Maryland 2024

[jrn19]

When you don’t have shooters, you don’t have passers, and you don’t have a dedicated crease guy….your EMO is going to be bad

More concerning for me is how atrocious their man down defense is. They give up the same goal to the interior every single game. There were two guys in front of the goal just ball watching X and they left Collison completely alone. Opponents can just victimize them on the inside man-up.

They are literally dead last in the entire country in man-down defense. No one is worse. Not a single team.

[JerrysWorld]

I do agree with you in that there is no confidence and everyone is afraid to make a mistake. I know he is the best coach in the game, but from water cooler talk at a few tailgates, I think Coach Tillman is very critical of them and their mistakes, which may feed into this mentality. Or at least the feeling of being afraid to make plays.

And by no means am I knocking him at all. Just think this group may need a different approach then the Uber talented units of the past. This is where I go back to my point of this challenging schedule gives these guys no breathers. But probably got them into the tournament. Beat PSU in the semis and probably a home game.

Heavy is the one who wears the crown. All these criticisms for a team that’s 90% in the tournament

[sportsfan]

Tillman doesn't like early offense. He likes to slow the play down, look for the best pass and the best shot - not the first shot. You can see the players all hesitate to shoot. This is how they have been coached and reprimanded if they shoot too early or take a bad shot. As a result there is not a lot of natural instinct from the players on when to shoot or when to pass. They are thinking too much. This is on Tillman and PHipps.

[coda]

NIL was introduced in summer of 2022. The guys on the field now committed in 2019, 2020, and 2021. To the degree that it has any impact on recruiting - and so far I've yet to really see any evidence it does - it has nothing to do with the guys on the field now. Recruiting dropped off after Bernhardt/Fairman. Some guys transferred out. Coaching staff hasn't quite maximized them, but overall this is the least talented offense Tillman has fielded in over a decade, if not at any point in his tenure.

I agree with all of that. But not sure it’s all about those recruiting classes. It’s the transfer portal and 5th years that have been hopping and getting money after the summer when NIL was introduced. I’d imagine that comes into play with some of these big ten teams to keep their older studs for 5-6 years. I know MD didn’t have any studs who they could keep, but maybe they could have taken others. I’m sure Vardaro, Stevens, English, Zawada, etc could have helped. Even Rhonda and Tiernan at Michigan. McLane at ND. These guys were post NIL.

Those all happened after NIL was a thing. I don’t know if we recruited them or what, but it’s a thought.

Guys are taking 5th years cause they have an extra year to get a master's and can still play lax. I don't think Vardaro going to Georgetown - a haven for 5th years - or Zawada to Duke - he had a specific major that Michigan didn't offer and he's from NC - had anything to do with NIL. Meanwhile it was known for months the Cuse guys were going to Princeton. There hasn't been any indication NIL has anything to do with that

As for the talent on the roster, I think there's enough there for it to be better yes. But Malever was the highest ranked recruit on the roster and he obliterated his knee 18 months ago. Joey Epstein looked like a future Tewaaraton winner and had a very similar injury and he was never the same. The Malever they recruited and had in 21-22 isn't there anymore. Hopefully he can find it again but maybe he doesn't.

Spanos has been p good, not quite what hoped yet, but he does feel like the one guy on the roster who has shown growth. He's hitting a bit of a wall right now, but he did out of the gates as well and broke through that. Hopefully he can this.

Koras and Kelly have largely been what they were advertised as. Koras does a million things for this team; he scored 20 goals last year and likely will again, plus plays the wing, defense, etc. Kelly scored 30 goals last year.

But there's no shooters like a Kelly or DeMaio or even going way back, a Joe LoCascio. Just totally starved of outside shooting. Malever is the lone real passer and again, that's stunted when he has no burst. Erksa is the dodger and lacks all the high IQ stuff Malever has.

Just a lot of decent parts that aren't going to make a good whole. They need shooting next year badly. Badly badly badly. Gardiner comes highly touted potentially. They need an X guy. Maybe it can be Ford immediately, I think the best case is to just give him the keys and live with the growing pains. He's got the skillset for it in a way no one on the roster does. And a guy like Stobaugh or Gravino popping from the midfield as a dodger would be great. They may need to see if there's portal options for some of these. But I'd be inclined to let the incoming guys get the shot the way Fairman, Wisnauskas, DeMaio did in 2018. Reap the benefits down the line

Zawaada did not get into the grad program at Michigan. That is why he ended up at Duke.

[jrn19]

I think Tillman is a little too cautious with this team. Also, people speak in generalizations with him and his mindset too much. From 2011-2015, it was that all he cared about was stalling and didn't know how to coach offense by letting players play....and then he got Rambo and Kelly and Heacock and Bernhardt and Wisnauskas and they put up Top 5 offenses every year from 2016-2019 with some of the best ball movement you'll see. So clearly he kinda cares about scoring goals and didn't just want to stall all the time.

Then it became he handcuffs the players and brow beats any aggressiveness out of them and doesn't believe in early offense or transition. Okay, well, in 2021-2022 the team had almost 50 goals scored by non-offensive players. So....clearly he cared about pushing early offense and transition then. Did they not care about transition when they were shredding UVA, who's held up as the transition and early offense team, in the middle of the field in 2022?

Tillman's won 2 titles and made a gajillion other Final Fours, you don't do this by having one mindset of how you're supposed to play. Is he too cautious with this team? Are they overcoached? Yes, that is entirely possible. Also, look, you're not going to push transition and early offense as effectively when you don't have any shorties who are great athletes and your best LSM isn't really a threat to score. John Geppert was a converted offensive middie, he was a much bigger weapon than the guys they have now.

Any changes we're talking about are on the margins. Of the Top 10 teams in adjusted defensive efficiency, Maryland has played 6 of them and they are 1 of the 10. They also played Notre Dame (12th) and Virginia (17th.) That's 2/3rds of their schedule against virtually Top 15 defenses. They've played the 2nd, 7th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 20th, 22nd, and 25th ranked scoring defenses. If you have an okay offense playing against elite defenses every week; you aren't going to score as much. Great pitching can beat great hitting.

[Wheels]

I think Tillman is a little too cautious with this team. Also, people speak in generalizations with him and his mindset too much. From 2011-2015, it was that all he cared about was stalling and didn't know how to coach offense by letting players play....and then he got Rambo and Kelly and Heacock and Bernhardt and Wisnauskas and they put up Top 5 offenses every year from 2016-2019 with some of the best ball movement you'll see. So clearly he kinda cares about scoring goals and didn't just want to stall all the time.

Then it became he handcuffs the players and brow beats any aggressiveness out of them and doesn't believe in early offense or transition. Okay, well, in 2021-2022 the team had almost 50 goals scored by non-offensive players. So....clearly he cared about pushing early offense and transition then. Did they not care about transition when they were shredding UVA, who's held up as the transition and early offense team, in the middle of the field in 2022?

Tillman's won 2 titles and made a gajillion other Final Fours, you don't do this by having one mindset of how you're supposed to play. Is he too cautious with this team? Are they overcoached? Yes, that is entirely possible. Also, look, you're not going to push transition and early offense as effectively when you don't have any shorties who are great athletes and your best LSM isn't really a threat to score. John Geppert was a converted offensive middie, he was a much bigger weapon than the guys they have now.

Any changes we're talking about are on the margins. Of the Top 10 teams in adjusted defensive efficiency, Maryland has played 6 of them and they are 1 of the 10. They also played Notre Dame (12th) and Virginia (17th.) That's 2/3rds of their schedule against virtually Top 15 defenses. They've played the 2nd, 7th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 20th, 22nd, and 25th ranked scoring defenses. If you have an okay offense playing against elite defenses every week; you aren't going to score as much. Great pitching can beat great hitting.

Good perspective. Sometimes it's hard to see the bigger picture, especially after seeing that game yesterday! Thanks for the post.

[JerrysWorld]

I think Tillman is a little too cautious with this team. Also, people speak in generalizations with him and his mindset too much. From 2011-2015, it was that all he cared about was stalling and didn't know how to coach offense by letting players play....and then he got Rambo and Kelly and Heacock and Bernhardt and Wisnauskas and they put up Top 5 offenses every year from 2016-2019 with some of the best ball movement you'll see. So clearly he kinda cares about scoring goals and didn't just want to stall all the time.

Then it became he handcuffs the players and brow beats any aggressiveness out of them and doesn't believe in early offense or transition. Okay, well, in 2021-2022 the team had almost 50 goals scored by non-offensive players. So....clearly he cared about pushing early offense and transition then. Did they not care about transition when they were shredding UVA, who's held up as the transition and early offense team, in the middle of the field in 2022?

Tillman's won 2 titles and made a gajillion other Final Fours, you don't do this by having one mindset of how you're supposed to play. Is he too cautious with this team? Are they overcoached? Yes, that is entirely possible. Also, look, you're not going to push transition and early offense as effectively when you don't have any shorties who are great athletes and your best LSM isn't really a threat to score. John Geppert was a converted offensive middie, he was a much bigger weapon than the guys they have now.

Any changes we're talking about are on the margins. Of the Top 10 teams in adjusted defensive efficiency, Maryland has played 6 of them and they are 1 of the 10. They also played Notre Dame (12th) and Virginia (17th.) That's 2/3rds of their schedule against virtually Top 15 defenses. They've played the 2nd, 7th, 9th, 12th, 13th, 20th, 22nd, and 25th ranked scoring defenses. If you have an okay offense playing against elite defenses every week; you aren't going to score as much. Great pitching can beat great hitting.

This is probably the most rational post of the whole year. What a gauntlet they have played. And they have much more to play for!

[Essexfenwick]

The coaching is great. It’s the talent that’s just not there. The coaching is maximizing what they are working with. They are “being the best” they can be.

[stupefied]

Shot clock changed approaches .

NILs and transfer portal have also altered landscape, just ask Saban.
.

Talent is good nm, there is no 22 juggernaut out there, just a lot of good teams


Tillman is a top notch coach , doubt anyone out prepares .

[Wheels]

Preemptive post:

Anyone who brings up Bobby Benson, keep in mind 2 things.

1) During his two seasons running Tills' offense, he had Jared, Logan, Long, Donville, Khan, and DeMaio. 4 of those guys are Top 30 all-time in career points (1, 2, 19, 28). Khan is Nova's 5th all-time leading scorer. Donville was a 2nd team all-American his junior year at Cornell.

2) Benson's offenses in Friar Town have been ranked 32nd and 40th in opponent adjusted efficiency this year and last, respectively. For comparison, Maryland is 26th right now and finished 26th last year.

[masondixonlax]

It shouldn't have been surprising to see Smith take Erksa instead of Kilrain, who'd been taking the opponents' top dodger for a few weeks now. Erksa struggles with physical defensemen who can run well enough to at least keep a stick in his gloves. Usually, when you get a physical defender, you either want to use sharp change of direction dodges or get into the defender's body to then bounce out. Right now Erksa is a speed dodger and doesn't have much change of direction or even stop-gp kind of moves. He's a one-cut-and-go guy. Guys like Smith and Hudgens give Erksa problems. I thought they'd start running Erksa through the box just to force Hop to change their slides. Also, to give him more runway. Like those Kyle Long dodges coming out of the box and down the alley.

I was hoping Malever would be more assertive on Kilrain, who's got great feet but is like 180 lbs. I don't recall seeing many hard dodges to goal.

Then there's Spanos, who's gone pretty quiet the last 2 weeks. I think he has to be the guy on offense. He didn't dodge hard to the goal today, either. I don't know why.

The guys defer so much on offense.

Every type of defender gives Erksa problems. He just isn’t good enough to win matchups against #1 poles. He beat Smith 1v1 multiple times last year in this matchup. It was probably the best game he’s played in a Maryland uniform. If he struggles with guys like Smith and Hudgins, and also struggles with guys like Cole Kastner, then he just struggles period. It’s fine, there are a lot of guys who aren’t good enough to win their matchup or make things happen against elite defenseman. It’s hard. But we don’t need to qualify it based on the type of defender. He’s scored 7 goals the last 6 games and has more than 2 goals in exactly three games this year; one of which being against Brown.

Kilrain is maybe the best freshmen in the country and frankly might be their best pole already. Malever doesn’t even dodge shorties at this point. That was never going to be a winning matchup.

Being there in person does give you a strong idea for how unconfident the offense is. On the first man up Malever had the ball 5 yards from goal and needed to take one step to curl up field and shoot. He passed it to X. When they finally got some stuff going in the 3Q, there was virtually always an extra pass made when an open shot was available. There is just no confidence with anyone. I don’t believe that the team is “handcuffed” or anything like that, the talent is just limited and this is what you get. But that is one thing the coaching staff does bear some responsibility for. The players are so, so, *so* paralyzed by over decision making. Things have to be simplified and I don’t feel at any point this year that they have been.

Agree about Erska. If incoming class is as strong as I hope I think Erska and Malevers spot are up for the taking. Maybe Erska gets shifted up to coming out of the box but he doesn’t have the distributing abilities or lax/iq and is just so prone to mistakes. He’s not someone I’d want to have the ball in his stick as much as he does. Disappointing because he had such a strong freshman year. He is tied for 1rst for most turnovers per game among NCAA division 1.

[Wheels]

Regarding Spencer Ford, he's more like Eric Spanos size and style-wise. Wouldn't be surprised to see him follow Spanos' exact path. Gardiner out of Gonzaga is a strong lefty. Not sure he's exactly a dodger as much as a very good shooter.

Higgins comes in for 26 season. He's your quintessential X attack. Very quick and savvy.

[JerrysWorld]

Regarding Spencer Ford, he's more like Eric Spanos size and style-wise. Wouldn't be surprised to see him follow Spanos' exact path. Gardiner out of Gonzaga is a strong lefty. Not sure he's exactly a dodger as much as a very good shooter.

Higgins comes in for 26 season. He's your quintessential X attack. Very quick and savvy.

Ford is one is the best passers I’ve seen at the high school level. Pretty different player than Spanos. He could be a great QB if he had to be. I’d imagine he won’t be because of Higgins coming in the year after. Those 2 are very good together at Boys Latin.

[masondixonlax]

Regarding Spencer Ford, he's more like Eric Spanos size and style-wise. Wouldn't be surprised to see him follow Spanos' exact path. Gardiner out of Gonzaga is a strong lefty. Not sure he's exactly a dodger as much as a very good shooter.

Higgins comes in for 26 season. He's your quintessential X attack. Very quick and savvy.

Ford is one is the best passers I’ve seen at the high school level. Pretty different player than Spanos. He could be a great QB if he had to be. I’d imagine he won’t be because of Higgins coming in the year after. Those 2 are very good together at Boys Latin.

Would love to hear more about Ford from someone who has watched a lot. Only have watched 5 of his games and wasn’t overly impressed. He’s definitely not flashy but he seems really reliable and an excellent passer

[JerrysWorld]

Regarding Spencer Ford, he's more like Eric Spanos size and style-wise. Wouldn't be surprised to see him follow Spanos' exact path. Gardiner out of Gonzaga is a strong lefty. Not sure he's exactly a dodger as much as a very good shooter.

Higgins comes in for 26 season. He's your quintessential X attack. Very quick and savvy.

Ford is one is the best passers I’ve seen at the high school level. Pretty different player than Spanos. He could be a great QB if he had to be. I’d imagine he won’t be because of Higgins coming in the year after. Those 2 are very good together at Boys Latin.

Would love to hear more about Ford from someone who has watched a lot. Only have watched 5 of his games and wasn’t overly impressed. He’s definitely not flashy but he seems really reliable and an excellent passer

I live in Baltimore so I see him quite a bit. He is very skilled. Great passer and is a great finisher inside. Not overly athletic and doesn’t blow by people on his own super easily. But is physical enough that you can’t short stick him because he will get to spots on the field. Has a great IQ. Very good in 2man game. He will play next year. I would be surprised if he doesn’t start.

Kind of reminds me of the kid at OSU Jack Myers. Maybe a little more skilled and a little less athletic. Similar size.

[jrn19]

Ford reminds me of the younger Stanwicks. He doesn't have great foot speed, not overwhelming athleticism, but he always knows how to get to his spot, he's a tremendous passer, great stick skills, can play off-ball as well. Think of all the Boys Latin attackmen you've seen before (Stanwicks, Wisnauskas, Brandau) and he's got a lot of similar traits to them. He's not going to come in and blow anyone away with his dodging, but it is very easy to see how he's the exact type of player Tills would covet. He does everything else well, his IQ is super high, he doesn't need the ball all the time, and he's going to rack up points. He'll fit in very well at attack.

There are some similarities with Spanos in terms of size/athleticism, but Spanos was a guy who was much more dodging and 1v1 oriented - and he dominated in high school, it was understandable the hype he had come in.

[PulpExposure]

I actually think Spanos should be at X. While he leads the team in shooting percentage, he’s best around the cage with some shooting ability. He’s just a natural attackman, not an middie. And he’s got really good vision. Just wish he’d be more selfish (actually wish ANY of them would be).

Ford is really an interesting prospect to me. He’s not athletic enough to run out of the box to me, but he’s so damn smart and has such good stick skills he seems to be a natural around the crease. He won’t beat long poles with quickness but with size and smart movement off ball. He’s day 1 make your offense better.

Erksa really hasn’t developed. In fact, I feel like he’s regressed this year. His stick is just not where it needs to be. I do think he’d be best served out running out the midfield - with his speed, he’d be an absolute terror to a shortstick. But at this point he just can’t run an offense and shouldn’t be asked to.

And finally…hopefully someone can develop into that long range shooter this offense desperately needs. Gardiner can shoot but his preference really seems to be mid range off a dodge, not as a long range spot up shooter. Owen Murphy’s game the past two years has taken a massive step back and I think they were counting on him to fill that role.

Just amazing to me that we haven’t seen any of these midfield young guys be able to play. Stobaugh, Gravino, Aitken, etc.

Some other things - as noted above the man down defense is sort of unexplainedly awful (allows a goal on 57% of chances) and they’re a touch under 87% on clears. The latter stat just speaks to a lack of athleticism really.

[10stone5]

Given the above choices for Spencer Ford,

I’ll take Steele Stanwick v2.0.

[jrn19]

He feels more like Shack to me; but agreed a Stanwick is the comparison

[AreaLax]

Hopefully Tills and staff will work on fundamentals this week since the will not know their next opponent

In watching the game today they did point out that McNaney is in a 2 year maters program. Believe the said applied economics.