US Lacrosse Magazine released the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Preseason Top 20 on Jan. 2. Team-by-team previews will be unveiled on uslaxmagazine.com through the end of the month and will also appear as part of the magazine’s NCAA preview edition in February.

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No. 1 Yale

2018 Record: 17-3 (7-0 Ivy League)
Coach: Andy Shay (16th year)

All-Time Record: 635-526-6
NCAA Appearances: 9
Final Fours: 2
Championships: 1

TD Ierlan didn’t want the red carpet treatment, and Andy Shay was never one for wooing. It doesn’t take a professional matchmaker to see why this union worked for everyone.

Still, Ierlan, one of the most coveted transfers in NCAA men’s lacrosse history, had not even considered Yale as a destination before Shay contacted him. Ierlan’s brother, Chayse, was an incoming freshman at Cornell. Surely, the Big Red beckoned.

Shay tried anyway. Ierlan was worth the risk. It’s not often an NCAA record-setting faceoff specialist becomes available.

“I don’t know of a bigger-name transfer ever in our sport,” said Shay, noting that even Hall of Famer Del Dressel, who transferred from Harvard to Johns Hopkins in 1981, played all four of his seasons with the Blue Jays.

Ierlan, whose initials stand for Tristan David, never did seem a perfect fit at Albany. Even as he crushed the NCAA single-season records for faceoff percentage (79.1), wins (359) and ground balls (254) in leading the team to its first final four, his buttoned-up approach belied the devil-may-care culture there.

Ierlan, who was a standout wrestler and a member of the chess club in high school, also sought a more rigorous academic experience. He studied economics at Albany and recorded a 4.0 GPA last spring, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

So Shay took a shot, and it was worth the gamble. He called Ierlan five minutes after Albany granted him his release and drove from New Haven, Conn., to Victor, N.Y., to visit him the next day.

“I just knew [Albany] wasn’t the right fit for me anymore for a couple reasons,” Ierlan said. “It’s nothing against the program at Albany and the fans. There’s a full stadium of 5,000 people every game. We had just reached the program’s first final four. I was just looking for more of an educational experience. That was what motivated it.”

Though eager to impress Ierlan, Shay leveled with him much in the same way as he does high school recruits.

“We don’t recruit by saying, ‘Here are our nice facilities,’” Shay said. “We say, ‘You’re going to get yelled at a lot, you’re going to get pushed and you’re going to get challenged.’”

Ierlan loved hearing that. He fits in just fine at Yale, the only point of friction being a friendly argument with junior attackman Thomas Duran over who gets to be called TD. He possesses the same blend of brains and brawn that has defined the Bulldogs’ ascent from Ivy League afterthought to NCAA champion. And he’s wired a lot like Ben Reeves, the Tewaaraton Award winner who graduated as Yale’s all-time leading scorer.

Ierlan seems like the type of guy that would geek out over the AS Index, a system developed by strength and conditioning coach Tom Newman that ranks athletes based on their physical measurements and performance in drills like the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle and vertical leap.

Ierlan also provides another antidote to the typical post-championship letdown. Albany lost to Yale in the NCAA semifinals, a game that frequently comes up in film review.

“We don’t throw it in his face by any means, but we have a lot of footage from the Albany game that we use as teaching film,” Shay said. “Every time it comes on, he says, ‘Oh man, again?’ We’re going to lean on that pretty heavily. When you’re in a leadership role, you should be pissed off after last year, and I bet he is.”

The Case For Yale

Citing Yale’s AS Index, a proprietary algorithm that measures an individual or team’s athletic potential, Shay suggested this group scores higher than that which evoked the superlatives “bigger, faster and stronger” every time it appeared on national TV. The incoming freshman class, ranked No. 2 by Inside Lacrosse, has better metrics than the senior class that first operated under this system in 2014. Attackman Matt Brandau, in particular, showed tremendous chemistry with junior linemate Jackson Morrill in Yale’s fall exhibition against the U.S. national team. What championship hangover?

The Case Against Yale

It’s a testament to Ben Reeves that Yale returns as No. 1 despite graduating the most decorated player in the Bulldogs’ long, storied lacrosse history. Reeves’ absence inevitably will be felt, as will the void left by five other players who were MLL draft picks. Yale’s close defense looks pretty lean after All-American Chris Fake. That will put more pressure on sophomore goalie Jack Starr, who made nine saves in the NCAA championship game, to perform consistently.

Path to the Playoffs

While the lacrosse community is celebrating the start of a new season at Utah, Yale began practice today in its quest to repeat as NCAA champions. It's an Ivy League rule that prevents teams from practicing until Feb. 1. The Ivy League still remains as one of Yale's best chances to make the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs will be the favorite, although Cornell will present a tough test. Yale should fare well enough in conference and out of it to put itself in the conversation.

Players To Watch

Chris Fake, D, So.
18 CT, 29 GB

A second-team All-American as a freshman, Fake made a name for himself shutting down the likes of Pat Spencer and Tehoka Nanticoke. He “looks better than ever,” Shay said.

Jack Tigh, M, Sr.
35G, 14A

The Bulldogs’ top midfielder more than doubled his goal total between his sophomore and junior seasons, including a hat trick against Duke in the NCAA championship game.

Jackson Morrill, A, Jr.
40G, 32A

Lacrosse excellence is in Morrill’s blood. His father, grandfather and great grandfather are all National Lacrosse Hall of Famers. His seven-goal performance in an NCAA tournament first-round win over UMass perhaps portends similar greatness in Yale’s top returning scorer.

National Rankings

Power Ratings (Scale of 1-5)

Offense
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Defense
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Goalkeeping
⭐⭐⭐⭐

Faceoff
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

6

Number of seniors from the 2018 Yale team that were picked in the MLL Collegiate Draft (Ben Reeves, Tyler Warner, Chris Keating, Jason Alessi, Conor Mackie, Jerry O'Connor)

Enemy Lines

“They will not lose that edge that everyone is hoping they lose.  They are tough, talented and now have TD Ierlan.”

“Without TD there and them having a young faceoff guy, it wasn’t a team that I thought would be more beatable, but it wasn’t a team that was quite as daunting as it is now. If you add arguably the best faceoff man in college history to the mix, that’s a team defensively that’s near flawless and a team offensively that really makes you work to keep up with them.”