July 29, 2008
by Bill Tanton, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
For a long time, I just didn't get it, although I should have. I didn't appreciate something significant about this year's NCAA Division I men's lacrosse championships.
I was missing it because I was caught up in the Duke redemption business. Would the Blue Devils, after their torturous trip to hell and back since 2006, finally win the school's first national championship? And how would history regard such a championship team with its five fifth-year players?
No need to worry about that now. No. 1 seed Duke ran into Johns Hopkins in the semifinals on Saturday and had its dream shattered. Hopkins won, 10-9, which was an upset but was not nearly as shocking as the ESPN announcers tried to make it sound. Blue Jays' Coach Dave Pietramala ingeniously devised a game plan that emasculated the vastly talented and supposedly unstoppable Duke offense.
In the championship game on Memorial Day, Syracuse defeated Hopkins, 13-10. With a record crowd of 48,970 looking on in Foxborough, Mass., the `Cuse was the better team. Syracuse would have won by a wider margin if Hopkins goalie Mike Gvozden had not made 20 saves, 13 of them in the first 25 minutes.
Frankly, even I -- a Hopkins grad and long ago player -- was tiring of the repetitiveness of the final four -- Duke, Virginia, Hopkins and Syracuse. Same old, same old. Can't anybody else play this game?
Now, in the afterglow of it all, I can appreciate a phone call I received from an old buddy when the tournament draw was announced.
"What would the lords of lacrosse have said 20 years ago," he asked, "if someone had told them that in 2008 the 16 teams selected for the tournament would include Canisius, Denver, Ohio State and Notre Dame? Three schools from the Great Western Lacrosse League. Did they even have teams 20 years ago?"
Answers: All but Canisius were playing men's varsity lacrosse in 1988. Canisius joined in 1990. Ohio State has played since 1953, Notre Dame since '81 and Denver since `84. In `88 all of them had winning records.
Great, huh? New blood! New faces in the championship mix. Don't we all want to see our beloved sport grow with new teams rising to the top? Why do the same teams keep showing up at the final four?
"That'll change," says Jim Nagle, the coach at Colgate, which lost a heart breaker, 8-7 in overtime, in the first round at No. 6 seed Notre Dame -- which then lost, 11-9, to third-seeded and eventual national champion Syracuse in the quarterfinals.
"We're going to see new teams in the final four," Nagle said. "I don't necessarily mean Colgate, but some other schools with more resources like Notre Dame and Georgetown. They've been in it once. Delaware was there last year. UMass was in the championship game two years ago. I think the schools that were in the final four this year were there because they believed (italics) they're going to be there."
Greg Canella, the UMass coach, has a more pragmatic view. He says the NCAA final four is such a huge thing now that the best high school players will turn down a scholarship to his school and pay to attend, say, Syracuse with the dream of playing on TV on Memorial Day.
Twenty years ago, when few lacrosse fans were thinking of Canisius or Denver, the final four lineup was familiar, but not quite same old, same old.
An Ivy League team, Penn, coached by Tony Seaman, was in it. So was Richie Moran's Cornell team. Cornell eliminated Virginia, 17-6, in the semifinals and lost to the host school, Syracuse, 13-8, in the championship game.
I was among the 20,148, then a record, in the humid (not air conditioned) Carrier Dome that day. That final four remains unforgettable for two reasons.
At the national championship trophy presentation on the field, Syracuse coach Roy Simmons Jr. was handed the trophy. Slugger, as he is called in those parts, raised the trophy and extended it toward a man in the mezzanine -- his father, the first Roy Simmons. I've never known a greater father-and-son love than that those two men had. That moment one of the most touching I had ever witnessed in sports. The father died six years later.
The other thing I'll never forget is the way that weekend seemed to usher in a whole new, exciting era: the era of the Canadian-born Gaits, Gary and Paul.
At the quarterfinals I expressed my sympathies to then Navy coach Bryan Matthews, who is now athletic director at his alma mater, Washington College. The next opponent for his Mids would be Syracuse with the peerless Gaits.
"It could be worse," Bryan said.
"What could be worse than facing the Gait twins?" I asked.
"They could be triplets," he said.
Syracuse buried Navy in that game, 23-5. The Gaits put on quite a show, passing and even scoring from behind their backs. Between them they had 16 goals and seven assists. Gary had nine goals.
In the 11-10 semifinal win over Penn, Gary performed his famous Air Gait shot. Twice. The Dome is a cavernous place -- capacity 49,262 for football. Even from the press box, a goal scored at the end of the field can be far away.
After Gary scored the first one I blinked and said to the man next to me, "What the heck did he just do? He didn't jump over the goal, did he?"
"He did," the man said. He was stunned, too.
Lacrosse Magazine's Timothy Nichols wrote in the July 1988 issue: "Twice Gary Gait darted to the goal and hung seemingly forever in the air for two dazzling slam-dunk scores."
Gary Gait remains the greatest lacrosse player I've ever seen. Don't think the `88 final four was Neanderthal lacrosse just because it was 20 years ago. It was fantastic. I still blink, thinking about it.
July 29, 2008
This "His Space" column by Bill Tanton appeared in the July issue of Lacrosse Magazine, a members-only publication of US Lacrosse. Become a member today to begin your monthly subscription to LM.
by Bill Tanton, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online
For a long time, I just didn't get it, although I should have. I didn't appreciate something significant about this year's NCAA Division I men's lacrosse championships.
I was missing it because I was caught up in the Duke redemption business. Would the Blue Devils, after their torturous trip to hell and back since 2006, finally win the school's first national championship? And how would history regard such a championship team with its five fifth-year players?
No need to worry about that now. No. 1 seed Duke ran into Johns Hopkins in the semifinals on Saturday and had its dream shattered. Hopkins won, 10-9, which was an upset but was not nearly as shocking as the ESPN announcers tried to make it sound. Blue Jays' Coach Dave Pietramala ingeniously devised a game plan that emasculated the vastly talented and supposedly unstoppable Duke offense.
In the championship game on Memorial Day, Syracuse defeated Hopkins, 13-10. With a record crowd of 48,970 looking on in Foxborough, Mass., the `Cuse was the better team. Syracuse would have won by a wider margin if Hopkins goalie Mike Gvozden had not made 20 saves, 13 of them in the first 25 minutes.
Frankly, even I -- a Hopkins grad and long ago player -- was tiring of the repetitiveness of the final four -- Duke, Virginia, Hopkins and Syracuse. Same old, same old. Can't anybody else play this game?
Now, in the afterglow of it all, I can appreciate a phone call I received from an old buddy when the tournament draw was announced.
 |
Don't we all want to see our beloved sport grow with new teams rising to the top?
|
Answers: All but Canisius were playing men's varsity lacrosse in 1988. Canisius joined in 1990. Ohio State has played since 1953, Notre Dame since '81 and Denver since `84. In `88 all of them had winning records.
Great, huh? New blood! New faces in the championship mix. Don't we all want to see our beloved sport grow with new teams rising to the top? Why do the same teams keep showing up at the final four?
"That'll change," says Jim Nagle, the coach at Colgate, which lost a heart breaker, 8-7 in overtime, in the first round at No. 6 seed Notre Dame -- which then lost, 11-9, to third-seeded and eventual national champion Syracuse in the quarterfinals.
"We're going to see new teams in the final four," Nagle said. "I don't necessarily mean Colgate, but some other schools with more resources like Notre Dame and Georgetown. They've been in it once. Delaware was there last year. UMass was in the championship game two years ago. I think the schools that were in the final four this year were there because they believed (italics) they're going to be there."
Greg Canella, the UMass coach, has a more pragmatic view. He says the NCAA final four is such a huge thing now that the best high school players will turn down a scholarship to his school and pay to attend, say, Syracuse with the dream of playing on TV on Memorial Day.
Twenty years ago, when few lacrosse fans were thinking of Canisius or Denver, the final four lineup was familiar, but not quite same old, same old.
An Ivy League team, Penn, coached by Tony Seaman, was in it. So was Richie Moran's Cornell team. Cornell eliminated Virginia, 17-6, in the semifinals and lost to the host school, Syracuse, 13-8, in the championship game.
I was among the 20,148, then a record, in the humid (not air conditioned) Carrier Dome that day. That final four remains unforgettable for two reasons.
At the national championship trophy presentation on the field, Syracuse coach Roy Simmons Jr. was handed the trophy. Slugger, as he is called in those parts, raised the trophy and extended it toward a man in the mezzanine -- his father, the first Roy Simmons. I've never known a greater father-and-son love than that those two men had. That moment one of the most touching I had ever witnessed in sports. The father died six years later.
The other thing I'll never forget is the way that weekend seemed to usher in a whole new, exciting era: the era of the Canadian-born Gaits, Gary and Paul.
At the quarterfinals I expressed my sympathies to then Navy coach Bryan Matthews, who is now athletic director at his alma mater, Washington College. The next opponent for his Mids would be Syracuse with the peerless Gaits.
"It could be worse," Bryan said.
"What could be worse than facing the Gait twins?" I asked.
"They could be triplets," he said.
Syracuse buried Navy in that game, 23-5. The Gaits put on quite a show, passing and even scoring from behind their backs. Between them they had 16 goals and seven assists. Gary had nine goals.
In the 11-10 semifinal win over Penn, Gary performed his famous Air Gait shot. Twice. The Dome is a cavernous place -- capacity 49,262 for football. Even from the press box, a goal scored at the end of the field can be far away.
After Gary scored the first one I blinked and said to the man next to me, "What the heck did he just do? He didn't jump over the goal, did he?"
"He did," the man said. He was stunned, too.
Lacrosse Magazine's Timothy Nichols wrote in the July 1988 issue: "Twice Gary Gait darted to the goal and hung seemingly forever in the air for two dazzling slam-dunk scores."
Gary Gait remains the greatest lacrosse player I've ever seen. Don't think the `88 final four was Neanderthal lacrosse just because it was 20 years ago. It was fantastic. I still blink, thinking about it.
