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NCAA MENâ€™S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP

May 28, 2016

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Maryland - 15, Brown - 14

THE MODERATOR: Now joined by Maryland head coach John Tillman, student-athletes Matt Rambo, Colin Heacock and Matt Dunn.

Coach, an opening statement.

COACH TILLMAN: Obviously very proud of our team to get a win in the semifinals and have a chance to play on Memorial Day. I thought they showed a lot of heart and grit today against a really good team.

That game could have gone either way. I think you've got to give Brown a whole lot of credit for being down four goals and coming back and tying the thing and almost winning it. And I can't say enough about Brown and their program and their team and what Lars Tiffany and staff have done.

They were outstanding today. It's a shame that either team had to lose and I've certainly been on both sides of that. But certainly proud of our guys.

It wasn't a work of art. I was very proud of the fact that late in the game, when things weren't going well, the leadership, a lot of our older players including these three was very positive.

The late timeouts very positive, hey, we're going to find a way, figure it out like they've done all year. It's a credit to them. So certainly thankful for three more days together.

It's a pretty special group and we're going to do our very best to try to prep up and play an outstanding Carolina team on Monday.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for student-athletes.

Q. Matt, can you talk about now excitement getting back to the national championship game, especially in Philadelphia for you?
MATT DUNN: Definitely excited for all of us. We were here last year. We didn't get the job done. It's a dream come true for being in Philly for me. I grew up down the street. Being in the Final Four and making the championship game again, it's a dream come true.

Q. Rambo and Heacock, could you walk us through that game winning goal? And as an aside, I know you guys are best friends, but does it get any better than that?
COLIN HEACOCK: Bryan Cole and Connor Kelly, two great players, they're kind of working behind together and making some movements. They kind of just skipped it to Rambo and the great player he is, has great vision and (indiscernible).

MATT RAMBO: No, I call it the skip pass and actually look at the middle and Colin was just wide open and finished it for him there, for us.

Q. For any of you, seemed like Brown sort of had all the momentum going into the overtime period. And you obviously possessed the faceoff and went from there. How much resiliency did it take or what were you guys talking about there after giving up four straight?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT-ATHLETE: Yeah, definitely playing a team like Brown that can go on big runs. One thing we focused on this week and kind of focused on all year is not really riding the wave of the game but being consistent focused on the next play.

So just every time that we kind of had a chance to get together, we took a deep breath and said let's make the next play. So when overtime came around we tried to erase all the prior events that happened, all the momentum, and said we're going to get this ground ball. We're going to win this faceoff and we're going to make the best play we're going to make. Not focus too much on what had happened.

Q. For all three of you, the emotions after scoring an overtime goal to advance to the national championship, what were your emotions like when, Colin, you're getting on the dogpile there?
COLIN HEACOCK: It was obviously exciting seeing everybody in the stands and the state of Maryland, coming back to the championship game, it's a pretty cool experience. Enjoy it for a little bit. We just have to look forward.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT-ATHLETE: It was emotional at first. I've seen our whole team, all the scout guys that worked their tails off, gave us three more days together, working for all of us. Everyone so happy, cheering for the five minutes when there's a dog pile. But the emotions are down now and we have to get back to work.

UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT-ATHLETE: Just the feeling, I think, it's the greatest feeling knowing that the journey didn't end for us today and we have a couple more days together and being a senior that's really all I wanted out of today.

Q. Colin, talk about the move mid-season of you to attack; and Matt Rambo as well, how does that change, because the time he was having trouble scoring, what changed when, Colin, you moved to attack from midfield, were you happy about that?
COLIN HEACOCK: When I moved on to attack, it helped our team out, I think, a little bit. Had great chemistry on the field me, Matt Rambo and Maltz. We worked nicely together.

With Bryan Cole and Connor Kelly now and Henry West, then we had Pat Young and Lucas Gradinger in the gold group. It just freed us up. A lot of us played together. We have a lot of experience playing with one another.

Q. Matt Dunn, talk to me about that goal, that two-thirds goal heave that you had early in the first half and then couple, a few years ago, you can ask Matt goal, 80-yarder from full field. So I don't know if you maybe heard from him about that goal, possibly.
MATT DUNN: Yeah, we kind of knew just the way Brown picked up the pace of the game that there's a possibility that they might pull the goalie out and do a 10-man ride. So if nobody was open we had to be ready to get open goal and shoot at it. We practiced it this week.

The way it unfolded during the game we were clearing. Nick Manis threw me a pass, and I turned, saw the opened goal, nobody around it. So I threw it where it has to go and it went in.

It's something we just game planned for and it just happened to work out.

Q. Matt, two-parter here: Molloy got to play for Brown today, obviously. What was it like dealing with him? And also for you guys, the defense, I know you said you were trying to keep everything in the past, but after withstanding that initial surge and getting used to it, how well did you think you as a defense coped with the pressure they bring to bear?
MATT DUNN: The first part, with Malloy, he's obviously a great player. So having him back in the lineup for them definitely posed different challenges for us and you could see throughout the game we definitely did -- he got some goals and good shots because he's a really good player.

As far as just kind of coping with momentum, I guess -- or is that what you asked? Yeah, we worked on it all week because we knew it was going to be a different team really getting to a 6-on-6 scenario. They got some transition because that's what they do best.

But I think our offense did a great job of not letting them just catch the ball and get it out and get behind and get those kind of uneven scenarios. So that helped us to get to our settled sets.

Once we got settled, they're still tough to play against, talented in the field. So communication, we just did our best to move around and play with each other and Kyle made some great saves to help us out.

Q. For any of the players. Now that you know you're going to be playing again on Monday and using your experience from last year, you're in the same stadium, same area, is there anything you're planning on doing to prepare differently than what you did a year ago?
MATT DUNN: I want to say not necessarily differently, I would just say maybe just everything a little bit more efficiently, just really emphasizing the rest we can get in the next couple of days, the hydrating, eating right. Just kind of knowing the importance of those quick turnarounds.

Q. You guys all came in as part of big recruiting classes, highly touted recruiting classes. But it doesn't get done without playing up to your potential and developing as players. Talk about the system that Coach Tillman and the rest of the staff has put in place to help you guys reach your potential and get better each week and develop you into what you are today.
MATT RAMBO: Coach Tillman and Coach Reppert do a great job in the fall and spring, just to develop all parts of our game, dodging, shooting, off hands. Throughout the year. So every week we're always working to get better. And I think a lot of the credit goes to the scout guys, especially during the springtime. They're beating us up. They're giving us the best looks they can. They're so tough to beat.

So they know our weaknesses and they try to get us as best as we can.

COLIN HEACOCK: The scout guys all fall, they're working hard in the weight room. We got to the field to practice, they're giving it their all. Making us feel uncomfortable, whether it's going to our off hand or continuous running. All credit goes to them going day in, day out giving all their effort to us.

MATT DUNN: And defensively a lot like what Matt said was the offense, Coach Tillman and Coach Conry do a great job developing us as individual players over four years.

I came in with Coach Conry, my freshman year. I was his first year. I got to go through the experience with him. And I just give him a lot of credit for helping develop the players that a lot of the guys on defensive end became very disciplined, focusing on our fundamentals, a lot of drilling in the fall, a lot of individual work, making sure the technique is right. So when you get to the spring we can focus on game plan, which he does a great job as well, getting the scout guys all organized each week so they can do a great job like this on the defensive end. And the offensive guys do a great job too. He does a great job, how he preps them each week for different teams, knowing their strengths and how we should counter that.

Q. Can you talk about making back to the title game here in Philadelphia after experiencing the loss from last year?
MATT RAMBO: Yeah, you know, being back in the championship game is awesome. It's what we've been working for all year. We have a couple goals as a team. And one of them is trying to get it back to this game. And that's pretty much every team's goal.

So the blood, the sweat, the tears that we put through since August until now is just it pays off. It's awesome from being here. I used to come here all the time in the Final Four, growing up in the stands, just watching them. It's a dream come true. All my friends came. All my family. Just seeing them in the stands. Just so happy just supporting the Terps, dream come true.

Q. This game was billed as sort of a game of contrasting styles. To what extent do you take maybe even umbrage to that knowing that Maryland can play that brand too as you showed at times today?
MATT RAMBO: Whatever the team is going to give us, we're going to play. If we have to slow the ball down, if we have to speed it up, be good in transition, our team's capable of playing so many different styles because we're so deep this year. Our defense can push. We can hold it. We're a balanced team.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. I think you had 12 different players score on goals today. You've been balanced all season long. But how key is that at a time like this?
COACH TILLMAN: We kind of knew that's what we needed to be to be successful this year. We really didn't feel like -- certainly feel like Matt and Colin are talented players but we weren't going to have one guy bring us home. I think if you're that predictable where everything is going be running through one guy, you're not going to be that successful.

This group is pretty selfless. Just hearing Matt and Colin talk, you asked them about like what we do to develop, they know the scout team, and that's kind of a -- it's kind of what these guys believe in. It's a total team effort and everybody contributes.

And I think that's the way we play. It really is. And I think we have some really good players. I don't think we have a (indiscernible) guy. But it is a true team. I think if we have a chance to win on Monday, we're going to have to be very -- it's going to have to be scoring from a lot of different guys.

Q. The last ten minutes or so of regulation, seemed like you guys were in reasonably good shape. What do you think kind of changed there? And to follow up on that, the ground ball that Dunn got there in overtime, just how significant was that given how that faceoff situation was going?
COACH TILLMAN: Yeah, you know what, I thought we did a really good job in the third quarter with just some great ground balls. And I thought they flipped it in the fourth that it went seven out of eight faceoffs so they get six extra possessions.

And I thought a pretty big play was we got -- Matt made a nice little goose to Adam DiMillo. We came down, 6-on-4, and we were up four, I think, and Adam threw it all the way over to Matt. And Matt got a pretty good shot. Just felt like, all right, we probably could use a little of a break on defense.

And Matt took a shot. And it's a pretty good shot for Matt. We didn't get it. They came down. All of a sudden they started winning faceoffs.

I thought they stole the momentum back. And I almost used a couple of timeouts, but I was a little bit worried that if we used a timeout there we might need it later. We tried to mix it to zone and we didn't do a great job with the zone. And credit to Bellistri for coming in just bolding one in.

I'm proud of our guys for bouncing back. I knew they'd make a little bit of a run for sure. We were hoping maybe we could hold them off. When you get six extra possessions on faceoffs, you're that good of a team, they're going to make a run for sure.

Q. At the end of the game you had a chance to win it at the end of regulation. What were you trying to draw up there, because you ended up taking another timeout as well?
COACH TILLMAN: I didn't call timeout right away because Bryan Cole had a short stick behind. I liked the matchup. I felt maybe keeping them, instead of calling a timeout and getting them organized, I felt like we had a guy that's a pretty good dodger and feeder behind the goal.

And I felt it was a pretty good spot. Once it got under I think it was like 14 seconds, then we called the timeout.

We came out of the timeout. They went zone. And then they called timeout. And then I think we called timeout. So like Keystone Cops a little bit.

But sooner or later we're going to run out of timeouts. But they kept changing. We kept changing. I actually thought Matt got a pretty good look to Dylan inside. There certainly wasn't a lot of time, but I actually thought it wasn't too bad. We had to have a zone look and man look ready and we tried to find something that might have been workable, both.

It's just so little time. You just kind of had to have something that you felt like would give you an opportunity.

Q. What do you as a coaching staff have to do to get your players to buy into a "we've been here before mentality" on Monday rather than getting caught up in the beast that is championship Monday?
COACH TILLMAN: I think our kids are mature enough to realize you don't come to Maryland to play in the championship. You come to win the championship. So certainly we're honored to be here. And I don't take ever coming to championship weekend for granted. There's a lot of great coaches and great players that never get here. And that will never be lost on me.

But certainly being at a place like Maryland, with the group that we have, we certainly, I don't think we would be doing what we should be doing by settling for anything more but to try to reach the highest we can reach. Why not? Really? Why not us?

I think our guys realized last year how they felt. Maybe that's a good motivation. Certainly you watched how Carolina played today. That is a really, really good team that's playing as hot as anybody.

And that's a big part of winning it is it's not necessarily the best team in February, it's the team that plays best at the end of the year. And that team looked pretty darn good today.

Q. A lot of us in the media and fans will say when a team loses a lot in the big moment that they choke. But can you talk a little bit about how that, if you look at it the other way, how that forges something inside a team that can lead to the kind of season you're having now and being on the precipice of winning a championship?
COACH TILLMAN: Well, I think anytime you win, the kids all deserve all the credit. And if you don't win, it falls on the leadership of the team and that falls on me.

So obviously I didn't do a good enough job last year getting us ready for that Denver game. Now it's time, all right, what can we do better this year? Because the kids are playing their guts out and they're playing hard and they're going to do what we ask them to do.

So I obviously and the coaches have to put together a good game plan. And sometimes the game plan doesn't always work. Sometimes the other team just plays better.

I do think with those guys, getting to that game is pretty challenging and sometimes the ball bounces funny ways. I mean, that last ground ball, Matt Dunn made an amazing play. We got a great effort and we got it out. That was in our own end. That could have bounced the other way.

They have such a great team offensively that there's a good chance they could have scored. So there's so much more to it. I think anybody that's coached realizes that you can only control so much and they're 18- to 22-year-old kids and sometimes there are things that impact them that we just can't control.

And you have to be okay with that and realize that regardless of what happens they're your guys, you love them, care about them, support them. When they're down, you pick them up.

If they're not doing what they should be doing, you help them through. At this point you're proud of them, but you're trying to make sure that they stay focused on what's in front of them.

Q. Can you just talk about the experiences you learned from last year losing the title game going into this year?
COACH TILLMAN: Yeah, I mean obviously the most important thing is how do you use the time you have. And to me it's a big race right now.

The whistle is going to blow at 1:00, and what have you done in the last 36 hours or so. Sorry, my math's not out. My mom is a teacher, she'd probably kill me for knowing exactly how many hours.

But really until 1:00 hits on Monday, we've got to use the time wisely. We need to get rest and get hydrated and eat well and start breaking down film on Carolina. Obviously having played them, we have a sense who they are.

But credit to Coach Breschi, that team is playing really well. I think they found themselves. They're playing as well as they played all year. That's a credit to them, peaking at the right time.

So seeing what they did today against a terrific Loyola team, that's certainly caught our attention. And we're going to have to play really well. We'll have to rebound. Like we can't feel good about today and focus on that. We've got to move forward really quickly.

Q. Can you talk about your philosophy through player development and how maybe that's evolved over the years and maybe how this group, in particular, has helped you develop even further as a coach?
COACH TILLMAN: Yeah, we're big on kind of following the Nick Saban approach of the process. We feel like building a good team, there's a process. It starts when you come back in the fall.

And when we recruit, we tell kids you have to really buy into being challenged. You're going to get challenged every day academically and obviously athletically and we have pretty high standards.

We try to scare off kids that all they want to be is relaxed bros and they don't really want to work hard. If they don't go to class, there are certain consequences. And candidly we're trying to recruit the best guys. But we tell them straight up this is how you do it. If that scares you, you don't want to be here, it's probably not the best place to be.

What we're hoping is we find a group that -- again mentioning what they mentioned about the scout teams -- guys that they don't mind being pushed. They don't mind being challenged. They certainly find a way to have fun and meet girls, that certainly works out. And they certainly figure out a way to eat chipotle. That's like number one on their priority list.

But the kids have fun. I think one thing that is important, too, like we push our kids pretty hard. But to get them to peak in May, it's hard to find that sweet spot. But you can't grind them into the ground in the fall. You want them coming back every day for more, yet you're trying to make them mentally and physically tough. You're trying to make them better.

But if you wear them out in the fall or in February, there won't be much left. So I think what helps us is we have a good group of leaders that they like to compete and be challenged.

But we're comfortable with them going, Coach, we might need a day off here. Or you know what, shorter would be better today. Our athletic trainer, Amelia Sesma, is really good at that, telling us, hey, maybe we need to back off.

It is a marathon, not a sprint. I know it sounds like a cliche. Matt mentioned it's a journey. The journey should be special.

Some people talk about a mission. And to me a mission is like either win the championship or you don't. I think when you're working with student-athletes, it's about the journey. There's so many unbelievable experiences that these kids have along the way that you want them to remember forever. And some of them are like failures.

Some of them are dealing with disappointment. But being mentally tough enough to bounce back and succeed because my feeling is we get four years with them and we need to try to give them the tools to be successful when we can't be there.

And they're going to have a lot of ups and downs while they're here. They need to support each other. They need to be mentally tough enough to bounce back. And in the real world, they have a tough boss, they don't have a good day, you gotta get up in the next morning, come out with a positive attitude and go out and get it.

I know it sounds a little deep, but it's a big part of what we sell. And it's what we recruit to. For kids that come through, I think they have a great experience. But it's certainly you gotta be a guy that's willing to work hard or you're not going to be very happy.

Q. That sweet spot you just mentioned, do you feel your team is hitting that right now?
COACH TILLMAN: I don't know. It's a pretty long game. So you hope that maybe the experience from last year, you hope maybe the experience from the Big Ten tournament, having that Thursday night game and then having to turn around and play again on Saturday, we can reflect back on that and maybe do some of the things that we did. I know that it was probably tough for all four teams today.

It's just a strange year with the weather. It seemed like it was cold and rainy for the last month and then all of a sudden on Monday, Tuesday, we came out to practice and the kids were like, oh, boy, and it's like the switch got flicked up. So we're just going to have to try to recover as best as we can and then hopefully Monday at 1:00 we can do our very best to try to bring home a title to the school and the state and our fans and our alums.

It's certainly something that is important to us and I think to our kids. It's not just about us. It's about something bigger than us. And it's something that I think is incredibly motivating and we're very prideful of.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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