Patriots

When Lehigh and Colgate qualified for last year's NCAA tournament, they became the first Patriot League duo to play in the postseason since 2005 when Navy and Army did. The Mountain Hawks, who knocked off Colgate for the conference tournament crown, and the Raiders, who advanced to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals, are ranked Nos. 1 and 2 in the Patriot League preseason poll and in many publications' national top 10 polls. With those rankings, however, come high expectations, which haven't escaped the attention of Lehigh coach Kevin Cassese, who spoke during the league's conference call Wednesday.

Jerrelle Benimon took a seat with 16 seconds remaining in Towson's latest loss to George Mason on Wednesday and looked to the floor, able to glance back up only as the buzzer sounded. The final minute, along with most of the Tigers' 77-67 setback, was tough to watch. George Mason flustered Benimon and the Tigers before 2,005 at the Towson Center, earning its earning 20th consecutive victory in the series and remaining unbeaten in the series since Towson joined the Colonial Athletic Association in 2001-02.

Anna Burns Welker added her name to the list of Patriot Wives Pouting (see Gisele Bundchen) when she went after Ray Lewis' reputation on Facebook after the AFC Championship game Sunday. "By the way, if anyone is bored, please go to Ray Lewis' Wikipedia page. 6 kids, 4 wives, Acquitted for murder. Paid a family off. Yay. What a hall of fame player! A true role model!" The wife of the Patriots' wide receiver Wes Welker, who dropped two passes during the game, later apologized, saying her post was "emotional and irrational," and attributing her outburst to the frustration she felt after the Patriots' 28-13 loss.

Navy hasn't won the Patriot League regular season title since 2008, hasn't captured the league's tournament crown since 2009 and hasn't qualified for the conference's four-team tourney since 2010. Those results probably contributed to the Midshipmen being ranked fifth in the Patriot League's preseason men's lacrosse poll, which was released Wednesday morning. It's quite a departure for a program that had shared or won outright the regular season title in the conference's first five years and captured five of the first six tournament championships.

The Ravens arrived at their team facility in Owings Mills Monday morning, short on sleep but long on adrenaline and anticipation. It had been less than 24 hours since the Ravens' 28-13 victory over the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in the AFC championship game, and the magnitude of their accomplishment and what lies ahead still hadn't completely sunk in. Veteran center Matt Birk, who has played 15 seasons and delayed retirement to...

Maybe we all should have figured something was up when the final score of the NFC title game Sunday afternoon added up to 52. This postseason continued on its magical way later in the evening as the Ravens locked up their half of the HarBowl in New Orleans two weeks from now. But it goes even deeper than that, which future Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed pointed out in a postgame interview on Comcast. “I told Adam Jones when he visited our clubhouse, you (the Orioles) got this started," Reed said.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco quickly came to a realization Sunday night while trailing the New England Patriots at halftime of the AFC championship game. It was a realization shared by coach John Harbaugh . Flacco was adamant in his belief that the AFC North champions needed to become much more aggressive in the passing game. During the second half of a 28-13 victory that propelled them to the Super Bowl, the Ravens attacked the Patriots' secondary as Flacco delivered three second-half touchdown passes.

He was a blur on the football field, hitting everything in sight. He was barking at everyone within earshot, too. And when he is playing his game by pounding his opponents, no Raven might exemplify physical football more. No, I'm not talking about Ray Lewis, who is the emotional tone-setter of a Ravens defense that has defeated future Hall of Famers Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and one of their leading heirs apparent, Andrew Luck. With all due respect to Lewis, again a tackling machine Sunday but obviously and understandably not the same punishing hitter he was in his prime, the physical tone-setter of this rejuvenated unit has become strong safety Bernard Pollard, one of the NFL's most feared hitters -- especially up north in New England.

Good news for Baltimore Ravens fans who have suffered through second and third string CBS coverage this season: Sunday's AFC championship game against the New England Patriots will get the full Super Bowl treatment, according to the network. "We will have in this broadcast Sunday our whole setup that we will have down in New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII - with all the cameras, with all the tape machines, with extra microphones on the field," producer Lance Barrow said during a teleconference Tuesday.

More than one out of every two TV homes in the Baltimore market was tuned to the Ravens victory over the New England Patriots Sunday, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings provided by WJZ-TV. That translates to a 51.8 rating and a 71 share. That share means that about three our of every four homes with a TV in use during the time of the game were tuned to the CBS telecast. The game, which was seen here on Baltimore's CBS-owned station, drew an average audience of 1.126 million viewers, with a peak of 1.23 million viewers (ages 2+)