WASHINGTON --- Kevin Warne will never forget the first two times Daniel Bucaro visited Georgetown, for very different reasons.

The first came on a mid-February weekend in 2013 when the new Hoyas coach lost his debut game against Lafayette. It wasn’t exactly the sort of impression he wanted to give a recruit.

The second was later that year, when Bucaro called Warne on his way back home to Long Island from a trip to campus.

“I remember getting a call, I was getting off 495 to get on 95 and he calls and the first thing I’m thinking is ‘Oh, he forgot something --- he left a shirt or something silly like that.’” Warne said. “He goes ‘Coach, I think I want to come to Georgetown.’ And I’m like “What? Awesome.’ I literally hit the rumble strips --- DUH-DUH-DUH-DUH. I was like ‘Oh my God, Danny, I almost hit the divider. This is unbelievable.’”

It wouldn’t be the last time Bucaro did something to alter the Hoyas’ trajectory.

The senior scored four goals in Georgetown’s 12-9 defeat of Denver in the Big East final on Saturday, including three in the fourth quarter. He has 53 goals and 25 assists to help the Hoyas (13-4) reach their second consecutive NCAA tournament.

And this time, he’ll get to play in it.

Perhaps the most remarkable part of Georgetown’s run last year was that Bucaro wasn’t around for the tail end of it, missing the last five games with a torn ACL.

He was at practice every day, shadowing offensive coordinator Mike Phipps. He would offer suggestions to teammates, and enjoyed the success of a program making its first postseason appearance in 11 years.

But he was also highly motivated to get his own shot — something that will come Saturday when the Hoyas travel to fifth-seeded Yale for a first round tournament game.

“I wanted to get back,” Bucaro said. “Watching them win a Big East championship, I wanted to be back on the field and do whatever I could to get back. I wanted to play with my friends again. I wanted to practice with them and joke around and just be out on the field.”

And he didn’t want to wait. Midfielder Lucas Wittenberg recalled seeing a video just two weeks after Bucaro’s surgery. Bucaro was seated in his backyard. His knee couldn’t move and his crutches leaned against his chair.

So what was he doing? Passing a lacrosse ball to his dad.

Warne observed Bucaro’s stickwork improved since last season, in part because there was little else lacrosse-related he could physically do. But Bucaro was still busy, juggling an internship and physical therapy, as well as remaining in regular contact with the rest of a senior class determined to build on the breakout of 2018.

It was fair to wonder just how quickly Bucaro could make it back. He answered it by winning — not taking part in, but winning --- the Hoyas’ test run when practice began in January.

“We’re all like ‘What is this freak doing?’” Wittenberg said. “That part of it was wild. I think another thing was all of us wanted to make sure he wasn’t overdoing it. But at the same time, someone with that kind of skill, that kind of understanding of their body, someone who is that elite of an athlete, you can’t be restricting them.”

A healthy Bucaro solved a lot of questions for Georgetown, which transformed itself from a team reliant on defense a season ago to one unabashedly trying to outscore opponents this spring.

His presence only amplifies the effectiveness of fellow attackman Jake Carraway (53 goals, 30 assists), and provides one more target for an exceptional feeder like Wittenberg, who earned Big East tournament MVP honors after collecting 10 assists in two games.

“The impact it’s had is pretty crazy,” Wittenberg said. “First off, he’s the leader of the offense. We’re trying to get the ball to him as much as possible. But outside of that, the presence he has on the field playing with him, the way he sees the field and the way he runs around, there’s not many guys in college lacrosse you can give the ball to and they’ll take it to the rack and score whenever they feel like it. There’s very few of those and I think he doesn’t get nearly enough credit for how skilled he is.”

But there’s an intangible effect as well, one that has helped steer Georgetown to a combined 27-9 record in 2018 and 2019 after managing a meager 6-22 showing over the two seasons before that.

Last year’s senior class, having grown tired of losing, was rightfully credited for a large part of that turnaround for its willingness to invest everything to avoid a miserable final season. But Bucaro has played a large role in ensuring that wasn’t merely a blip.

“You kind of just believe him because you know what you’re going to get,” Warne said. “If he can affect those other guys, which he does, it’s not just Danny Bucaro who believes it. All the sudden, there’s five, 10, 15 guys. It just happens. He’s just one of those special kids.”

Added Wittenberg: “He’s the glue of the entire team. He’s the heartbeat of the team, no doubt about it.”

Georgetown has already matched its accomplishments of a year ago, when it fell in overtime to Johns Hopkins in the first round after upsetting Denver in the Big East final. The Hoyas haven’t won an NCAA tournament game since 2007, and it’s what they hope to leave Connecticut with Saturday afternoon.

It’s an opportunity Bucaro appreciates after how the last 13 months have unfolded, and he acknowledged the thought of playing in the NCAA tournament crept into his mind as the final minutes of the Big East title game unfolded.

“At one point in the game, I started smiling,” Bucaro said. “It all hit me. It’s a feeling I can’t describe. It was a really special moment, and I’m just so happy to do it here.”