May 17, 2007

By Josh Herwitt

CSTV.com

JOSH HERWITT
Josh is CSTV.com's men's basketball editor and writes a weekly national column.
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        ---   Column Archive   --- M. BASKETBALL 4/8: Chalk One Up For These Jayhawks 4/6: Calipari, Self Ready To Take Final Step 4/4: What More Could You Want? 3/28: Tar Heels Feeling Right At Home 3/22: Gillispie Better Off In College Station? 3/16: Title Hopes Looming Large For Bruins 3/13: Arizona Keeping Tourney Streak Alive For Now 3/6: Holding A Full Deck Of Cards 2/28: A Step Back To Take A Step Forward 2/21: Nothing Comes Easy For Ryan 2/17: Blue Devils Anything But Blue 2/07: Bruins Could Be Hanging No. 12 2/07: January In Review 1/31: Hoyas Keeping Task At Hand 1/24: Finding Themselves 1/20: The Day We Were Waiting For 1/17: Hoosiers Holding Pieces To The Puzzle 1/10: Clemson's Scare Good For Heels 1/06: December In Review 1/03: Flyers Under The Radar 12/27: Win And You Shall Receive 12/20: Beasley's Just Being Beasley 12/13: Decadent and Depraved In Kentucky 12/06: Trojans Hurting Now To Smile Later 12/06: November In Review 11/29: Spotlight Shining Bright On Westwood 11/23: Turgeon's Taking His Time 11/15: Out With The Old, In With The New? 11/12: Don't Sleep On These Guys 11/08: Ducks Are Still Flying High 11/08: UCLA's Showing A Lot Of Love 11/05: Matta's Starting Over With More Youth 11/02: Hibbert's Standing Front and Center 11/01: Weber State Hopes To Dance Again 11/01: Hoyas, Cardinals Are Neck and Neck In Big East 10/30: Chomping At The Bit 10/27: Young Blood Giving Blue Devils New Life 10/26: Sweet Carolina 10/25: Better Than Nothing 10/18: Freshmen Fever 10/16: Hampton, High Point Ahead Of The Game 10/15: Vermont, Yale Climbing The Ladder 10/14: Austin Peay, Kent State Want Another Shot 10/12: On That Next Level 10/11: To The Highest Point 10/10: Roy's Boys Start At No. 1 10/04: Lexington's Buzzing Off The Hardwood 9/27: Leading The Pac 9/20: Everhart's Keeping His Dukes Up 9/13: Williams Just Getting Started 9/6: VMI's Williams Eager To Take Next Step 8/30: Beating Senioritis 8/23: Gearing Up For 2007-08 8/15: Walberg's Changing It Up 8/1: Gonzaga's Pargo Playing Coach 2/24: Bruins Enjoy Sweet Revenge 2/14: Lasme Takes Charge For Minutemen 2/1: St. John's Loses Steam After Halftime 12/2: Gause Provides Punch for Seton Hall Against SMC 11/22: Dynamic Duo Leads UCSB Over Pepperdine 11/18: LMU Shocks New Mexico St. With 0.9 Left 11/17: Gamecocks Spoil USC's Arena Opening 11/16: Mbah a Moute's Night 11/11: LMU Pulls Away Against Oral Roberts, 68-65 11/8: It's Been A Long Time M. LACROSSE 7/25: Yeatman Plays It Laid Back 7/18: For Better Or Worse? 7/6: Marr's Latest First 6/27: Making The Push 6/20: Big Questions Remain For Potential Big East 6/13: Sciubba Savors His Opportunity 6/6: No Excuses 6/4: One More Chance For Glory 5/30: Looking Back at 2007 5/28: Hopkins King For Another Day 5/27: Le Moyne Stuns Mercyhurst For DII Crown 5/27: Salisbury Earns Revenge On Cortland 5/26: Drama Doesn't Get To Duke 5/26: Hopkins Plays Another Day 5/26: Pietramala Feeling Right At Home 5/26: One Last Time 5/24: For Almost All The Marbles 5/18: Queener Likes It His Way 5/17: Still Wearing Their Slippers 5/13: Great Danes Win This Dog Fight 5/12: Plenty To Prove 5/11: Staying Alive 5/9: A Lot Left To Prove 5/8: Hoyas Ready For Next Step 5/7: Left in the Dark 5/5: Resetarits Powers Albany's Title Revenge 5/5: There's Nothing Sweeter Than Perfection 5/3: Seawolves Have No Answer For Thomson 5/3: These Irish Don't Need Any Luck 4/29: D Stands For Danowski...And Duke 4/28: Familiar Foes 4/28: Feeling Devlish 4/25: Turning Orange 4/21: Confidence Builds With Each Win For Hopkins 4/18: Cottle's World Full of Decisions 4/14: Nearing Perfection 4/7: Pouring It On 4/4: Off Their Heels 3/28: Seeing The Other Side 3/21: Albany Breaking New Ground 3/14: Big Things Brewing For Big Red 3/7: Climbing The List of Coaching Greats 3/3: Virginia Starts To Settle In With Face-Off Victory 3/2: Danowski Shows No Mercy For No. 6 Maryland 2/28: Losing Their Grip On The Stick 2/27: These Ten Bears Haven't Been Forgotten 2/16: Like Father, Like Son 2/14: Hofstra Still Full Of Its Own Pride W. LACROSSE 7/11: Lacrosse Migrates South 7/5: It's Home, Sweet Home For Miller 5/7: 'Cats Eyeing Three-Peat 4/11: Barking Softly Is Koch's Way 2/21: Building Programs Is Murphy's Game 2/15: Finding Her Own Key To Success 2/13: Third Time Is Still A Charm For `Cats FOOTBALL 10/8: USC Hangs On Again BASEBALL 1/23: Roemer Hungry To Get Back To Omaha M. WATER POLO 9/4: Cal Clawing For More 11/27: Family Doesn't Always Come First 11/13: March Is Back In Spite of Back 10/16: Top-Ranked USC Tops Cal in SoCal Tournament Final M. SOCCER 8/21: Nyarko Knocking at the Door 8/21: Title Hopes Brewing in Westwood 8/20: Bruins On The Rebound 8/20: Gauchos Go For Two

Bob Shillinglaw and Don Zimmerman have been in and around the sport of lacrosse a lot longer than I've been alive.

That might not be saying much, but for all the games that they have been a part of, coming out on the winning side of things has dictated their coaching careers more often than not.

With more than 60 years of experience and more than 400 victories between the two, Shillinglaw and Zimmerman have garnered the utmost respect from their fellow colleagues across the country for the success that they have amassed over their longstanding tenures.

For Shillinglaw, a career that began at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on the shores of Cape Cod has only blossomed into a 29-year stint at Delaware, where the Severna Park, Md. native has collected seven East Coast Conference titles, three North Atlantic crowns and four appearances in the NCAA tournament.

For Zimmerman, however, that path to success began immediately with the Baltimore native claiming the national championship in his first season as head coach at his alma mater Johns Hopkins and following it up with two more titles in just his first four years of work with the Blue Jays.

And after leaving the Baltimore school in 1990, Zimmerman has continued to show why he's one of the best teachers in the game, taking over an upstart program at not too distant UMBC in 1994 and propelling the Retrievers onto the national scene just four years later with a Top 20 finish and the school's first postseason appearance.

Yet for as long as they've been pacing the sidelines at Delaware and UMBC, Shillinglaw and Zimmerman have never had the pleasure of guiding their respective teams into the final week of the season.

"It's certainly something that you dream about," Zimmerman said. "This is what you work for. You work for this opportunity.

That will all change Sunday when Delaware and UMBC head south to meet inside the confines of Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium for a quarterfinal match that pits two unseeded teams against each other for the first time in NCAA history.

Heading into the opening round of the NCAA tournament, though, the two unheralded squads were given little chance of making it to the quarterfinals, with both Delaware and UMBC pinned against two of the nation's premiere programs in Virginia and Maryland.

But Zimmerman believed all along that his club belonged in the field of 16, that all they needed was a chance to show they could compete on the same field with anyone in the country.

UMBC (11-5) got that opportunity last Sunday at Byrd Stadium and made the most of it, dominating seventh-seeded Maryland for three straight quarters before coming away with a stunning 13-9 victory.

"I felt the team was certainly worthy of making the field, and the committee saw likewise," Zimmerman explained. "I thought our effort versus Maryland proved what we all felt."

It's been quite a season for the America East conference. After all, it's just one of two conferences--the other being the ever-strong ACC -- with two teams still standing in the NCAA tournament.

That's unquestionably a major accomplishment for a conference that hadn't won an NCAA tournament game since the 2001 season.

But that drought ended last Sunday afternoon when Albany welcomed ECAC foe Loyola to John Fallon Field and ran all over the Greyhounds in the first 30 minutes before securing the program's first postseason win with a 19-10 thumping.

And it only got better for the conference with the Retrievers taking out the Terps later that night.

"We're very happy for both UMBC and Albany, not just for them to be in the NCAA tournament but for them to be able to advance," America East commissioner Patrick Nero said in a phone interview. "It says a lot about America East lacrosse and makes us really proud."

Still, an appearance in Baltimore for Championship Weekend would say even more about a conference that has had only one team make it to the final four, and that was former league member and current CAA member Towson, who advanced to the semifinals in 2001 before falling to perennial power Princeton by one goal.

"It would mean a great deal because we have set an ultimate goal of having one of our conference schools win a national championship in lacrosse," Nero added. "In order to do that you got to get there. We have to get our teams to this point where they can compete on the national level."

Albany (15-2) and UMBC have quickly proved that this spring. The Great Danes, in particular, have been the biggest surprise of the 2007 season, opening up with an upset victory over Johns Hopkins at Homewood Field and following that up with 10 straight wins to climb to No. 2 in the national polls at 11-0.

Winning in the postseason, though, is a different story, one that surely solidifies the league's ever-improving rank among the other seven conferences in college lacrosse.

"Hopefully this gives our conference a shot in the arm in terms of respect on the national level," said Albany coach Scott Marr, who will be making his first trip to the NCAA quarterfinals in his seven years with the Great Danes.

"We have student-athletes who can compete at the highest level and the results speak for the conference's development."

Just think then what it would mean for the conference if Zimmerman could rally his troops past the Blue Hens Saturday.

"They're a very good lacrosse team right down the line," Zimmerman remarked. "We realize we're facing a very talented and excited Delaware team on Sunday."

Delaware (12-5) is the hottest team in the NCAA tournament having won six straight after a win that saw them not just upset the defending national champions, but quite frankly, spank them in front of their own fans at Klöckner Stadium to snap the Cavaliers' eight-game home winning streak.

That might mean even more when you consider that Virginia was picked by many as favorites to win a second consecutive national championship with a physical and imposing defense in front of All-American goaltender Kip Turner to go along with an offensive unit headlined by a pair of deadly attackmen in Garrett Billings (21 goals, 22 assists) and Ben Rubeor (46 goals), who were shut out for the only time this season.

And despite suffering a one-goal loss to Drexel in its season-opener and dropping two games to ACC champ Duke, Virginia (12-4) had shown that they were worthy of its No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament.

The Blue Hens, however, had the perfect recipe for an upset, relying on the dominant face-off play of senior Alex Smith and getting a stellar performance from junior goaltender Tommy Scherr, who finished the contest with a season-high 18 saves and held the No. 4 offense in the country to five goals below its season average.

"We made it difficult for them to get quality shots," Shillinglaw said, "but we've played hard all season, and we're finally getting to the point where we're not only playing hard but also executing."

Smith, the 2007 CAA Player of the Year, was just as impressive as his teammate in the cage, winning 18 of 26 face-off opportunities and scooping up 10 groundballs to break both NCAA and school records held by former Delaware standout Steve Shaw.

"The key to our team is heart," the senior face-off specialist said. "The second key to our game is we're family...We do everything together, and that's why we want to keep winning and keep playing with each other."

Delaware might need more than just heart to take out the Retrievers. Rather, they'll need those kinds of game-changing performances from both Scherr and Smith again if the CAA champions hope to reach Baltimore next weekend for the final four.

That's something Shillinglaw surely didn't even dream about when he stepped onto the field in February to open the season against Saint Joseph's.

"It'd be the pinnacle of my career," he admitted. "I just want so much for this group."

And for a group that has come a long way over the course of a season, from CAA title hopeful at the beginning of February to now NCAA bracket-buster in the middle of May.

"I think we've found that chemistry," Shillinglaw continued. "Now the question is whether we can maintain it."