NCAA D1 Lacrosse

The Championship Weekend

College lacrosse will crown its champions this weekend as the NCAA holds its Final Four for men's lacrosse in at M & T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The Division I Final Four consists of Cornell, Delaware, Duke and Johns Hopkins. All four schools have developed current NLL players who will be cheering on their alma maters this weekend.

The action starts on Saturday at Noon Eastern, as Delaware (13-5) faces John Hopkins (11-4) with live TV coverage on ESPN2. Delaware makes its first ever appearance in the Final Four. The Blue Hens (13-5) reached the final by defeating the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) 10-6. Hopkins reached the Final Four by defeating Georgetown 14-6 in the semifinals.

Former Delaware Blue Hens how playing in the NLL include 2007 season and championship game MVP John Grant of the Rochester Knighthawks; San Jose forward Luke Wiles and New York defenseman Matt Alrich. Former Johns Hopkins Blue Jays in the NLL include Philadelphia Wings defenseman Peter Jacobs, forward Shawn Nadelen and New York Titans forward Greg Peyser.

The other semifinal features Duke vs. Cornell (Saturday, 2:30PM ET on ESPN2). Zack Greer had seven goals and three assists as top ranked Duke (16-2) beat North Carolina 19-11 to advance to the Final Four. Greer, a junior, will be considered one of the top prospects when he declares for the NLL Entry Draft in 2007 or 2008. He's the half brother of Rochester Knighthawks defenseman Bill Greer, who won his first NLL championship earlier this month. Cornell, the lone remaining undefeated team at 15-0, reached the final via a thrilling 12-11 victory over Albany. Cornell alumni in the NLL include Philadelphia Wings forward Sean Greenhalgh. Greenhalgh led the Wings in scoring this past season with 68 points. NLL Hall of Famer and Wings Co-owner Mike French also played his college lacrosse at Cornell. Duke alumni in the NLL include Colorado Mammoth defenseman Dave Stilley, Calgary Roughnecks defensemen Taylor Wray and Devan Wray, Portland Lumberjax transition player Ryan Marshall
and New York Titans forward Matt Zash.

The winners of the Delaware-Hopkins and Cornell-Duke games will face each other in the championship game on Monday, May 28 at 1PM with a live telecast on ESPN.

Expansion Team To Boston

The National Lacrosse League announced it has awarded a franchise to the city of Boston for the 2008 season. The Boston team becomes the league's fourteenth franchise, and will play its home games at TD Banknorth Garden, the home arena of the NHL's Boston Bruins and the NBA's Boston Celtics. The team also announced former NLL star Tom Ryan as Head Coach. The expansion Boston team will begin play in January of 2008. The team also introduced their Head Coach, former NLL player Tom Ryan. Ryan, who retired as a player in 2002, brings nearly two decades of experience as a player and coach to Boston. The Boston NLL team has begun accepting deposits for season tickets for their inaugural 2008 season. A $25 deposit will ensure great seats to catch all the NLL action. The team is also holding a Name the Team contest on their website, www.bostonindoorlacrosse.com
-NLL.COM

Tavares Five Goals Shy Of Record

One of the storylines for early in 2008 will be; how long will it take John Tavares to pass Gary Gait for the all-time lead in goals scored? Tavares already posses the All-Time points and all-time assists records with 1,239 and 648 respectively. Tavares' 591 career goals is merely five shy of tying Gait's 596. JT averages over three goals a game for his entire career and has scored six or more goals in a game numerous times, so we could see the record fall as early as week one or two of 2008. NLL.com takes a look at the top ten all-time goals scoring leaders.

All-Time Goals Leaders
1.) Gary Gait - 596 *
2.) John Tavares - 591
3.) Paul Gait - 410 *
4.) Tom Marechek - 399 *
5.) John Grant - 347
6.) Ted Dowling - 335 *
7.) Colin Doyle - 319
8.) Chris Gill - 302
9.) Shawn Williams - 299
10.) Dan Stroup - 264

* = retired
-NLL.COM

To The Fans (Read)

Here's to you! It was eight months ago that I was sitting on my couch on the verge of exploding from the anticipation of lacrosse season to start when I started this blog. Since that time up until recently I realized what I have created. In three months I gathered over 25,000 hits and fan support varying anywhere from New York to Japan. I love the Bandits with every bone in my body and the gratitude and thanks I have recieved over these past couple months drew me to the conclusion that its not about how many hits I get or about the popularity of my site, but my love of lacrosse and the joy I get from bringing it to you. I would like to thank every single fan out there that has ever looked at this site, my deepest gratitude goes out to you. With offseason ways in the past, the updates will be shallow and I could possibly start my next venture in the blogosphere, a Buffalo Bisons Blog (Buffalo AAA) baseball. But though my summers will be dedicated the tracking of this team, best belive that come fall, my heart is to the B-A-N-D-I-T-S.
God Bless And See You Next Fall!
-Shane allisterfan@earthlink.net