Lacrosse coaches, like their football and basketball brethren, love to talk about parity. And compared to a decade ago, parity very much exists.

But it is usually not enough to neutralize a home-field advantage in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

This is the sixth year of the 16-team tournament with home sites in the opening games. And if the first 40 games in this format are any indication, there probably won't be many surprises this weekend.

The home team is 35-5, with only 2003 Georgetown (at Rutgers), 2005 Cornell (at Towson), 2006 Massachusetts (at Cornell), 2007 Delaware (at Virginia) and 2007 UMBC (at Maryland) springing upsets.

Put another way, one wacky evening last May accounted for nearly half of the road victories in the first round over the last five years.

Close games is another way of looking at it. A fair definition of "close" is probably three goals, though it isn't hard to find a 9-6 game that was once a 9-3 game before things grew tighter during garbage time.

Nevertheless, of the 40 games over the last five years, just 12 have been decided by three goals or less. Four of those close games actually came in 2003, which runs counter to the parity talk.

There are certainly plenty of matchups that could prove to be close. There could even be a few victories on the road. But it's better to anticipate chalk in the first round (and often beyond), since that's what the NCAA tournament tends to serve up.

--- Patrick Stevens