It's always a great question and one I always give the same answer to.
I don't know lol.
1) It's very hard to make the tournament. The margins are extremely small. In our last two appearances we made the quarters and FF. Both years it wasn't a guarantee we were going to make the tournament. And that's every team. Outside of an autobid, there are no guarantees.
2) Injuries. We've been really fortunate the last couple of years, then we lose Cameron at the most critical time this past season. I firmly believe we make the tournament if he doesn't get hurt. We win a least one more B1G game, not to mention what we were missing in the Army game that I also believe we win if our All American long pole and our fogo are there. That is D1 sports though.
Those things said, there is certainly reason for optimism. We completely reloaded in the area of the field we needed to-- in the middle. Through the Brecht years, that's where we make hay. Our athleticism was always the equal or in most cases, more than the teams we played. From back in the days of Christian Scarpello all the way through the great Dmids of Kamish and co. We owned the middle of the field. The kids we brought in will get us back to aggressive play there and starting our offense as soon as we get the ball on defense. That's our system. When you don't have those guys in the middle you can't run our system as it was designed. We went from being light there last year to now having proven guys and depth at that most critical spot. We can easily play 3 long poles and 5-6 shorties if we have to. Comfortably.
Goalie spot is solid. Stoller was a highly recruited kid who really could have played last season as freshman. We went with the experience but the staff was really comfortable with Stoller. There was some real thought he was going to play early. It's his time now. The freshman we are bringing in can play too. We are good at that spot.
D has some pieces they've been sitting on in the wings, namely McKelvy who is really long and rangy, which Brecht loves. Poles in the middle are set, and brining in Rizzotti bolsters both the close d and long pole spot.
With the younger guys who got burn last year hopefully better, along with a few first years like Kurdyla who, again, you don't want to put too much pressure on but it would be a surprise if he doesn't get early runs, there is a lot of optimism.
Most of the teams in the league got better. But we did too. It will be another gauntlet like it is every year, but we have a lot more firepower than we did last season.
In college lacrosse there are no guarantees of anything, but I love what we are stepping on to the field with. We brought in great kids who will play with other great kids already in the program. They work extremely hard and are locked in. A hallmark of Brecht teams is we are almost always playing our best lacrosse when it counts the most. April/May. If that is the case, I like our chances.
Understand that is the expectation in the program now. Make the tournament, get to the final four, and compete for championships. That's the language used.
