Duke lacrosse back for a title run

DURHAM, N.C. -- Matt Danowski shouldn't be preparing for another run at the national championship. His record-setting career appeared over a year ago when the Duke men's lacrosse team's season of redemption came up a win shy of a national championship.

Yet the reigning national player of the year -- who crouched to the turf and couldn't fight back the tears when Duke's 2007 season ended -- will suit up Saturday along with Dan Loftus, Tony McDevitt, Nick O'Hara and Michael Ward to open the NCAA tournament. It's the moment they've waited for since returning for a rare NCAA-granted fifth year that restored the season lost after three teammates were falsely accused of rape in 2006.

Now, after two narrow championship losses in three seasons, the "Fives" are down to their last title shot in careers that have seen the Blue Devils rise, fall, then rise again.

"We're playing with house money," Danowski said. "We're just going with it. Last year was our year to be sentimental. Now it's 'This is it, so we might as well have fun with it.' "

The Blue Devils (16-1) are the No. 1 seed in this year's NCAA tournament and face Loyola of Maryland, the team of formerly charged and now-exonerated ex-teammate Collin Finnerty.

They all have played through lofty expectations as things slowly returned to normal following the scandal. Yet the pressure might be highest for the five who returned for the graduate-level coursework -- McDevitt even put off taking a job with Merrill Lynch in New York -- that would secure an extra year of eligibility.

Coach John Danowski, Matt's father, won't discourage their title-or-bust attitude, either.

"Kids are kids," he said. "This is really important to them. … No matter what I say, they may nod their head, but deep down they're going to think what they want to think."

All five can remember when they could wear a Duke lacrosse T-shirt around campus and no one would notice. Or when they were part of just another anonymous nonrevenue sports team in the shadows of Mike Krzyzewski's storied basketball program. Those days are long gone, chased away by a volatile mix of onfield success and off-field turmoil.

They went from having a losing record as freshmen to building a nationally elite program that set an NCAA single-season record with 17 wins before losing by a goal to Johns Hopkins in the 2005 finals. They expected to get back there before a March 2006 team party changed everything.

A woman hired to perform as a stripper told police she was raped by three players, allegations that led to the university's decision to cancel the rest of the season and the indictments of Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and graduating senior Dave Evans.

The case ultimately unraveled and state prosecutors determined an attack never occurred. Attorney General Roy Cooper dropped charges and declared the three players innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse." Durham district attorney Mike Nifong -- who zealously drove the case during a political campaign -- was disbarred for misconduct, resigned in disgrace and spent a day in jail for lying to a judge during a hearing in the case.

Meanwhile, the Blue Devils returned to the field last season amid increased media and university scrutiny. Driven almost as much by proving wrong those who vilified them early in the case, they got back to the title game but lost to Hopkins by a goal.

Looking back, Ward said, one lesson sticks out above all others: the importance of making good decisions.

"That was the main thing," he said. "That was essentially what made this all come about, one bad decision of hiring strippers to come to the party. It's where it all went wrong."

Two days after the loss to Hopkins in Baltimore, the NCAA granted the school's fifth-year request. Players who were not seniors on the '06 team were allowed to return to Duke or go elsewhere, an option Peter Lamade pursued by enrolling at Atlantic Coast Conference rival Virginia.

Still, while Loftus noted that "no one even thinks of it" in the locker room anymore, the events of the past two years linger outside Koskinen Stadium.

There's a lawsuit filed by 38 current and former unindicted players -- including Loftus, McDevitt, O'Hara and Ward -- against Duke, the city and others for emotional distress during the scandal. The four declined to comment on it.

All five can still feel stares when out in Durham, though fewer than in '06. Occasionally, there are awkward encounters, such as when McDevitt said he and his girlfriend -- who was wearing his Duke lacrosse sweatshirt -- left a movie theater in the fall after hecklers behind them kept saying, "They did it." Or more recently when Loftus overheard a gas station employee who had noticed his Duke lacrosse shirt whisper to her co-worker, "Didn't they rape that girl?"

They've accepted that their presence alone keeps the sordid story alive considering they wouldn't still be here otherwise. As does the absence of Finnerty and Seligmann -- now at Brown -- who would have been fourth-year seniors at Duke this year.

But the way the "Fives" figure it, there's only one thing to worry about now: that elusive championship.

"We're a new team now," O'Hara said. "We're focused. Just to dwell on the past is something that (coach) doesn't want to do and none of us want to do."