It had only been half an hour since the UCLA men’s water polo team had captured its second consecutive national title, and questions about 2016 were already swirling.
The water in coach Adam Wright’s hair had yet to dry from the familiar water-born celebration.
It wasn’t that the dominant 30-win season wasn’t impressive in its own right – it was that this year has the potential to be even more so.
The Bruins return nearly everyone from last year’s roster, but lost two senior captains in Danny McClintick and Anthony Daboub, who provided veteran presence on offense and defense, respectively, and held clear leadership roles that are currently left unfilled.
“The leadership is a big question. In some aspects, it’s easy to say, ‘We only lost two players,’ but I don’t think we understand the depth of what Danny (McClintick) and Daboub did for us in the water,” Wright said. “That’s going to be what the challenge is. Who’s going to step up in those places?”
There are eight seniors, compared to the two of last year, who could potentially step up like those before them.
But the last time there were as many seniors was in 2014, and rather than having captains, the fourth- and fifth-years split duties collectively to keep the team on pace. Wright referred to them as the “Great Eight,” and together they helped bring an end to USC’s streak of six consecutive national championships.
The “Great Eight” class had been, in the words of Wright, knocking on the door for a while. They had made it to the national championship game only to lose both times before then. This class, on the other hand, has had its efforts more rewarded.
“Our guys no doubt know how to win,” Wright said. “Our guys no doubt know how to play in every situation, but it’s with a different team and it’s with different pieces and the hope is that they can be the backbone like that Great Eight was, but it’s still to be determined.”
In total, the Bruins return seven All-Americans, five of them from this year’s core senior group.
Headlining the list is senior Garrett Danner, who last year set the single-season UCLA saves record to put him on top of the all-time career record. He averaged 11.6 goals a game over 24 appearances, including a career-high 21 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation tournament championship game against Cal.
For his efforts, he was named Division I Player of the Year and winner of the Peter J. Cutino award – the Heisman Trophy of collegiate water polo.
“I don’t win that without my team, and same with the all-time saves record,” Danner said. “They are able to limit the shot percentage that I see, which is great, so I can’t do that stuff without them.”
Senior Chancellor Ramirez, one of the Bruins’ top defenders who split time with Daboub last year as the center defender, is one such teammate who prevented high-percentage shots on Danner from close range.
He’ll likely join last season’s usual starting seven, which featured then-juniors center Gordon Marshall, attacker Jack Fellner and NCAA tournament MVP Ryder Roberts, who together accounted for nearly 35% of UCLA’s 403 goals.
Roberts led the team with 57 goals in 27 appearances while Fellner was third with 40. Marshall was seventh with 23, but the center from Newcastle, Australia accounted for a lot of offensive production with the amount of exclusions he drew to give the Bruins a one-man advantage.
In between the then-junior All-Americans on the scoring hierarchy was even more support for UCLA’s preseason No. 1 ranking.
Redshirt junior Max Irving was one of four players to make an appearance in every 2015 game and had 47 goals over the course of the season.
“We might have a lot of guys returning, but this year every team’s getting better,” Irving said. “We as a team have to get better, and if we stay the same as we were last year, we might not get it done, so everybody has to grow – if we stay the same, we might not be as successful as we were.”
He and junior Alex Roelse – who scored 25 goals last year – along with Ramirez and sophomore goalie Alex Wolf, competed in the offseason at higher levels of the sport.
Irving, Roelse and Ramirez played with current collegiate water polo all-stars for USA Blue in the semi-professional National League over the spring. They ended up losing in the championship match to the New York Athletic Club, a team that featured multiple senior national team members and UCLA alumni on it, but will look to bring higher-level water polo experience back to Westwood.
“The level of competition was good,” Irving said. “It was good just to do something in the offseason, to be able to play games, because sometimes the offseason gets a little hard because you’re not playing as many games, so that was good to be able to get a chance to play.”
For Roelse, the National League was as much a reward because it provided him an arena to reap the benefits of his intense Olympic training.
He only scored one goal in Rio de Janeiro, but he proved himself to be a force when matched against competitors of his own experience level in the National League.
“It’s most important that he comes back with a refreshed mind,” said Wright on Roelse, who is taking a break and will join the team in another week. “We can get him in shape quickly, but the most important thing is that he’s focused and ready to go.”
Everyone else has been preparing throughout the summer, and though the top of the polls is nothing new for the Bruins, the theme has always been to keep a level head.
“(The ranking) doesn’t mean anything, we have a lot of work that we need to put in,” Danner said. “For us, the season is more of a process. We’re continuing to grow throughout the whole thing and our goal is to be the best we possibly can at the end. Right now everything is going well, and we just need to keep going and keep growing as a team.”
Email Hull at mhull@dailybruin.com or tweet @michaelchull.