Keeping It Hot, 4/26

An Oddity in the Duke-UNC series
Duke has won seven in a row over North Carolina. Yet several times in that run, UNC has started the game well.

That held true in the ACC semifinals on Friday: Senior longstick defender Tim Kaiser scored following a faceoff to give the Tar Heels a 3-1 lead with 5 minutes 13 seconds left in the first quarter.

In three meetings last year, the Tar Heels started well all three times. They led 6-1 in the NCAA quarterfinals before losing, 19-11. UNC also led 6-1 in a 9-7 regular-season loss. And they held a familiar 3-1 lead in the ACC tournament. Duke won, 13-9.

And in their only meeting in 2006, UNC led 5-0. Duke won, 11-8.

For those who missed it, Duke won last night, 17-6.

Maryland's First Quarters
As WaPo noted this morning, Maryland is 8-0 when it leads at the end of the first quarter and 0-5 when it trails after the first quarter.

It's not a coincidence. As we've noted here before, Maryland loves to dictate the tempo of games. It does so by taking an early lead and then doing all of the things it wants to do--be patient on offense, use its third midfield and use a zone defense.

The zone is important because Maryland does not always matchup well with opposing offenses. So when Maryland falls behind early, it takes away a lot of the things it wants to do. Playing catch-up is not the team's strong suit.

No More Zeroes for Billings
For the reasons stated above, it was almost certainly very disconcerting to the Terrapins that Virginia led 2-0 after less than three minutes following two goals by junior Garrett Billings. As Patrick Stevens notes in the Wash Times, Billings had been held scoreless against Dartmouth last week.

The Big Game: Brown at Cornell
The Ivy League does not have a lacrosse tournament. But it has a next-best thing: Over the next two weeks, Brown (10-4, 4-0) faces Cornell (9-4, 4-1) and Princeton (7-4, 4-0). With victories in both games, the Bears would win their first Ivy League title since 1995. The stretch starts with a game against Cornell today.

WaPo did a story on Brown junior GK Jordan Burke in Friday's paper. Burke is almost certainly the only Tewaaraton Trophy finalist who also plays club hockey.

On Television
A slow week for games on TV. The ESPNU game is Penn at Towson. The best game available around here is Georgetown at Rutgers at 1 p.m. on CN8. If you're looking to attend a men's game in the area, the only one we could find is Moravian and Catholic at 2:30 p.m. The Cardinals (6-9) have a couple solid players, including junior As Kyle Brant (#20, 28 goals) and Mike Groh (#1, 9 goals, 22 assists). Admission is free. Moravian enters 4-11.

Will Navy Make the NCAA Tournament?
We will expound on this more after we collect evidence from our Insiders. Certainly the 12-9 loss to Colgate in the Patriot League semifinals on Friday did not help. As Patrick Stevens said last week, Navy ended the regular season having lost four of five games. That's usually a big turn-off for the selection committee.

But Navy's strength of schedule is good and it has quality wins over Maryland and Ohio State. Essentially, we think Navy fans should root against Brown, Notre Dame and the underdogs in the conference tournaments.

What do the readers think: Was the penalty on Michael Carrick that allowed Chelsea to beat Man United a good call? Oh wait, sorry, wrong sport. Is Navy going to miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2003?

Should someone investigate a way to have a lacrosse version of the basketball NIT? Why does UNC always lose to Duke after taking an early lead? And anyone seen my house keys? They've gone missing again.

By Christian Swezey |  April 26, 2008; 11:21 AM ET
Previous: Update from Prep-Landon | Next: Charting Duke's Goals

Posted by: UVASTAN | April 27, 2008 9:04 PM

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