Duke Lacrosse: On The Eve of Greatness

I am convinced there was a rape, yes, sir
-Mike Nifong quote made to an MSNBC reporter in March 2006

With such condemnatory statements as the one above (more Mike Nifong quotes below), Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong led the public’s rush to judgment in assuming the guilt of three members of the Duke Lacrosse team (taken from the North Carolina State Bar’s official complaint against Mike Nifong, http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2006/1228062bar1.html). Things have settled down on campus and I’ve been trying hard not to think about this whole ordeal. But with the Duke Lacrosse team making it to the national championship game tomorrow, I feel it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the media circus that has become the Duke Lacrosse Case.

I lived in Few Quad last year, located directly across from Duke Chapel in the heart of campus, so I was situated right in the middle of this whole fiasco. For a span of a couple of months whenever I had to take the short trek from my dorm room to the library or to class, I had to walk through reporters, sets, camera crews, and media trucks (with gigantic satellites). I felt like a mouse in a maze. I remember having to navigate my way through more than a dozen media trucks in the Brian Center parking lot on my way to class. I remember flipping through the channels and wondering to myself whether I could find anything other than the Duke Lacrosse case on television. I remember flipping to CNN and seeing Jesse Longoria, Duke’s Student Government President at the time, doing an interview with Larry King. Usually whenever there is a huge news event featured on most of the major channels (ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC), ESPN is my solace. I know I can always tune in to ESPN to get away from everything. But even that was taken away from me. Every time I flipped to ESPN, George Smith was reporting live at Duke about the case.

I also remember being scared. I was scared when Duke sent out an email telling us that there had been a crime against a Duke student off of East Campus by a Durham resident in wake of the incident. I was also terrified when Duke sent emails to all students warning us to be careful because the Black Panthers were rallying on, or very close to, campus.

I remember the circus that was the media (including the student paper, local, and national papers). I remember many members of the media, Nancy Grace especially comes to mind, assuming guilt. It felt like K.C. Johnson, a history professor and blogger, was the only unbiased person out there that was taking the time to really analyze the situation (http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/)

When the three players accused of the rape were announced, it really hit close to home. One of the accused players’ girlfriends lived right across the hall from me. I remember the absolute shock that rose in me when I saw on t.v. the face of a guy who I must have walked by a hundred times in the hall outside my dorm room.

Like many people here at Duke, I have a lot of anger about how everything was handled and the way this issue exploded with the media. Duke’s reputation unquestionably took a huge hit because of it. That’s why I am so proud of what the team did yesterday. If you haven’t heard, the Duke Lacrosse team defeated Cornell 12-11 yesterday in the national semifinals.

I was pretty nervous early on when we were down 3-2 but then we exploded. We scored 8 goals in a row and during that period our defense, especially goalie Dan Loftus, really clamped down on Cornell’s offense (which has the nation’s no.1 scoring offense). But Loftus tweaked his ankle and Cornell charged back, eventually evening the game at 11 with 17 seconds left. At that point I was pretty much freaking out. In my mind I was about to concede victory when we suddenly won the face-off and got the ball deep into Cornell territory. Zack Greer scored the game winner with 3 seconds left. 3 seconds left! The game was over if we had gone to overtime, Cornell had all the momentum scoring 8 out of the last 9 goals. You have to wonder if the big man in the sky had something to do with that miracle goal with 3 seconds left in regulation.

This whole season has been about redemption, and with that last goal, Duke is at the precipice of an accomplishment that was unthinkable only a year ago. I am getting the feeling that everyone out there, even all the Duke haters, are rooting for Duke to win tomorrow. Here are some of the comments left on ESPN’s lacrosse message board yesterday:

“…that duke game was extremely entertaining and fun to watch...I hate Duke everything but I find myself cheering for Duke LAX...strange... bring it home Dukies.”

“I know....I’ve been an N.C. State fan all my life and graduated from N.C state but being a lax player from charlotte and playing for 7 years, I hope Duke pulls it out in the national championship because they deserve it for all they have been through the past year and a half.”

“I'm a Maryland fan so I despise Duke and all its teams but I'm rooting for their lax team after all that garbage they went through the past year.”-If a Maryland fan’s rooting for us, you know the people are behind Duke.

Another part of this Duke-Johns Hopkins game that might be overlooked is that this is a huge rematch. Duke lost to Johns-Hopkins in the 2005 National Championship game in a 9-8 come-from-behind thriller. Now they have a chance to avenge that loss and show the world what their made of. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. I’d probably trade a national championship in basketball for a win tomorrow (did I just say that?). Regardless, I hope this shows the world the character of every member of the Duke Lacrosse team. They could have felt sorry for themselves and come up with excuses, but they banded together and used what happened as motivation. I hope Duke wins tomorrow, only if it can ease their suffering. Regardless, going through this ordeal has really brought all the players together. As Zack Greer said after the win yesterday, "we're 41 brothers on the field."

I wouldn’t bet against Duke tomorrow.

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A Few Mike Nifong Quotes

“I would like to think that somebody [not involved in the attack] has the human decency to call up and say, ‘What am I doing covering up for a bunch of hooligans.’”
-Mike Nifong quote made to a reporter for the Raleigh News and Observer in April 2006

“there are three people who went into the bathroom with the young lady, and whether the other people there knew what was going on at the time, they do now and have not come forward. And if they would have spoken up at the time, this may never have happened.”
-Mike Nifong Quote made to The New York Times in March 2006

“I am satisfied that she was sexually assaulted at this residence.”
-Mike Nifong Quote made to a reporter for the Raleigh News and Observer

“…one would wonder why one needs an attorney if one was not charged and had not done anything wrong.”
-Mike Nifong quote made to ESPN reporter George Smith in March 2006