Completed Event: Men's Lacrosse versus Georgetown on May 10, 2025 , Loss , 12, to, 16
/
Final
Men's Lacrosse
12
vs Georgetown
16
Photo by: Duke Athletics
How the 2021 "Super Team" Came Together
3/20/2021 12:00:00 PM | Men's Lacrosse
Puzzles became all the rage in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. They were a great and fun way to pass time at home. While sometimes frustrating, the challenge of having to find an elusive missing piece or finish the most difficult section was the fun part. Then comes the gratification of completion.
While the Duke men's lacrosse puzzle Danowski started last spring is far from completion with only three games in the books, it has been and continues to be a fun and challenging process. The Blue Devils are ranked No. 1 and are 8-0, including a win over No. 7 Denver, but have much work to do to reach their maximum potential. And even then, the expectations put upon this team starting in May of 2020 are unfair.
It all started back on March 12, 2020, a date only noteworthy within the Duke men's lacrosse program, because it is Danowski's birthday. However, this one will not be remembered for being his 66th birthday, but rather as the day 48 players learned their season was over as sports and everyday life in so many facets came to a halt.
Instead of gearing up for practice, the Blue Devils were told to meet at Koskinen Stadium to take the annual team photo. What is usually a light-hearted mood for the team photo had a somber and ominous feel to it as the coaches already had an idea of what the future held, and the players sensed bad news was soon to be delivered.
There were tears of sadness and looks of disbelief, especially from the seniors who were left wondering if they'd already put on a Duke jersey for the last time. There were so many unknowns and the game they loved with their brothers was no longer there for comfort.
Danowski, whose team was scheduled to travel to Towson two days later, was disheartened at the decision, but understood.
"We feel a deep sense of that brotherhood [and camaraderie] for the loss of competition this spring, but if people think it's in the best interest of their health and safety of their families and communities, who are we to pass judgement?", Danowski said after the decision was made to stop playing and send students home.
So the Blue Devils packed up their things as some headed to home to their families and others sheltered in place in their off-campus houses in Durham.
Now with his players scattered across North America, Danowski and the team continued to meet daily via Zoom at the normal practice time. It couldn't replace the daily practices or game days and when he sensed Zoom fatigue from the players, he pivoted and found guest speakers to hold their attention.
The series featured a range of people from the now former Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn to Duke President Vincent E. Price. It was a nice break from online classes and continued what Danowski believes is paramount – teaching.
Amidst all of this, the NCAA announced it would grant an extra year of eligibility to all spring-sport athletes, meaning all the seniors who three weeks prior thought their careers had ended were afforded the ability to run it back for one more year.
For JT Giles-Harris, the 2019 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, it was pretty much a no-brainer.
"I wasn't ready to go," Giles-Harris said. "I didn't realize it until the season was canceled that I wasn't ready. Once it became an option to come back, it wasn't really that hard of a decision to make."
He was not the only one who felt that way as nine other seniors joined him and the pieces to a building an elite team started to fall into place. It didn't come as a surprise when the core of the 2020 class decided to return for one more season.
"I think for our class, it was a pretty easy [decision]," Giles-Harris said. "We weren't exactly thinking of jobs at that point – we didn't have that completely figured out. We all wanted to stay our last year and see what we could do."
In Danowski's mind, the comfort level and unity within that group certainly helped make the decision easier.
"A degree from Fuqua doesn't hurt either," Danowski said, referring to Duke's Fuqua School of Business in which nine of the 10 are enrolled.
Fast forward a month to the transfer carousel at full speed after many of the Ivy League schools made the decision to not allow their seniors to return for a fifth year which left an abundance of talented players looking for a place to finish their careers. One player was at the forefront of it all – Princeton's Michael Sowers.
The heavy favorite to win the 2020 Tewaaraton Award, while potentially breaking numerous NCAA scoring records, Sowers is a once in a generation player. He was averaging 9.4 points per game for Princeton before the season came to a halt. That average was two points higher than any Division I player since 2011.
In April, Sowers entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal. The NCAA cleared him at 4:05 p.m. and he received a recruiting call at 4:07 p.m.
A few weeks later, news about Sowers choosing to head south to Durham for his final year started to trickle and social media exploded pronouncing the 2021 Blue Devils a Super Team.
The decision for Sowers did not come lightly. He told Ivan Maisel of ESPN he always told himself he would never play for another school after everything he put into the Princeton program.
However, the idea of furthering his education was very appealing as was the opportunity to compete for a national championship.
"Going into college, that was one of my main goals: playing in playoff games, playing in a national championship and a semifinal," Sowers told Maisel after choosing Duke. "I've only played in one game in May, and that was on May 3, a conference tournament game. This just presents an opportunity to pursue both those things: the academic piece and the athletic piece."
Another factor in helping make the transition easier for Sowers was that his roommate and teammate from Princeton, Phil Robertson, also would be joining the Blue Devils. Phil is the older brother of Duke attackman Joe Robertson – who played group-age lacrosse with Sowers and remained friends.
Plug in the nation's top recruiting class, which included Brennan O'Neill who was tabbed as one of the best players to come out of high school in a decade, and the puzzle pieces started to come together.
Now came the hard part – putting all those parts together to bring home the ultimate prize of an NCAA Championship on Memorial Day.
The first step was getting everyone to campus and thanks to incredible work by Duke, a plan was formulated to allow student-athletes to return to school safely and compete. It was an easy transition in terms of bonding and developing relationships with the new six graduate student transfers.
"It was pretty easy, because they are all great guys," Giles-Harris said. "Someone on the team knew of them or knew them before so it was kind of like 'If that's your boy, then that's my boy too.' And obviously Coach [Danowski] knows how to figure it out so him and the coaches figured out the process and got us ready to go."
Outside competition was not permitted in the fall so Danowski and his staff came up with the idea to start the Duke Outdoor Lacrosse League – The D.O.L.L. With a roster of 56 players, they thought it was a great way to get everyone involved, allow the seniors to take on leadership of teams, and most importantly have fun and play competitive games.
"These kids and lacrosse players all over have been through so much in terms of the virus itself, losing high school seasons, their senior year, … their family, the economy — so we just wanted to make it fun, give them something to look forward to," Danowski said.
Peithos, led by Nakeie Montgomery as head coach, beat McSallies in the championship game to take home the inaugural title. All of the games were incredibly competitive with five of the seven decided by a single goal. The games allowed the coaches to evaluate all the players – they graded the film after every game – and gave a glimpse of what they had to work with heading into the 2021 season.
Perhaps most importantly, it brought back the joy to playing lacrosse for everything. It was a needed release every Friday or Saturday night in a time when life as a college student was anything but normal.
"To cap the long weeks of practice with those scrimmages was awesome," said Sowers. "You knew every weekend was going to be a battle, because the teams were so evenly balanced."
After seven 20-hour weeks of practices, the Blue Devils concluded the fall semester with final exams and an extended winter break before returning to campus in early January for the grind of hopefully a full four-month season.
As the Blue Devils rolled into Durham, so did all of the preseason individual honors and the consensus preseason No. 1 ranking. Players were asked if this team could be one of the best college teams to ever play and outside coaches said it wasn't even close who deserved to be No. 1.
How do you manage those expectations? Giles-Harris, voted the Preseason Defenseman of the Year, received text messages from both of his brothers and his dad reminding him preseason awards don't matter. There was a lot of work left to do.
"Honestly, we've never really paid attention [to preseason awards]," Giles-Harris said. "It's cool obviously and you obviously are going to see it. Coach Danowski recognized that it was cool, but he emphasized that message I got from my family and we all knew that message, too."
O'Neill, someone who knows a thing or two about lofty expectations, humbly stated the team is talented, but needs to work hard and work together to be one of the great teams.
"I think we can win a lot of games," O'Neill said. "Our goals obviously are an ACC Championship and to make it to May and win a national championship. But we just have to take it game-by-game. We can't overlook anyone. I think if we work together and have great chemistry then we can be great, but you never know what the future holds. There is potential to be a great team if we work well together."
Danowski, when asked about being a great team, is quick to remind people that the Blue Devils are still quite inexperienced defensively. Only Giles-Harris has more than 10 games of experience, the other two starting close defensemen only played eight games in 2020 while a few others in the mix only have one full season under their belts.
Offensively, and especially at attack, the Blue Devils on paper are poised to score at will. The ability and the skills are there, but the final and most difficult piece to place is chemistry as O'Neill mentioned. They are still learning how each other moves off the ball, their tendencies, strengths and weaknesses.
The 2021 Blue Devils made their highly anticipated debut on ACC Network against preseason No. 7/5 Denver – the highest ranked team a Danowski squad has faced to open a season.
It wasn't smooth sailing as Duke fell behind 6-1 before settling in and rallying to a 12-10 victory. Sowers contributed a goal and three assists while O'Neill had three goals and an assist in their Duke debuts. Only four of Duke's goals were assisted, but the Blue Devils' depth was instrumental as nine different players scored.
"The hard part for both of those guys is they're going to do too much," Danowski said when asked about Sowers and O'Neill's debuts. "There is so much hype associated with them instead of just play and have fun. It's hard. Michael has to live up to this expectation of being King Kong, and he's not, and his teammates are pretty good. You have to learn to play with your teammates, and he will. We'll get better at chemistry and the only way you get better at chemistry is playing games, evaluating, teaching and getting better."
Duke returned two days later, still without their quarterback at attack in Robertson, to take on Robert Morris. The Blue Devils had a similar start, falling behind in the first quarter before roaring back for the 16-12 win. Ten different players scored this time with Montgomery and senior Cameron Badour leading the way with three goals apiece.
With two game films to watch and dissect, the coaches went back to work in moving around those puzzle pieces for the next week. Knowing Robertson would be back in the lineup to make the attack complete, the next step was to find the right combinations at midfield to allow the Blue Devils to run like a well-oiled machine.
Duke took a step forward versus Mercer. Although not playing against the likes of Denver or a talented Robert Morris squad, Robertson seemed to be the cog that was missing in the first two games' attack as the Blue Devils scored at will in the first quarter.
Montgomery made the move up to the first midfield with Badour and Owen Caputo and O'Neill joined veterans as a part of the second midfield. In all, 12 players had at least one point, including Robertson with five in his first game in nearly two full years.
With two games remaining in the month of February and five overall before opening ACC play, Danowski and his staff will likely have a clearer picture of what the Blue Devils will look like in April and hopefully late into May. It will be a year-long journey, but the image of the team lifting the national championship is in sight. He just needs to fit it all together. Regardless of how it turns out, one thing is certain. He would not have picked a different way to spend a year.
#GoDuke
While the Duke men's lacrosse puzzle Danowski started last spring is far from completion with only three games in the books, it has been and continues to be a fun and challenging process. The Blue Devils are ranked No. 1 and are 8-0, including a win over No. 7 Denver, but have much work to do to reach their maximum potential. And even then, the expectations put upon this team starting in May of 2020 are unfair.
It all started back on March 12, 2020, a date only noteworthy within the Duke men's lacrosse program, because it is Danowski's birthday. However, this one will not be remembered for being his 66th birthday, but rather as the day 48 players learned their season was over as sports and everyday life in so many facets came to a halt.
Instead of gearing up for practice, the Blue Devils were told to meet at Koskinen Stadium to take the annual team photo. What is usually a light-hearted mood for the team photo had a somber and ominous feel to it as the coaches already had an idea of what the future held, and the players sensed bad news was soon to be delivered.
There were tears of sadness and looks of disbelief, especially from the seniors who were left wondering if they'd already put on a Duke jersey for the last time. There were so many unknowns and the game they loved with their brothers was no longer there for comfort.
Danowski, whose team was scheduled to travel to Towson two days later, was disheartened at the decision, but understood.
"We feel a deep sense of that brotherhood [and camaraderie] for the loss of competition this spring, but if people think it's in the best interest of their health and safety of their families and communities, who are we to pass judgement?", Danowski said after the decision was made to stop playing and send students home.
So the Blue Devils packed up their things as some headed to home to their families and others sheltered in place in their off-campus houses in Durham.
Now with his players scattered across North America, Danowski and the team continued to meet daily via Zoom at the normal practice time. It couldn't replace the daily practices or game days and when he sensed Zoom fatigue from the players, he pivoted and found guest speakers to hold their attention.
The series featured a range of people from the now former Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn to Duke President Vincent E. Price. It was a nice break from online classes and continued what Danowski believes is paramount – teaching.
Amidst all of this, the NCAA announced it would grant an extra year of eligibility to all spring-sport athletes, meaning all the seniors who three weeks prior thought their careers had ended were afforded the ability to run it back for one more year.
For JT Giles-Harris, the 2019 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, it was pretty much a no-brainer.
"I wasn't ready to go," Giles-Harris said. "I didn't realize it until the season was canceled that I wasn't ready. Once it became an option to come back, it wasn't really that hard of a decision to make."
He was not the only one who felt that way as nine other seniors joined him and the pieces to a building an elite team started to fall into place. It didn't come as a surprise when the core of the 2020 class decided to return for one more season.
"I think for our class, it was a pretty easy [decision]," Giles-Harris said. "We weren't exactly thinking of jobs at that point – we didn't have that completely figured out. We all wanted to stay our last year and see what we could do."
In Danowski's mind, the comfort level and unity within that group certainly helped make the decision easier.
"A degree from Fuqua doesn't hurt either," Danowski said, referring to Duke's Fuqua School of Business in which nine of the 10 are enrolled.
Fast forward a month to the transfer carousel at full speed after many of the Ivy League schools made the decision to not allow their seniors to return for a fifth year which left an abundance of talented players looking for a place to finish their careers. One player was at the forefront of it all – Princeton's Michael Sowers.
The heavy favorite to win the 2020 Tewaaraton Award, while potentially breaking numerous NCAA scoring records, Sowers is a once in a generation player. He was averaging 9.4 points per game for Princeton before the season came to a halt. That average was two points higher than any Division I player since 2011.
In April, Sowers entered his name into the NCAA transfer portal. The NCAA cleared him at 4:05 p.m. and he received a recruiting call at 4:07 p.m.
A few weeks later, news about Sowers choosing to head south to Durham for his final year started to trickle and social media exploded pronouncing the 2021 Blue Devils a Super Team.
The decision for Sowers did not come lightly. He told Ivan Maisel of ESPN he always told himself he would never play for another school after everything he put into the Princeton program.
However, the idea of furthering his education was very appealing as was the opportunity to compete for a national championship.
"Going into college, that was one of my main goals: playing in playoff games, playing in a national championship and a semifinal," Sowers told Maisel after choosing Duke. "I've only played in one game in May, and that was on May 3, a conference tournament game. This just presents an opportunity to pursue both those things: the academic piece and the athletic piece."
Another factor in helping make the transition easier for Sowers was that his roommate and teammate from Princeton, Phil Robertson, also would be joining the Blue Devils. Phil is the older brother of Duke attackman Joe Robertson – who played group-age lacrosse with Sowers and remained friends.
Plug in the nation's top recruiting class, which included Brennan O'Neill who was tabbed as one of the best players to come out of high school in a decade, and the puzzle pieces started to come together.
Now came the hard part – putting all those parts together to bring home the ultimate prize of an NCAA Championship on Memorial Day.
The first step was getting everyone to campus and thanks to incredible work by Duke, a plan was formulated to allow student-athletes to return to school safely and compete. It was an easy transition in terms of bonding and developing relationships with the new six graduate student transfers.
"It was pretty easy, because they are all great guys," Giles-Harris said. "Someone on the team knew of them or knew them before so it was kind of like 'If that's your boy, then that's my boy too.' And obviously Coach [Danowski] knows how to figure it out so him and the coaches figured out the process and got us ready to go."
Outside competition was not permitted in the fall so Danowski and his staff came up with the idea to start the Duke Outdoor Lacrosse League – The D.O.L.L. With a roster of 56 players, they thought it was a great way to get everyone involved, allow the seniors to take on leadership of teams, and most importantly have fun and play competitive games.
"These kids and lacrosse players all over have been through so much in terms of the virus itself, losing high school seasons, their senior year, … their family, the economy — so we just wanted to make it fun, give them something to look forward to," Danowski said.
Peithos, led by Nakeie Montgomery as head coach, beat McSallies in the championship game to take home the inaugural title. All of the games were incredibly competitive with five of the seven decided by a single goal. The games allowed the coaches to evaluate all the players – they graded the film after every game – and gave a glimpse of what they had to work with heading into the 2021 season.
Perhaps most importantly, it brought back the joy to playing lacrosse for everything. It was a needed release every Friday or Saturday night in a time when life as a college student was anything but normal.
"To cap the long weeks of practice with those scrimmages was awesome," said Sowers. "You knew every weekend was going to be a battle, because the teams were so evenly balanced."
After seven 20-hour weeks of practices, the Blue Devils concluded the fall semester with final exams and an extended winter break before returning to campus in early January for the grind of hopefully a full four-month season.
As the Blue Devils rolled into Durham, so did all of the preseason individual honors and the consensus preseason No. 1 ranking. Players were asked if this team could be one of the best college teams to ever play and outside coaches said it wasn't even close who deserved to be No. 1.
How do you manage those expectations? Giles-Harris, voted the Preseason Defenseman of the Year, received text messages from both of his brothers and his dad reminding him preseason awards don't matter. There was a lot of work left to do.
"Honestly, we've never really paid attention [to preseason awards]," Giles-Harris said. "It's cool obviously and you obviously are going to see it. Coach Danowski recognized that it was cool, but he emphasized that message I got from my family and we all knew that message, too."
O'Neill, someone who knows a thing or two about lofty expectations, humbly stated the team is talented, but needs to work hard and work together to be one of the great teams.
"I think we can win a lot of games," O'Neill said. "Our goals obviously are an ACC Championship and to make it to May and win a national championship. But we just have to take it game-by-game. We can't overlook anyone. I think if we work together and have great chemistry then we can be great, but you never know what the future holds. There is potential to be a great team if we work well together."
Danowski, when asked about being a great team, is quick to remind people that the Blue Devils are still quite inexperienced defensively. Only Giles-Harris has more than 10 games of experience, the other two starting close defensemen only played eight games in 2020 while a few others in the mix only have one full season under their belts.
Offensively, and especially at attack, the Blue Devils on paper are poised to score at will. The ability and the skills are there, but the final and most difficult piece to place is chemistry as O'Neill mentioned. They are still learning how each other moves off the ball, their tendencies, strengths and weaknesses.
The 2021 Blue Devils made their highly anticipated debut on ACC Network against preseason No. 7/5 Denver – the highest ranked team a Danowski squad has faced to open a season.
It wasn't smooth sailing as Duke fell behind 6-1 before settling in and rallying to a 12-10 victory. Sowers contributed a goal and three assists while O'Neill had three goals and an assist in their Duke debuts. Only four of Duke's goals were assisted, but the Blue Devils' depth was instrumental as nine different players scored.
"The hard part for both of those guys is they're going to do too much," Danowski said when asked about Sowers and O'Neill's debuts. "There is so much hype associated with them instead of just play and have fun. It's hard. Michael has to live up to this expectation of being King Kong, and he's not, and his teammates are pretty good. You have to learn to play with your teammates, and he will. We'll get better at chemistry and the only way you get better at chemistry is playing games, evaluating, teaching and getting better."
Duke returned two days later, still without their quarterback at attack in Robertson, to take on Robert Morris. The Blue Devils had a similar start, falling behind in the first quarter before roaring back for the 16-12 win. Ten different players scored this time with Montgomery and senior Cameron Badour leading the way with three goals apiece.
With two game films to watch and dissect, the coaches went back to work in moving around those puzzle pieces for the next week. Knowing Robertson would be back in the lineup to make the attack complete, the next step was to find the right combinations at midfield to allow the Blue Devils to run like a well-oiled machine.
Duke took a step forward versus Mercer. Although not playing against the likes of Denver or a talented Robert Morris squad, Robertson seemed to be the cog that was missing in the first two games' attack as the Blue Devils scored at will in the first quarter.
Montgomery made the move up to the first midfield with Badour and Owen Caputo and O'Neill joined veterans as a part of the second midfield. In all, 12 players had at least one point, including Robertson with five in his first game in nearly two full years.
With two games remaining in the month of February and five overall before opening ACC play, Danowski and his staff will likely have a clearer picture of what the Blue Devils will look like in April and hopefully late into May. It will be a year-long journey, but the image of the team lifting the national championship is in sight. He just needs to fit it all together. Regardless of how it turns out, one thing is certain. He would not have picked a different way to spend a year.
#GoDuke
Players Mentioned
M
/ Men's Lacrosse
M
/ Men's Lacrosse
D
/ Men's Lacrosse
M
/ Men's Lacrosse
A
/ Men's Lacrosse
A
/ Men's Lacrosse
A
/ Men's Lacrosse
A
/ Men's LacrosseDuke Men's Lacrosse: Excellence on and off the field defined
Friday, August 29
Duke Men's Lacrosse Recruiting Video
Friday, August 29
Andrew McAdorey Media Availability 5-7
Wednesday, May 07
John Danowski Media Availability 5-7
Wednesday, May 07
