None of the 11 Duke seniors with a potential fifth year of eligibility declared for the Major League Lacrosse Draft, an MLL official confirmed to The Chronicle Tuesday morning. The deadline to declare was Tuesday at 9 a.m.
The most intriguing of these players is Zack Greer, already the NCAA's all-time leading goal scorer with the option of returning for another season. The fact that he did not declare for the draft likely means he is either staying at Duke for graduate school, or transferring to another program to play his fifth year. A Duke athletics official had no knowledge of Greer's situation Tuesday.
Every senior, including Greer and starting midfielder Brad Ross, earned his undergraduate degree May 11, making graduate school the only form of possible Duke education.
Last year, five players returned for an extra season and led Duke to an 18-2 season that ended Saturday in the national semifinals. Some criticized the players for using the NCAA-sanctioned year, and head coach John Danowski went so far as to call them "vilified" Saturday. Four of the players will receive their Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies, while one enrolled in the Fuqua School of Business.
Not surprisingly, fifth-year seniors Matt Danowski, Nick O'Hara, Dan Loftus and Tony McDevitt all filed the necessary paperwork to become eligible for the draft, which takes place Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in Hoboken, N.J.
--by Ben Cohen
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