<p>Fantasic game, almost fantastic finish. Hit the post what, three times? Congrats to Hopkins in what really had to be a bit bittersweet. Hopkins was truly glad they won, but probably alittle sad Duke lost. I think everybody was pulling for the dukies in some form. </p>
<p>Good job boys, good effort, just a bit unlucky at the end.</p>
<p>Just heard that one of the arrested Lax boys will be playing for Brown next year; declined invitation to return to Duke.</p>
<p>Reade will be an asset to the Brown team.</p>
<p>Reade was greatly respected by his peers and by anyone who knew him at Duke for his personality as well as for his atheltic talent. Respect for him only increased as the hoax and abuse of power in Durham was revealed. Duke’s loss, Brown’s gain. He showed a great deal of character and maturity in a year which would have crushed many adults (he certainly handled it better than I could have). I expect only good things in his future and think he heartily deserves to return to the life of a student/athlete at Brown.</p>
<p>Opie, you might want to read [this</a> Washington Post commentary](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801334.html]this”>www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/28/AR2007052801334.html) by Mike Wise on the game (I can’t figure out how to provide a link that doesn’t require a free account, though, sorry…). I’m not sure the Hopkins Blue Jays were “a little sad Duke lost”. They were good sports, of course, and Skakandi bending over Danowski on the field at the end is one of the enduring visual moments I saved from the ESPN broadcast of the game, but the Jays felt they weren’t even noticed coming into the finals. And I’m sure that translated into giving it their all to win a hard-fought game. Hopkins had a 4-4 record earlier in the season and were pretty much written off from even making the tournament, until they put on a hard work surge of their own. Very interesting how the season turned out. Some quotes from the article:
It was a fantastic game between two great lacrosse powerhouses. Just what an NCAA Division I Lacrosse Championship game ought to be! Both teams did themselves proud, and I’m looking forward to a great season next year. Aren’t you?</p>
<p>mootmom,</p>
<p>Here’s the thing though, you can’t tell me outside of the momments leading up to and just after the game ANYBODY on JH was glad for Duke’s situation. I don’t think anyone who picked up a stick didn’t feel for duke LAX. There wasn’t a lax team across the country that didn’t think “there but for the grace of God…” about duke Lax. </p>
<p>Taking nothing away from hopkins. They played like champions and deserved the outcome. I’m a fairly new parent to the sport, mine just finished up this year after starting out freshman year. It was about as close to rugby as he could get. By that, I mean a sport played hard by atheletes who turn out to be classy guys, when the game ends. These days in American sport, it is hard to find classy guys…</p>
<p>It’s hard to explain unless you’ve been there or have a big family. There is something about a sport where you physically beat on your opponent and he beats on you, till the final whistle blows and he smiles shakes your hand earnestly and thanks you for the game. Something about the grin on the face at the final whistle of the guy you just nailed, who eariler stomped on your back that does something… The handshake, the beer, the sphagetti feed… I know it sounds werid but it is the best feeling in the world. brotherhood, what sport should be at the end of the day.</p>
<p>Hopkins played very well, no doubt. Lots of good backstories on both sides. Duke clearly benefited from leadership from both Danowskis and others on the Duke team.<br>
The Duke Cornell game was also a great match. Cornell was fearsome.</p>
<p>Hopkins deserved to be praised for their performance in the final game, and they got their due when the game was over and evaluated. It was great to see Duke make a fierce run for it in the third quarter and we held out our hopes till the final minute. My Duke son and Dad were there and report that most people in the stands were rabid Hopkins fans. Duke was a fantastic team but that could be said of a handful of teams in the running. </p>
<p>an article that I think is very lucid
<a href=“http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/126281.html[/url]”>http://www.kansascity.com/sports/story/126281.html</a></p>
<p>Jason Whitlock has written an excellent article–thanks for the link, Faline2!!</p>
<p>I certainly agree with him about Nancy "dis"Grace!! 
Guess she won’t be covering the Mike Nifong trial before the NC State Bar in June!</p>
<p>yeah, it has been quite a victimhood party down in Durham, and I appreciate Jason Whitlock addressing the perversion of victimhood and ways it can be damaging. There were really only three young adult victims of a hoax with many older adult enablers and conspirators, plus an innocent taxi driver persecuted because he was an alibi witness with his own bogus trial (acquitted), that is if you don’t get sidetracked by the serious individual storylines and woes of the entire lacrosse team, the horrific safety risks in Durham that escalated with the mob mentality, and the general losses to the community. Crystal Gail Mangum’s mother did confer with a lawyer who is used to getting big payouts for “victims”, Crystal’s cousin Jackie AKA Clyde the crossdresser/with a hefty criminal history did get on national TV and and deliver what was billed as a “bombshell” declaration that a baby had been born in Durham exactly 9 months after the “rape”… (an outrageous lie of biblical proportions since the Mangum third baby was not born at all on that date, came much later and was of course not fathered by any Duke student). Can’t wait to hear Nifong’s “explanation” and hear about his unblemished years of “service” to Durham citizens (like he has not been ranting in the courthouse and abusing his office for years), to hear Meehan hem and haw about how he was "only fulfilling the wishes of a “client” (total misread on his duties…Nifong was not the client, DNA Securities is not a beauty parlor where we just do whatever makes the DA client look good in the mirror), the “clarification” statements from faculty members who “piled on” to the witch hunt are now also putting out claims of being “victimized” when they are merely being held accountable for poor judgment, animas that was misplaced, and a complete lack of gravitas shown for due process, and won’t be long before the city of Durham is a victim when the lawsuits arrive and settlements are proferred. </p>
<p>Yes, the team made choices which showed a poor grasp of some moral issues they were old enough to have considered better, but nothing on the scale of the adults with criminal intent to railroad randomly chosen athletes as effigies of “white males of privielge” and put them away and throw away the keys with the help of a PC lynch mob who left reason and the foundation of our justice system behind.</p>
<p>I totally agree with that last paragraph Faline2. </p>
<p>There was a post by razorsharp on the previous page about Pressler coming out with a book and wondering what he had to say. My take on Pressler is that he’s not a victim of Mangum. Coach Pressler had lost control of his team. The team captains were holding a strippper party in season! And that came after Pressler and the team were admonished for being a bit too (ahem) lax with university rules. I’m not inclined to rank Duke Lacrosse players in the pantheon of American Heroes because a stripper party went south on them, but I do sympathize with the fact that a horrendous injustice was worked on them. As for Pressler, he got what he had coming to him for having no control over his team…or apparently for his team not really respecting him or what they have. </p>
<p>I know too many kids who wish wrestling was still a widespread Div. I sport and too many club athletes campaigning to achieve varsity status to admire last year’s Duke lacrosse squad. I also know of too many stories like Genarlow Wilson where the injustice actually happens without any public outcry or attention, to understand that the Duke players accused by Mangum/Nifong were truly victims, even if they had acted like slimeballs.</p>
<p>Link to story of Genarlow Wilson: <a href=“http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilson[/url]”>http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=wilson</a></p>
<p>What can we do to help Genarlow Wilson? I know I saw this story on TV. It’s just so terrible. Thank you for bringing it up.</p>
<p>I don’t know. I suppose if all the people who got outraged over what might happen to the Duke lacrosse players started shining the same spotlight on the people who actually put Wilson behind bars for 10 years – without possibility of parole – it would help.</p>
<p>The prosecutor in that case is the big criminal in my book. Yes, it was a crime under the archaic law. But not every crime has to be prosecuted to the ridiculous and absurd end to which the prosecutor took Wilson. He says he agrees that it was consensual and a travesty…so why did he press that charge?</p>
<p>I just re-read that article. It makes me so uncomfortable, and I knew it but I still re-read it even though it’s about as pleasant a thing to do this evening as, say, sticking rusty nails in my eyeballs.</p>
<p>In this sense, the Duke players are lucky. Plenty of people get the shaft without any national outrage. And even in the case of Wilson, when some people are paying attention, it still makes no difference. I’m glad that the Duke players weren’t folded into this statistic and bitter that the same public pressure that was brought to bear on Mike Nifong can’t be rallied for so many others who become the undeserving prey of the criminal justice system.</p>
<p>
I understand the concern that Pressler should have exercised greater control over the team, but please remember (almost all of) the players were over the age of 18 and, thus, adults. Pressler’s obligation was to control the athletic lives of the players in furtherance of Duke lacrosse games, practices, etc. He was not obligated to control grown men with respect to their personal lives. </p>
<p>What rules did Pressler break? Does anyone know?</p>
<p>Look, I played Div. 1 lacrosse (and went to the same HS as one of the implicated players) and during the season, despite being nowhere close to vying for a national title, we had rules that we were expected to follow because we were on a team. There was no set of rules for players under 18 and then carte blanche off the field for players over 18. We were a team and the coach was very clear about his expectations of us if we were going to have the privilege of playing a varsity sport in NCAA competition. Pressler had no control – or at least no respect from his players if he attempted to exercise some measure of control over their conduct. C’mon…the CAPTAINS were throwing an IN SEASON STRIPPER PARTY. This isn’t like a player getting caught drunk. It was a team party. That’s pretty much over the top conduct, no? Even if there was no rape accusation, Pressler was gone as long as Duke’s President had any integrity. How can a coach have such little respect from his players or – if they did respect him – how could he have failed to communicate to them the need for them to tread lightly after previous team run-ins with Duke administrators? At the level he was coaching, you have to be better than just making the right decisions during a game. It goes way beyond that and while there’s no doubt that Pressler knows lacrosse, that night – and I’m just referring to the things we know for sure happened – was proof positive that he lacked the full leadership package that you better have to be a varsity sport coach at a school like Duke that – like my college – refuses to compete at any sport in a half-baked manner and regards its athletics programs as being akin to ambassadorial in nature.</p>
<p>Prior to the season, Pressler had been asked, directly by the President, to keep his team in line. I think having the team captains follow that up with an in-season stripper party put the President in a position where his alternative to sacking Pressler was to concede that the President’s Office took a back seat to lacrosse. I don’t think it takes a back seat to the hoops team, so Pressler had to go, Mangum or no.</p>
<p>The party was in season? I could have sworn it was held on one of the last days of spring break, just before their spring practice sessions were scheduled to resume. In fact, my recollection is that some team members were absent from the party because they were still at home, on spring break.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190749,00.html[/url]”>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190749,00.html</a> </p>
<p>Admittedly, the scandal broke a week or so after the incident took place on March 14, 2006, but it was in-season any way you slice it. Frankly, we were in season when the spring season began – which is long before the first contest. There are the two-a-days and exhibition games and the spring season runs well into the winter sport season. NCAA rules give some flexibility on start dates…so it’s not like Men’s Basketball which has its Midnight Madness practices on a date certain. Spring break for me meant playing lacrosse…in games that counted.</p>
<p>LTS –</p>
<p>essentially there <em>is</em> no spring break for a D1 lacrosse team. My son left for the spring semester in mid-January and isn’t home yet. His last athletic committment was <em>yesterday</em>. His last exam was, I think , three weeks ago. I have seen him a lot, because we go to the games but he has not been home since January. That’s part of the committment of D1 sports.</p>
<p>Spring break to a lacrosse team generally means an <em>academic</em> break that allows them to travel further afield for games and have some extra practices and team activities.</p>
<p>He’s having a little vacation now, and then starts his summer job. Summer workouts start next month!</p>
<p>cnp55 –</p>
<p>I kept my eyes peeled for your son on Saturday. For a while I figured I would see him. But then…well, what an awesome game that was!</p>
<p>CNP55, I know what you’re saying, my daughter was D1 all four years, in the same conference as Duke. She had double days practice all through spring break, and typically had her last competition two+ weeks after her last final exam. What I’m referring to are what I thought I read in news reports that the students were in fact on spring break, and the party was their “last chance” to have a party before double days resumed, and that several of the team members were not at the party because they were home with their families, on the same break, or otherwise enroute back to campus from the break. I seem to remember this last because evidently it gave Nifong some difficulty to try to figure out who was actually in that house the day of the party. Maybe I have it wrong, but it seems as if that’s what I remember. </p>
<p>The point being, if they were on a break (and for that matter even if they weren’t), having a party hardly rises to the level of indicting the head coach, who cannot possibly be expected to control adults during their free time, in their own homes. The Duke situation has had far impact - during Easter Sunday dinner, the head coach of my daughter’s team came over to my home join several of us for desert, and, the members of my team, including my daughter, rushed to hide the one bottle of wine that was served during the meal, fearing the coach’s reaction. Ridiculous, considering all were over 21, and I am the head of the household, and in any case how drunk can a group of people get themselves over one bottle of wine? But that is the impact of this sort of thing and I do not think it is reasonable to hold Pressler accountable - what was he supposed to do, supervise their every waking hour?</p>
<p>Sorry, but when you’re in season – which was January for us – you abide by the rules your coach sets. This was absurd. They’re not just on a team. They were in the middle of a run for a national championship and the captains were holding a stripper party. At that level you’re not taking hiatuses. And the notion that they were over 18 and off-campus as being an excuse doesn’t cut it. You either follow the rules or you don’t. You can’t be a team and say that the team rules don’t apply to those members of a team over a certain age or when the players aren’t on campus. Pressler lost control…</p>