Next up, my preseason All-American picks for midfield and the top two guys I want to talk about are just about locks, while the 3rd spot, not so much. But let us not waste any more time and get into talking about the first guy on my list…
Sam Handley
Senior, Penn (1 year remaining if he transfers
No way you can talk about top returning midfielders without talking about Sam Handley FIRST. 1st team AA in both polls, Ivy League POY AHEAD OF BRANDAU, 1st team all Ivy but the big one, D1 Midfielder of the Year. He was also a Tewaaraton Award Finalist. Only other returning player that made that top 5 for the Tewaaraton is Shellenberger.
His production while at Penn is the thing of legends. He was a 1st team AA as a freshman. He was the D1 rookie of the year and 1st team all Ivy. As a 1st year player running midfield, he put up 35 goals and 26 assists for 61 points off 90 shots, that’s 38% shooting.
His sophomore year was shot to shit by a ruptured spleen in the first game of the year against Maryland. Despite the injury, he put up 3 goals and 2 helpers. He missed the next 4 games and then covid wiped out the remainder of that 2020 season as well as the entire 2021 season for the Ivy kids.
Despite that, he came back and absolutely wrecked shit in 2022 for the Quakers.
Sam Handley’s 2022 production…
- 36 goals, 37 assists, 73 points off 131 shots and only 27.5 shooting.
- 5 man up goals, 20 gbs to go with 52 turnovers, that’s a high number compared to his 73 points. But he goes fast and takes lots of chances.
- 18th in the country with 2.25 assists per game, one of only two midfielders in the top 20. NOTE, the other guy, Ryan Bell, a freshman out of Providence, I’m going to have to look in on Bell a bit more after a stat line like that as a freshman.
Sam Handley’s attributes as a player…
- A high risk, high reward bull dozer of a midfielder with the hands and feet of an angel.
- He stands 6’ 5” tall and tips the scales at around 230. Dude is a damn monster of a man.
- As scary of a downhill dodger as most defenders will ever see and even if you defend him well, he’ll just shot through you, usually “over” you.
- Has solid feet for a guy with his side, certainly not “fast” but is deceptively quick an will cut and cut back and so on as necessary.
- But his real strength is playing bully ball with a finesse that hasn’t been seen since the days of Pat Spencer.
- Even better, he can burn you by scoring a goal, or dropping a dime into a teammate’s crosse. The kid is a true 50/50 threat. Taking away his ability to score goals will only result in him dropping a bunch of assists on you. He has incredible vision, dodges with his head up and it’s difficult to keep a “stick on him” because defenders are forced to lean on him at all times. You rarely have an opportunity to throw a check because you’re focusing your efforts on not letting him run your little ass over (because everyone is little to him).
- Turnovers are his only kryptonite. His 52 turnovers in 2022 are way too many. As I used to say about Asher Nolting who had at least one 70+ turnover season. Wipe out those turnovers and the point production goes through the roof.
- He’s a consistent scorer putting up at least 3 points in all but 1 of the 16 games he played in 2022.
- Scored 3 goals with 8 helpers in a 21-20 loss to Princeton.
- That game started a monster 6 game stretch where he scored 11 points vs Princeton, 6 vs Cornell, 5 vs Yale, 3 vs Brown, 5 vs Harvard and then 5 against Dartmouth. Penn was 3-3 during that stretch as the Ivy was savage in 2022.
- He had a hard time dealing with the added attention that comes with being one of the best players in the country as his shooting percentage dropped from 38% as a rookie to just 27.5% shooting in 2022. I expect that to improve and I (and his coaches) would be happy to just see him hit 30%. You don’t want to stifle his aggressiveness, it’s much needed. Keeping the TO’s to below 50 would be a big deal for both Handley and his team. Keep them below 45 and it’s even better.
In the end, this kid is easily the top returning midfielder, and in my opinion one of the top 3 guys in all of D1 returning for the 2023 campaign. If he’s healthy, he’ll be a 1st team AA again, he’ll also be the midfielder of the year (despite having some solid competition) and will almost certainly be one of the favorites to win the Tewaaraton.
Graham Bundy Jr.
Senior, Georgetown (1 year remaining)
I’m not sure if it’s OK to call a 6’ 1” (190 lbs) midfielder a jitter bug of a mid with a cannon and flair for the dramatic, but that’s what I think of when I pontificate on Graham Bundy Jr. His name makes me want to say cool words like pontificate.
He’s got a perfect frame for a midfielder. He’s strong, quick, fast and has an absolute cannon on him. But he’s sneaky quick side to side and has the ability to carve up a defense as a dodger.
Graham Bundy Jr’s 2022 production…
- 45 goals, 25 assissts for 70 points off just 28.7% shooting.
- 6 man up goals, 40 gbs, 4 caused turnovers and 38 turnovers.
- Like Handley, he’s high risk, high reward, but takes much better care of the ball than Handley overall (although I’m not 100% sure on that because Sidearm Sports has a bug on many of the sites they manage resulting in1 duplicate stats for 2022 so things are off).
- Like Handley, he had only 2 games out of 17 below 3 points (had 2 points in both of those).
- Had 6 goals and a dish against Providence, 2 goals 4 assists against Villanova.
- Only had 3 goals in the NCAA tournament loss to Delaware. Took 9 shots, buried 3 of them, but it wasn’t enough as the Hoyas got bounced by a goal.
Graham Bundy Jr’s attributes as a player…
- As “twitchy” of a dodger as you’ll see with his size. Goes to the rack with the strength of a midfielder that is over 6’, but he dodges laterally as if he was only 5’ 7”. He’s an insanely tough matchup for a defender.
- He has a filthy quick release and can bring the fire. If you leave his hands free inside of 12 yards, he’s going to let it rip. These are facts.
- Can finish in any situation, dodging with the ball, he’ll dive and bury one backhanded if the occasion calls for it. He’ll step down and rip one past your goalies ear. Or he’ll play off ball and can lace a quick stick from the crease. If he’s on the field, he’s a goal scoring threat.
- And with that comes the ability to help his home boys out. He draws so much attention via beating his defender and drawing slides, that his 25 assists were easy gets. Smoke the ever living shit out of my man, draw a slide, and throw a quick dish to my pal. It’s just one of those things guys like him can do.
Matt Campbell
Graduate Student, Villanova
To the casual fan, Matt Campbell is the least recognized name on my list. One reason is the Big East does an absolute shit job of getting their conference games on television. Georgetown, Denver and Nova’s games aren’t behind a “unified paywall” like the ACC, the B1G and some others.
But with all that said, Campbell is in fact the truth. At 6’ 1” / 195 lbs, he has a solid frame and he is what I’d consider a “striding” midfielder. As you watch him play, each step of a dodge looks like he’s taking two steps. He plays with the grace of an antelope. But he’s a mutant antelope that decided it was tired of being the prey and decided he was going to eat the lion.
From a distance he looks long and lean, almost lanky, but that’s more of a product of how he carries his stick than his actual body as he is far more powerful than he looks.
Matt Campbell’s 2022 production…
- 45 goals, 22 assists for 67 points off 159 shots and 28.3% shooting.
- 6 man up goals, 22 gbs, 5 caused turnovers and 22 turnovers.
Matt Campbell’s attributes as a player…
- Excellent shooter. Can lace shit as a spot or step down shooter, but excels while shooting on the move.
- Has an odd way of carrying his stick that lends itself well to both protecting the ball while dodging and also makes his shot release very hard for goalies to track because his release more often than not starts well behind his body.
- Can get shots off at odd angles, but very good at maintaining solid body positioning in relation to the goal and gets shots off very quickly once his hands are free.
- Like Handley, even if his defender is in good position he can still get shots off, so being on his hands at all times is a must.
I’m going to admit though. Of the 3 guys I talked about today, I know the least about Campbell, but I’m looking forward to trying to catch as many Nova games as I can if the Big East would ever get their shit together and unify the conferences streaming.
Other guys that could very easily cop one of these top 3 spots by the end of 2023…
Kyle Long (Maryland), 17g, 25a, 42p)
May be the one to most likely supplant one of the guys I’ve already mentioned due to being thrust a bit more into the spotlight as Marylands top returning dodging/scoring threat.
Thomas McConvey (Virginia / Vermont Transfer), 60g, 14a, 74p
Sam English (Princeton) & Jake Stevens
English (30g, 18a, 48p), Stevens (22g, 2a, 24p)
English being the big scoring threat, and Stevens being that all around old school midfielder that can get up and down the field with the best of them.
Listen to the audio version…
