The USILA announced their All-American lists today. A total of 95 -- 95! -- players earned honors this year, which is somewhere in the vicinity of four percent of Division I's players noted as putting in exceptional efforts this season. Here's how the first team selections look:
First Team
Attack
Marcus Holman, University of North Carolina
Robert Pannell, Cornell University
Lyle Thompson, University at Albany
Midfield
Cameron Flint, University of Denver
John Haus, University of Maryland
David Lawson, Duke University
JoJo Marasco, Syracuse University
Tom Schreiber, Princeton University
Defense
Tucker Durkin, Johns Hopkins University
Joe Fletcher, Loyola University
Jason Noble, Cornell University
Face-Off
Brendan Fowler, Duke University
Goalie
Austin Kaut, Penn State University
Long-stick midfield
Jesse Bernhardt, University of Maryland
Some brief thoughts on the first team:
- I'm okay with the composition of the attack. There are four guys that put together campaigns that are/were legitimately first-team worthy for that position: The three that ultimately earned the honor and Kieran McArdle of St. John's. McArdle was the most productive of the four on an estimated per-possession basis, but I can understand his relegation to the second team. If St. John's had made the Big East Tournament and/or the NCAA Tournament, McArdle's honor may have been a little different. It's hard to pass three Tewaaraton finalists and competitors that helped their team to The Big Barbecue.
- Kevin Massa should have been the first team face-off specialist. Massa owns a better individual raw faceoff win percentage than Fowler (72.6 percent to 64.9 percent), won more draws than Fowler even though Fowler took more attempts (315-434 to 303-467), and Bryant relied on Massa to give them a higher percentage of their offensive opportunities (43.63 percent of the Bulldogs' offensive opportunities are attributable to a Massa faceoff win) than what Fowler gave Duke (42.56 percent). Massa was more important to his team and was better at the specialist position; the sophomore was overlooked.
- Schreiber and Marasco are no-brainer selections to the first team at the midfield position. I understand the arguments for Lawson and Flint. I'm not as enthralled with Haus earning first team honors when there's a strong argument that Mike Chanenchuk was actually Maryland's most valuable midfielder this season. In terms of snubs, Bucknell's Dave Dickson (third team) and Drexel's Ben McIntosh (honorable mention) have the biggest beefs: Both players had incredibly productive seasons despite the fact that their teams didn't earn a May adventure. It's tough out there for a midfielder.
- The Blonde Satan earned the goalie nod. Bellarmine's Dillon Ward makes a very strong case for first team consideration (he really should have earned second team honors over Niko Amato), but Kaut is in his own universe.
- The long-stick midfielder pool is deep, again, but Bernhardt as the first team selection makes sense. Ratliff is a different kind of player at the long-stick position than Bernhardt, but the Maryland senior was tops at the position in 2013. As an aside, I can't wait to see what John LoCascio has in store for college lacrosse next season (it's nuts that the 2013 Big East Defender of the Year is only a third team All-American selection, but that's the situation with Ratliff and Bernhardt in the fold).
- Until the day that a robot smashes my skull during the robot apocalypse, I will contend that picking the first team All-American defense is the hardest task possible. I'm okay with what the USILA put together -- Durkin will likely win the Schmeisser Award again this season, Joe Fletcher is an animal, and Jason Noble anchors a violently undervalued defense. However, there are all kinds of productive and valuable defensive players that are in the conversation with Durkin, Noble, and Fletcher: Yale's Peter Johnson, Syracuse's Brian Megill, Virginia's Scott McWilliams, Maryland's Michael Ehrhardt, Colgate's Bobby Lawrence, Army's Brendan Buckley, Notre Dame's Matt Miller, and on and on and on. It's all how you value what these defensive players do and what they're asked to do. There is no tougher decision in assembling the first team than picking the three defensemen.
As for the rest of the All-American honors, this is what the USILA went with:
Second Team
Attack
Kieran McArdle, St. John's University
Logan Schuss, The Ohio State University
Jordan Wolf, Duke University
Midfield
Connor Buczek, Cornell University
Michael Chanenchuk, University of Maryland
Chad Tutton, University of North Carolina
Matt White, University of Virginia
Defense
Michael Ehrhardt, University of Maryland
Scott McWilliams, University of Virginia
Brian Megill, Syracuse University
Face-Off
Mike Poppleton, Johns Hopkins University
Goalie
Niko Amato, University of Maryland
Long-stick midfield
Scott Ratliff, Loyola University
Third Team
Attack
Mark Cockerton, University of Virginia
Steve Mock, Cornell University
Joey Sankey, University of North Carolina
Midfield
David Dickson, Bucknell University
Rob Emery, University of Virginia
Jim Marlatt, University of Notre Dame
Josh Offit, Duke University
Max Van Bourgondien, Cornell University
Defense
Brendan Buckley, United States Military Academy
Matt Miller, University of Notre Dame
Goran Murray, University of Maryland
Face-Off
Kevin Massa, Bryant University
Goalie
Dillon Ward, Bellarmine University
Long-stick midfield
John LoCascio, Villanova University
Honorable Mention
Attack
Peter Baum, Colgate University
Wesley Berg, University of Denver
Jimmy Bitter, University of North Carolina
Robert Church, Drexel University
Thomas DeNapoli, Towson University
David DiMaria, Lehigh University
Josh Dionne, Duke University
Jack Forster, Penn State University
Jeff Froccaro, Princeton University
John Glesener, United States Military Academy
Ty Thompson, University at Albany
Matt Kavanagh, University of Notre Dame
Eric Law, University of Denver
Alex Love, Hobart College
Mike MacDonald, Princeton University
Brandon Mangan, Yale University
Nick O'Reilly, University of Virginia
Connor Rice, Marist College
Jack Rice, Villanova University
Mike Sawyer, Loyola University
Wells Stanwick, Johns Hopkins University
Miles Thompson, University at Albany
Garrett Thul, United States Military Academy
Justin Ward, Loyola University
Midfield
Dominique Alexander, The Ohio State University
Davis Butts, Loyola University
Landon Carr, University of Maryland
Luke Cometti, Syracuse University
Ryan Creighton, University of North Carolina
Will Haus, Duke University
Josh Hawkins, Loyola University
Jesse King, The Ohio State University
Tom LaCrosse, Penn State University
Ben McIntosh, Drexel University
Jeremy Noble, University of Denver
Henry Schoonmaker, Syracuse University
Sam Snow, Fairfield University
Jake Tripucka, Duke University
Jeff Tundo, Stony Brook University
Defense
Reid Acton, Loyola University
Peter Johnson, Yale University
Chris Lightner, Johns Hopkins University
Joe Meurer, The Ohio State University
Michael Noone, Lehigh University
Anthony Santomo, University of Pennsylvania
Jake Smith, University of Massachusetts
Ty Souders, Lehigh University
Face-Off
Dylan Levings, Yale University
Goalie
Pierce Bassett, Johns Hopkins University
John Kemp, University of Notre Dame
Matt Poillon, Lehigh University
Andrew Wascavage, Towson University
Long-stick midfield
Thomas Keith, Cornell University
Mason Poli, Bryant University
The comments are yours to tell the Internet what you think about all of this.