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NCAA MEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIPSMay 25, 2014John DanowskiMyles JonesChristian WalshBALTIMORE, MARYLAND JOHN DANOWSKI: Well, good morning, everybody. We are excited to be here today and excited to be working for two more days. It certainly beats the alternative, that's for sure. We are just delighted to be in this game against anybody. Notre Dame certainly provides a great opportunity for our young men. I think the experience that we're going to draw from, the easiest would be Syracuse, beating Syracuse during the season and then playing them again three or four weeks later and then not having the same result. I'm hoping that our guys will learn from that experience. Of course Notre Dame is going to be a much different team than we saw them in South Bend, as we are, as well, so we look forward to this opportunity, both physically and certainly mentally. Q. John, in what ways do you see Notre Dame, how they've changed since your meeting in South Bend? JOHN DANOWSKI: Well, a couple ways. I think certainly they want to run. They want to play much faster, and that was from day one when we saw them at first on tape with Jacksonville opening day. But defensively they seem to be a little more aggressive, checking, and they seem to be a little more active with their sticks. They want to get the ball to the ground, they want to be able to push and play in transition. Change in the goal from when we saw them, although we saw both goalies back in March or early April. They've settled on a goalie who seems to be playing very well, has made 31 saves in the last two games, so great energy starting in the cage. Defensively, again, seem much more active, much more aggressive on the ball, and certainly their ride, which was very active, as well, against us, they seem to have taken that to another level against both Albany and yesterday against Maryland, as well. Aggressive all over the field, and they just seem to play looser, a lot more relaxed, and having a lot of fun. Q. Myles and Christian, how does Notre Dame compare in terms of their size, strength, physicality, to some of the other teams that you've played this season? CHRISTIAN WALSH: I mean, just watching film of those guys, they present a unique challenge to us. They're big, physical, fast, strong midfielders, defensive midfielders, so it'll be a great opportunity for us middies against those guys. MYLES JONES: Yeah, I think our midfielders are very excited. We've had success when we played them last time, although that doesn't mean anything for the game coming up tomorrow. But they're very athletic, Jack Near, their defensive middie has been playing very well lately on defense and in transition. We're going to have to take advantage of the opportunities we do get and just make them slide and do what we've been doing all year by sharing the ball. Q. Christian, you're a guy who's kind of switched spots from attack to midfield. You had Kyle Keenan come in this past week and go right back on to the attacking. It just seems like your whole offense is pretty well integrated as far as guys taking on different roles. Is that kind of how you guys are taught, to be part of the whole system? CHRISTIAN WALSH: Yeah, I mean, the way we look at it there's six offensive players. We have designated attack and midfield positions, but in our offense, everybody can play every position. I think Kyle Keenan illustrated that perfectly yesterday going from midfield back to attack and stepping in and scoring four goals. That's kind of what our offense is about, sharing the ball, playing unselfish, and everybody can play every position. Q. John, at what point did you know you were going to get Luke back for yesterday, and how much of a lift was it to have him back on the field so quickly after that injury? JOHN DANOWSKI: It's a difficult question because it's really the doctors strongly advised him that he shouldn't be playing, but as a senior and a captain and somebody who has great pride in what he does, he's almost willing himself through rehab, working with the physical therapists at Duke and the athletic trainers and the doctors. We weren't sure. While he's been practicing a little bit over the last two weeks, we thought it might be more symbolic to put him in at the end of a game or something to make him feel good about himself and his role on the team, but he has really willed himself to play. While he certainly can't play a lot, he certainly did, I think, give the team a lift and created some energy on the defensive end. CHRISTIAN WALSH: I was amazed watching him out there yesterday, to be honest. I've seen him do it in practice a little bit here and there, but to seem him on the field, the way he played yesterday was awesome and definitely gave us a great lift. MYLES JONES: Yeah, I think nobody was really going to tell Luke that he couldn't play. He wanted to play by any means. I remember the day after he got hurt, he said he was going to play in the Final Four if we got there, and there he was making plays at defensive end. I actually raced him in practice restraining line to restraining line and beat him by about three steps. That's Luke for you. That kid, he just wants to play. He wants to be there for the team. He's a captain. He has great pride, and I'm happy for him that he's on the field making plays for us. Q. Myles or Christian, without getting too technical obviously, what is it about Brendan Fowler that has made him so successful at the face‑off the last two years? MYLES JONES: It doesn't matter how many face‑offs Brendan wins, he always wins the important ones, whether it's stopping a run for the other team, giving us momentum or winning a big face‑off in the fourth quarter. He can go even with the guy he's battling, and I know Brendan will come out with the bigger face‑offs when we need them, and that's crucial to our offense when we need the ball and the reason we've been successful lately. CHRISTIAN WALSH: Yeah, I think one word to describe Brendan is he's just a warrior. He never loses his self‑confidence, so whether he's lost a few in a row, he always comes back out to the next one thinking he's going to win it or whether he has two face‑off violations, he comes out and he scraps as hard as he possibly can, and we're definitely lucky to have him. Q. John, what did your review of game film yesterday tell you about your situation in goal, and who do you think will start tomorrow? JOHN DANOWSKI: You know, the goalie thing is so hard. You look up and you're trying to‑‑ how many saves have we made, geez, we haven't made a lot of saves. You're trying to gauge is that a play he should make, shouldn't make. But when we looked at the tape, you know, I can't say that we could fault him for‑‑ maybe the last one before we pulled him. I thought that on Berg's last goal, it kind of dribbled between his legs, he didn't get his hands down quick enough. But other than that, a lot of dunks, a lot of inside, a lot of great shots, and Luke is the starter, he'll start tomorrow. You know, if it's not broke, don't fix it or something like that, and we're going to stay with that. We're going to‑‑ it just didn't seem, even if Kyle was in the goal, I don't think it would have made a difference. The one when Bobzien came around the corner and stuck one in the near side, it was a great shot. He had about an inch to put the ball. On the backhand, Berg, again, great shot. So sometimes you've got to tip your cap to your opponent. In the heat of the battle, it was, all right, let's make a change. But we're very comfortable making a change. It's not like we think that it's going to be a downgrade. It's going to be equal or better at best, or at worst. Q. Going back to Fowler, when did you start to see the knee‑down technique start to happen more in lacrosse, and did Brendan's success with that have any influence on any other players starting to use that do you think? JOHN DANOWSKI: I think so. I think there's a lot of copycat in every sport, whatever seems to work. You know, face‑off men are notorious advantage gainers, hyphen, slash, cheaters. Whatever they can do to circumvent the rules or to push the rules, push the envelope, every two years the coaches are always discussing how are we going to adjudicate the face‑offs and make it easier for the officials. So they always come up with new rules and the draw men kind of have to relearn their techniques almost. No, I would agree with that, that he's had a lot of success, but I would agree with what the guys say. The key to Brendan is his competitiveness. He's stubborn, prideful, and at that position and being a high school wrestler serves him well in that position. Q. How do you contain Matt Kavanagh? JOHN DANOWSKI: You know, again, we try to defend a whole team, and you want to limit or reduce‑‑ not limit, but reduce his touches where you can. That makes sense. You can't let their team run. You want to get in the hole and defend what we call in the box as opposed to letting them run half field, whether that's from the defensive end out or off the face‑offs or in any kind of scramble situations, and while you want to defend him individually, you want to make sure that you're sliding to him, that you're driving him to certain areas on the field and that you're ready to help, whether that's from the inside or from the perimeter. And so we always have to be mindful of where he is. Again, limit his touches and be able to slide to him quickly. Q. As a quick left‑handed attack man, is it fair to compare him or maybe the way you plan to approach him to the way you approached and dealt with Zach Miller yesterday? JOHN DANOWSKI: Yeah, I would say that all the lefties we've faced, whether it's Joey Sankey or Miller or‑‑ there's a certain way, you're not going to really change too much, especially in one day, with one day of preparation. Fortunately Henry Lobb, who will probably get the assignment to cover him, covered him in South Bend in April, so that wouldn't change. So he's got a little bit of familiarity. But he's had a great day against us in the past. He lit us up last year during the regular season, and so we're very familiar with playing against him. Q. You guys lost a lot on the midfield in terms of experience last year. You played a lot of seniors. How has the growth of you guys individually and as a midfield unit this year, stepping into new roles, how has that changed? JOHN DANOWSKI: I'll set these guys up. You know, you don't plan on doing that. You just show up in the beginning of the year and you get to work. I don't think the goal was for those‑‑ for the younger guys to replace the older guys, it was just for them to be the best that they could be. I think all of us are surprised at their development, how quickly these guys have‑‑ their game has improved, and the key certainly has been Christian. His ability to settle down both Dave Lawson and Jake Tripucka last year, who were high‑profile, thoroughbred types, and Christian was a guy that provided this maturity and stability for their group, to push the ball to either one of them and make plays himself when they were available, I think that has been the consistent key in both of these seasons. CHRISTIAN WALSH: Yeah, I mean, I think we kind of took it personally early on in the year when people were talking about midfield and saying how it was a weak spot on our team. I know the two young guys kind of took it personally, Deemer Class as well as Myles, and I'm just really happy to be playing with two guys that are that talented and come that far in just this year, two young guys who are mature way beyond their years and made it pretty easy for me. MYLES JONES: Yeah, it's hard losing three senior All‑Americans and two sophomores and a senior stepping up and obviously our midfield is a lot younger than it was last year, and I think Christian has done a great job holding me and Deemer together. Without Christian it changes the way a defense could play us. Christian is kind of the string between me and Deemer, and he's played a very vital part in our success. The development of the midfield has taken a lot of pressure off our attack. Jordan Wolf feels the world is off his shoulders now because everyone is focused on the front of the cage and he's able to take advantage. Case Matheis and Kyle Keenan and Josh Dionne, they've all been able to feel the same. I think it feels good to be such a big contributor. I know Deemer feels the same as well as Christian, and we're happy to be playing tomorrow, and it's awesome to step into a bigger role as a sophomore. I mean, we're excited. CHRISTIAN WALSH: I've got to add to that. I've got to share that those two or three senior midfielders last year kind of showed these two young guys the way. It's not just all myself holding it together, but I think Myles and Deemer last year learned a lot about how to carry yourself from a Josh Offit, Jake Tripucka and Dave Lawson. So hats off to those guys, as well. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports ' |
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