Food for thought: Before Saturday night’s loss to Johns Hopkins, the last time the Maryland men’s lacrosse team lost a game was February 14th to Yale in a game played in New Haven. In that contest, the teams were tied at six all entering the fourth quarter and the Elis outscored the Terps 4-0 to grab a 10-6 win. Saturday night, Maryland led 10-9 entering the fourth quarter before the Blue Jays outscored the Terps by four (6-2) to triumph by a 15-12 final. The Terrapins responded by ripping off 11 consecutive wins of their own.
The Terps will look to initiate a six game winning streak when the “second season” begins Thursday night for Maryland when they take on Ohio State in one semifinal of the first Big Ten Conference Tournament. The calculus is simple. Win the next two and claim the B1G Tournament title and the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Win the four that follow and, for the first time since 1975, proclaim Maryland as the National Champion.
But it is, as they say, one game at a time and it begins with Ohio State. So, let’s take a look at Maryland’s rematch with the Buckeyes.
Both teams enter the game looking to rebound from a loss. In fact, Ohio State will be looking to end a two game losing streak after losing to Maryland 10-9 in overtime then closing out their regular season with a 17-10 loss at Rutgers.
The Terps and the Buckeyes will meet for the second time in less than two weeks. I asked Maryland’s head coach John Tillman if that proximity presented any special challenges or opportunities.
“It’s funny with the second game,” Tillman said. “I think everybody goes back and watches the last game and that was, in a lot of ways, a really weird game because for the majority of that game, they really controlled it. That means for 55 and a half minutes they were better than us. Obviously, I’ve got to do a better job of getting my guys prepared.
“We’ll go back and look at every aspect of the play, the personnel, the schemes and we’ll try to look at ways we can improve and get better. Everytime you play a game we always do the same thing. We break down the film. We look at what we did well and what we didn’t do well. We ask ourselves hard questions. So, no different than any other week.”
The coach talked about the mood of the team which will certainly be one of the key elements in bouncing back from only their second loss of the season.
“They need the coaches to be excited about the opportunity in front of them and not feeling sorry for ourselves because that’s part of athletics. You don’t get what you want. You move forward. You learn from it and you have to be excited about going out there and playing again.
“You can’t be a guy who only wants to play and practice when things go your way. That’s not what athletics and competition and life’s all about.”
And, of course, there are the physical challenges of two relatively quick turn arounds. Tillman addressed that issue:
“We really need to be smart about what we’re doing. I think our kids played really hard. That’s something we have to applaud and appreciate and take into account. We really need to be well rested going into Thursday. We trust our kids. We listen to them and want their feedback. I know our kids care. I know they’re very committed. We’ll figure some things out to balance that preparation and fatigue part.”
One of Maryland’s biggest challenges will be finding a way to neutralize Jesse King. King leads the Buckeyes in both goals and assists and scored four times with a pair of assists against Maryland at Ohio State. And, of course, Ryan Brown torched the Terrapins scoring eight goals for Johns Hopkins in their win at Byrd Stadium Saturday night.
“With Ohio State it’s choose your poison,” Tillman said. “They do a lot of things to get Jesse in isolation on a short stick. They run a lot of picks for him and if you are too concerned about Jesse it’ll open up things for other people. If you don’t switch on a pick, that guy’s going to get to the goal and score. And if you don’t pay attention and you slide and you help and you get a mismatch on Jesse, he can score a lot of goals.
“We need to look at how we’re going to play this thing. Are we going to focus more on Jesse and see what the other guys can do or do we want to be more focused on letting him get his and keeping everybody else down. It’s a tough predicament because I think they do a great job putting him in a position where he’s going to be dangerous and if you help too much he’s going to make the right pass and if you don’t help enough, he’ll make you pay.”
Saturday night, at Byrd Stadium in College Park, fans will be able to see Maryland’s response. Penn State will take on top seeded Johns Hopkins in the first semifinal beginning at 5:30 followed by the Terps and the Buckeyes at about 8:00 pm. The winners of those games will meet at 8:00 pm Saturday for the tournament title.
No comments have been posted yet, be the first!
Post a comment by filling out the form below.
