The 12-3 Underdog?

The Ithaca Journal had an article today about former Cornell lacrosse coach Richie Moran and his continued close relationship with the program.

The article is full of quotes from Moran which make Cornell out to be some sort of unheralded, underdog team which no one expected to make it this far:

The key to Cornell winning two games this weekend, Moran said, is to get timely production from "unknowns."

"In all honesty, if you asked a lacrosse fan to name some names on that team, you would hear Moyer, Seibald, Glynn, and maybe a little Pannell. So really it is a team of unknowns, and the unknown and the underdog - that is beautiful chemistry. Beautiful chemistry. I love it."

Remember that Cornell is ranked #4 in the polls and was seeded #5 in the NCAA tournament. They topped unseeded Hofstra in Ithaca in the first round and then won a minor upset over #4 seed Princeton on Saturday, which was not really an upset if you consider that Cornell defeated Princeton earlier in the season.

They defeated #3 Duke earlier in the season and hung close to #1 Virginia through three quarters of the game at UVA. It's hard to label Cornell a team of unknowns when they've been a top-5 team for most of the season.

Virginia is the favorite on Saturday, but it's not like Cornell came out of nowhere to reach the Final Four. I'd hope that Moran doesn't really hold such low expectations for this team.

See also my earlier post about the media's obsession with "Cinderella" teams.