Welcome to the Next Level
Rice alumni refl ect on their fi rst year of college lacrosse
By Sante Dybowski
Chieftain Staff
Being a student at some of the best univer-
sities in the country is hard enough. Being
a student-athlete is ever harder. We take a
look at our alumni playing college lacrosse
and how they are doing in
their fi rst years at their new
homes.
offers a variety of ways to spend your
time, whether you play a sport or do
some other activity. Time management
is defi nitely an issue for most college
students, but balancing athletics and
school can defi nitely be diffi cult at
times. Between class,
practice, lifts and fi lm,
you are forced to man-
age your free time in the
most productive way in
order to be successful,
both on the fi eld and in
the classroom. Q: Are you excited for the upcoming
season? How do you believe it will go?
Nick Andoni (High Point, NC): I’m
very excited for the upcoming season.
We have the toughest out-of-conference
schedule in the nation, so we have had
a rough start playing No. 1 Duke, No.
2 Maryland, No. 6 Virginia, and a very
good Georgetown team. But I feel that
those games will give us the experience
that we needed to win the Southern
Conference and make an NCAA tourna-
ment run.
Combine that with the likes of Mikal
Bridges and Big East Sixth Man of the
Year Donte Divincenzo, and the Wild-
cats are scary. Region. With a win in the best game of
the tournament so far, over Duke, the
Jayhawks proved any doubters wrong.
Kansas conquered the so called “Region
of Death” after Michigan State for-
got to penetrate against Syracuse’s
2-3 zone and sat an NBA lottery
pick, Jaren Jackson, Jr., during the
most important part of the game.
But that’s another story.
In the end, the Jayhawks and
Blue Devils battled for a spot for
the Final Four, and the Jayhawks,
led by Malik Newman, took an
overtime win. Say what you want
about the Jayhawks, but they are
led by three star players in New-
man, De’vonte Graham, and Svia-
toslav Mykhailiuk (don’t ask for
pronounciation). The 12-time Big
12 Champs will be ready to give
Villanova a run for the money.
When it all comes down to it, I
believe the Wolverines will be too
much for Loyola and Villanova
will grind out a win over Kansas,
leaving a Michigan-Villanova fi nal.
Sorry, Wolverine fans, this is the Cats’
year. Villanova 84, Michigan 78.
Q: Is it diffi cult balanc-
ing athletics and school?
Carson Cochran (Notre
Dame): It’s defi nitely
diffi cult balancing athlet-
Q: Did going to Brother
ics and school, mainly
Carson Cochran, Notre Dame Rice make it an easy
because of the amount of
transition going into
time both require. Classes
all day followed by 3-4 hours of lacrosse college?
Dan Reaume (Penn State): Yes, going
and about 2-3 hours of homework
to Rice made it very easy to transition.
makes it hard to fi nd time to sleep, eat,
I felt I was very prepared; I just wish I
and stay social.
would have tried a little harder at Rice.
Jack Kelly (Georgetown): College
FINAL FOUR
Continued from Page 12
defense, and they have earned their
chance to play for a title.
Jordan Poole’s beyond-life buzz-
er-beater to defeat Houston in the
Round of 32 propelled the Wolver-
ines to a blowout win over Texas
A&M and then a hard-fought win
over Florida State. From Mortiz
Wagner to Xavier Simpson, this
team plays like it wants it, and it
will be very hard for the Ramblers
to knock off the Big Ten Tourna-
ment Champions.
As for the other side of the brack-
et, the East Region was dominated
by Villanova. The Wildcats, who
were a No. 1 seed and who this
reporter thinks are the best team
in the whole tournament, have yet
to have a game decided by single
digits. They are toug