Between The Lines

Trivia Question (The Hey…That's Close Edition): Syracuse and Virginia is the Friday night lacrosse offering in the Carrier Dome. For the third straight year the schools collide in a number one versus number two regular-season matchup. But a streak of three is not long enough for today's question. How many straight matchups between these two lacrosse titans have been decided by a single goal?

This week: It's simple, if you don't like when Syracuse plays Virginia, then you don't like lacrosse. If this game doesn't pique your interest, there's nothing that can be done. We have arrived at the one game that every year draws the eyes of the entire lacrosse world.

John Desko is entering his 17^th game against the Cavaliers as head coach. Desko has split his four playoff meetings with longtime UVA coach Dom Starsia, the most recent being Syracuse's double overtime Mike Leveille led semifinal win in 2008. But, in the regular-season matchups, Coach Desko always plans on enjoying pure run-and-gun lacrosse. “I look forward to the game. It's a game you don't see a lot of trickery. It's more up and down, it's more the way it should be played.”

It's John Galloway's fifth encounter with the Cavaliers. The then freshman goalie had two massive overtime saves in the aforementioned 2008 Final Four battle, but he's still searching for his first regular-season win in the rivalry. “It's Syracuse-Virginia. There's going to be hopefully 15-20,000 fans in the Dome. That's just one of those games you come to college to play in. This is the best part of college sports. We're going to enjoy it. We're going to enjoy it on Friday night, and hopefully we're going to come out with a win.”

Folks, don't let the large crowd attending to this game scare you off. Instead, come and be a part of something special. It could be the largest on-campus lacrosse crowd of the year and you're guaranteed a great game. What's not to like? So buy and print you tickets online. Then for the love of all things lacrosse get to the Dome early for the 6:00 p.m. faceoff. The shuttle from the Manley lots will be running for this game. So hop aboard, you don't want to miss the first of assuredly many goals.

Women's Basketball Big East Tournament: Follow this if you can. Either that or become a nuclear physicist -- it may just be easier. Syracuse, Georgetown and St. John's all finished 9-7 in the Big East this season in a tie for seventh through ninth in the league. Two teams get a bye to the second round of the tournament and one must play Friday at 2:00 p.m.. The way the Big East tiebreaking system works you must first examine how those three teams did against each other. This year, Georgetown beat Syracuse who beat St. John's who beat Georgetown. All of the teams were 1-1 against each other.

The next tie breaker involves who your best win was. Rutgers finished fourth in the league this year at 11-5. On February 1, the Scarlet Knights visited Carnesecca Arena and lost 51-48 to the Red Storm. That win vaulted St. John's to the seventh slot in the conference. The Hoyas head-to-head win over the Orange in D.C. the first week of January then awarded Georgetown the eight seed and Syracuse the nine.

But consider for a moment this. On February 1, Rutgers trailed St. John's 49-48 with 2.2 seconds left when Erica Wheeler was fouled. The Scarlet Knights sophomore guard missed her first game tying free throw attempt. After that, her Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer removed all the potential rebounders from the lane to clear the scene for Wheeler. She made the foul shot. But, and this is a big but., junior forward April Sykes stepped inside the three-point line too soon searching for a rebound, causing a lane violation, wiping out the free throw, and essentially ending the game.

That close to overtime, perhaps a Scarlet Knights win, and St. John's plummeting from seventh in the league all the way past West Virginia to tenth. The Orange then would have landed in eighth and rested until the second-round Saturday and a likely game with West Virginia. Instead it's a first-round Big East Tournament rematch from last year with Seton Hall with the winner facing Georgetown. All because of a lane violation.

Higgo's Hero: Whomever can clone me by Friday afternoon. Perhaps those Scots that cloned Dolly can get on this. The perils of covering multiple teams at Syracuse, or anywhere for that matter, is that every year their seasons overlap. My desire is to not miss a game of a team I've been with and will be with every step of the way all season long. Every fall there is a collision of football and basketball seasons and every winter around this time basketball and lacrosse seasons run headlong into each other.

Friday afternoon the Orange women's basketball team faces Seton Hall in the first round of the Big East Tournament at 2:00 in Hartford, Connecticut. Friday evening the Orange men's lacrosse team hosts Virginia in the most anticipated matchup of this and most every lacrosse regular season. I would very much love to be in both places. So anyone that can clone me real quick, you're my hero for the week. And if there are no heroes this week, you'll find me in Hartford.

Trivia Answer: Four. The last three regular season meetings and the 2008 semifinal affair were all decided by the slimmest of margins. The last two games were relatively docile compared to the pair of 2008 tilts. In 2009 and 2010 both games ended in the normal 60 minutes, while the 2008 regular season meeting in Baltimore needed one overtime and the semifinal meeting in Foxboro needed two OTs.

Upcoming Schedule: The women begin their Big East Tournament run Friday in Harford. The ninth seeded Orange face 16 seed Seton Hall at 2:00 p.m. With a win the ladies move on to eight seed Georgetown Saturday at noon. Then if they can win two straight in the tournament for the second straight year, it's UConn Sunday at 2:00 in the quarters. Orange All Access and ESPN 97.7 have you covered for all of the Big East Tournament action from the XL Center.

If you didn't heed my advice to buy and print your tickets online and come to the game, Syracuse-Virginia lacrosse can be found on TK99 as well as Orange All Access.

Questions: Tweet your 140 characters my way @BrianHigginsSU. Answers could come straight back on twitter, in an upcoming broadcast or in next week's column, so keep your eyes and ears open.

Syracuse University Athletics

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