Got back from Foxboro(Ugh) last night after seeing an entertaining --- though not, in the final analysis, close --- title game. Congrats to Syracuse for winning the title everyone assumed would be going to Duke.

The Orange have a passel of great stories --- from rallying back from last year's 5-8 season to the myriad personal tragedies of those in the program to the dire need for the Syracuse athletic department to receive some good news.

It is a school, after all, that has a Hall of Fame basketball coach producing NIT berths and a football coach whose tenure in the Dome is, to date, remarkably bad. Bad enough he might be the best bet of any of the 120 major college coaches to not occupy his current station in another seven months.

Back to lacrosse. There are still some details to go over in the next week or so, and rankings are a start.

This will be one of two top 20s to be posted this week.

This is the final 2008 lacrosse top 20, at least from one voter. The next one will be the 2009 lookahead. After all, it's never too soon to do that --- and it would appear the first big change of the offseason will be the arrival of a new sheriff in Chapel Hill, since Inside Lacrosse reports John Haus has been ousted.

1. Syracuse (16-2)
2. Duke (18-2)
3. Johns Hopkins (11-6)
4. Virginia (14-4)
5. Maryland (10-6)
6. Notre Dame (14-3)
7. UMBC (12-4)
8. Ohio State (11-6)
9. Navy (10-6)
10. Colgate (11-6)
11. Cornell (11-4)
12. Georgetown (9-4)
13. North Carolina (8-6)
14. Hofstra (10-6)
15. Brown (11-3)
16. Drexel (13-4)
17. Denver (10-7)
18. Loyola (7-7)
19. Army (9-6)
20. Princeton (7-6)

--- Patrick Stevens