Your men's lacrosse Final Four contains no Orange, no Terrapins, no Tigers and no Cavaliers. Longtime lacrosse fans...learn to deal with it. Undefeated Cornell beat Albany in overtime, Johns Hopkins dominated Georgetown, Duke bested rival North Carolina and Delaware (Delaware? Yes, Delaware) beat UMBC to put together the strangest-looking quartet in the game's history. Cornell will play Duke and Hopkins will face-off against Delaware next weekend in Baltimore. Real quick, what do you need to know?
Cornell is undefeated and, despite being the #4 seed in what has to be the dumbest system in all of sports (oh wait...sorry BCS...my bad), has to be considered the favorite. Cornell was a national contender back in the 70's with three titles but hasn't been to the finals since 1988.
Duke is the elite of the nouveau riche in men's lacrosse, a group of programs that are just beginning their ascenion to the top of the lax pile. The Blue Devils were the runner-up in 2005, then you might have seen them in the news in 2006 when the program forfeited the entire season. With things back to normal (if that can truly be said), it will be interesting to see how much the mainstream media notes Duke's return to glory this week, and if this is being viewed as a good thing by everyone.
Johns Hopkins is the powerhouse of the group, having won the title in 2005 (over Duke), the latest of their
8 championships.Delaware isn't exactly the equivalent of George Mason in the basketball Final Four here, they're 13-5. But it's only their 4th appearance in the NCAA tournament (1984, 1999, and 2005) so they're certainly the darlings of the remaining four.
Expect the Hopkins-Delaware match-up to attract an intriguing crowd. With Hopkins fans already in town, and everyone else on hand rooting for the Hens (including their nearby fans). My early pick, based on nothing in particular...#2 Duke "upsets" #4 Cornell and Hopkins handles Delaware, leading to Duke's first title and a
landslide of middle-fingers for media members country-wide. Nancy Grace, make sure you are conveniently absent on Tuesday.Sadly, shifting gears to women's lacrosse will also mark our final women's lacrosse mention for quite some time (short of any kind of sex scandal, involving the lacrosse sticks or not). The SU ladies fought valiently but came up short to two-time defending champ Northwestern, losing 14-9. Cuse hung tough and it wasn’t until midway through the second half when Northwestern finally came together and pulled away for the win. Congrats to the women's team for a great year and for reminding SU faithful that the men aren't the only team in town (not that it was too hard to do that this year...)