MEN'S SLACKS

1. Johns Hopkins head coach Dave is the Kelly Amonte Hiller of men's lacrosse--though he might see it differently. Like Amonte Hiller, he is the only person in men's lacrosse history to win a D-I national championship as both a player (at Hopkins) and as a coach. Also like Amonte Hiller, he has been named a national player of the year and a national coach of the year.

2. Duke senior Matt Danowski , whose father John is the Blue Devils' first-year head coach, is destined to win the Tewaaraton Trophy later this week (along, likely, with Northwestern's Kristen Kjellman on the women's side). Danowski leads the nation in both assists (51) and total points (94) this season.

Danowski has 51 assists and 43 goals this season. Two years ago the senior had 50 goals and 42 assists. The Farmingdale, N.Y., native is the only player in NCAA history to have both one 50-40 G/A season and one 40/50 G/A season.

3. Danowski's classmate, Zach Greer , is the dude. The Canadian native has 67 goals this season. Only Jon Reese of Yale (82 in '90) and Gary Gait (oops! I couldn't avoid it) of Syracuse (70 in '88) have scored more goals in a single season. Greer also has 16 goals in this tournament, equaling the single-season tourney total record set last year by Virginia's Matt Ward. If Greer scores one goal today, obviously, he breaks that record. And if he scores three, not only does he tie Gait but Hopkins should completely watch out: because Duke is 27-0 when Greer scores three or more goals.

4. This is Duke's second appearance in the championship game. Their first was in 2005, the 9-8 loss to Hopkins.
This is Hopkins' seventeenth appearance in the championship game since its inception in 1971. The Blue Jays are 8-8 in previous championship games.

5. What we have here is the nation's biggest NCAA non-revenue sport story of the past 12 months (Duke lacrosse) versus the gold standard of collegiate lacrosse. The Blue Jays, quickly:

--Played their first intercollegiate lax gme in 1883.
--Have 858 wins, most in the history of collegiate lacrosse
--Have qualified for the NCAA tourney 36 straight seasons
--Have won 42 national championships since earning their first in 1891 (8 of which were of the NCAA tourney variety)
--Entered 2007 with a .864 winning record at Homewood Field (172-27)

Duke, meanwhile, throws an awesome off-campus party.

Sorry, I'm a little cynical. Duke's players deserve a lot of credit for earning a spot in today's national championship game--as any team that advances this far would. I'm just not prepared to portray the Blue Devil team as victims. The three players who were arrested--David Evans, Collin Finerty and Reade Seligmann-- may have been unjustly accused, but these young men weren't lambs.
Should the school have prematurely truncated the 2006 season after the arrests? Given what was known at the time, how could they not have? But now that the charges were dropped, Duke is appealing to the NCAA for its players from last season to receive an extra year of eligibility. Why? Did the NCAA end Duke's season in 2006? No, Duke did. Live with the consequences of your actions.

By the way, if you want to read a condensed version of all that transpired regarding Duke last season and the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum (whom I highly doubt will be in attendance at today's game), this link is a good primer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Duke_University_lacrosse_team_scandal