On paper, the fine folks up in Boston couldn't have asked for a better group of teams to be headed to their fair metropolis than the four that will arrive tomorrow.

Duke, with its notoriety and emergence as a household name in lacrosse in the last two years.

Johns Hopkins, with its rich tradition going back 125 years.

Virginia, with its three titles since 1999 and an up-and-down style of play.

Syracuse, which has hauled home nearly two fistfuls of title rings in the last quarter-century.

It isn't a stunning final four in the slightest. Hopkins, Duke and Virginia were a consensus top three in the preseason. Syracuse, despite its off year in 2007, was such a semifinal regular for so long that its still more jarring not to see the Orange on the big stage than to have them roll onto the field in late May.

It wasn't long ago that you could point to a Core Four --- Hopkins, Virginia, Syracuse and Princeton --- as the teams that reliably could be counted on to reach the semifinals. The last few years have led to a rethinking of that formula, and it really has become more of a Big Six, with Duke and Maryland joining the aforementioned group even if they don't yet have the titles to show for their efforts.

Go back to 1994 and it's clear those six schools are and continue to be the elite of the sport. The only school that might not fit is Princeton, which has gone to only one final four in the last six years but still has a crafty coach who plies his trade as well as anyone.

(It is no random choice to select 1994. That was the year Virginia upset North Carolina in the quarterfinals in what was to become a watershed moment for both programs. The Cavaliers have won three NCAA tournaments since then. The once redoubtable Tar Heels have won two NCAA tournament games since then.)

A little elementary math shows there are 60 semifinal slots available over the last 15 years, and the Big Six account for 51 of them:

Syracuse: 13 (5 titles)
Johns Hopkins: 10 (2 titles)
Virginia: 10 (3 titles)
Princeton: 8 (5 titles)
Maryland: 6
Duke: 4

The category of "Everybody else" makes up the final nine spots, with Brown, Cornell, Delaware, Georgetown, Loyola, Massachusetts, Navy, Notre Dame and Towson each making one final four appearance in that span.

That hodgepodge of erstwhile powers, big-time dreamers and perennial quarterfinalists has no championships between them since 1977. And thanks to yet another postseason during which the pretenders have been weeded out in the first two weekends, that streak will remain intact.

Sure, parity has arrived. It just hasn't made it to Memorial Day.

--- Patrick Stevens