Blue Devils

To hear John Danowski explain it, he had no idea what he was getting in Brendan Fowler. In fact, the Duke coach had not met Fowler until August of his freshman year. That is because Fowler had not contacted the Blue Devils coaching staff during the recruiting process. The faceoff specialist had simply applied and been accepted to the university on his own, and Danowski confirmed Fowler's matriculation only when he had contacted the coach of Chaminade (N.Y.) High School - Fowler's alma mater - in May of the athlete's senior year.

Et cetera Duke extends John Danowski's contract through 2018 The contract of Duke men's lacrosse coach John Danowski has been extended through the 2018 season. Last month, Danowski guided the Blue Devils to the 2013 NCAA championship with a 16-10 victory over Syracuse in the title game. In seven seasons at Duke, Danowski has guided the Blue Devils to a 111-31 (.782) record with two NCAA titles, six Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championships and four ACC tournament crowns.

- Nearly three weeks into the 2013 regular season, No. 7 Duke was virtually a game or two away from being eliminated from postseason play. Now, the Blue Devils are only a game away from winning a second national championship in four years. The Blue Devils' improbable run continued Saturday in dramatic fashion as Duke held on for a 16-14 victory against unseeded Cornell in a Division I semifinal game. The Big Red (14-4) kept an announced crowd of 28,444 in suspense with a comeback attempt to open the fourth quarter using five goals to make the score 14-12, but Duke junior attackman Jordan Wolf scored his fourth goal of the game with 39 seconds remaining to put the game away for the Blue Devils (15-5)

One might think that seventh-seeded Duke's 16-10 rout of top-seeded Syracuse in last week's NCAA tournament final at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia would not sit well with the Blue Devils' Atlantic Coast Conference rivals - especially a Maryland squad that had lodged a 16-7 thrashing that was Duke's worst loss since May 23, 2009 when the team was manhandled, 17-7, by Syracuse in the Final Four that year. But Terps coach John Tillman said he harbors no ill will towards the Blue Devils for capturing their second national crown in four seasons.

Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie sees Jasmine Thomas as someone who is never satisfied. Thanks to the junior guard, the Blue Devils now stand a win away from their first Final Four since 2006. Thomas matched her career-high with 29 points and sprinkled her stat line with a little bit of everything, and second-seeded Duke ended No. 11 seed San Diego State's surprising NCAA tournament run with a 66-58 victory Saturday to reach the regional final. "She's just a very hungry player, someone who loves to get out there and dictate and on both sides of the ball," McCallie said.

So many of the architects of the longstanding Maryland-Duke rivalry were in attendance Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. There was former Terrapins coach Lefty Driesell and former Duke player J.J. Redick, a Maryland nemesis. There was current Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who was celebrating his 1,000th game at Duke and his 63rd birthday. And there was Maryland coach Gary Williams, whose Terrapins were unable to use Saturday's game to revive the rivalry, which has turned one-sided the past few seasons.

Like every other observer of the sex-race-class-legal-political-media drama unfolding at Duke University, we can't possibly yet know if any crimes were committed, or even who may turn out to be the true victims - if any - in this story. But this grotesque bonfire in Durham, N.C., is impossible not to watch, nonetheless. Take a big dose of privilege. (Who doesn't know by now that Duke, where the annual tab is about the same as the U.S. median household income, is among the most impossible-to-get-into schools?

The national championship in Division I men's college lacrosse will rest on the shoulders of Duke goalies Mike Rock and Dan Wigrizer this weekend. If they play well, the fifth-seeded Blue Devils will win the title. If not, it will probably go to No. 1 Virginia, the Blue Devils' opponent in the semifinals Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium. Sorry to put such a burden on Wigrizer and Rock, but Duke (14-3) is playing at such a high level offensively, averaging nearly 18 goals in each of its last three games.

MINNEAPOLIS - It has to be a rough morning for Maryland basketball fans. By now, you're late for work because you stayed up to watch the NCAA basketball championship game. And while you're sipping coffee, you keep switching the TV channel. Everywhere you look, there is a Blue Devil. Click. It's Shane Battier and Jason Williams on ESPN. Click. It's Coach K on "Good Morning, America." By the end of tonight, Duke likely will be featured again on ESPN Classic. Probably, the "Road to Glory" with three of the games against Maryland.

Massachusetts and Connecticut held the top two spots in the college basketball poll today, the second week in a row they were there. The big news, however, is who isn't in the Top 25.For the first time since December 1986, Duke is not among the ranks of the ranked. A run of 143 consecutive poll appearances came to an end when the Blue Devils (9-6) didn't get enough votes after dropping their fourth consecutive game, the last three without coach Mike Krzyzewski (back ailment) on the bench.

When almost everyone else thought their season was over in early March, Duke's lacrosse players were not too concerned. A losing record in March? Ho hum, no big deal. A blowout loss to conference rival Maryland? No sweat, there were still two months left in the season. What appeared to be disaster has become routine in Durham, N.C., after Duke completed its improbable run to the NCAA Division I championship Monday by defeating top-seeded Syracuse, 16-10. Jordan Wolf had four goals and fellow attackmen Josh Offit and Josh Dionne each had three to lead Duke (16-5)

The start was memorable - for all the wrong reasons - but the ending figures to be a lasting memory for the Duke men's lacrosse team. The seventh-seeded Blue Devils roared back from a 5-0 deficit and scored 11 of the second half's 15 goals to knock off top-seeded Syracuse, 16-10, in the NCAA tournament final Monday at Lincoln Financial Field. An announced attendance of 28,224 - the smallest crowd to watch a title game since 2002 - saw the Blue Devils (16-5) improve to 2-1 in championship finals and prevent the vaunted Orange from extending their Division I-leading total of national crowns to 11. (The NCAA does not recognize the 1990 title won by Syracuse after the team was cited for using an ineligible player.)

Syracuse owns a 6-3 advantage in this series, but the teams have split the past four meetings since 2009. Duke has won the past two contests - both occurring last season, including a 12-9 victory in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The seventh-seeded Blue Devils (15-5) have averaged 13.3 goals in the postseason, including 16 in a two-goal win against Cornell in Saturday's semifinal. Sophomore goalkeeper Kyle Turri recorded a career-best 16 saves in that victory over the Big Red. The top-seeded Orange (16-3)

To hear John Danowski explain it, he had no idea what he was getting in Brendan Fowler. In fact, the Duke coach had not met Fowler until August of his freshman year. That is because Fowler had not contacted the Blue Devils coaching staff during the recruiting process. The faceoff specialist had simply applied and been accepted to the university on his own, and Danowski confirmed Fowler's matriculation only when he had contacted the coach of Chaminade (N.Y.) High School - Fowler's alma mater - in May of the athlete's senior year.

Duke is less than 24 hours away from tangling with top-seeded Syracuse in Monday's NCAA tournament final. But it is one 60-minute session that concerns the seventh-seeded Blue Devils. Duke (15-5) powered past Cornell, 16-14, in Saturday's semifinal, but the team suffered a lapse in the fourth quarter. The Big Red outscored the Blue Devils, 7-2, in that frame, and Duke needed an empty-net goal by junior attackman Jordan Wolf with 39 seconds left to seal the victory. On Saturday night, the Blue Devils coaching staff reviewed film of that game and when an 11 p.m. meeting with the players came around, the film happened to begin with the fourth quarter and the players and coaches watched with equal amounts of dismay and relief.

At the conclusion of Monday's NCAA tournament final between the Syracuse and Duke men's lacrosse teams, the winning squad will exult and exhale at the same time. Both programs have taken long and arduous paths to this stage of the postseason, but one victory can provide the relief each is seeking. The Blue Devils (15-5), who could capture their second national championship in four years, had perhaps the toughest road to the title game. The team opened the season with a 2-4 start - an inauspicious beginning capped by a 16-7 setback by Atlantic Coast Conference rival Maryland that was Duke's worst loss since a 17-7 drubbing to Syracuse in a NCAA tournament semifinal on May 23, 2009.

COLLEGE PARK -- Duke was breaking with tradition this season by rushing more than passing, but that should change Saturday when the Blue Devils meet Maryland at Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C."I wouldn't be surprised if they came out on their first four plays and try to hit a long one," said Mike Lacy, a Maryland cornerback. "I know they're going to test us."Almost every other team has, and Maryland (1-6) has flunked. Wake Forest was the latest team to toast Maryland's pass defense.Demon Deacons quarterback Keith West entered the Maryland game Saturday averaging 133.4 yards passing.

- Nearly three weeks into the 2013 regular season, No. 7 Duke was virtually a game or two away from being eliminated from postseason play. Now, the Blue Devils are only a game away from winning a second national championship in four years. The Blue Devils' improbable run continued Saturday in dramatic fashion as Duke held on for a 16-14 victory against unseeded Cornell in a Division I semifinal game. The Big Red (14-4) kept an announced crowd of 28,444 in suspense with a comeback attempt to open the fourth quarter using five goals to make the score 14-12, but Duke junior attackman Jordan Wolf scored his fourth goal of the game with 39 seconds remaining to put the game away for the Blue Devils (15-5)