It wasn't as brash as Joe Namath's Super Bowl guarantee or Rasheed Wallace's NBA playoff promise. But compared with the habitually tame pregame comments that characterize every championship weekend, the Syracuse University lacrosse star's pledge amounted to actual news.

"It's going to be a different lacrosse game than the one earlier in the year, that much I'll promise you," Powell said. "If that means slowing the ball down and kind of taking the air out of the ball, that's what we're going to do. If it means running and gunning, I'd be more than happy to do that."

He was speaking, of course, about today's 2 p.m. NCAA lacrosse semifinal

against top-seeded Johns Hopkins, a team that defeated Syracuse by 12 goals in March. The SU-Hopkins game is the second entree on today's Division I lacrosse menu. Princeton and Navy will serve as 11:30 a.m. appetizers. The winners advance to Monday's NCAA championship game.

How to solve a problem like Hopkins has been college lacrosse's most vexing question this season. The Blue Jays lost just once this year, a 9-8 overtime defeat to defending national champion Virginia.

The Cavaliers have managed to beat Hopkins in each of their last two meetings. They did so largely by shelving their signature run-and-gun style and settling for a more tranquil, more thoughtful pace. The scores of both of those contests were in the single digits.

The idea that Syracuse, a team synonymous with uptempo lacrosse, might suddenly resort to slowing down the ball seems almost blasphemous to anyone who has followed the team and admired its reckless, rollicking style. But SU coaches and players understand that to beat Hopkins - a smart, efficient team that has dominated the Orange the last two times - something needs to change.

Might SU sacrifice its running game in its quest to upset the Blue Jays?

Maybe, said Orange coach John Desko.

"If our defense has been out there for a few minutes, playing hard and trying to match up with them and then we get it at our end, we can't go running, take a crazy shot, have the goalie make a big save and then have them come up with possession again," Desko said.

"We're a fast-breaking team, so if we get those opportunities, we're going to take them. But I think if it's not there, we want to move the ball around, have our guys get some touches and have them get a feel for (Hopkins') defense and what they're doing."

The Syracuse attack's familiarity with the Blue Jays in March amounted to standing next to the Hopkins close defenders at the midfield stripe as both units watched the Hopkins offense work at the other end. Because of Hopkins' faceoff mastery (the Jays won 20 of 24), SU so rarely had possession that the Orange offense never really tested the Blue Jays.

Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said today's faceoff situation and the play of each team's goalie might determine whether Syracuse sits on the ball.

"You have two teams that are here for a reason, and I don't think you're going to see wholesale changes," he said. "But if you're asking me if I'd be surprised if they slow the tempo down, no I wouldn't be at all. We've prepared for that. Will I be surprised to see them zone a little more? No, we've prepared for that. I'm just not sure if there's anything we haven't seen at this point."

Watching Syracuse players hold the ball for more than a couple minutes would be novel. The Orange showed in the Georgetown quarterfinal that it was capable of a sustained offensive set, though for the most part this season SU players have not been a particularly patient bunch.

Last week, though, as they practiced with Hopkins in mind, the players said that they can adapt, that they can control their urge to binge on goals.

"We've got to value our possessions," Desko said. "As long as our players understand that and take advantage of our opportunities and be patient, I think good things will happen for us."

© 2004 The Post-Standard. Used with permission.