Official NCAA Lacrosse Championship Thread

Hey now, as spring sports go, lacrosse is more entertaining than a lot of other options. At least at the high school level, I'd rather watch it than softball (when the ball leaving the outfield is cause to celebrate), soccer (only entertaining around here when they foul hard), tennis (except when they yell at each other for not calling the lines fairly, as happened once here) or track (ugh).

Duke-Hopkins. Instead of overtime, they could have a neurosurgery-off.

 

We're not lionizing them, BYH.  He never said that.  FWIW, out of everyone involved, this team is the probably the only ones who have learned their lessons, stopped their shennigans, and stayed out of the limelight as Nifong, the victim, the three accused, and the media were in the three-ring circus. 

Those kids knew what they did got them into a lot of trouble.  Tell me this then:  have you heard anyone else on that team or the team in general do anything else stupid since then? 

Nope. 

They stayed out of trouble, played their game and they deserve to be in the finals against Hopkins.  I like how they play, and it would be fitting if they win.  The Duke administration isn't going to support them or apologize to them.  It would be a nice, little fuck-you to those idiots. 

We never said that we were going to lionize them BYH.  All we're saying is that it would be poetic justice and ironic that after getting thrown under the bus for a crime they were accused of (notwithstanding their past antics), they had to deal with the embarrassment and the criticism.  And they have done a nice job of keeping themselves in check and toeing the line. 

Nifong, Jesse, Duke admin. and faculty, and the overall media lionized and fucked themselves. 

 

Duke's got my rooting interest here, for the very reasons stated above.

 

Ok, if anyone isn't watching this, I'd recommend it. Duke was down a bunch early, but just cut the lead to 11-10 against Hopkins.

 

A two-man advantage for the Dukies? In the fourth quarter?

Who's officiating, Vitale??

 

Both good calls, the second hit was high and after the shot. Bad defense by Hopkins lets them tie it, but the Blue Hens grab the lead right back.

I wasn't expecting the end to be this good at halftime.

 

Bluejays, not Blue Hens.

But yeah, they were legit calls. I should know from having covered this sport that the officials don't necessarily swallow their whistles late in a close game.

I didn't either, but having covered both this and the NCAA men's basketball final, it's interesting how much more often the lax final is an exciting, down-to-the-wire game.

 

Good to see Duke lose. This is far from a feel-good story as far as I'm concerned. I'm glad that justice finally prevailed, but there's at least a certain number of players on that team who are far from choir boys. I'm not saying that there aren't lots of other teams in which the members behave similarly, but why celebrate it if we know about it?

I'm curious if the guy who sent the e-mail message that finally put the Duke administration over the edge was part of this year's team.

A feel-good story: Nifong being disbarred and facing prison time.

 

I believe he was expelled shortly after performing that act of monumental stupidity.

EDIT: After some quick Googling, I think I'm wrong - he was suspended from school, but is on this year's roster. Yup, here it is:
Duke player reinstated

 

That's good. He didn't need to be on that team.

 

Helluva (hell of a?) game, by the way. Once the Dukies went on that third-quarter rampage, I wasn't sure if the Jays would ever get the ball back, much less score again...

 

I agree with that. He shouldn't ever set foot in a courtroom again unless he's a defendant in a criminal or civil case.