaware last May. They’ve got the tools. Can they get over the hump this year?

Lacrosse Reference Glossary