The America East tournament concludes tonight at 7:30 at UMBC as the Retrievers take on Scott Marr's Albany Great Danes. The semifinals were thrilling and it's definitely a playoff atmosphere.

The national tournament has basically started, as Albany looks to lock up a spot in the next round and UMBC looks to keep an impressive unbeaten streak intact after a poor start to the season.

This game has many repercussions throughout the seedings, too. Navy, Loyola, Army, Brown and Princeton will be rooting for UMBC to keep the automatic bid in the hands of the conference front-runner. If Albany wins, UMBC, which is ranked fifth in some polls, is assured a spot. This would knock a good team out. Personally, I think the polls are way off and Albany has already earned a spot with the semifinal win on Thursday.

Some notes on the semis:

First, thanks to the Albany folks for the invite to the tailgate and the great food. The Danes put out a spread, and I got a chance to visit with an old friend -- and Iroquois National Team regular for decades -- Scott Burnham and his family. Scott has a nephew (Derek Kreuzer) on the Albany team.

Second, thanks to Albany coach Scott Marr and Stony Brook coach Rick Sowell for just being class acts. Throughout the whole game, if one looked up the hill toward the parking lot, you could see the silhouette of a pretty tall guy in a power chair overlooking the game. It was Marr's mentor and Maryland legend Dick Edell, who suffers from Myositis, the swelling and loss of muscle, due to largely unknown causes. Edell watched the whole game from the hill accompanied by Maryland coaches Dave Slafkosky and Dave Cottle. Immediately after the Albany-Stony Brook game and the handshake, both coaches disappeared from the field. I watched them climb the hill together and embrace the ailing coach. I told Marr later that I appreciated the gesture and he just said, "He's the reason I am here today."

Third, Ed Stevenson and Don Zimmerman are easily two of the best coaches in the land. I often say that lacrosse is like backgammon, but some of the coaches think its chess. Well, Thursday night was a chess match between masters. Binghamton was about as prepared for UMBC as I have ever seen a team prepared for an opponent. Ed's only chance was to keep the score very low. The Bearcats almost pulled it off. Zim adjusted at the end of the third quarter and his very talented offense pulled it out. I played high school ball with Ed. He was one of the best defenders to play the game. He has always been a fierce competitor and a gentleman. I spoke to him for just a second after the game and he just said, “Johnny, we could have won that game." I think he said it twice. I just told him he was right, but that it was only because he was a great coach. That semifinal was a very entertaining game because Ed can coach. He will win plenty of America East championships, if he's not snagged up by some huge program first. In my opinion, if you gave Ed Stevenson a top four program, he would consistently beat the current establishment.