For anyone who doesn't know, fans of the Maryland Terrapins have worked up a great deal of enmity toward Duke University in college basketball, both men's and women's. The infamous riots after men's basketball games have often followed games against Duke. There's no rhyme or reason to the outcome: Whether it's a Maryland win or a Duke win, Terps fans riot. The Duke women have dominated the Maryland women except for two big postseason wins by the Terps in 2006. After the second of those wins, a 78-75 come-from-behind win in the NCAA championship game, fans rioted. Even in other sports, Terps often circle their calendars for the Duke game. Men's soccer, lacrosse, etc. There's usually a rivalry between Maryland and Duke.
Having said that, when Maryland and John's Hopkins meet in men's lacrosse, that is THE big rivalry in all of college men's lacrosse. It has all the build up of Redskins-Cowboys, Yankees-Red Sox, Manchester United-anyone else in other sports. If Keith Jackson were going to broadcast the game, he'd likely say, "these two teams plain don't like each other" if he were describing Maryland and John's Hopkins.
Thus, Monday's NCAA championship game brought a swirl of conflicting emotions. Two teams I downright disliked were playing each other for the NCAA title. For John's Hopkins, it was simple. They're Maryland's most hated rival. The idea of rooting for Hopkins in men's lacrosse is complete anathema to me. Even though I had a pretty good experience interviewing some of their players, including Paul Rabil, I still have a hard time rooting for Hopkins to win at anything.
However, they were playing Duke. This wasn't just the team of blue blood aristocrats facing the Maryland proletariat. This was a team that was just over a year removed from the travesty of a rape trial by that keystone cop of a state's attorney (Mike Nifong). The case became a referendum for the spoiled athlete, the priviledged sons of rich parents who sent their sons to a private school. It was seen as a battle against the working class woman who was trying to make a better life for herself and her children and who went to a historically black university. And, let's be real. It was also seen as a clash of white versus black. There was so much riding on this case, and the fact that men who now have been exonerated saw their lives permanently sullied over a rush to judgement made this appearance more than just a good team that has a chance to win a national title. For Duke, this was redemption. For the three men who saw their lacrosse careers derailed ignominously (Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans), it was possible payback for seeing their careers cut short, since Duke cancelled the last games of its season after they'd only played eight.
I don't really know what to think about John's Hopkins 12-11 win over Duke. I can't be happy that Hopkins won. I don't know if I would have been happy if Duke had won. The more important thing in my mind is that the sport now is trying to return to some level of normalcy. Hopefully, next year's storylines will be more about whether Maryland can improve on its first round appearance in the NCAA tournament or simply beat Hopkins. Hopefully, we'll talk more about Duke's emergence as a team than its role as a martyr for all that went wrong in the bungled investigation.
I can't believe that I just wrote a long treatise on men's lacrosse after I'd only written one story on a men's game this year.
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