Woo hoo.  We got some space on ESPN.com  You can find the link here.  They change the content frequently, so if you miss it, here it is:

Hey strangers.  I had the misfortune of having to take a long and relaxing cruise to Alaska, thus the radio silence.  (but don’t worry, a 5 hr slide show is on the way.)

I wanted to draw your attention to the latest issue of Inside Lacrosse (August 2008).  As you know, last year, I did a year-long photo essay of the varsity men’s lacrosse team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  It was a ton of work, but very gratifying to do.  One of the most gratifying results is a 9 page spread that Inside Lacrosse magazine, where I am a frequent photo contributor, published in this latest issue.  I had been in talks with Inside Lacrosse’s art director James Schaffer since as early as September or October about the possibility of doing a spread in IL.  At the time, I didn’t know if the project would even be successful or would reach fruition. Also, the story could always be displaced by other stories if a major event broke in lacrosse.

So other than my discussions with Inside Lacrosse and UNC sports information director Dave Lohse, I told not a soul that the photos could eventually find their way into the printed version of IL.  I told not even the coaches or players.  I only told them about 2 weeks ago when I knew the magazine had literally gone to the printing presses with the article included.

I’m really excited about the end result.  The editors decided to publish 9 pages for the story, a good 2 to 3 more photos that I ever expected.  Also used was a photo on the table of contents page.

If you are a UNC Lacrosse fan and want to order a back copy, you can do so on this order form.

Of course, you are a subscriber anyway, right?

A public thanks to James Schaffer, Keely Knop, John Jiloty, Jon Brand and Matt Can at Inside Lacrosse for their help.

Yesterday I posted photos from the actual game of Hopkins vs. Duke.  Today I posted some of by favorite photos of the “behind the scenes” of the team.  I picked out about 40 photos from both the trip to play Ohio State in Ithaca and Hopkins at the Final Four.  The photos include the team traveling, in the locker room, in their hotel room, during team building exercises and other events.  So it’s a real 360 of the guys.  Feedback always appreciated.

You can view the photos as a flash gallery here.

Or if you like the old fashioned thumbnail gallery, you can get that too.

Yeah, I know.  The game was like a month ago and I just now have them up.  Am I lazy?  No, not so much.  I traveled up with Duke and after they lost, I was in a funk and didn’t want to even look at the pictures for the longest time.  Then, I have been traveling fairly heavly for my “real job”.  So my time was really limited.

But now, you can find for your viewing pleasure, photos from the NCAA semifinals.

Duke Lacrosse vs. Hopkins Lacrosse Photos

If you don’t know who Mikey Powell [pictures] is, then well, you obviously aren’t a lacrosse fan so stop reading now and schedule a chat with me so we can talk about Mikey.

For those who are, Inside Lacrosse did a video behind the scenes of the photo shoot with Powell that was held in Baltimore. The images are published in the latest Inside Lacrosse magazine. The shoot was done by Inside Lacrosse art director (and my boss there) Art Shaffer. The end images are awesome and the video is awesome do.  If you are a lacrosse fan, do yourself a favor and check it out. 

Boy do I wish I could have done these photos.  Mikey looks like he was really fun to work with. 

Wanted to give a shout out to the following ACC lacrosse players who were drafted last night in the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) draft.  They are, in order of draft:

Pick #  Team - Name, position, college

2. New Jersey - Matt Danowski [pictures], A, Duke

9. New Jersey - Joe Cinosky [pictures], D, Maryland

11. Chicago - Will Barrow [pictures], M, Virginia

12. New Jersey - Tony McDevitt [pictures], D, Duke

14. Long Island- Ben Rubeor [pictures], A, Virginia

22. Rochester - Nick O’Hara [pictures], D, Duke

27. Denver - Michael Ward [pictures], M, Duke

41. Chicago- Bud Petit [pictures], G, Virginia 

So that is eight ACC players placed in the 50 available draft spots. The #1 draft pick for Chicago went to the man, the legend, Paul Rabil [pictures] of Hopkins.

Just wanted to link to my post on Inside Lacrosse.  We traveled from Raleigh to Boston today.  

OK, I gotta seriously get to bed. 

Tomorrow, I will be flying off with the Duke men’s lacrosse team for Boston. For those not “in the know”, Duke will be playing in the Final Four this year at Gillette Stadium. Saturday at 2:30pm, they will play Johns Hopkins in a rematch of the 2007 (and 2005) championship game, only this time in the semifinals. Should Duke win, they will play either Syracuse or Virginia. 

I’m traveling as part of the Duke entourage, but also as a photographer for Inside Lacrosse. On the Inside Lacrosse Blogs, I’ll be posting some in-depth information about Duke as they make their run for the title. It’s going to be a fun weekend.  

So Duke Lacrosse did a number on Ohio State last Sunday in a 21-10 win, a score that doesn’t really reflect how lopsided the game was.  In the fourth quarter, Duke pretty much shut down their offense and stopped taking shots.  Otherwise, the score would have been far worse. On the bus ride from Duke to the airport, I was sitting beside longpole Parker McKee talking about Ohio State. I recounted how my Heels lost to them in Baltimore earlier this season and said I predicted a strong start by the Buckeyes.  My prediction was for them to be up at the end of the first quarter, maybe half, but Duke then coming back to win it.

Well, I was right about the Buckeyes starting strong.  They scored first to make the score 0-1, scoring off an EMO (btw, how does Sam Payton get hit with a delay of game when the game was only 10 seconds in? I missed the call as my camera was focused elsewhere).  I was also right that Duke would come out after the Buckeyes strong start and win the game.  What I had very wrong was how long it would take Duke to come back — it ended up not taking long at all.  At the 10:39 left on the clock in the first, the officials could have stopped there when Brad Ross scored to put Duke up 2-1.  Duke would never be down again and would not stop the carnage until the score was 10-1.  Congrats to OSU though for their great success this summer.  It is great to see a midwest team get some serious respect in the lacrosse world. 

The entire game was rainy and cold.  Pretty miserable to photograph.  But the photos usually look fun in the end: Lots of sliding goes on during these games.  Too bad it wasn’t a muddy and grassy field.  Photos from those games look awesome!

Here’s a link to my photos from the game:  Duke Lacrosse vs. Ohio State Photos

I was up in Ithaca, NY with the Duke Lacrosse team as they played Ohio State in the NCAA Quarterfinals, hosted by Cornell University.  This is the second year in a row that Duke has not had to play the host school after the host was jettisoned in the first round.  When Duke traveled to Annapolis last year, UNC dispatched Navy, matching Duke instead with UNC.  This year, Ohio State took out the Cornell Big Red before Cornell had a chance to play Duke at their home.

The trip was a lot of fun.  We flew by private charter which was very spoiling.

I posted some behind-the-scenes photos of the trip on Inside Lacrosse’s blog site.  Here are the links:

May 17th: Preparation before Ohio State

May 18th: Gameday vs. Ohio State

If you are looking for action photos, check out the gallery on goduke.com.

Eventually, I will have all the photos posted on my website.

Thursday I am shipping up to Boston with the team.  I’m pretty stoked.