The road to the men's lacrosse final four does not go through Maryland - unless you are Virginia or Duke traveling up Interstate 95, that is.
For just the third time since the NCAA implemented a season-ending tournament to determine a national champion in 1971, a Maryland school will not be represented in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament next weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
With No. 1 seed Virginia, No. 2 seed and reigning national champion Syracuse, No. 3 Duke and No. 5 Cornell set to square off Saturday, ESPN analyst and former Army coach Jack Emmer said talented players are taking paths to programs outside of the hotbed of lacrosse.
"More teams are getting better kids, and it's just tough for the absolute traditional teams to always be on top," he said. "There's more good players out there, and you can't get them all for your program. So I think it does spread the wealth a little bit."
The final four has had at least one Maryland-based program in every year of the tournament with the exceptions of 1988 and 1994. But Emmer predicted that the state will return to the semifinals quickly.
"I think it's an aberration," he said. "There's a lot of good programs there. I think UMBC's program is as good as it's ever been. I think Hopkins' program is terrific. I think Maryland will be there even though they might be frustrated. I don't think there's any long-range signal."
Here are some observations after the quarterfinals of the tournament:
Defense takes center stage
Considering that seven of the eight quarterfinalists rank in the top 10 in the country in offense, it was somewhat surprising to see teams ride their defense to victory. Virginia and Cornell held their respective opponents, Johns Hopkins and Princeton, to season lows of eight and four goals, respectively. Syracuse limited Maryland to more than four goals below its average.
"I think it speaks to the sophistication of teams playing defense," Emmer said. "Team defense is so much better than it was 20 years ago that if you do it right like Princeton and Cornell did last Saturday, it's just going to be difficult."
Can Duke end the drought?
Every school in the final four has won a men's national lacrosse title except Duke. The Blue Devils could become the sport's first first-time winner since Princeton edged Syracuse in overtime in 1992.
