New England Lacrosse Journal: All Roads Lead to the Big Game

 

The famous ending quote from the movie “The Naked City” –filmed in and about New York City—says, “There are eight million stories the naked city. This has been one of them.”

Take a snapshot of any event and look at all the people involved. Every single one of them has their own unique story as to how he or she got there.

The Konica Minolta Big City Classic took place at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, home of the NFL’s New York Giants and Jets, just across the river from New York City. It is one of college lacrosse’s biggest stages aside from championship weekend.

It’s an honor for a team to be selected to play in the big day and it’s a memorable moment for all the players involved.

For the New England Lacrosse Journal May issue I was given the task of telling the stories of four players that made it to the big day. The four took such different paths all to wind up at the same event. Here is how four different people took four entirely unique ways to wind up at the Big City Classic.

Harrison Freid went from club to D1 and takes the road less traveled to play at the Big City Classic for St. John's: http://www.laxjournal.com/news/2012/05/23_colleges_harrison_freid_took.php

Hakeem Lecky is a 20-year-old freshman at Syracuse after a prep season and a redshirt year, but the Jamaican-born, Duxbury, Mass.-bred is starting for Syracuse after taking the long road to the Big City Classic: http://www.laxjournal.com/news/2012/05/23_colleges_hakeem_lecky_took.php

Chris Shannon was a football player at Duke and was a little jealous of the championships won by the Duke basketball and lacrosse teams. Wanting a piece of the action he decided to just join the lacrosse team himself, taking the alternate road to the Big City Classic: http://www.laxjournal.com/news/2012/05/23_colleges_christopher_shannon.php

Mark Goodrich was a big-time recruit out of The Rivers School for Johns Hopkins. But playing time was difficult to come by in his first few seasons due to injury. He persevered though and took the hard road to the Big City Classic: http://www.laxjournal.com/news/2012/05/23_colleges_mark_goodrich_took.php

Video from YouTube.

NCAA Lacrosse: Duke Beats Virginia, Displays Unrivaled Depth and Talent

Reigning Division 1 men’s lacrosse champions Virginia started the season as the No. 1 ranked team and with eight consecutive victories. Many pundits penned them as a good bet to repeat as champions thanks to stars like Steele Stanwick, Colin Briggs and Chris Bocklet.

Meanwhile, Duke opened the season at No. 3 but lost three games before the Cavaliers lost their first game. They dropped to No. 15 in the rankings and many analysts questioned how strong they were, specifically with a young attack line and an unstable situation in goal.

What some didn’t acknowledge or chose to ignore was Duke’s dominance over Virginia. That is until the two teams met Friday evening.

Prior to the game, the Blue Devils had beaten the Cavaliers 11 of the past 12 times they squared off. A 13-5 victory on Saturday in Charlottesville for Duke not only increased the team’s winning streak to eight games but also gave Duke the ACC regular season championship and the top-seed in the ACC tournament.

Duke, per usual, is getting better as the season goes along. They are working through the kinks, stepping up against big-time opposition in huge games and are playing their best lacrosse at the most important time of the season.

What did they do against Virginia to dominate from the get-go?

The contrast of styles has always been a factor in the Duke-Virginia series.

Duke, with coach John Danowski at the helm, likes to get up and down the field and really put on the pressure offensively. Virginia, under Dom Starsia and with smooth passer Stanwick at the X, likes to play more of a half-field offense.

The problem is that Duke does such a better job at establishing its transition game that Virginia has a difficult time keeping up that same pace. There are a number of factors that lead to this.

The first is the play of the Duke poles. The Blue Devils did a very good job on defense Saturday evening. They played a pressure-man defense that Virginia had difficulty breaking through. Duke has some big, strong and athletic poles that imposed their will on the opposition.

The slides on defense were effective and sophomore Henry Lobb stepped up in a big way, smothering Stanwick behind the cage and allowing him only one goal and assists.
The poles cause a lot of turnovers—Virginia had 14 turnovers compared to Duke’s nine—which led to a lot of fast breaks which the defenders were more than capable of taking charge of. Many of the defenders are talented enough and had good stick skills that they were able to go on the fast break and hang around on offense, even having two long-poles (Mike Manley and Luke Duprey) score goals.

The pressure wasn’t just applied on defense either. The offense continuously brought it to the Virginia defense. Duke outshot Virginia 42-33, including a 13-4 third quarter when the Blue Devils outscored the Cavaliers 5-0 and really took over the game.

Even with a lead, Duke never took its foot off the pedal; the final goal of the game came from Christian Walsh with 17 seconds left. Walsh was holding the ball but Virginia defensemen took some hard stick checks on him and didn’t defend him when Walsh wrapped around the crease and put the ball in the back of the net.

Duke could push the ball constantly because the team is so deep with so much offensive talent. Seven different players scored goals and two more tallied an assist each. The attack is young and talented, the midfield is deep and the defense has some good stick handlers and shooters as well. There are just so many weapons that it’s tough for teams to match.

While Duke was firing at Virginia at will, Blue Devils goalie Dan Wigrizer, the subject of much criticism this season, made some big saves throughout the game. He made 14 saves throughout the night and earned the win.

It was a total team effort that allowed the Blue Devils to continue to assert their dominance over the Cavaliers. It was Virginia’s second loss in its past four games.
Duke proved that they can play good lacrosse and beat anybody, even the best teams in the nation, and that its talent is as good as anybody’s as well.

The team is peaking at the right time and will be a tough team to play the rest of the way.

Photo of Josh Dionne from goduke.com

Duke Blue Devils Lacked Leadership Needed to Advance in NCAA Tournament

Mike Krzyzewski is considered not only one of the greatest basketball coaches in the history of the game but also as one of the best leaders. He’s even written five books about how to build and lead a team.

His 2011-2012 Duke basketball team, however, was lacking of anyone that shared that characteristic and that ultimately was the team’s downfall as they lost to No. 15-seeded Lehigh and failed to advance in the NCAA tournament.

There are a number of pure basketball reasons why the team struggled this season—poor free throw shooting, reliance on three-point shots and bad defense—but not one players stepped up to be the man, to be courageous and clutch during crunch time, to inspire his teammates and to push the rest of the team to give maximum effort.

In most cases, leadership is developed throughout the years and displayed by the upperclassmen. Throughout Coach K’s tenure at Duke he’s had the luxury of most of his players staying all four years of their eligibility rather than go to the NBA.

Prior to this season, Duke had advanced past the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in all but one of the past 15 seasons (2006-2007). Looking back at that roster, which was a 22-win team by the way, there was only one senior and one junior. Six of the 14 players on the roster were freshmen.

There was a considerable lack of experience on the team and it ended its season losing its final four games (its second four-game losing streak of the season).

It’s similar to how this year’s team lost three of its final four games.

In 2011-12, there was a bit more experience, but there was only one senior, Miles Plumlee. On most night’s he was the team’s most intense player, but he was featured as a substitute more times than not and did not get the rest of his teammates to match his effort.

Think of some of the best Duke teams of the decade and you will remember them having some fantastic college seniors: Shane Battier, Chris Duhon, J.J. Redick, Sheldon Williams, Jon Scheyer, Greg Paulus, Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. This type of talented leader was absent from the team this year.

There also was the lack of a true point guard. Gone were Jay Williams, Duhon, Scheyer, Paulus, Smith and Kyrie Irving. The team relied on Seth Curry and Austin Rivers to run the offense, but neither was up to task.

Curry is a shooter. Handling the ball is not one of his strengths. He spent his playing-time off the ball last year but was shifted to the point position before the season started.

“It's different. I'm used to just worrying about myself,” he told CBS Sports at the beginning of the season. “Now I've got to get everyone involved in the offense. I can't just worry about myself.

Most point guards are judged by their assist-to-turnover ratio. Curry’s was not good: he averaged one turnover for every 1.2 assists he dished out. He was unable to control the tempo of the game and couldn’t hold onto the ball during big moments.

Rivers didn’t fare much better.

The freshman showed some fearlessness and stepped up to the occasion here and there, most notably in the first match-up against North Carolina when he hit a buzzer-beating, game-winning three pointer. He was a bit overconfident though and that affected his play.

Rivers handled the ball a lot but his biggest failure was in getting his teammates involved. More times than not, when Rivers got the ball at the top of the key he either held the ball and threw up an ill-advised jumper or put his head down and drove down the lane. He was the team’s leading scorer but he made the offense stagnant and predictable.

He also averaged more turnovers (2.3) than assists (2.1).

It seemed as if on some nights, this Duke team was waiting for the great players in the past to come into the game and take over. Aside from Rivers in the first UNC game, no one stepped up to hit big shots. It seemed like the team was just unsure about itself.

With one more season maybe Curry gets a better handle on the position. And if Rivers comes back for another season maybe his confidence is harnessed and the extra experience makes him a better team player. But this season neither stepped up as a point guard or a leader.

The talent on the team needs to improve, as does the effort put forth by every player. A team lacking leadership and heart is always susceptible to an upset from a team with nothing to lose.

That’s what happened when Duke went up against Lehigh.

Not all hope is lost however. Three freshman on that ’06-’07 team were Scheyer, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas.

All three played pivotal roles and were leaders three seasons later on the 2009-2010 NCAA championship team.

Photo Credit: AP Photo/Chuck Burton

NCAA Championship: Brian Zoubek was Duke's Most Important Player

AP Photo/Amy Sancetta

The Duke Blue Devils have a ton of talented players. In the championship game victory over Butler the “big three”—Kyle Singler, Jon Scheyer, and Nolan Smith—combined to score 47 of the team’s 61 points.

No individual was more important in Duke’s run to the title game than center Brian Zoubek.

Looking back on the past three years, he was also the least likely candidate to be the missing piece that would push a talented Duke squad over the top.

In his first three years with Duke Zoubek’s struggles were obvious.

The seven-foot-one-inch, 260 pound center was a big presence in the paint that could alter shots, yet he was more of a liability on the floor.

He seemed to always be stumbling over his own feet, he couldn’t hold onto the basketball, and instead of going strong to the hoop he always looked uncomfortable with the ball, opting to pass back outside.

He had trouble getting up-and-down the court, made even worse by multiple surgeries to fix a broken foot. Because of his awkwardness and size, he would continually get into foul trouble as well.

It seemed more trouble to put him on the floor than he was worth.

Zoubek stuck it out though, and it paid off.

Duke has been in desperate need for a strong inside presence since Sheldon Williams graduated in 2006. Since Williams left, the Blue Devils have been severely lacking in rebounding, interior defense, and toughness. So just because of his sheer size Zoubek would always remain a thought, even if it was a thought buried deep in the back of Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s head.

The lack of an inside game could very well explain Duke’s lack of success in the NCAA Tournament recently.

The last time the Blue Devils won the championship was in 2001. Since then, the school had been a number one seed four times but failed to reach the championship game. Zoubek’s class have seen the team get bounced in the first round, second round, and Sweet 16—certainly not up to the standards and expectations set at Duke.

The team has lived and died by the three-pointer. It would seem that in the biggest games more times than not they died by it. There was never any post presence that would corral in those misses or provide a solid steady presence on offense when the team needed to stop shooting.

Quietly Zoubek increased his minutes played per game, points per game average, rebounds per game average, blocked shots per game average, and his turnovers per game went down. They were never by large increments, but just enough for people to not give up hope on the big man, even if productivity seemed light years away at times.

This season, his final collegiate year, Zoubek came in healthy and in shape.

He set career highs in games played, minutes played per game, points per game, and assist per game. He grabbed an astonishing four more rebounds per game and shot a career-high 63.5% from the field.

Even more important is that he did the most of his damage down the stretch.

From the start of the season, November 13, through February 10—a stretch of24 games—Zoubek had played twenty minutes or more only three times. However he was given the opportunity to start against Maryland in the team’s next game and he seized the moment, scoring a season-high 16 points and grabbing a season-high 17 rebounds in a 77-56 Duke victory, and has started every game since.

Since that game, Zoubek has averaged 6.6 points (more than two points higher than his career average of 4.1) and 10.1 rebounds per game (just under six more boards than his 4.3 career average). He grabbed double-digits in rebounds nine games out of 16 and recorded three double-doubles.

As the season went on, Zoubek gained more and more confidence. The Blue Devils also became a tougher team because of their new-found post presence.

While Singler, Scheyer, and Smith carried the brunt of the scoring load, Zoubek did all the dirty work; grabbing rebounds, setting screens to open up the shooters, altering and blocking shots on defense, and trapping the ball as well.

Without his increased production, without Zoubek stepping up to the challenge, Duke does not make it to the championship game.

Despite being in foul trouble for the majority of the game, they also wouldn’t have won it without him.

Six of Zoubek’s 10 rebounds in the title game were offensive, giving Duke second chances for points when their shooters failed to connect.

On Butler’s last offensive possession Zoubek covered the inbounder, and did a good job sliding out and getting in Gordon Hayword’s face as he attempting a runner, altering the shot just enough so that it went long and hit the back part of the rim.

Zoubek then grabbed the rebound and didn’t lose the ball, sending him to the free throw line, where he would sink the first shot calmly (he missed the second intentionally to force Butler to make a long-last ditch heave rather than allow for them to send in a long inbounds pass, creating an easier shot).

It was a long journey for Zoubek, but in his senior season he finally produced at the level he knew he was capable of playing at.

He also gave the University the strong, tough post presence it needed.

When they stood on the podium after the game, Zoubek held onto the trophy like he was never going to let it slip away from his grasp, just like he improved his ability to hold onto the basketball.

Oh, how Sweet it is

We’ve reached the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament. The Eastern region consists of all chalk—the top seeds: top seeded Pittsburgh, second seeded Duke, third seeded Villanova, and fourth seeded Xavier. The teams are set to face off Thursday night in Boston; Pittsburgh against Xavier and Duke against Villanova, with the winners squaring off against each other. The teams held open practices at TD Banknorth Garden Wednesday afternoon, each for 50 minutes with 10 minutes in-between. I was able to catch Pittsburgh and Duke prepare for their next round matchups.



Pittsburgh had a light practice, mainly a shootaround. The bigs worked on posting up and then popping out. DeJuan Blair, a candidate for the Naismith Player of the Year award, used this drill to work on his range, popping out and nailing quite a few 3-pointers. Don’t expect to see him shoot from that far out in the game against Xavier though; in his two years at Pitt he has never attempted a 3-point shot in a game. Blair also took it to the rim frequently during drills and free shooting. He is a powerful player and every time he slammed it home, he tried to take the backboard down with him, like Shaquille O’Neal in his heyday.

The Panthers worked on free-throws, and during shooting, an impromptu jumping contest broke out, where redshirt sophomore Gilbert Brown and senior Sam Young impressed with their leaping abilities, wowing the crowd by continually reaching higher than the box on the glass. Young even almost hit his head on the rim.



Every player on Pittsburgh then took one half court shot, in case they ever needed a desperation heave in the tournament. Senior guard Levance Fields was the last player to shoot and the only one to make one. The Panthers ended their light workout five minutes early.





Duke took advantage of Pitt’s early exit and took to the court 10 minutes early. It was clear from the beginning that Duke meant business. Their practice jerseys were tucked in, and, unlike Pittsburgh, began the practice with a few end-line to end-line jogs, stretching, and even jumping rope. Surprisingly, Duke held a legitimate practice. I’ve never been to a Blue Devil practice before, but I can imagine this was a relatively close representation. Rather than just a shootaround, they actually went through different shooting and shuffling drills. Everything the Duke players did, they seemed to do with a great sense of urgency. It was all business—that is until they went to layup lines and junior Gerald Henderson and freshman Elliot Williams started having their own dunk contest, Henderson leading the way with a 360 and a windmill.



The team then went into 5 v. 5 full court drills, utilizing the shot clock. Another difference between Duke’s and Pittsburgh’s practice was the defensive chatter. The Panthers’ practice was relatively quiet, but the Duke players talked and yelled out defensive calls, even during the shuffling drills.

Then they split into bigs and guards and wings, but it was still a workout. The assistant working with the post players had a pad that he would actually hit the players with, to mimic the force from an opposing player. They actually took a water break, another difference between the two practices, and finished with a shootaround.

The two practices were vastly different, but they both did some unique things that I liked. Practicing the half court shots was a good idea by the Pitt coaches. You never know when you’re going to find yourself in that kind of predicament in the tournament, and it can’t hurt to work on it, especially at practice the day before your biggest game of the season to date. For Duke, I liked the intensity and urgency they brought. Most teams go through a light workout in these kinds of practices, but for Duke, they treated it as if it were business as usual. The practice wasn’t necessarily taxing, but they worked hard and showed why they are not only one of the elite programs in the ACC, but all of college basketball as well.

Both teams will be ready to go tomorrow night. Anticipate some good basketball from all teams, Xavier and Villanova included. It will be a dogfight to see which of the four earns the right to take a trip to Detroit and a chance at the national championship.

Game of the Knight

AP Photo/Joe Cavaretta

Thursday night’s ESPN college basketball doubleheader started off with a matchup between the Duke Blue Devils and the St. John’s Red Storm. Covering the game for ESPN was play-by-play man Brent Musburger, color commentator Bob Knight, and sideline reporter Holly Rowe. Musburger and Knight are two highly respected individuals in the world of college basketball so it made sense to have them cover a game with such a high profile program like Duke.

Before the tip-off Musburger and Knight explained why the game was important for both teams. This was a great way to start because it told the viewer what was at stake and why they should want to watch this game. They described that Duke was on a two-game losing streak and needed this game to snap out of their funk, and for St. John’s it was an opportunity for their young squad—all five starters were sophomores—to play in a primetime matchup for a national audience against one of the premier schools in the nation.

Knight was a great “X’s and O’s” guy as a coach and that has carried over into his career as an analyst. During the game he does a great job of identifying what the team is doing and why it works or doesn’t work, as well as what they need to do to get a better result. The viewer can come out of Knight’s broadcast with a better understanding of the intricacies of basketball, just like they were being coached by him at the University of Indiana.

Musburger does a good job of “driving the bus” and bringing up good discussion points for Knight to analyze. However, on this night, he seemed too low-key. It almost sounds like he was working through a cold. His voice was really low, soft, and delivered in monotone. You really had to pay close attention to understand what he was saying.

Knight, as informative as he was, was also a bit dull covering the game. Neither Knight nor Musburger had any excitement in their voice. As a sport fan, the viewer gets excited by a great play, and I think it’s OK if the announcer gets excited too. Part of the allure of sports is the entertainment value and watching someone do something incredible that the average person can’t do. Yet neither seems to be affected by any singular moment. Maybe it’s because they have both been around for so long and have seen so much that they are, in a way, desensitized. At one point in the game Duke forward Lance Thomas lunges for a defensive rebound, collects the ball, and as he is falling to the ground he throws a full court pass to teammate Elliot Williams, who scores a lay-up. Knight claims this play is at least one of the top five passes from the season, but there is no excitement in his voice. His tone describing the play is the same as when he was describing the type of offense Duke was running. As the game goes on, this becomes a much bigger problem.

Duke took control of the second half, dominating a young St. John’s team. The announcers aren’t exciting, and now the game isn’t exciting either. Without that excitement, the viewer starts to drift away from the game. I was no longer fully interested knowing that Duke was on their way to an easy victory, and the announcers didn’t do much to keep me interested. However, St. John’s didn’t quit, and with about three minutes left they made a comeback, closing a double-digit deficit to only eight points. The announcers were still delivering in their monotone voices though, without any inflection of excitement or amazement, and I didn’t even realize how close it was getting. What could have been an exciting comeback just passed me by because the announcers couldn’t draw me back in.

By excitement, I don’t mean that they had to be like Dick Vitale. Vitale seems to be excited about everything and as the game goes on it gets to be a little over the top and irritating. However, Knight and Musburger were too dull and in a game that wasn’t very close for most of the time, it really made me less interested in watching it, undoing all the good work they did earlier in the game.

That would be the one area that needs to be improved. Otherwise, the knowledge that Musburger and Knight brought to the telecast was excellent.