Michael Sowers did not wait long to hear his name called on draft day. Only it wasn’t the Premier Lacrosse League draft. Nor did it air on NBC Sports.

Instead, the attackman who rewrote the record books at Princeton watched in late September as Duke assistant Matt Danowski announced his name on Zoom. Sowers was the first overall draft pick in the Duke Outdoor Lacrosse League. 

“I’ve done fantasy drafts before, but this was actually legit,” said senior attackman and captain Joe Robertson, who coached Sowers during scrimmages this fall while he continued to rehab from a torn ACL he suffered back in February. “You got put on the clock and had to write the draft pick on a card and hand it in. You had to make a lot of quick decisions and we tried to do our best.” 

Sowers came off the draft board first for the McSallies, whose name derives from a combination of the streets for two senior off-campus houses in Durham, N.C. Robertson and Sowers, who used to play together on the Philadelphia-based Duke’s Lacrosse Club, share a house on McDowell Street along with junior JP Basile, senior Cameron Mulé and graduate transfer Phil Robertson, Joe’s older brother. They’re all attackmen. 

Sowers and Phil Robertson roomed together their final two years at Princeton. Both history majors, they also studied Mikey Powell Syracuse highlights in their free time. While Sowers focused on how Powell manipulated defenders, Robertson honed in on how his linemates positioned themselves off-ball. They carried those lessons onto the field. 

Robertson, who Sowers considers “like a brother,” converted 32 of Sowers’ 181 assists in a Tigers jersey. 

In a year filled with such uncertainty, at least Sowers’ housing situation in Durham was not a concern. 

“We knew that if we ended up down there we would be living together,” he said a day after his acceptance into the Duke Fuqua School of Business masters of management program became official. He received his Princeton diploma in the mail a week earlier. 

The change in scenery this fall stemmed from the Ivy League’s tradition that precludes graduate students from competing in sports. The NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to spring athletes in the wake of the canceled 2020 season, but members of the Ancient Eight made determinations on a school-by-school basis. All-Americans Jeff Teat (Cornell) and T.D. Ierlan (Yale) will return this spring after taking the fall semester off to preserve their undergraduate status at their respective schools. Princeton, however, did not budge. 

While Sowers’ resume is the best known, the routes of all five Duke graduate transfers are remarkable in some way. 

There’s Phil Robertson, who will have the chance to play on the same attack line as his brother for the first time since their days at St. Anne’s-Belfield in Virginia. There’s Mike Adler, the Florida product who recovered from a shark attack while surfing in high school to become the first goalie in Saint Joseph’s history to receive All-American accolades. There’s faceoff specialist Dan O’Connell, who thought his lacrosse career was over until a chance encounter with a Holy Cross coach, which he called “divine intervention.”

All were captains at their previous institutions.

In all, head coach John Danowski said over 35 student-athletes inquired about transferring to Duke. Dartmouth defenseman James Sullivan kept calling.

“I can’t promise you anything,” Danowski told Sullivan initially, since at the time back in May he wasn’t sure what the fall would look like. 

“Coach, I just want to come,” Sullivan replied. 

“He is a great young man and we’re delighted that he’s here,” Danowski said. “But he really had to hang in there.” 

Fifth-year senior captain and 2019 ACC Defenseman of the Year JT Giles-Harris said the team has learned something from every one of the graduate additions. That includes Sowers, whose blistering start to the 2020 season (47 points in just five games) had him poised to become Princeton’s first-ever Tewaaraton winner. 

Besides the behind-the-back goal that freshman Charlie O’Connor scored to kick off the D.O.L.L season, the one-on-one matchups between Sowers and Giles-Harris were the highlight of the fall. 

“When they drafted Mike, obviously we had to draft JT,” said Nakeie Montgomery, the senior midfielder and Peithos head coach. “That's just how that works. They're the two best players in the country. When they say iron sharpens iron, it's pretty cool to watch that actually happen all fall.”

While practices were closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, Matt Danowski said Sowers vs. Giles-Harris would have been worth the price of admission.

“If you wanted to charge people at the door, you could,”  he said. “JT is the best defenseman that I have ever been around coaching here at Duke. He's unbelievable athletically. Mike's the same way. He just goes. He could dodge every possession, and I don't think JT is used to guarding someone who dodges like that all the time."

When asked in late September during an interview with US Lacrosse Magazine which lacrosse player’s dodges reminded him the most of Kyrie Irving, Montgomery did not need long to deliberate. 

“Y’all have seen it, but stay tuned,” he said. “Michael Sowers. He was rocking 22 at Princeton. He’ll be 23 this year, but he got a little something like that too.” 

Around two months later, Montgomery sought a couple other opinions. 

“What do you guys think about that?” he asked Joe Robertson, Basile and Giles-Harris about the comparison during a Zoom interview. After some discussion, another name emerged. 

“Allen Iverson?” Robertson suggested. 

“That’s a good one,” Montgomery said. 

It’s also not a coincidence. Most of the oeuvre that Sowers, a Dresher, Pa., native, developed over the years, he has pulled from other sports. There was LeSean McCoy’s juke on the gridiron and Iverson’s crossover on the court. 

“A lot came from playing basketball or football,” Sowers said. “The footwork is so transferable. When I’m dodging somebody, it’s more reactionary. I just try to let go.”

Yet for all the highlights and ankle-breaking moves, John and Matt Danowski both highlighted an element more subtle, but no less important, of Sowers’ game that impressed them the most.

His passes. 

“We've had some really good attackmen come through this place, but for my money he's the most accurate passer with both hands that I've ever coached,” Matt Danowski said. 

For the past 15 years, Duke could stake the best claim as Attack U. The Blue Devils’ lineage includes the three highest career goal scorers — Justin Guterding (212), Zack Greer (206) and Max Quinzani (199) — and four of the top 25 career point totals in NCAA history. 

Matt Danowski (353 career points) is not sure how the legacy began, but believes it has something to do with their style of play and how they coach the position. They teach everyone to play transition and expect their attackmen to be the best decision makers and have the best stick skills. They’re expected not just to play within an offense, but also to develop a fundamental understanding of the game and think two plays ahead. 

That sounds tailor made for Sowers. Consider this stat: Matt Danowski registered 183 assists in 80 games. Sowers has 181 through 47. Of his 302 career points, assists account for 60 percent of them. 

“There's throwing passes, and then there’s throwing passes your teammates can catch,” Princeton coach Matt Madalon said last February a couple days before Sowers embarked on his senior campaign during which he averaged 6.2 assists through five games. “He’s one of the few players in the last decade that can consistently throw passes that his teammates can catch.”

Bret Stover watched Sowers make his fair share of catches as a wide receiver for the Upper Dublin varsity football team. He joked Sowers might have originated the term “breaking ankles” on the grass at Sparks Field. The coach’s most common piece of advice was, “Mike, don’t be afraid to step out of bounds.”

“I don’t think he knows how to step out of bounds,” Stover said. “The fight in him never stopped. He’s fearless.”

But when asked what moment best encapsulated Michael Sowers the football player, Stover picked the 2015 District 1-AAAA championship game against North Penn. Sowers did not play. He was recovering from a bout with mononucleosis that forced him to miss two contests. Still, Sowers helped coach his replacements at defensive back and wide receiver the entire game. The Cardinals won 46-21. It was the first district title in school history.  

“He is one of the most unselfish players that I have ever coached,” Stover said. “It is never about him.” 

That disposition will help Sowers in Durham. For Duke to be successful, Matt Danowski said it needs to embrace a “pass-happy” offense and make the invisible plays — the second assist, running through a ground ball or turning a corner — that don’t show up on the stat sheet. 

Although the Blue Devils had to give up their locker room to the men’s soccer team for the fall, one the first things Matt Danowski emphasized while recruiting Sowers was the importance of  that space. That was music to his ears. Sowers, a coach’s son, relishes the little moments before and after the whistle sounds. 

“Don't get me wrong, I love the games,” he said. “But the best part about being on a team is the locker room.”

“He might be the best player in the country, but we told him he is going to come here to be a part of a team,” Matt Danowski said. “That's what he was looking for. For a kid who is unbelievably decorated individually as he is, you wouldn't know it by talking to him and you wouldn't know it by coaching him. He just wants to learn and get better.”

While all of Sowers’ classes this fall were virtual, he experienced a more hands-on learning environment during practice. Giles-Harris, he said, brought out the best in him. There were no days off. 

That sharpening strengthened both sides and should be a scary proposition for the rest of the ACC. 

“He's making us all better,” Giles-Harris said. “Especially defensively.”