Irish to test Cavaliers in lacrosse tourney
No. 1-seeded U.Va. continues quest for an undefeated season
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 8, 2006

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Four more victories stand between the University of Virginia men's lacrosse team and the first perfect season in the program's history.

The 16-team field for the NCAA tournament was announced last night, and the Cavaliers, as expected, are seeded No. 1.

U.Va. (13-0) will play host to Notre Dame (10-4) in a first-round game Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Klockner Stadium. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

"This tournament to me is Virginia and everyone else," ESPN lacrosse analyst Quint Kessenich said last night during the selection show.

Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan is a former U.Va. player and assistant. His father is Gene Corrigan, a former U.Va. lacrosse coach and athletic director.

This marks the first time since 1980 that U.Va. enters the NCAA tourney as the No. 1 seed. The Cavaliers are seeking their fourth NCAA championship overall and third under coach Dom Starsia, who guided them to titles in 1999 and 2003.

Since winning at North Carolina on April 8, U.Va. has played only two games, beating Bellarmine on April 22 and Maryland for the ACC title eight days later. Virginia's players are in final exams this week.

Should the Wahoos beat the Fighting Irish, they would play the Georgetown-Navy winner in an NCAA quarterfinal May 21 at Towson, Md.

The NCAA semifinals (May 27) and championship game (May 29) will be played at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia for the second straight season. In last year's final four, U.Va. lost in overtime to eventual Johns Hopkins in the semifinals.

 

Cavs earn top seed, will face Irish
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
May 7, 2006

The No. 1-ranked University of Virginia men's lacrosse team learned its NCAA Tournament fate on Sunday night.
As expected, Virginia - the only undefeated team in Division I - earned the top seed in the tournament.

The Cavaliers (13-0) will play host to unseeded Notre Dame on Saturday at Klockner Stadium. The first-round matchup begins at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised by ESPNU.

"Notre Dame is a very good lacrosse team, so we'll definitely have our hands full," said Virginia coach Dom Starsia, "but we expected nothing else going into the playoffs.

"We have great respect for [Coach] Kevin Corrigan and his program and all the things they've done. They're definitely a team that deserves a chance to be playing."

Virginia's last meeting against Notre Dame came during the 2003 regular season. UVa defeated the Irish 14-8 at Klockner.

"We'll spend [time] trying to collect some tape," Starsia said. "I think we have some on file, but we'll try and collect some more, just to try and get a handle on them. Probably by Tuesday or Wednesday we'll be able to present them to the team a little bit."

Notre Dame (10-4) is riding a three-game winning streak, posting victories over Lehigh, Ohio State and Quinnipiac.

Virginia is coming off an 11-5 victory over Maryland in the ACC Tournament final on April 29.

The Terrapins are the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will play host to Denver, which made the tournament for the first time in school history.

If Virginia (13-0) defeats Notre Dame, it would play the Georgetown-Navy winner in the quarterfinals at Towson on May 21.

The winner of that game, barring upsets, would take on the Johns Hopkins-Syracuse winner in the semifinals.

Virginia defeated both schools earlier in the season.

Princeton, the only team to put up much of a fight against UVa, earned the No. 7 seed.

The Tigers play host to Maryland-Baltimore County.

The semifinals and finals of the 16-team tournament are at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on May 27 and 29.

Last year, Virginia lost to Johns Hopkins in the national semis.
 

Different Time, Different Draft
Top pick Dudley got more modest money and notice
JENNINGS CULLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST May 7, 2006

The NFL draft has come and gone. The biggest merchandizing extravaganza this side of a Hecht's Christmas sale is over.

For months before the best college players were divvied up, talking heads on radio and TV told the world who was best and why. Then for two days, the spotlight was on draft central as one by one the players were picked. Teams hurried to introduce their draftees to fans back home.

With all the hoopla, the draft seemed bigger than the game itself.

Lo, it hasn't always been that way.

Back in 1942, when Bill Dudley, the University of Virginia legend, was the league's No. 1 draft choice, it almost went unnoticed.

"It wasn't a big deal at all," Dudley recalled recently. "I got a letter from the Steelers one day saying they had drafted me No. 1 and wanted to talk to me."

There was no gathering of players at a draft site then, no combines testing players, no broad evaluation of talent. Teams met, picked players and let them know later.

"There was no contact beforehand," Dudley said. "In fact, I was surprised when I heard I had been drafted."

He shouldn't have been. In his senior year, Dudley had become Virginia's first All-American, had led the nation in rushing and scoring and was second in total offense.

But no scouts shadowed him day and night. No agents called.

And certainly, no one offered him a six-year, $58 million contract like the one dangled before Mario Williams last week when Houston made the N.C. State defensive end the draft's No. 1 pick.

As the story goes, U.Va. coach Frank Murray wrote Chicago's George Halas urging him to pick Dudley. Apparently uninterested, Halas passed the information to his friend Art Rooney, the Steelers' owner who tapped Dudley.

It was late in the summer of 1942 when Dudley and his father went to Philadelphia to meet with Bert Bell, a part-owner who was handling the Steelers' signings.

When the Dudleys said they were looking for at least a $5,000 contract, Bell couldn't get his checkbook open fast enough.

"It sounded like good money, and it was good money," Dudley said.

Dudley was worth each and every dollar.

A good fit in the Steelers' T formation, he led the league in rushing with 696 yards, the NFL's top mark in five seasons. Twice, he had 100-yard games en route to being named rookie of the year.

A few months later, Dudley enlisted in the Army Air Corps and flew B-25s during World War II. He also found time to play for the Randolph Field team and was named MVP in the all-service league.

Back with the Steelers in 1946, Dudley flashed the versatility and dominance that later put him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He led the Steelers in rushing (604 yards) again and led the league in interceptions, was fourth in punting, seventh in kickoff returns and 13th in passing.

Those numbers earned him MVP honors over such stars as Bob Waterfield, Sid Luckman, Sammy Baugh and Frank Filchock.

Dudley tore ligaments in his knee in the final game, and he vowed he was going to retire.

"I know my limitations," the 5-10 170-pounder said that day. "I'm just not big enough to take such a beating as this league calls for in a key player."

The knee healed during the offseason, but Dudley (who didn't get along with coach Jock Sutherland) informed the Steelers he wouldn't be returning. He signed on as a backfield coach at U.Va.

Shortly before the '47 season, the Detroit Lions obtained rights to Dudley and came calling. They offered him a $5,000 signing bonus and a three-year contract at $20,000 a year.

So determined were the Lions they waived the injury clause (assuring him a no-cut contract) and added a provision he would be retained as an assistant coach. At the time, the $20,000 contract was considered second only to that of Charlie Trippi of the Chicago Cardinals.

For three seasons, Dudley averaged 50 minutes a game, piled up rushing yardage and in '47 was named the league's best defensive back.

In 1951-52, Dudley played for the Washington Redskins. After a season as an assistant coach at Yale, he returned to the Skins in '53 as a coach-player and for two seasons excelled as a field goal kicker and spot runner. His contracts with the Skins never topped $12,500.

That seems such a pittance, compared to the millionaire journeymen of today.

You won't hear Dudley complain.

"I never had any conflict with the money I was paid," said Dudley, a retired Lynchburg businessman. "Football life was good for me, and life after football has been good for me."

A perfect parlay for a No. 1 pick.

 

UM gets 2nd seed behind Virginia
Hopkins, UMBC, Navy chosen, but Loyola, Towson are left out
By Gary Lambrecht
Sun reporter
Originally published May 8, 2006

Top-ranked Virginia, the only undefeated men's lacrosse team in Division I, got the reward it expected last night, when the Cavaliers were named the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

And the 13-0 Cavaliers, who have the nation's most prolific offense and begin their postseason by hosting Notre Dame on Saturday, might have to go through several state teams to win their fourth national championship and first since 2003.

Four Maryland teams - Maryland, Johns Hopkins, Navy and UMBC - made the 16-team, single-elimination tournament, which concludes with the NCAA title game on Memorial Day at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, the site of the tournament's final four weekend for the second straight year.

The fourth-ranked Maryland Terrapins, who rode a strong strength of schedule and several quality wins to a 10-4 record, received the No. 2 seed. The Terps open against visiting Denver, the winner of the Great Western Lacrosse League, and could meet UMBC in a quarterfinal matchup. The Retrievers, back in the tournament for the first time after a seven-year absence, travel to face seventh-seeded Princeton in a first-round matchup Saturday.

Then there's defending national champion Johns Hopkins (8-4), which regrouped from an 11-4 whipping by Maryland to win its past three games, each by one goal, to earn a No. 4 seed and a possible quarterfinal rematch with No. 5 seed and rival Syracuse - if it gets past Pennsylvania in the first round. The Quakers, coached by former Hopkins player Brian Voelker, finished 10-3 after going 2-11 a year ago.

Hopkins could see Virginia in the national semifinals, where the Cavaliers could have the chance to avenge last year's last-second, 9-8 defeat to the Blue Jays in that round. Should it get that far, Maryland, a two-time loser to Virginia and searching for its first national title since 1975, could meet the Cavaliers in the championship game.

And Navy (11-3), the Patriot League champion that beat Maryland but also suffered a lopsided home loss to Georgetown and a heartbreaking 9-8 defeat to Hopkins in Annapolis, had to settle for an unseeded berth. The Midshipmen have a first-round rematch at No. 8 seed Georgetown, with the chance presumably to face Virginia in the quarterfinals at Towson on May 21.

"You hope you're going to play your best lacrosse at the end of the year," said Maryland coach Dave Cottle, who has watched his offense improve in recent weeks after a sluggish start that dragged into midseason. "Since the Hopkins game [on April 15], we're scoring in double digits a little more regularly. We're a lot more pleasing to the eye right now.

"Right now, I don't know a lot about Denver. That's the scary part."

The Terps have been to two final fours in the past three years and have failed to reach the final each time.

Hopkins, which was seeded No. 4 in 2001 before becoming the tournament's top seed for the next four years, secured its 35th consecutive berth, mainly due to its strength of schedule and a high Rating Percentage Index. The Navy victory was huge.

"I know there were a lot of people counting us out," Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala said. "I'm proud of our kids for the way they battled back."

The surprise winners in the NCAA lacrosse committee's selections were Notre Dame and Harvard, with the Crimson rounding out a four-team block from the Ivy League, the strongest-rated league. Harvard (6-6) made its first tournament in 10 years. Notre Dame's wins over Brown and Dartmouth - both competitive Ivy League teams - were enough to edge out Loyola (6-6) and Towson (8-6).

According to Towson athletic director Wayne Edwards, a member of the selection committee, Loyola's losses to Towson and Fairfield offset its big win over Georgetown. And Towson's weak strength of schedule - the Colonial Athletic Association is rated seventh among eight lacrosse conferences - and failure to beat either Maryland, Virginia or Hopkins, while losing to Delaware and Binghamton did in the Tigers.