2016 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINALS · BROWN STADIUM · PROVIDENCE, R.I. NO. 1 MARYLAND VS. NO. 8 SYRACUSE · QUOTES
MAY 21, 2016 · NOON · ESPNU
Maryland head coach John Tillman, goaltender Kyle Bernlohr, midfielder Bryan Cole
OPENING STATEMENT:
TILLMAN: “Obviously we want to congratulate Syracuse on an awesome season. Growing up in upstate New York, I have so much respect for Coach Desko and Syracuse, so to get as win against them in the playoffs, we know it’s hard to come by. To win the ACC, we know they’re an outstanding team, and we knew it would be a tough day. Not maybe our cleanest performance, but I think the kids found a way. I thought Coach Reppert did a great job with the offense. The guys shared the ball. We were efficient. We were opportunistic. I give Syracuse a lot of credit. I think they kicked our tails on the ground balls today—not our best day there. I thought when we got opportunities, we tried to make the most of them. On a goalie that’s been outstanding this last month, I thought our kids shot very well. Obviously for Kyle Bernlohr—probably had his best performance in today’s game, which was huge for us. We had some breakdowns, but also, we give Syracuse credit. They put a lot of pressure on you, and when they got opportunities, I thought Kyle did a great job. I’m excited to be moving forward. This is a great group. I love them to death. They have worked incredibly hard, so to get to Philadelphia, we realize it’s incredibly difficult. To have an extra week to spend together, I couldn’t dream of anything more.”
On Syracuse’s face offs:
TILLMAN: “I think it was a number of things. Ben Williams is about as good as there is, and he’s been that way for a few years. I just thought their wing play was excellent. We talked about early in the week—they have really athletic guys that are really good off the ground, and I felt like they knocked us around and just were a little bit faster to the ball. It wasn’t great early. I do like the way we finished. I thought Bryce Young came up with a couple key ground balls for us late. Again, we have to go back and continue to work on that and try to get better.”
On ability of team to adapt:
TILLMAN: “We have a veteran group, and their personalities are kind of steady—they never seem to get too excited or too down. Guys like Matt Dunn, Mac Pons, and Tim Muller on one end—and Matt, Colin, and Dylan are kind of steady down the other side. Even when things weren’t going great there, it was like ‘alright, we’ll just figure out some other way to be successful.’ I thought Coach Conry did a really good job defensively. We moved some pole matchups. We put a pole on Mariano and a pole on Salcido. It felt like those guys have been—if you chose one, the other would hurt you more. I thought that was a fantastic idea. Coach Reppert just kind of looked at some film and had some really great concepts to put in there. I thought the kids executed really well.”
On satisfaction with other team’s shot selection:
TILLMAN: “I thought they got some pretty good looks. They make you nervous because if they can get their feet set, that’s as good a team as anybody. They just bring so much velocity. There was a couple times where we broke down. I just thought maybe we missed the mark. From what we’ve seen in the last few weeks, they just weren’t missing. Maybe we got up on a day where they just weren’t shooting as fine as normal, but those are pretty lethal. There’s a lot of heat—a lot of velocity and accurate shooters. So, I thought if we could rotate and get them to move their feet a little bit more, that might help us. I think they had a bunch of pipes too. If we can get 15-‐yard shots, we’ll be happy. I think any college coach would be. You just have to get those saves. They have been very smart and very patient, and that’s a credit to the Syracuse coaches. That team has been very methodical and unselfish, so haven’t really settled much all year.”
2016 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINALS · BROWN STADIUM · PROVIDENCE, R.I. NO. 1 MARYLAND VS. NO. 8 SYRACUSE · QUOTES
MAY 21, 2016 · NOON · ESPNU
On Ben Williams’ face offs:
TILLMAN: “Again, you have to maintain your poise as a coach and even the players and not get frustrated. That’s part of why they are so good and why he’s so good. They’re able to get some extra possessions, and we’ve been on the other side of that. We’ve had some games where we had possessions, so you just have to stay the course and maybe get a couple extra stops. When you do get it, we just tell the guys to make sure you value it because it’s really hard to be as aggressive as you’d like to be when you aren’t winning a lot of face offs because you’re not sure when you will see the ball again. It made us play a little bit smarter and made us be a little bit more cautious for sure.”
On Rambo’s matchup versus Mullins:
TILLMAN: “I mean, yeah Mullins is awesome—he’s been great since the day he walked on campus. Matt is as good a shooter and good a dodger and is good in the two-‐man game in terms of reading. If he does have leverage—great; if he doesn’t, throw him back. He’s so strong that if you can get a little leverage, coming off, he’s a hard guy to stop. So, we felt like that would be something we could try, and if it didn’t work, we’d go to something else. We felt like we were getting some leverage and certainly got that goal early. We felt like maybe we could go back to it. For Syracuse, one thing they’ve done awesome all year is they made so many adjustments—they went zone. We knew we probably had a small window to try to take advantage of. When they made some adjustments, we had to do something else.”
On Coach Tillman’s success in these types of games:
TILLMAN: “Having really good players—guys that really make a lot of sacrifices. You certainly have to have a lot of talent. We have a lot of guys that are really selfless—a lot of guys who didn’t put on a jersey today that maybe couldn’t dress or guys who were on the scout team who work incredibly hard— guys who did play today that really care about those guys and love those guys, and make sure that they feel like what they’re doing is really important. It’s been a total team all year. We knew we had potential to have a pretty good group. I felt better about the game when we had a guy, who last week came to our game, and I talked to his dad and his dad said he was going to lose his hair through chemo, so we kind of through the idea of maybe just all shaving our heads. For an 18-‐22-‐year-‐old, that’s a pretty hard thing to do socially. So we started doing it, and almost the whole team did it. I felt like, ‘alright, we have a team believes in more than just themselves, and a team that buys into looking out for others. There’s always teams with talent, but it’s what you do with it, and it’s the culture. It’s the atmosphere in the locker room. I give a lot of credit to our seniors—they’re the ones who make it happen. On top of that, obviously you have good coaches and administration that really supports you.”
On being aggressive as a goaltender in the first half
KYLE BERNLOHR, GOALTENDER: Yeah you know just staying in a rhythm being in a good positon in the goal. I just thought our defense played great. They gave up shots on low angles, forced them down the side. The shots that I faced were either from far out or the low angle. Credit to our defense and to Coach Conry for a great gamplan, we just executed well.
On what the key was offensively to find the open goals.
BRYAN COLE, MIDFIELDER: I think just when we saw a slide or just moving it on and looking inside nothing was there just move it on again and dodge. Trying to keep it simple, like Kyle said credit to coach Conry or credit to Coach Reppert and Coach Tills, for putting together a good gameplan for us and just trying to execute it to the best of our abilities.
2016 NCAA DIVISION I MEN’S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINALS · BROWN STADIUM · PROVIDENCE, R.I. NO. 1 MARYLAND VS. NO. 8 SYRACUSE · QUOTES
MAY 21, 2016 · NOON · ESPNU
On how lethal Pat Young’s right handed shot is.
BERNLOHR: He shoots it very very hard that’s for sure. You know he has a few different release points. He sprays shots all over, tough shot to read. I was just glad to see him to be able to can a more than a few goals today, we’re really happy to have him on our team, we’re really fortunate.
On the game Matt [Rambo] had today
COLE: Matt’s a tremendous player. Every week he’s getting probably one of the best defensemen in the country with our schedule. He’s just a gamer. He practices every day like he has the best matchup coming up. Credit to our scout team they play us tough all week and give us the best look to get us ready for the matchup on Sunday or Saturday, whatever it may be. Matt’s really taken his preparation to the next level. He’s working hard in practice, staying after, coming before working with the coaches on his shooting, passing dodging, whatever it may be. We’re really glad to see him have a great day.
On sensing Syracuse’s frustration on offense.
BERNLOHR: Yeah you know I’m not trying to read how they are reacting or read how their body language is after shots. I’m just trying to stay composed myself and stay poised. I think that to be honest as a goalie when you start expressing concern over your own game that’s when you allow the other team to get on you. Just try to stay calm stay poised, trying to play my game, and the defense really allowed me to see the shots headed my way.
On what emotions they felt knowing they are headed to the national semifinals
COLE: Really excited you know we put in a lot of work since September to get to this point. Taking every week looking at what we can do to get better. Credit to everybody on the team working hard and staying focused on our goals, and we’re just happy to be back and to have the opportunity to play in Philly again.
Todd
Good heavens. All the players are turning into mini-Tillmans in their press conferences!
· 11/12/2019