Murphy’s Law: bring lax back up

It’s a bit of a surprise that men’s lacrosse coach Mike Murphy is looking to the men’s hoops program for inspiration heading into tomorrow’s opener against Duke — especially considering that the basketball team lost to the Blue Devils by 59 points earlier this year .

But since his first ever game as the head coach of a Division I program pits him against the No. 8 team in the nation, Murphy could use the help of somebody that knows how to pull off an upset: Fran Dunphy.

“We want to be efficient in every phase of the game … that’s something I learned from former Penn basketball coach, Fran Dunphy,” Murphy said.

While some coaches may prefer to test the waters before tackling a team that is a top contender for a national title, Murphy — like Dunphy — is an exception.

“It is exactly what we want,” he said. “We aspire to be one of the top programs in America year-in and year-out and the best way to do that is to compete with elite programs.”

While Murphy is a stranger to holding the reins for a topflight program — he spent the last seven years at D-III Haverford — he is no stranger to Blue Devils lacrosse.

In college, he was a three-year starter at Duke, where he played midfield and defense and served as captain of the nationally ranked 1991 team.

In assistant coaching stints at Brown in 1992 and Virginia from 1994-1997, he compiled a 5-2 record against Duke, a feat made all the more impressive by the fact that the Blue Devils qualified for the NCAA tournament in all but one of those seasons.

So has the coach, who has so much history with the perennial Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse, prepared for Duke differently than he would for any other opponent?

Of course not.

“We are approaching this Duke game the same basic way we will approach all opponents,” he said.

While this game is no more important for Murphy than any of the team’s other fourteen slated contests, Duke’s academic and athletic prowess provide a shining example of what his program aspires to be.

Unlike in basketball, the Ivy League lacrosse teams are regularly among the best in the nation, including No. 9 Princeton, a team that pursued Murphy for its head coaching job. Already Murphy finds himself with a leg up on Dunphy in his quest to sculpt his squad into a national powerhouse.

“The Ivy League is one of the top conferences around,” he said, “with four teams ranked in the pre-season top 20 — three teams in last year’s NCAA tournament — including Cornell who lost in the national championship by a goal.”

“We think we could be pretty good this year, and we’re going to find out.”

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