It was supposed to be the perfect season, and Duke was supposed to be the perfect team.
Then it all came crashing down in a one-goal loss in the national semifinals to, of all teams, Johns Hopkins-the same squad that had eliminated Duke from the playoffs by the same margin two out of the three previous years, the same squad Duke had decimated 17-6 one month earlier.
Following what many in the lacrosse world called the biggest upset in the sport's history over one of the best teams in the sport's history, the Blue Devils were forced to trudge off the field with their heads hung low, and the Blue Jays celebrating all around them. Again.
So it's tough to blame three of the team's key players-forwards Matt Danowski and Max Quinzani and goalie Dan Loftus-for the way they responded to some of the harsh, perhaps even rude, questions during the press conference immediately following their last contest in a Duke jersey.
"I was sitting next to Dan Loftus. Someone said a fifth-year comment to him, and he almost popped out of his seat and strangled that guy," Quinzani said. "With the personnel we had in the past, people expected us to make the perfect season.... But having so much that we dealt with, I think [head coach John Danowski] handled that loss the best that he could."
Now, with NCAA all-time leading scorer Danowski graduated and NCAA all-time leading goal-scorer Greer exercising his fifth-year option at Bryant, the Blue Devils reconvened for practice earlier this fall as a new team. And while there are obviously challenges involved with overcoming the loss of last year's seniors, the biggest difference they noticed, even relished, was the privacy afforded to them.
No reporters asking questions about an alleged rape scandal. No journalists drumming up controversy over the NCAA's decision to grant Duke's players a fifth year of eligibility.
In fact, with the Blue Devils ranked outside the preseason top 10, there haven't been any hounding reporters at all.
"The past two years, first day of practice, you couldn't even sit on the sidelines because there were so many cameras," Quinzani said. "And it wasn't about us. It was just about a swirling story that was really nice to write about."
"This year, it will just be lacrosse. Not like, Duke Lacrosse and something else," senior captain Ned Crotty said. "It's been awesome, unbelievable."
Crotty said he's never watched the film from last year's semifinal, and he doesn't know of any players who have. It's taken him a long time to get over the loss.
But with the 2008 season over and preparation for the 2009 campaign under way, the team is ready to move on, which is why Danowski decided he won't go over the film with the players like he had the season before.
"To do it again this year, I don't know if that would help us or not," Danowski said. "We're just going to try to let it go and move forward."
Without the firepower of Danowski and Greer, the Blue Devils have several holes and are searching for some players to fill them. Danowski said he's been experimenting with different lineups, shifting people around from one position to another to find something that clicks.
For the players, though, one of the biggest differences has been the increased emphasis on just being a team.
"If a game's close, we can't be like, 'OK, we've got this play for Matt, and he's going to shoot it from the top, and it's going to go in,'" Quinzani said. "We can't expect free goals. We're going to have to cater around a lot more team ball. Every play, we can't expect one of our stars to make a play."
Last year, several team members relied on the two attackmen too much sometimes, feeling they had to get them the ball in certain situations even if the circumstances weren't right, Crotty said.
Now, the team can operate in a more balanced fashion and without as much stress.
"It won't be Duke and then Dino and Zack," Crotty said. "It'll just be Duke."
"Sometimes, it seemed like Zack would always get at least seven goals [in a game]," Quinzani said. "Then there was so much pressure on him to do that in the playoffs. As a team, we don't have players to just pile onto their shoulders. The pressure is off a lot of guys, we're spreading out the pressure and people can be a lot more relaxed."
And the Blue Devils might not be the only ones relaxing, which is exactly what they're hoping for.
The players are assessing their low preseason ranking as a sign that the nation is underestimating them, a far cry from the last few years when they had to play every game with a massive target on their backs.
Danowski said an intrasquad scrimmage scheduled for Oct. 18 should help him flesh out some things, but he's already encouraged by what he has seen on both sides of the field. One thing that is certain, though, is the way opposing defenses will attempt to hinder Duke's offense.
"Every team's defense was 'Shut down Dino and shut down Zack and let the other four guys do whatever they want,'" Crotty said. "Obviously, that won't be the case this year. We're going to be a little different, but we're going to be fine. With the guys that we have and the coaches we have, they'll figure stuff out."
No matter how the team prepares for next season, the likelihood of another 18-win regular season full of runaway blowouts seems small. But some players are welcoming that because of the lessons learned-lessons that may come in handy during a one-goal game in the playoffs.
"Not that we want to lose a lot of games, but we may drop a few," Quinzani said. "But we're not worried about that because we do not have the pressure to be that perfect team and beat every team by 10 goals and go out there and just destroy teams. We have a very tough road ahead of us, we're ready to tackle it, we're going to take a few on the chin and we're ready to bounce back from that. I think that's going to be a great experience.
"I'm just excited to play Hopkins again."
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