So… there is an elephant in the room that I have not pointed out yet, so let me get the hardest part and say that UNC did lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament, upset by Navy at Fetzer Field. Given that it was my alma mater, it was obviously hard to take.  That said, the NCAA tournament is a cruel mistress. Only one of the sixteen teams that enter exit happily. An exit in the first round isn’t much easier than an exit in the last game. Given that a loss means an end of the season, losing in the tournament in an abrupt way to end your season.Â
Even though the season is over, I’m going to still be working on the project. No, not in the Hillary Clinton never-say-never sense, but because, hey, I have a lot more time on my hands after the loss. So I’ll be doing some minor stuff with the guys who are around for the summer. But I’ll also sifting through literally thousands of photos that I took over this last year to pull out the cream of the crop. It’s going to be a huge labor of love. Too bad I can’t train that elephant in the room to edit and caption all the photos I have.Â
Saturday I’ll be flying to Ithaca with the Duke team for their game against Ohio State hosted by Cornell University in the NCAA quarterfinals. I went with them last year and had a great time, so I’m looking forward to this experience. I was worried if I would be the persona non grata as the UNC guy, but instead I had a very welcoming and pleasant experience with them last year.Â
But stay tuned; more is to come out on the UNC project. I’ve been working on some photos to highlight stick stringing as well as the canines in some of the players lives. Those two posts, among others I hope, I will be on Inside Lacrosse.Â
(updated 5/20/08 to fix some spelling errors)