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NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPSMay 24, 2015Matt DunnCharlie RaffaJohn TillmanPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA THE MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach John Tillman, Charlie Raffa and Matt Dunn. We'll have an opening statement. COACH TILLMAN: It's an honor to play on Memorial Day for the national championship. A very special day for a number of reasons. So we're very honored to have this opportunity to bring the University of Maryland, our alums, our fans, our state, to championship day. Our kids are really excited. I'm proud of our players. They've worked incredibly hard since August and fought through a lot of change and adversity. And they certainly have earned it. We've been fortunate to get a bounce or two along the way, which you need. Yet, they've done the things they've needed to do to get us here. We play arguably the best team out there that was preseason No. 1 in a lot of polls and understandably so ‑‑ the greatest coach in the history of the sport and a team that top to bottom really just doesn't have a lot of weaknesses. They're very sound. They're very skilled. And it's obviously going to be a big challenge for us. But it's a fantastic opportunity for these guys, and it's certainly something we're excited about. Q. Charlie, yesterday Coach mentioned that when he asked for a medical update it was like pretty good. So I'm asking it for you now, how do you feel and also the challenges going against the nation's No. 1 face‑off guy. CHARLIE RAFFA: I'm pretty good. (Laughter). But we started watching film on him. And he's awesome. He doesn't really have many flaws. So it's really important to stress our link coordination and just having Neuf and Isaiah Davis‑Allen, who have been great all year, progressing all year just be on the same page as them so when the ball does come out they're in the right spot to get it. Q. Charlie, what's your typical approach game to game going into the face‑off? CHARLIE RAFFA: We start off by watching myself and the game previously just to pick up on any tendencies, any weaknesses that I had, and then more of a look at what he's doing and just try to see how their wings react to us, how they react to other teams that they've played and just figure out what's the best scenario for us and how we can make ourselves more successful than the previous game. Q. Charlie, have you ever faced off against Trevor before, whether it's in camp or any other situation? CHARLIE RAFFA: No, I haven't faced off with him before. And in regards to the other question‑‑ Q. Is there anybody similar to Trevor that you've ever faced off again and maybe something you've done against that person that would make you be successful on Monday? CHARLIE RAFFA: Not really. I just kind of watched every game that he's played in just to see all the different tendencies versus all the different guys' moves, because there's not‑‑ I don't compare myself to anyone. I just kind of try to stay true to who I am and just try to work off what he's done to different people. So it's more me working on myself and then seeing how I, with my moves, can counter act him. But I wouldn't really compare myself to anyone else out there, then going into the game thinking that when I play him. Q. Matt, what do you think it's going to be like facing Connor again and what kind of problems does he pose for your defense? MATT DUNN: We just know Connor is a very dynamic player and their whole offense is extremely dynamic. As a team defense, we try not to put too much emphasis on one person. But just knowing the power that they have on offense, we're just going have to really focus on playing, executing our game plan as well as we can and playing the solid team defense that we've played all year to be successful so far. We know it's going to be a challenge. So we're excited and ready for it. Q. Matt, Coach Tierney compared Maryland's defense to Notre Dame's and Denver. From a defensive standpoint how important is it to win your individual matchups? MATT DUNN: It's important to a certain extent. It makes it easier if everybody is winning their individual matchups. But realistically we do emphasize a team‑style defense. We all take pride in individual matchups when we're on the ball. We all want to win. We all expect to win our matchups when we're on the ball. But everybody else off the ball also is ready for that team‑style defense where ‑‑ that we know we can trust in each other, to support each other. We're always ready to have each other's backs so we know that when we slide somebody's going to have our back. And if we're on the ball at any point we know that somebody's going to be ready to go, and that's what we pride ourselves on as well. As a team we pride ourselves in always being able to trust each other and be there for each other. Q. Matt, talk about the defensive performance yesterday and compare it to when you played Hopkins earlier in the year. MATT DUNN: Yeah, we definitely‑‑ it's always easier, I think, defensively to play a team twice in one year because not only have you seen a bunch of film on them but you've actually played against them once. So you know more than just what you see on film but you actually have physical, past, previous experience of playing against them. So we kind of knew what they liked and what their tendencies were more. So we try to take those away as much as we can. But when you're playing a team as talented as Hopkins you can take one or two of their best options away but they have three, four and five that are also very good options. As you can see down the stretch maybe we took away certain things that they beat us with last game, but they found different ways to score, and that's a credit to Hopkins and how talented their offense is overall. Q. John, how much do you expect Connor to share a lot of information the coach of Denver? COACH TILLMAN: Good question. I think that's a good question for him. I'm not really sure. This is a new team for us. Obviously we have a new offensive coordinator. Defensively we have some new parts and we're doing things a little bit differently. We have a new goalie. Certainly there's some things that he is familiar with. You can look at that as a positive, I would think. But in certain ways maybe looking, all right, maybe we'll tweak things a little bit. If they're expecting one thing, maybe we can give them something else. Q. Coach, this is your fourth time being in the championship game. Talk about how your approach to the 48 hours between the semifinals and the final has changed. COACH TILLMAN: From what I saw the first year, 2004, it really is a big advantage to play that first game. Win or lose, the game's over. If you win that game, you're able to sit back and just watch and you can watch the whole game. Yesterday we watched the first half and you're trying to watch both teams. We're not real familiar with both teams and you're kind of leaving it there. Still in the back of your mind you're watching, you're still so locked on to, hey, we still have something ahead of us. Once that first game's done and you know that you're going to play one of the two teams, I think it's a lot easier. But really this is the third time that we played the second game. So I think what you realize is how short the turnaround is and how challenging today is. And so as soon as we were done, I talked to Coach Connor and Coach Reppert and Coach Pieczonka. Okay, we need to get back home. We were all in a room last night and just breaking down film and watching things. And I told them, like, tomorrow I'm not going to be able to help as much as I would like. There's a lot of media responsibilities. So you guys, okay, we'll get together and we did some stuff this morning. And then I'm like you guys need to take care of some things. I'm just going to be out. And I think you realize how valuable each second is and then you realize how important it is to delegate responsibility. I have great assistant coaches. That's one of the main reasons why we're here. They do a phenomenal job. So we got organized and now they're taking it from here. So I think you also realize that you're not going to change a whole lot. You have to get ready for your opponent. But you've got to stay true to who you are. We're here because of what these kids have done. We've had a process that we followed. We're going to stay true to that. We played a certain way. We'll tweak some things. But we're just going to play Maryland lacrosse. Q. Charlie, on a scale of 1 to 10, how do you feel? CHARLIE RAFFA: You know, let me go with 7 because that's my number. COACH TILLMAN: That's a really good answer. CHARLIE RAFFA: Soreness is always expected, especially with playing a game and having to play another one two days later. It's always going to be hard to try to make that transition. But we have a great trainer in Amelia Sesma. She's staying on top of that stuff, is huge. Always working with her. We were icing last night, icing this morning. Just staying on top of that stuff will be huge and critical for us going into Monday. Not just for me, but for the whole team. Q. Coach, talk about your offense how you've been able to compensate for not having Connor and how you change your offense for this year. COACH TILLMAN: I think not only losing Connor, but losing Michael Chanenchuk, you had a couple dynamic guys. One guy that traditionally is doing more behind the goal and Michael, we would do a lot above the goal, and they garnered a lot of attention. The good news about that is you have a couple of guys that were dynamic that you could put in spots that might open up some opportunities for other people. They're very selfless players and they're very quick. The downside of that is when people know that Michael's got the ball up top and kind of know things are going through him, the same thing with Connor, you are a little more predictable. So we really talk to the guys about maybe a positive byproduct of this is it's going to be a different guy every game. The ball's going to have to do more work. And the good news is that at times like last week Bryan Cole gets five goals and then all of a sudden this week it's four goals for Matt Rambo. So you really can't just focus on one or two guys. It's great to have those terrific players. But now when you have just kind a system of guys and it's a little harder to get a sense all right who is going to be the guy and everyone is willing to share, that can be really helpful. And that was like I think a good thing about this group, they're a very selfless group they're always willing to share the ball. We certainly think it was going to be a little bit harder. You've seen the impact of Charlie. We won face‑offs yesterday. Again, just when he's at his best and he's playing, we just are a different animal. It's hard to describe. But we're just a totally different team. And when he's not there, we struggle a lot more. Q. Charlie, how much are you looking forward to going against a face‑off guy where you know it's going to be without clutch and grab, just face‑off guy against face‑off guy? CHARLIE RAFFA: When guys are clutching and grabbing at you, it's kind of tough because it's not so much as facing off, it's more just trying to make it 50/50, try to make it a three‑on‑three. It will definitely be awesome to try to see who is better on the clamp and stuff like that. But we try to, especially for us, Connor, try to make it that three‑on‑three, even if I do get the clamp, I know Isaiah and Neuf are going to be in the spots where I can put it to them. So we can get the ball out and get the offensive ball as quick as possible. I just know if I don't win the clamp, they'll also be there to be at the ball wherever he puts it. Q. Coach, talk about the clean game and the expectations on being a clean game for tomorrow? COACH TILLMAN: It's a challenge. There's going to be some fatigue, and you've got to live with some turnovers. You can't have the guys too tight. They've got to play. They've got to play loose. You're going to live with some turnovers. You just have to be okay with that. Sometimes as coaches you've got to grit your teeth, move on to the next play and be positive. That's the approach our kids really respond well to. And then also the kids, you just have to remind them, hey, quick turnaround, let's not try to do too much. We may have to play a little bit more within ourselves. Q. Coach, how many possessions do you think tomorrow's game will have? COACH TILLMAN: You know what, I'm not sure. I'm not great at predicting things. Certainly with us we will, if we can get great opportunities right off the get‑go, we will take them. I tell our kids all the time, we'll take 100 shots as long as they're good quality shots. And we'll take five seconds possessions if they're good shots.  Charlie scored a goal off the face‑off. We got a quick restart and we attacked and got a goal that were huge for us early. Anytime we can get some sort of leverage and get an opportunity, we're going to go for it. It's just hard sometimes. We're playing against really athletic teams that get back, that have great on‑ball defenders. And we even, Gary you mentioned, we've lost a couple of dynamic guys. You need dynamic guys you need fast guys that can create leverage all the time. When you're playing against really good athletes, sometimes they're good on the ball and it just takes you a little bit of time, some ball movement, to create that leverage. And once you do, if you don't handle the slide well, then all of a sudden they're recovered again. That's what I think makes Denver hard defensively they're very buttoned up. They pack it in; they show and support really well. So you've got to be disciplined and patient too. And we don't want to hold the ball, and we also don't want to take a shot that's a low‑angle shot from 15 yards into the goalie stick that's going to create transition and go the other way and so it's a Catch‑22. I think we're all happy if they put in the shot clock and we'll do what we need to do. But you can't penalize someone for trying to play smart and say that's probably not in our best interests. So we're going to keep doing what we can do to try to get those easy opportunities, because you just can't live on six‑on‑six goals. You can't. And against a team like Denver, you've got to find some other opportunities, fastbreaks, man up, unsettled, rebounds. And I thought yesterday we were very fortunate. Jay Carlson does what Jay does. We got a man up. We got a couple of transitions. I think Hopkins was actually playing pretty good defense and Eric Schneider I thought was very good yesterday. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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