The final: Syracuse vs. Johns Hopkins

Syracuse and Hopkins were the STX teams among the final four. Virginia is a Gait-sponsored team and Duke is with Brine. But STX, the Baltimore-based lacrosse manufacturer could celebrate on Saturday knowing they could not lose on Monday. So even though the final four was not in Baltimore, we were well represented on the field thanks to STX. And the gear looked great!

Hop’s helmet stickers were cool too, featuring the cartoon lettering instead of the bird or the H. They need more levity around the Dave Pietramala coached team, based on his facial expressions during the games. A great Hopkins coach once said, “Lacrosse is a lot of fun – IF YOU WIN.” That’s kind of the Hopkins way. But those helmets were fun even in a loss. They’ll probably never see the light of day again. We’ll see.

Syracuse had some secret weapons this weekend. Like the whole team in general, Mike Leveille was underestimated. He won the Lowe’s award with a 3.8 GPA in accounting and the Tewaaraton Trophy Thursday night over heavy favorites Matt Danowski and Paul Rabil after lifting the trophy on Monday. But the Orange also had Roy Simmons Jr., the legendary coach, who lent some of his wisdom and inspiration: “Anything before you; anything behind you; it doesn’t matter. It’s what’s inside you that matters”.

Simmons is great. I was hanging out with Liam and John Banks at the tailgate as I have now made a habit, and as usual, I was treated to some war stories. One was especially good and representative of the creative and out-of-the-box style of the “Slugger,” Simmons nickname from his love for his second sport, boxing.

Here goes: I can’t remember which year it was but Syracuse needed a good halftime speech and a second-half turnaround to win a championship. After the chalk talk, Simmons addressed the team more philosophically. He asked the boys if they remembered the story of the Wizard of Oz. They all nodded. He asked if they could remember whit it was that the Tin Man wanted from the Wizard. Someone said, “a heart.” He asked if they knew what the Scarecrow wanted and someone knew that it was a brain. He asked what the Lion wanted and a few people remembered the cowardice was his shortcoming and he needed courage.

The coach stated that, of course, Dorothy just wanted to get back to Kansas but he had one last question. What was it that Toto, the little dog, wanted?

The team all looked around at each other totally confused, half trying to remember if the dog had specified a wish in the movie they saw many years earlier, the other half trying to figure out where this could possibly be going and what it had to do with lacrosse.

Before anyone could even guess what Toto wanted, Simmons opened the door to the locker room and walked out, letting it slam behind him.

The team was now really perplexed. Had they done something wrong? Was coach mad? What in the world was going on? And what in the hell did that stupid dog want? At that moment, the door swung open and Simmons was standing there. He looked them in the eyes and with a totally straight face said calmly, “Toto wanted a national championship, now go out and get one!”

The team went nuts and they won that one for Toto. Whatever works. Simmons is a genius.

Coincidentally, the NCAA celebrates the 25th anniversary championship team at different points over the weekend and the 1983 Syracuse team was honored this year. On the big screen and throughout the weekend, references to that first Syracuse championship from out of nowhere really inspired the Orange team and fans. After the semifinal, many of the tailgaters spoke of the images of the ’83 team coming on the big stadium screen sometime before the huge comeback and how it was like a sign that the team would prevail this year, that and a big run of goals.

Syracuse has a swagger. Even when they lose they have one. And it’s not an entitled strut. It’s a “something to prove” strut. It’s upstate vs. the rest of New York as much as it’s Syracuse vs. the contenders in the tournament. They have to be beaten down for 60 minutes to be beaten in a final four. It goes way back to the 80s. Its part of the freewheeling style Simmons made the Syracuse trademark and coach John Desko has, in his own way, continued. You can be yourself and play the game at Syracuse – if you’re all that.

Many people don’t understand how Syracuse can always let their kids play and exert less control over them and still get the most effort out of the team in the biggest games. I have always believed that was a big part of Syracuse secret. If you let the players make decisions on the fly and trust their playing instincts as much as you trust your game plan, they will “own” the game. Owners usually work harder than employees. The Syracuse team members would be more responsible for a championship loss than any other team too, and they know it.

Each player owned last year’s crap season. Ask them. Desko doesn’t back off from responsibility but there is a program-wide maturity of shared burden supporting him. Most coaches, after a loss, can really only fault a kid for poor execution or not following the play or plan, privately of course. The game is so over-coached, generally, that players don’t really own losses at most institutions. At Syracuse, it’s always been the responsibility of the players to succeed or fail, and it’s worked pretty well.

Boston was known for the famous ride of Paul Revere but Foxboro is now known, to me at least, for the famous ride of the Syracuse Orange. Against Johns Hopkins, the Orange ride was tenacious and ultimately won the game, in my opinion. Offensive players playing defense was the key. They scored the difference on goals directly off of their great riding and set the tone throughout. Keeping the ball on your offensive end and controlling possession through defensive efforts on the offensive side of the field builds team morale and just makes the defense play that much harder for the team when the ball is at their end.

Rabil was dominant in the losing effort, but so was Hopkins goalkeeper Michael Gvozden. Early on, Syracuse was getting shots but either Gvozden stopped them or they hit him. Either way, the production after so much possession time was low. The goal that Syracuse midfielder Danny Brennan scored off the faceoff was an emotional lift for the team. A friend of mine, Chris Kolon, an owner of Scorpion Lacrosse, speculates that every great Syracuse championship team gets a goal in the title game from a guy who has not scored goals in his career. Brennan had never scored in his career and they knew it. The sideline erupted and never really got down after that.

Hopkins plays with a lot of heart too though, coming back from a terrible season, by their standards, to make the final. The Jays’ Steven Boyle answered back with a heart and hustle goal from behind the cage and it was on from that point until the fourth quarter, when Syracuse just took over, but for some Rabil heroics.

A Rabil Fan

Rabil’s lefty is deadly and his right is almost equal. He’s an agile horse. He’s an NBA shooting guard. After one goal he was the recipient of a stick check and when they returned it to him, the TV was on a close up. He was so far from illegal, it was silly. He had a very shallow pocket – the mark of a truly great shooter.

Early in the championship, Rabil caught a rebound on the crease while playing defense and took the ball all the way down the field, scoring the second Hopkins goal on a shot that looked like 95 mph or better. Van O’Bannon, a friend and popular stringing guru, thought that play was a showcase of Rabil’s talents. We talked about it for a while and agreed that in hindsight, Rabil should have controlled the ball more, all game long. He might have been worth more than even his six goals. I’m not criticizing. We did not even think of it until reflecting on Rabil’s dominant performance in that final. If Rabil was as selfish as most NBA players, we speculated, Hopkins might have won this one.

Rabil was as good a lacrosse player on Monday as I have seen since Gary and Paul Gait. I think he will have 10-goal games in the Major League Lacrosse. I think he will have a few. I was really sold on him Monday. His goal weaving through the whole Syracuse defense toward the end of the game demonstrated a quickness and agility that is good enough, in my opinion, to play any professional sport, not just lacrosse. When Patriots coach Bill Belichick, on the sideline, saw that huge lean body move like that, and still score a goal in lacrosse, he had to think for a minute what this kid could do after catching a football.

I liked Leveille a lot but thought Rabil should have been the Tewaaraton winner this year and maybe last year too. I know Rabil has signed with agents Lee Southren and Keith Askenas and lacrosse manufacturers are competing mightily for his services. He will become the face of some company for the next decade, to be sure. He was selected with the No. 1 pick in the MLL draft on Wednesday, as well, although he should take his game directly to the indoor National Lacrosse League if he wants a real pro career.