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NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPSMay 28, 2012Landon CarrJoe CummingsDrew SniderJohn TillmanBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Loyola – 9 THE MODERATOR: We have head coach John Tillman, and Joe Cummings, Drew Snider, and Landon Carr. Coach, an opening statement, please? COACH TILLMAN: First off, I'd love to say congratulations to Loyola and Coach Toomey. They are very worthy champions being the No. 1 seed and number one ranked team. They proved it all year and they proved it again today. So they deserve that championship. Congratulations to them. They were very good today, much like they've been all year. First off, want to make sure they get their due. They have our total respect. After that, I just want to thank our players for everything they've done this year in terms of representing the University of Maryland, what they've invested, the sacrifices they've made, what they've done for each other. Obviously thank them and our administration, especially our seniors. I think the hardest thing about losing this game is knowing that this group won't be together more than about 48 hours. It's such a great group of young men that I wish we had a couple more weeks because it is a special group. We care about them deeply, and I'm not just saying that. It's been a lot of fun being with them. Again, thank you, team, and we're going to miss you, but I think you made the state of Maryland proud, your university proud, and alums proud just in terms of your spirit, your heart and your effort and team work. Q. Drew or Joe, can you speak to what on offense in the second half you couldn't get much going. It seemed like a lot of shots just weren't finding the cage. Maybe what was happening there? DREW SNIDER: I think they did a great job on the defensive end making us a little uncomfortable. When we got shot opportunities, I think the goalie came up with good saves. Q. Joe, can you sum up your feelings about getting to this stage and not being able to walk away with the title? JOE CUMMINGS: I just want to say it's a huge honor to play for the University of Maryland. We left it all out on the field today. This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life to be a part of a group of guys that can go through hard times and respond and grow and learn from experiences and make it to the National Championship when many doubted us. I'm so honored to be a part of this team. But credit to Loyola for their effort today. They played a better game and they were the better team on the field and they won the championship. So that's all I've got. Q. Landon, can you talk about the loss of Jesse and how that affected the defense? LANDON CARR: I think towards the end we were trying to pressure out because they had the lead. A guy like Jesse makes everything harder because he's all over the field and causing turnovers and stuff. So when we lost him, we had some other guys that have done well in practice all year. They had time to step up and they did a really good job. It just didn't work out the way we wanted it to this time. Q. Joe or Drew, as seniors you guys don't get to walk away with the title, but you helped reestablish Maryland back in the Top 5 kind of program in championship games two years in a row. Can you get a sense of perspective on that? JOE CUMMINGS: I think you come into every season and your goal is to win a National Championship and to play for the state of Maryland and to play for a university that loves lacrosse, it is an honor. It's awesome. We came up just short of our goal. But my hope is that our class and this team that we establish a legacy that getting to the championship and winning the championship is the goal every year. And I hope future Terps know when they come in. That's the goal, and they have to put in the work because it's not easy, but it's the most fun and awesome experience that I've ever had. Q. The loss notwithstanding, you must have special feelings for Charley and what this means to him? COACH TILLMAN: There's not a better person out there than Charley Toomey. His friendship has meant a lot to me long before this. I've had holidays where I couldn't get home and his wife has allowed me to be part of that and his family. That's something that I will always appreciate. You never like to lose, and my heart bleeds for these guys. I know how much it would mean for our administration and our school and our state. If we're not going to win it, I'm so happy for a guy that does everything the right way. That's a first‑class operation. He's not allowed kids to play this year because they weren't doing the right thing in school. He's given those kids the discipline and life lessons that they're going to use for a long time, and he's stuck to his guns, even if it meant hurting his team's ability to win games; and to have the courage to do that in a sport where sometimes people define you by wins and losses just speaks volumes to the type of person that he is. Q. (No microphone)? COACH TILLMAN: Yeah, Josh is a guy that we had seen at one of our Harvard camps when I was up at Harvard. I thought he was fantastic. For a number of different reasons, it just wasn't going to work out at Harvard. He's just a terrific young man, and made a couple calls to a number of different coaches and said, hey, here's a guy that would be a terrific player, I think, potentially. But the type of young man you want in your locker room. He basically checks all the boxes. You can make the decision for yourself, but I'd take a look because I think this guy's pretty special. He certainly proved it today. He was outstanding. Q. Coach, defensively what did they do differently? COACH TILLMAN: I think individually they won the majority of the match‑ups. We had a tough time getting leverage. That was one of our concerns coming into the year. We aren't the fastest team. That's one of the reasons why we really have to be‑‑ we have to have high attention to detail. We have to play at a good pace. We have to be strategic with picks to gain leverage, because one‑on‑one, we're not the greatest dodging team. But we do have other skill sets, whether it's sharing the ball. The way we have attention to detail with setting picks, slipping, moving, cutting, so really it's better for us when we can get the defense rotating. We just couldn't get them rotating. We'd get to spots on the field, and especially like we'd drive up near the goal line, we'd get close, and then we'd try to get a little leverage. They would slide or we'd get just a little separation and take a low angle shot, which is what we really didn't want to do. I think when we got frustrated, we resorted to, well, it was a shot, or I got a slide. I thought somebody would be open inside, and guys would come off like I thought it was open or I heard something. I just think it got a little bit difficult for us. Like anybody, we were kind of like all right, let's press a little bit. That's one of the reasons we took a timeout early. When we did, it was to have everybody take a deep breath, relax. Even at halftime it was a two‑goal game. We were winning face‑offs. We were excited about that. We just needed to get more shots on goal and put them in good shots. We felt like we were going to wash that first half away and know that if we could score and handle the face‑offs, there was a good chance we could get a couple, get the momentum and get them on the defensive. Q. Coach, Bernhardt appeared to hurt his right shoulder or possibly a concussion. Can you talk about the exact nature of the injury? COACH TILLMAN: Yeah, I'll be honest, I got stick to my stomach. I went out there and kind of had to catch myself a little bit. We have a great trainer in Amelia Sesma. The doctor went out there as well. His eyes weren't open, and we waited and waited and he came to. I would think he's definitely got a concussion. I'm just happy he was able to walk off. We'll certainly keep an eye on him, but he's a special young guy. We just want to make sure he's okay. Q. You mentioned the face‑off stats so heavily in your favor. What's happened in those plays where it seems like you're winning possession battles, but not able to convert? COACH TILLMAN: Well, there are times when we won the face‑off but didn't control the ball. So we didn't handle the pressure really well. But when you have Hawkins out there and Ratliff out there, you've got some pretty good athletes. That's part of what they do is put your guys under pressure and they hunt you a little bit, and Dalton as well. Charlie I thought did an outstanding job, Charlie Raffa, but again, he showed his age a little bit at times. Charlie had shoulder surgery and missed most of the fall, came back in February. So he's still a work in progress. But he's certainly come a long way for us. We're excited about what he can do in the future. But we needed to translate those possessions into good looks and opportunities. We just kept settling for C opportunities, or maybe even C‑minus opportunities instead of really moving it, and sharing it, and moving it to get those A‑looks. To be honest, when we did get good looks, have to give their goalie credit. He made some really good saves, all the saves he should and a few more. Q. (No microphone) was that the bad angle? COACH TILLMAN: Yeah, it's two things. You've got to give Loyola their due. They played great defense, and their goalie played well. Did we have our best shooting day? I would say no. But I don't want to take anything away from them. We, again, we shoot so well on Saturday, and then, obviously, today you just couldn't seem to find the net. That is the fickle thing about shooting. We try not to get too much in the guy's head on where to shoot. There are some days where the goal looks so big. Then there are other days like today where it just seems so small. We weren't telling them this is where you need to shoot. We just feel like sometimes you need to back off and let the guys shoot their best shot. We had a tough time even getting on goal at the end of the game. The kids knew we needed to score, we just couldn't get it on goal. Sometimes the worst thing you can do is yell at the guys because sometimes they get more tense, and then they start gripping their sticks a little harder. Q. Two trips here, what do you take from this? Do you use this as a learning lesson for the guys? COACH TILLMAN: Yeah, that's what we talked about in the locker room. Just like I mentioned last year. I think it says a lot about the staff before me. Dave Cottle and Dan Gronkowski and Ryan Moran. They left us a lot of good players, so they deserve a lot of credit for us being where we went to. I thought the coaches did a good job. It's hard now because you've got to look both ways. You're so close and so close to tasting it. You know what it would mean to these guys and everybody involved. Yet when you reflect back on where we started and all the adversity we went through, I think we'll all reflect when the pain goes away, and it's not quite as new. What these guys did was pretty amazing. To lose so many guys and the entire starting D, three out of our Top 5 attack men, to lose our best mini Jake. To have Curtis hurt at the beginning of the year, Niko had a good year, but maybe not a Niko year and yet take it to the same place we went last year, it just speaks volumes to the improvement these kids made, how hard they worked, the coaching staff and what they did. I'm very fortunate, because you're as good as your staff. Hopefully the kids getting close will motivate them to try to get back and get it done. Maybe there is some confidence that's built up that, hey, you know what? It doesn't matter what happens to us, we can make it back. Those are the life lessons that I hope the kids take away. We've had our moments where when things didn't look good. Guys maybe weren't getting along or we weren't having good practices. Yet guys kept the faith. They stuck together. They really got what it meant at the end of the year. What it means to be a Terp. What it means to sacrifice for each other. How important it was to play a certain way and represent our school. That legacy will be left for a long time. I know the kids won a title, but we want to make sure, especially as a staff, that we win a title and we do it the right way. We do it with guys that are doing it well in the classroom and off the field and on the field. That's what we're going to continue to do going forward. We'll do it the right way. We're going to work our butts off to get it done. I'm proud of this group for all the things going against them to get here. You know what? I couldn't be more proud of them. I feel very lucky to have this year with them. I'm totally exhausted. It's kind of the way the year's been. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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