The season is inching closer, so let’s get some preseason picks on the board before the league sneaks an actual announcement past us.
We’re publishing this look at Big East preseason men’s lacrosse awards just nine days away from Marquette’s first public team scrimmage, and 16 days away from their first public scrimmage against an outside opponent. The 2025 lacrosse season is getting closer and close, so we’d better get some preseason picks together, huh?
As always, I’m trying to go with how I think the Big East coaches are going to vote for these awards. Sometimes, how they’ve voted in the past makes this easy…… and sometimes, it makes it very hard. You’ll see what I mean as we go along………
Preseason Offensive Player of the Year: Ryan Bell, Providence
As always, the primary thing to do here is to not overthink this. I am trying to guess at what the coaches will vote for, and seeing as Bell was the 2024 Offensive Player of the Year, he gets to start 2025 as the projected best offensive player in the league. He finished 2024 leading the Big East in points per game as the only man topping four points a game, and he did that by way of assists with three per contest. He was one of just two guys averaging more than two assists per game last season.
Preseason Defensive Player of the Year: Jimmy Freehill, Denver
2024 Postseason DPOY = 2025 Preseason DPOY. Again: Not getting fancy with this. It’s hard to quantify defensive impact sometimes, so I’ll let last year’s Big East awards press release talk up Freehill here:
With 1.46 caused turnovers per game (19 overall), he ranks third in the BIG EAST, while also collecting 26 ground balls. As a team, Denver ranks fifth in the nation with just 9.08 goals allowed per game in 2024.
Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year: Malcolm Kleban, Denver
2024 Postseason GKOY = 2025 Preseason GKOY. Trust me, these choices are going to get harder in a second. For now though, we get to just copy and past last year’s postseason awards. Kleban finished the year with the best goals-against average in the Big East, and he was one of just two men to allow less than 10 goals per 60 minutes. He was also #2 in the conference in save percentage, trailing only Georgetown’s Anderson Moore, who was #2 to Kleban in goals-against average.
Preseason All-Big East Team
Ty Banks, Georgetown, D
Ryan Bell, Providence, M
Aiden Carroll, Georgetown, A
Jimmy Freehill, Denver, D
Richie Joseph, Providence, A
Malcolm Kleban, Denver, GK
Matt Licata, Villanova, A
Bobby Seel, St. John’s M
Jack Shoemaker, Villanova, D
Casey Wilson, Denver, SSDM
Yes, I am putting Ryan Bell on the board as a midfielder even though he was listed as an attacker on last year’s postseason awards. Fact of the matter is that Providence lists him as midfield/attack on their roster, and last year’s postseason all-conference teams have no midfielders returning for 2025. We need midfielders, and Bell fits the bill. That also helps free up a spot for an attacker on the list here, as there are eight returning attackers from those all-BE teams, including Bell.
As you can tell from above, Bell, Freehill, and Kleban all get free passes onto the preseason all-conference team. Carroll gets on the board easily by joining Bell as the only other returning unanimous First Teamer from the end of last season. Licata and Banks were on the First Team, so they go straight onto the list as well.
From there, things get interesting. As mentioned earlier, there are no returning midfielders from last year’s all-conference teams. So I would be happy to put Wilson on there as a short stick defensive midfielder alongside three other guys, but I need anyone that’s a midfielder, and his Second Team honors put him in. I rounded out the midfield with Seel because St. John’s lists him as a mid even though last year’s all-conference teams listed him at attack.
I had to make a decision on my third attacker then, and I went with Joseph. #3 in the league in points per game last season, behind Bell and Carroll. Not #3 amongst returning guys, #3 overall. That’s an easy pick, and yes, I elevated him even though he was Second Team all-Big East last season while STJ’s Brian Kelly was a First Teamer and theoretically had an edge here.
That left me in need of a third defenseman to finish out the roster. The Big East had two returning defensemen on the all-conference teams, both First Teamers. That’s great, but no one on the Second Team meant I had to start hunting around. Villanova’s Jack Shoemaker was in the top 50 in the country in caused turnovers last season — even though I had to go use NCAA.com to figure this out because the Big East doesn’t put CT’s on their league statsheet — and he’s back in 2025, so that’s good enough for me.
I would have put a faceoff guy and a long stick midfielder on the list in addition to everyone else, but there’s no one on the all-conference lists from last season that are returning in 2025. Kind of hard to start figuring out who the coaches think is the best guy at that position in the Big East if they all voted for seniors last season.
Predicted Order Of Finish
1 — Denver
2 — Georgetown
3 — Villanova
4 — Providence
5 — St. John’s
6 — Marquette
You can just throw a dart to pick between Denver or Georgetown as far as I’m concerned. Those two have been swapping at the top of the conference lately, and based on who they return, there’s no reason to think that their annual meeting won’t decide the regular season title this season.
Yes, I have Ryan Bell as the best offensive player in the league this year, just like he was last year. That got the Friars a sub-.500 record last season after losing to the Hoyas in the conference tournament. So, based on the Nova guys on the all-conference team I put together, the Wildcats get to be #3 against of Providence.
I can’t honestly put Marquette anywhere else but last after the Golden Eagles went oh-fer in Big East play last season and then replaced head coach Andrew Stimmel with defensive coordinator and program icon Jake Richard. MU has to show me something this season before I believe that this program is going in a positive direction, and congrats to St. John’s for benefiting from being in the same league as the Marquette team that I’m least optimistic about in the entire athletic department.
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