NCAA Rewind: Superb Offense Carried Harvard

Before USA Lacrosse Magazine looks ahead to what’s to come in 2025 — look out for our NCAA Way-Too-Early Top 25 rankings later this summer — our team of staff and contributors decided it was worth taking a last look at the 2024 college lacrosse season.

To do that, we’re taking a journey through 30 of the top teams in men’s and women’s lacrosse to see what went right, what went wrong and how we should feel about the season.

HARVARD

USA Lacrosse preseason/final ranking: unranked/also considered
2024 record: 8-5 (2-4 Ivy League)

What went right: Sam King. The junior attackman piled up 38 goals and 35 assists, the most points in a season for the Crimson since Steve Martin had 75 in 1978 (and the third-most ever).

And it wasn’t just King. Graham Blake (29 goals) and Teddy Malone (28 goals, 11 assists) flirted with 30-goal seasons, and Harvard was an excellent shooting team (33.3 percent) and ruthless on the man-up (57.1 percent).

It’s why the Crimson reached double figures in all but one game (Cornell), upended Michigan in the early going and had Virginia wobbling before the Cavaliers rallied in the fourth quarter.

What went wrong: While the defense could have been better (a common problem in the Ivy League this season), Harvard’s greatest headaches came from having to defend too much. The Crimson won just 43.1 percent of faceoffs, a number that dropped to 37.1 percent in Ivy League play and 37.7 percent in five losses.

Outside of a late-season thumping at Cornell, Harvard was largely competitive even when it lost. Its superb offense just couldn’t generate enough opportunities to keep up with some potent opponents.

Season highlight: Harvard capped a 6-0 start that saw it charge into the rankings with a 13-11 victory at Michigan. It was the Crimson’s best start since 1990, and King had four goals and two assists as Harvard collected its most valuable victory of the season.

Verdict: The Crimson improved on its 5-7 mark in 2023, and it has posted two winning seasons in a three-year span for the first time since 2009-11. At the same time, it was eliminated from Ivy League tournament contention before the final weekend. Not all progress is linear, but there’s probably some frustration Harvard hasn’t capitalized more on its 2022 NCAA tournament berth over the last two seasons.