Once college basketball season ends, the sports world is nearly non-existent for me until college football begins in the fall. Basically, I could not care less about professional baseball, so my summer sports viewing is pretty limited while I await the return of college football and the weekly blather of Fowler, Herbstreit and Corso.

I always watch some of the NBA playoffs, but there’s usually not much there. I’m already disinterested this year now that all of the decent series are over well before the finals. And, being a tennis fan, I will watch some of the French Open (which began yesterday) and Wimbledon. But that’s about it.

By the way, the French Open already has a big upset on the board - American Andy Roddick was sent home today by Russia’s Igor Andreev. (Although considering Roddick’s career record at the French is 4-7, maybe “big upset” is overstating it.) In related news, American men’s tennis continues to suck. How I long for the days of Connors and McEnroe, or Agassi and Sampras. Even Courier and Chang might be welcome considering the current state we’re in. But I digress.

This year, however, I did find one other interest. Duke lacrosse has been in the news a lot over the past year, although not for anything done of the field. So, being a huge Duke basketball fan, I decided to check out the Men’s Lacrosse Final Four this weekend on ESPN, where Duke was playing. They managed an amazing win over Cornell in the semifinals, where Cornell overcame a 10-3 Duke lead and tied the game at 11 with only :17 on the clock. However, Duke won the face-off and managed a game-winning goal with :03 left to advance to the finals. Unfortunately for them, in the championship game, they fell into the same hole Cornell had, falling behind Johns Hopkins 10-4 at the half, before finally losing 12-11. They played a great second half, but could not overcome their first half shortcomings.

These were actually the third and fourth lacrosse matches I’ve ever watched - all of them coming this year. I saw a bit of a Navy-Maryland matchup a couple of months ago, as well as Duke-Virginia shortly after that. It’s pretty much the same as watching soccer or ice hockey. I’d give hockey the nod when it comes to excitement, probably because of the speed of the game. But, I’d rather watch lacrosse than soccer, I believe. And the finish to the Duke-Cornell game was pretty exciting regardless of what sport it was. Here’s a video of the final minute-plus of that game:

How much lacrosse I watch in the future remains to be seen. It’s probably dependent on the new Durham D.A.

Always a laugh

Here’s a few recent headlines from my favorite satirical news source, The Onion:

• Modern-Day Martin Luther Nails 95 Comment Cards to IHOP Door
• LeBron James Struggles To Name One Cavalier Aside From Himself
• Brett Favre Demands Trade to 1996 Packers
• WNBA Apparently Giving It Another Shot