Duke coach: Cavs' situation differs from 2006

Over the past few weeks, some media members have turned the Duke men’s lacrosse team into something of a Grand Poobah.

The thinking: Since the Blue Devils went through tough times in 2006 — events that would become known as “The Duke Lacrosse Scandal” — surely they must be able to provide some special insight into the recent tragedy at Virginia that saw men’s lacrosse player George Huguely charged with first-degree murder in the death of women’s player Yeardley Love.

Well, not really.

On Tuesday, Duke coach John Danowski scoffed at the notion. He referred to the situations at Virginia and Duke as “apples and oranges.”

“On so many levels, we can’t wrap our heads around this any better than anyone else can,” said Danowski, whose team plays Virginia in the NCAA Tournament semifinals on Saturday in Baltimore. “We’re not experts in crisis management. You just figure out how to survive each day. I’m sure that’s what the Virginia community is doing.

“There’s just so much emotion, so many feelings and you don’t know how to sort your feelings. It’s a very difficult situation.”

Back in 2006, the Duke administration elected to cancel the Blue Devils’ season. Coach Mike Pressler was fired and Danowski was brought in.

In the Duke case, a dancer hired to perform at a party held at a lacrosse player’s home claimed that she was raped by players. The charges were later dismissed and authorities said the players were innocent.

This spring, both the Virginia men’s and women’s teams decided to play on after Love’s death on May 3. The women were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday by North Carolina. The men, meanwhile, advanced to this weekend’s Final Four with a narrow victory over Stony Brook.

On Tuesday, Virginia coach Dom Starsia was asked if the atmosphere surrounding his team was starting to feel a little more normal. He responded by saying that he wasn’t sure what normal is anymore.

“Circumstances have changed some lives forever for a lot of different people involved here,” Starsia said.

Starsia, whose father passed away four days after Love’s death, said his team will continue to “carry the banner” for the women’s team this weekend in Baltimore.

Starsia liked the resiliency Virginia showed against Stony Brook. Playing in a hostile environment, it would have certainly been easy to crack.

“I wondered at times on Sunday whether our tank might be running dry — the emotional tank,” he said. “I give our kids some credit for kind of reaching down and gutting out a win.”

In 2006, resiliency is the thing that Danowski said he noticed most about his players in the wake of their turmoil. He said he got the feeling that they were trying to move on with their lives as quickly as they could.

“Other people can kind of be angry, but guys have so much going on with school and their futures —internships, summer jobs, friends — that it doesn’t consume them,” Danowski said. “Any time that I would bring up anything that had happened, guys ... they just don’t want to talk about it. They just want to move on.”