AMHERST, Mass. – Take a week off, John Desko. Heck, take a month as long as you don’t pull a Mikey Powell and abandon lacrosse for a year. You’ve earned it, coach.

Before your loss to Massachusetts on Sunday you’d extended Syracuse’s final four streak six years and you’d won the national championship three times. Your championship winning prowess is paralleled only by Phil Jackson and you’re earning a fraction of what he did.

So crack open a cold one and watch those other coaches sweat on the sidelines on Memorial Day weekend because now the herd of gorillas is off your back.

Yeah it hurts, losing to a sophomore goalie who started only one game in his career prior to Sunday, but you’re not to blame. I mean, the 2005 Orange was a good team, but there were no Gaits, no Powells, even Sean Lindsay couldn’t will the Orange to victory from the sideline.

Really though, your crop of talent this year was superb, but lacrosse is spreading like the plague and there are teams in the NCAA tournament this year who thought Roy Simmons was a record producer until recently.

So yeah, this may be a growing trend. Recruiting is a nationwide battle now and the talent pool is a lot deeper, but this NCAA tournament will be good for you. You can remember what it was like the last time the Orange didn’t make the final four when you were an assistant coach in 1982. SU can rededicate itself for 2006 and win another championship like it did in 1983.

You’ll have to do without stalwart Jay Pfeiffer and rock-solid Scott Ditzell, but you’ll be fine. Hopefully whatever sickness that ran through the Orange these past couple weeks will be cured by then. Kyle Guadagnolo will be a sophomore starter and Mike Leveille will be back at full strength.

‘It’s a tough way to go out with a loss,’ you said after the game. ‘But when you go back and look at what the seniors accomplished – two national championships, four final fours – they have nothing to be ashamed about.’

Judging by the way you carried yourself after the loss on Sunday, you’re not worried. Underneath the disappointment at Garber Field, you still saw potential. Without Powell and Lindsay and Brian Nee, your team still scored 15 goals. If you had been told earlier this week your team would score 15 goals, there’s no way you’d have thought it would be in a loss.

So go back and start anew with Leveille and Greg Niewieroski. Oh, and those guys Brian Crockett and Brett Bucktooth aren’t bad either.

‘We didn’t think too much about it (the streak),’ you said with sincerity. ‘Now, after the game, we haven’t had too much time yet for it to settle in. It’s disappointing, but to go there 22 years in a row and to be part of it all those 22 years is certainly special. I come out of a game like this with even more of an appreciation of the past, the tradition and the wins.’

So really, I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. Maybe I should send a carbon copy to the Orange faithful. Tell them John Desko and the Syracuse Orange are fine. Next year will be different, I’d say. It will be the start of a new streak all your own.

Published on May 15, 2005 at 12:00 pm