When Scott Marr took the coaching job at Albany six years ago, he was either going to get buried under the snow and the obscurity of the program, or slowly lead the Great Danes to national recognition.
Well, Albany (12-2) is ranked No. 8 in The Sun's lacrosse poll, having spent most of the season in the top 10. The Great Danes didn't lose their first game until April 20, to Syracuse, 17-13. It has been a great season by Albany, and Marr should be the sport's Coach of the Year.
The sympathetic choice would be Duke coach John Danowski. He had to restart a program that canceled its season a year ago, and he did it under heavy scrutiny with the national media on campus watching practices, games and monitoring court proceedings for an alleged rape that never took place. But sympathy can only take you so far, and it ends when you look over the Duke roster.
The Blue Devils are loaded, and even Danowski admits he is winning with players recruited by his predecessor, Mike Pressler. The Blue Devils' 1-2 punch of attackmen Matt Danowski, the coach's son, and Zack Greer is phenomenal and nearly impossible to stop.
It's different at Albany, and a lot of times coaches from up north don't get enough credit. It's much easier to recruit players to the South on campuses at Virginia, Duke and North Carolina than it is places like Albany, Massachusetts and even Syracuse. A lot of northern teams seldom get outside to practice until midway in the season, putting them at a big disadvantage.
But Marr has the Great Danes on target for an NCAA tournament berth, teaching his players some of the same skills he learned as an attackman with Hopkins and as a former assistant at Maryland under former Terps coach Dick Edell.
Seaman's frustration
Towson coach Tony Seaman was out of line by accusing Hopkins faceoff specialist Stephen Peyser of cheating after Peyser won 12 of 15 faceoffs over Matt Eckerl in Hopkins' 9-7 win Saturday.
Without singling out a player, Seaman could have just pointed out that Hopkins got away with moving before the whistle on some faceoffs. It's apparent that Seaman's inability to beat his former employer really frustrates him. Everybody knows faceoff guys cheat. They'll do anything they can to gain an advantage, just like other players in other sports.
