Bluffer's Guide to the NCAA Tournament

Don't know anything about lacrosse? Neither do we! Hope our editors aren't reading this. Anyway, here's some info that will help you bluff your way through the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Canisius starting goalie Chris Courteau is playing lacrosse for the first time since 2005. He started at Penn State that year and had 15 saves in an overtime victory over Georgetown in the regular season finale. (That scenario sounds familiar.) Courteau quit the sport and left Penn State soon after, but decided over the summer to play one more year....

Syracuse has four players who were part of the 2004 national championship team. Faceoff specialist Danny Brennan (161 of 240 faceoffs, 67.1 percent this year) missed 2006 because of academics, according to published reports; starting defenseman Evan Brady was a redshirt freshman in 2004; Steven Brooks (24 goals, 11 assists) redshirted following a knee injury in 2006; and reserve attackman Mike MacDonald (two assists) also redshirted in 2006...

Virginia sophomore Brian Carroll has 13 extra-man goals. By way of comparison, as a team Johns Hopkins has 14...

UMBC freshman Jamie Kimbles, who scored the winning goal against Albany in the America East title game on Saturday, was on the "It's Academic" team at Queen Anne's....

Goalkeeper Jacob Hagelin was set to attend a prep school last summer when Loyola's coaches found him and offered him a spot on the team. Hagelin has started every game this year...

Sign of the sport's stagnation? Duke is attempting to win its first NCAA tournament title. Only seven teams have won the NCAA tournament; the last first-time winner was Princeton, in 1992...

Sign of the sport's growth? Denver sophomores Charley and John Dickenson are from Highland Park, Tex. Charley has a team-high 19 assists for the Pioneers; John has 14 goals and 4 assists. I'll tell you something else about Denver for free: Of its top six scorers, three are from Canada, one is from Colorado, one is from Texas and one is from New Jersey....

Maryland freshman Brett Weiss (3 goals, 4 assists) is a placekicker on the football team....

Johns Hopkins senior attackman Michael Doneger (16 goals) has written two screenplays. Considering he scores on 50 percent of his shots (16 for 32 this year), we're guessing one of the screenplays is definitely good. Which means Hollywood will be interested in the other one....

Hofstra reserve D Erik Jarry transferred from Florida State. Jarry has played in three games this year...

In his career, Notre Dame junior A Ryan Hoff has scored 100 goals on 215 shots (46.5 percent). One more note for free: I am not related to sophomore A Duncan Swezey (22 goals, 16 assists). Unless, of course, he scores five goals this weekend. And gets a haircut. In which case, welcome to the family!...

Colgate enters the NCAA tournament having won seven consecutive games...

North Carolina has a Michael B. Burns (17 goals) and a Michael J. Burns (30 groundballs). Feel the Burns!...

Navy's video guy could probably beat up your team's video guy. Senior John Freeman is a prior enlisted serviceman. He breaks down all the film for Navy's coaches and players with a high-tech computer set-up. Freeman will be awarded the Adm. E.C. Waller award at graduation; that award honors the Navy lacrosse player (or manager) who displays the most spirit, morale and dedication to the program. He's so good with computers that he read this blog entry 20 minutes before we posted it online....

Ohio State has two of the top offensive players in the country in senior Kevin Buchanan (40 goals, 29 assists) and junior Joel Dargarno (37 goals, 32 assists)...

Cornell senior John Glynn can do it all: 16 goals, 24 assists, 73 groundballs, 2 game-winning goals.

By Christian Swezey |  May 6, 2008; 10:44 AM ET  | Category:  Memorial Day Weekend
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Posted by: Albert Hall | May 6, 2008 11:10 PM

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