2026 Men's College Draft

College - Mens
62
  1. James Graham, Head Coach, Pacific

Seven NCAA Appearances. Four Final Fours. Two Championship game appearances. I think because he has been there so long, that people forget how remarkable a job he has done for Pacific. He turned them into a powerhouse and I think they will be strong again this season despite the Georgaras transfer. I feel for him. He is the guy who found Vukazic and Georgaras and then watched them walk out the door. I think they will be better than folks think this year as Kasa-Gal, Buzaglo, Popovic and Rendler are a nice returning core. That August 29th game worries the crap out of me as a Fordham alum as he has had a year to prep (and we’ll have guys that have been on campus for less than two weeks).

I will make awards pick after the last draft pick also.

Current Team:

Luca Provenziani, Ut. Fordham
Alex Gheorge, 2MO. Stanford
James Rozolis Hill, Ut. Stanford
Andrea Nuzzo, LHA. Cal Baptist
Baxter Chelsom, G. UC Davis
Alessandro Salipante, LHA. Fordham
Maddox Arlett, 2MD, Cal
James Graham, Coach, Pacific

63
  1. Jack Merrill, Center Defender, UCLA

Team 5: International Experience

Round 1: Andras Toth, RH Attacker, Fordham. If this were a traditional fantasy draft, I would bet that Toth would go first overall. His counting stats at Fordham speak for themselves. However, every time I watch him, I can see that there is more to his numbers than a soft schedule padding the stats. He is incredibly well-rounded and crafty. If he were on a Big 4 team, I think he would be just as impactful. A Hungary U20 International, and heading back to the NCAA after a big summer, I can see another dominant performance coming this season. Will Fordham break into the top 4 again, I’m not sure. But if they do, its on Toth’s back.

Round 2: Bernardo Herzer, Goalie, Stanford. Goalies going early started to scare me in the 9 team draft, but I am not disappointed in who I got. Herzer is already a US Men’s Senior international, and was seemingly the heir apparent to the backup spot behind Weinberg before this past Fall at USC saw Mills overtake him. He could not have found a better transfer destination than Stanford, as I can see them being one of if not the best defensive teams in the country this season. Give me an experienced and highly motivated goalie with a chip on their shoulder any day of the week.

Round 3: Bode Brinkema, RH Attacker, UCLA. I feel like I pick Brinkema every year. I just love his game. Based on what I have seen him do for the US U20 set-up, I think he has an outside chance to make the Olympics in the next cycle, if not 2032. Quick, high-end shooting ability, and defensively sound, he is a great choice for any team. Adam Wright seems to really trust him, and I really trust Adam Wright. He and Toth on the 1-2 side will be deadly on the counter and drives. He would probably prefer to play at 4, but my X-Factor next pick seems to play there primarily for Serbia.

Round 4: Luka Gladovic, Utility, UCLA. I spoke on this pick earlier, so I won’t go to into too much depth. Give me a Serbian Senior International in the 4th round any day of the week. Especially one that has scored goals in nearly every appearance for the NT.

Round 5: Kai Inoue, LH Attacker, Cal. A 2024 Olympian in Round 5 seems like a steal on paper, and I think it probably is. If Kirk Everist coached the national team, we would definitely have a lefty on it. As he seemed to hoard them in the 2025 season. All of his lefties from last year would be among the best lefties in the country, the question will be which ones get the run in the pool this season. I could have just as easily taken Alex Oprea here, as I also believe in his talent. But Inoue seemed to be preferred last season, and I am predicting a big year for him this year.

Round 6: Marcell Szécsi, Center, UCLA. I feel like people forget how good Szecsi was as a Freshman and Sophomore because of his down year last year. Was it injury or simply the rise of other centers on their roster? I think he is bound to have a bounce back year. On pure talent, I think he is one of the best 3-4 centers in the country, and I was glad he was still around as I held out on specialists until the end. Also considered Chase Wilson from Cal in this spot, as I think he was very effective when he played last season. But like they did with lefties last year, the Greek International’s arrival gives Cal a log jam at Center that I was not sure how to parse through.

Round 7: Brian Bacharach, Coach, Fordham. You have to say he is the best international recruiter in the country at this point. But I also think his teams are very well put together in terms of how they play together. Some would make an argument that they are undisciplined at times, but taking a bunch of international players and getting them to gel is not easy. I think Bacharach would do a great job with this team.

Round 8: Jack Merrill, Center Defender, UCLA. I saved Center Defender for last because I knew I would be the only one making this pick. And I am glad I held out. Adam Wright doesn’t take transfers as passengers to chase a championship. Him bringing in the Stanford guys serves a purpose, and I think Merrill will play a big role for UCLA this season. Think Voggenthaler or Tierney with this one. Merrill was a U20 international for the US and has now shifted to Canada’s Senior National Team. If Wright took him on, I trust that it was for a reason and that Merrill will play solid minutes for UCLA.

I will do my season-long picks at the end of the draft, as this post is plenty long already.

64

Rb asked me to post his final selection.

Team 4:

(4.) Robert Lopez-Duart, attacker, USC. Lopez-Duart was a 1st team All-American and Cutino Award finalist last year, leading USC in scoring with 66 goals.

(15.) Apostolos Georgaras, attacker, USC. Georgaras, who transferred to USC after his freshman season at UOP, was a 3rd team All-American last year, scoring 73 goals.

(22.) Ryan Ohl, attacker, Stanford.

(33.) Luke Nelson, center defender, USC.

(40.) Nathan Tauscher, goalie, UCLA.

(51.) Landon Akerstrom, attacker, UCSD

(58.) Marko Pintaric, Coach, USC. This is an easy pick with my USC heavy team. Nobody is better at getting their team to peak at the end of the season than Marko. Great with goalies as a bonus. Has finally gotten his recruiting game going after the scandal.

(69.) Barnabus Eppel, center, Fordham. For the third year in a row, Rb picks Eppel as his center.

rolled1 is on the clock, followed by Oldschoolpolofan and H20polo10 with the last pick of the draft.

1 Like
65

Center defender Caden Poullaou LMU On road so more remarks later

66

Team 2:
(2) Strahinja Krstic, Center, USC. I went back and forth with options for the overall number two pick, as a case could be made for a handful of players in this slot. I landed on taking the player I believe to be the most consistent center and less of a liability on defense than some of the other top center(s). Commands a drop that frees up outside shooting lanes and USC again will have no shortage of great shooting.

(17) Dimitris Chatzis - Attacker - Stanford. This could be a reach depending on how he adjusts to Flacks’ system and the college game, but he comes in as arguably the most decorated freshman in the country with his track record in Youth European Championships and with the Greek National Team.

(20) Kiefer Black – LH Attacker – Navy. The three-time All-American will “Anchor” my 4/5 side with tremendous size, versatility, and scoring.

(35) Ante Jerkovic – LH Attacker – USC. Can finally exhale, hoping Jerkovic would slip to me in this spot, especially after listening to Marko talk about him on the podcast. My team should have the dominant 4/5 side when combining Jerkovic with Black, arguably two of the top three perimeter lefties in the nation. Coming in as a 20-year-old with all his club and experience for Croatia at junior and senior national team levels, I expect he will play an essential role for USC immediately, especially when Marko raves about his ability to get the ball into his Centers.

(38) Viktor Savic – Goalie – Fordham. Since I have no idea how UCLA goalie situation is going to play out, going with Savic now to ensure I get a starter with a proven international track record. Personally, haven’t seen him play, so here is information from Fordham website: Member of the Serbian National Team, having played in every major championship for Serbia from the U15 through U20 categories… Played in the U15 and U19 European Championships, while earning a silver medal at the U17 European Championship and the U18 World Championship as well as a bronze medal at the U16 World Championship… Selected for the 2026 U20 European Championships in Varna, Bulgaria, earning the starting spot going into the Championships.

(53) Riccardo De Simon – Attacker – Santa Clara. The two-time All-American and Italian national junior team member rounds out my attackers, bringing speed, crafty defense, and prolific scoring. Will be one of the best players in the WCC again this year.

(56) Gavin Appeldorn – Center Defender – Princeton. Appeldorn does it a lot of everything for Princeton in his first two years, earning Honorable Mention All-American accolades each year. Deployed on our team as Center Defender, we will take advantage of his physicality on defense and strong game IQ to keep our offense flowing

(71) Gavin Arroyo – Coach – Long Beach St. I remain a fan of Gavin and all he has given to the sport, so excited to have him as my coach. He has compiled another talented team this year, and I expect LBSU to finish top six. I would love to see what he could do with a team as talented as listed above!

67

Team Clutch

(1.) Ryder Dodd, attacker, UCLA.

This one is an obvious one. Ryder’s water polo IQ, ability to elevate his teammates’ level of play, work ethic, and much more is elite and uncanny. My favorite aspect of Ryder’s game is his ability to score with pressure on him and make it look easy. Fun to watch.

(18.) Kristof Kovacs, goalie, Princeton.

Kovacs has had a solid career at Princeton. Came on the scene strong as a freshman in 2023 and has been a 3x Honorable Mention All American. Hoping he can make the jump to one of the top 3 All American teams this year.

(19.) Peter Castillo, center, UCLA.

A third team All American in ‘24 and and honorable mention All American last year, Castillo will play another major role as a junior in ‘26. Could definitely see him ending up on the 1st or 2nd team All American list this year. Really smart player, great at earning exclusions especially away from the ball.

(36.) Wade Sherlock, LH attacker, UCLA. Sherlock has had a steady and clutch career for UCLA. He’s come through in some huge moments. Very unselfish player, great passer and shooter. Solid defense. Brings senior leadership.

(37.) Gabrijel Burburan, attacker, LMU. Burburan scored 5 goals in Croatia’s 17-14 victory over Spain in the gold medal game of the 20u European World Championships.

Anyone who is scoring 5 in the U20 European Championship game and was one of the leading scorers in the tournament will come right in and be a great scorer in NCAA. Dodd, Sherlock, and Kaneko will set him up nicely.

(54.) Kai Kaneko, attacker, Stanford.

Kaneko will have a lot of competition at the attacker position this year for Stanford. I think the 4 freshman attackers will all get a lot of playing time early in the season as Flacks gets them experience while seeing who can earn minutes in October, November, and December. I see Kaneko ending up with the most playing time and the most impactful role down the stretch. I could have gone with a more experienced college player who doesn’t have as much competition for playing time on his team, but decided to go with Kaneko because he’s had such an incredible run with Newport high school and club and the youth team recently. I think he’ll have a great freshman season.

(55.) Adam Wright, coach, UCLA.

Will never forget the game winning play to win NCAA’s in 2025. Takes a lot of confidence in your team to make that call, as well as a lot of hard work to instill the discipline necessary to make it work so well. Wright’s track record speaks for itself and he’s still got it. He will have no problem instilling the discipline and confidence in his players to get the most out of them to play high IQ, unselfish, beautiful water polo.

(72.) Liam Rogers, Fordham, Center Defender.

I was really hoping to pick Merrill but I’ll go with Rogers. Rogers had a good 2 year career at West Valley Junior College and has experience in Canada’s National Team pipeline. Should get a good amount of playing time at Fordham.

Here’s my case for my team to win it all:

My team has the best attacker and overall player and the best coach. There’s so many great centers that it’s hard to rank them all, but Castillo will be in the conversation for best center this year. Burburan could end up being one of the best attackers in the country. Sherlock and Kaneko will be solid, steady role players who will be looking to provide great defense and passing while being able to strongly attack and finish if the defense sluffs off them toward Dodd, Castillo, and Burburan.

I have 2 freshman, 3 juniors, and 2 seniors. Will have a good group of upperclass leaders on this team.

All but two of my players and coach has won a championship at their highest possible level within the last year. This team has championship pedigree. They will be steady, clutch, unflinching, resilient, smart, disciplined, and really talented.

Predictions:

NCAA Champion. UCLA. This team is so deep. I think they have the best and deepest group of attackers. They have depth at CD. They even have good competition for starting goalie with Price transferring. I’m curious who will end up with that spot. They don’t have as much depth at center as they normally do but they have quite possibly the best one-two punch combo with Castillo and Szecsi. They also have a lot of junior and senior leadership. They have the best player in Dodd and best coach in Wright. I don’t think they’ll go undefeated and I think Stanford or USC will give them a good game in the NCAA finals, but UCLA will win it all again this year.

Better than expected. LMU. Currently ranked 16th, I could see them jumping up to the 9-12 rank. Will be looking forward to watching them play.

Cutino finalists. Ryder Dodd, Luca Provenziani, and Robert Lopez Duarte.

Cutino Winner. Ryder Dodd.

MPSF Newcomer of the year. Should be a lot of competition for this award this year. Any of these guys could win it: Tyler Anderson, Ante Jerkovic, Dimitris Chatzis, Kai Kaneko, Connor Ohl, Luka Gladovic, and Ilias Angelopoulos.

I’ll go with Anderson. I think he’ll have a big year for SC and the other players have more competition at their position on their team.

ACWPC Coach of the Year. Adam Wright. He continues to prove he’s the top coach in NCAA water polo.

Looking forward to a great 2026 college water polo season!

68

Team 2:
(2) Strahinja Krstic, Center, USC.

(17) Dimitris Chatzis - Attacker - Stanford.

(20) Kiefer Black – LH Attacker – Navy.

(35) Ante Jerkovic – LH Attacker – USC.

(38) Viktor Savic – Goalie – Fordham.

(53) Riccardo De Simon – Attacker – Santa Clara.

(56) Gavin Appeldorn – Center Defender – Princeton.

(71) Gavin Arroyo – Coach – Long Beach St.

Thanks again for including me in the draft this year. It is always fun to talk polo and celebrate all these amazing athletes. This must be one of the deepest years ever. I looked back at players on my board that I considered drafting and was amazed at the quality of players we could put together to make a tenth team. Here is what I came up with but imagine others have thoughts so fire away!

Center – Karlo Dargosevic and Diego Tresa – Fordham, Ori Buzaglo – UOP

Center Defense - Orestis Zeroudakis – Stanford, Marc Angelescu - USC

Attacker - Laszlo Strasser and Vuk Kojic – Fordham, Max Zelikov – Stanford, Patrik Kolak and Alex Oprea – Cal, Oier Aguirre - St. Mary’s, Gavin Conant and Zach Bettino – USC, Imme van der Schaaf - Santa Clara, Borisz Kasa-Gal - UOP

Goalie - Griffin Price – UCLA, Jonas Rashford – Harvard

On to my predictions…often wrong but hopefully entertaining:

NCAA Champions – Stanford – I expect to be out on a limb by myself on this one. Flacks needs to win this year while he has the depth at 2M and a potentially great goalie. This sense of urgency will carry them to only their second title in 24 years. I think USC makes the final and UCLA makes it into the NCAA tournament but falls short this year.

Coach of the Year – Flacks - Stanford – Coach of the year tracks with champion so I must pick him here if Stanford indeed wins

Cutino Award – Herzer – Stanford – Herzer wins as his “don’t forget about me for 2028 Olympics” campaign kicks into high gear and the NCAA champion almost always goes to someone on the championship team. Dodd and Krstic are the other finalists and deserved to be the top two picks in this draft in my opinion.

MPSF Newcomer of the Year – Jerkovic – USC – All the buzz around him has me believing he will fill up the goal and assist stat sheet and be critical to USC’s success this season. Other finalists: Angelopolis – Cal will have a ton of responsibility and be the key to Cal’s season opening up the offense for Beso, Perrone and others; Chatzis – Stanford – will provide some of the scoring and clutch play lost with Gianpiero Di Martire no longer around.

Team that will do better than expected – Harvard – strong freshman class would need to contribute immediately but they are really good players.

Excited for the season to begin!

69

Team 4:

(4.) Robert Lopez-Duart, attacker, USC. Lopez-Duart was a 1st team All-American and Cutino Award finalist last year, leading USC in scoring with 66 goals. Not the biggest or hardest shooter, but he has a beautiful shot, often scoring on high degree of difficulty shots. Will rotate at the 1-2 spot with Georgaras.

(15.) Apostolos Georgaras, attacker, USC. Georgaras, who transferred to USC after his freshman season at UOP, was a 3rd team All-American last year, scoring 73 goals. One of the most exciting players to watch last year and one of the most dangerous shooters out there. Can’t wait to see him around a stronger supporting cast.

(22.) Ryan Ohl, attacker, Stanford. Without out a lefty, I will rely on Ohl to play the 5, which he does routinely at Stanford. Will be a great facilitator on extra man and can score when he needs to. Also probably the best sprinter in college and can defend any position.

(33.) Luke Nelson, center defender, USC. Scored some big goals when it counted at the end of the season. Has a great shot and the size to defend center. He won’t be at the top of the goal scoring list at USC, but he will be open a lot with the talent around him.

(40.) Nathan Tauscher, goalie, UCLA. Very dependable goalie who shows flashes of greatness just about every game. I’m sure he and Price will split time early in the season, but I can’t imagine Tauscher not being the guy at the end of the season.

(51.) Landon Akerstrom, attacker, UCSD. Unfortunately got injured early last year and decided to redshirt. UCSD was not the same team after he got hurt. I’m expecting big things this year. Size, hard shot, can defend. I’ll put him at the 4 but has the ability to play anywhere on the perimeter.

(58.) Marko Pintaric, Coach, USC. This is an easy pick with my USC heavy team. Nobody is better at getting their team to peak at the end of the season than Marko. Great with goalies as a bonus. Has finally gotten his recruiting game going after the scandal.

(69.) Barnabus Eppel, center, Fordham. Center has been so deep the last couple years, I knew I would be picking my center last. Just like last year, this guy fell to me and I couldn’t be happier at this value. Never fun guarding this physical center who can score routinely.

NCAA Champ. This is a difficult one as I think the big 4 are all very close. It always seems to come down to USC and UCLA for me and that isn’t changing this year. Stanford has more depth than usual, but is implementing a lot of new players and a new goalie. If there was ever a year for them, its this year, but I don’t think they are a good matchup for USC. I’m tempted to pick USC, but they also have a lot of new players. UCLA over USC again in a 1 goal game. Also, everyone is sleeping on Cal. They started out hot last year, and had terrible luck with injuries. If they can stay healthy, they have a shot. Best center depth of any team.

Cutino. It would be really hard for Dodd not to win it if he is going to score 90-100 goals at UCLA. That just doesn’t happen in that system.

COY: Adam Wright

Underrated team. Just like last year, I’m going with CBU. Never get any respect and they are well coached.

70

Here are my awards picks:

NCAA Champion: UCLA

Until I see the Bruins lose when it matters they are my NCAA pick.

Which school or schools will do better than expected:

I think Pacific is being discounted because of the Georgaras transfer but they return a lot of firepower from a team that won the WCC regular season title.

Here are two deep sleepers. Keep an eye on both George Washington and Wagner. I was surprised neither was preseason ranked. GW finished second in the MAWPC conference tournament last season and beat UCSB last fall. They added a goalie that has been in Hungary’s international pipeline and Konstantinos Kapragos from Long Beach State. They return Florena and Forno. Wagner is always tough (especially at home) and while Strasser transferred to Fordham, I have heard (though a roster has not been posted so this is not verified) that they added Abel Romero Corbalan who was an All-American at Loyola Marymount. To me, that makes up for the Strasser transfer. Wagner returns a ton of their remaining talent. The MAWPC with Fordham, Navy, GW and Wagner is going to be far stronger than the other side of the East.

Which players will be Cutino Award finalists:

Ryder Dodd, Robert Lopez Duart, Andras Toth

Which player will win the Cutino Award:

Ryder Dodd

Which player will be named the MPSF newcomer of the year:

Apostolos Georgaras. With the graduations that USC had, he will be thrust into a starring role immediately.

Which coach will be named the ACWPC coach of the year: Brian Bacharach, Fordham

This is a bet that Fordham wins a game against a Big Four team in the regular season and gets at least the third seed at NCAAs. To me there is a big difference between seeds 3 and 4. Getting a top three seed positions Fordham for a chance to play for the title. The 2024 team was the best team in school history but this is the most talented. Can they be better than that team which only lost once all season (in overtime) is yet to be determined.

71

Summary and a datapoint to @gibson on why WPW and this forum is so international focused.

image
image1920×4200 963 KB

72

My final team:
Head Coach: Dustin Litvak, Princeton
1/2 Side: Beso Akhvlediani and Thomas Kiesling
Center: Ilias Angelopoulos
Center Defender: Ben Larsen
4/5 Side: Ben Liechty & Efe Naipoglu
Goalie: Max Smirnov

My thoughts on my team:

I believe I have the best team because of my strength down the middle and my team’s ability to beat you in multiple ways. Efe Naipoglu and Ben Liechty will both make you pay if you decide to run a 4/5 zone. Both Ben Larsen and Ben Liechty come from a system at UCLA that makes them naturally unselfish and willing to make the extra pass, but with Akhvlediani, I have my go-to scorer who can score at will. Yes, the weakness is at goalie, but if we can funnel the shots to Smirnov, I trust he can make the saves.

@Rbpolo — I’m a fan of your team, but not having a lefty hurts. I think I would’ve taken one over Akerstrom.
@Oldschoolpolofan has a talented team, but not sure if all the international personalities would do well together. You need the unselfishness to win.
@H2Opolo10 Your team presents the toughest challenge to me if Burburban and Kai Kaneko have strong seasons, but Liam Rogers will not be able to stop Angelopoulos, and you’ll be relying a ton on Kovacs and playing a lot of 5-man against my team.

I have just 1 freshman, to go alongside 2 sophomores, 1 junior, 1 redshirt junior, and 1 redshirt senior.

Predictions:

NCAA Champions —This is the hardest it’s been to pick a winner in a very long time. UCLA has the star power, but winning 3x in a row is a very difficult task. Stanford has a ton of talent, but no LHA in 2026 hurts. USC is lacking depth, though they have the best center core in the nation with T. Anderson & S. Krstic. Ultimately, give me Flacks & co. to find a way to get over the hump. I believe Herzer will find his form again and put himself in the driver’s seat for the backup spot in the 2028 Olympic roster. The key for Stanford will be to find the balance between Balogh, Chatsiz, and Forer – three players who will rip the ball the first chance they get. Ryan Ohl provides amazing defense, composure, and experience, and James Rozolis-Hill gives Flacks a dynamic utility player to go alongside Gheorghe and Schneider.

MPSF Newcomer of the Year: Ilias Angelopoulos is my official pick, though the plethora of incoming talent in the MPSF is ridiculous. Angelopoulos has the potential to be the next Papanikolaou. I believe he is that good. With Dom Brown coming off a grueling year with national team training, I think Angelopoulos will have a huge role from the first game and lead the center core at Cal in goals and drawn exclusions.

Coach of the Year: Brian Flacks, as he will lead Stanford to the title for the first time since 2019.

Cutino Award: Ryder Dodd: Similar to 2018 when Ben Hallock won the Cutino Award despite not winning the NCAA tournament, I believe Ryder Dodd’s counting stats and his name will carry him to his third consecutive Peter J. Cutino Award.

Finalists:
Ryder Dodd
Strahinja Krstic
Bernardo Herzer

Better than expected: I predict CBU will be the third seed heading into the Big West tournament, but will win three consecutive games and eliminate LBSU in the final to head back to the NCAA tournament. In the WCC, I would watch out for Pepperdine. They return starting goalie Max Smirnov and starting center defender Jon Carcarey (U20 Worlds - 2025), Owen Tift (46 points in 2025), and Erik Ionescu (Second-Team All-American). Most importantly, I’m impressed with their center core in Csanád Bella (WCC All-Freshman Team selection with 25 goals, 24 drawn exclusions, 15 steals, and 18 field blocks in 2025) & Milo Joseph (Redshirted in 25, but recorded 35 goals and 66 drawn exclusions in 2024). With SJSU down Gyapjas and CBU out of the conference, don’t be surprised if Pepperdine is back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019, the last time that Stanford won it all. History has a fun way of repeating itself…

Here are some players to keep an eye on: I believe Zach Bettino will find his form again coming off his injury and contribute a lot to USC this season. Also on USC, look for 6’6 center defender Marc Angelescu to make an impact early. The Romanian played for CN Barcelona and will be a contributor right away for Pintaric’s side. I predict Patrik Kolak will finally have a breakout year for Cal after having huge expectations in 2024. And finally, I think James Rozolis-Hill will make a bigger impact than expected and will play a large part in Stanford’s run to the title.

1 Like
73

End of season predictions:

NCAA Champions: UCLA. Feels lame to pick them, but the depth is just insane. A team full of UCLA’s players that did not get drafted in this exercise would probably still make the final four.

Team to over perform: UC Davis. Dan Leyson is one of the best coaches in the country, and I think if I was a Big 4 AD with a job opening, he would be my first call. Their team has depth and talent, and an “everyone contributes” mentality that I think could carry over into being a best of the rest sort of team come NCAAs.

Coutino Finalists: Ryder Dodd, Andras Toth, Robert Lopez Duart.

Coutino Winner: Ryder Dodd. If they win again, it’s Ryder. He ends his career after 2027 as the most decorated college water polo player of all time.

MPSF Newcomer: Luka Gladovic, UCLA. Usually we get excited about high level Youth internationals coming to the NCAA, but Gladovic is a regular for the defending Olympic champions. I think he hits the ground running in the NCAA. Though if Tyler Anderson gets the minutes early at USC, he has a shot to win this award.

Coach of the Year: It feels like this award goes to the coach of the Final Four team outside the Big 4 in most years, for me this year that is Fordham. Brian Bacharach wins it if Fordham does what they can. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brian Flacks wins it if Stanford finally breaks through under his leadership.

74

Great picks and a fun exercise ahead of what should be an exciting season. One player not picked is Fordham’s Oktavian Veklyuk - I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s an All-American as a Freshman.

2 Likes
75

My thanks to the participants in our 2026 college draft. One thing the draft made clear, if it wasn’t already, is that the 2026 college season marks the greatest infusion of international talent in any year of men’s college water polo. No other year comes close. Time will tell whether this year is an aberration or a harbinger of things to come.

Here are my predictions for the 2026 college season:

NCAA champions – UCLA. I toyed with the idea of choosing USC when it looked like three of their top 10 field players from the 2025 season would return for their 5th year of eligibility. However, a federal appeals court decision prevented that from happening, at least for now. During the NCAA era of men’s college water polo (1969 to the present), UCLA has never won three men’s championships in a row. Cal has done it three times (1973-75, 1990-92, and 2021-23). Cal won 5 of 6 during the period from 1987-1992 and was favored to win in 1989 but lost to a very strong U.C. Irvine team in the NCAA finals. USC won 6 in a row from 2008-13 but, in the eyes of many observers, that streak comes with an asterisk because of the Varsity Blues scandal. I’m picking UCLA to win its 3rd straight because of its depth, its coaching, and Ryder Dodd. I don’t expect Dodd to score close to 100 goals again this year but I’m often wrong. On paper, Serbian freshman Luka Gladovic is one of the most talented international players we’ve seen enroll in an American college. I’veheard, perhaps incorrectly, that Gladovic broke his ankle before the U20 European World Championships. If so, Gladovic will probably miss the first part of the season. If UCLA wins its 3rd straight championship, it’s likely the streak will end next year, assuming Dejan Udovicic sticks with his plan to start full-time training for the 2028 Olympics before the 2027 college season begins. Although I don’t expect all four of these players to make the 2028 Olympic team, I think Ryder Dodd, Ben Liechty, Bode Brinkema, and Peter Castillo will be members of the senior national team that will train for the 2028 Olympics. Without those players, I don’t see UCLA making the 2027 NCAA finals.

I think USC will finish second again this year. USC didn’t win a men’s NCAA championship before Jovan Vavic became their co-head coach and they haven’t won one once since he left. Something else to consider: Not one USC player from the NCAA era has been inducted into the Water Polo Hall of Fame. During this same period, Long Beach Wilson and Miramonte High Schools have each had 4 players and one coach inducted. To be fair, Hannes Daube and Marko Vavic will probably be inducted after their playing careers are over.

Cutino Award. I think Ryder Dodd will win his third straight Cutino Award and ACWPC Player-of-the-Year Award. Tony Azevedo and Nikolaos Papanikolaou are the only players to accomplish this feat. In his four years at Stanford, Azevedo won four Cutino Awards, three ACWPC Player-of the-year Awards, and two NCAA championships (his first two years at Stanford). If UCLA wins the NCAA championship this year, Dodd will have won one more NCAA championship than Azevedo and the same number as Papanikolaou. Papanikolaou won three NCAA championships in his five years at Cal. He was able to play a 5th season because the 2020 season didn’t count as a year of eligibility.

Cutino Award Finalists: Dodd, Robert Lopez-Duarte, and Botond Balogh.

MPSF Newcomer of the Year: USC’s Ante Jerkovic or Cal’s Ilias Angelopoulos. Jerkovic fills a need at USC and should score a lot of goals. No one has done a better job of recruiting and developing Greek centers than Kirk Everist. My guess is that, when Angelopoulos’s Cal career is over, he will be remembered as someone who fit in somewhere between Papanikolaou (probably Cal’s second greatest player after Chris Humbert) and Ody Masmanidis (2016 NCAA champion) in the long line of great Cal centers.

Surprise team: This is a hard one. I’ll say Cal because almost no one is predicting them to finish higher than 4th and, if they stay healthy, they could finish 2nd.

Each year I like to select an imaginary team of players no one selected in our draft. Here is this year’s team, comprised of American players only:

Goalie – Griffen Price, UCLA. I understand why no one selected him but, if he remains healthy, his ceiling is as high as any college goalie.

Center defender – Max Matthews, UCLA. I predict Matthews will receive a lot of playing time this year. As an aside, UCLA and Stanford could probably form the fastest 200 and 400-free relay teams in college water polo. Matthews (20.75 and 45.19) would join Connor Colman (21.26 and 46.21), Ryder Dodd (45.50 and 1:37.23), and Bode Brinkema (20.16 and 44.93) on UCLA’s relay teams.

Center – Milo Joseph, Pepperdine. A lot of good centers still to choose from. Joseph redshirted in 2025 but scored 35 goals and drew 66 exclusions in 2024.

LH attacker – Clay Carrington, Harvard. Carrington could have gone anywhere but chose Harvard. He’s long and fast and should score a lot of goals.

Attacker – Thomas Leggett, Air Force. Leggett, a 3x All-American, has scored 405 goals during his first three years at Air Force. He also recorded 48 assists last year.

Attacker – Jack Burghardt, Harvard. Burghardt was an honorable mention All-American last year, scoring 98 goals and recording 31 steals and 60 drawn exclusions.

Attacker – Finn Lesieur, Princeton. Last season, Lesieur scored 51 goals on 96 shots and recorded 36 assists and 34 drawn exclusions.

7 Likes
76

Love the all american american team.

2 Likes