Maryland 2024

[coda]

This thread reads like a post-mortem on a wasted season. You guys are performing an autopsy on the patient while he’s still alive, already looking at 2025. Man.

Tillman could turn this around with one decision: go uptempo. You’ve got an AA first teamer at FOGO but you take the full shot clock to get off crud shots. THAT MAKES NO SENSE EVEN IF YOUR TEAM NEEDS BETTER SHOOTERS. Make it take it. Let the boys feast.

Go up tempo how?

Look, everyone here loves Luke Wierman. He's the best FOGO in the history of the program, a pivotal part of the best team/runs in program history and one of the best teams ever. He's also clearly not the same player that he was. He's at 59% this year, the year they played fast BECAUSE they had him (2022), he won 66%. That's a drop-off.

Here's his performance in their most notable games:
Syracuse: 16-29 (55%)
Notre Dame: 12-25 (48%)
Virginia: 16-28 (57%)
Michigan: 11-27 (41%)
Penn State: 16-27 (59%)
Ohio State: 13-18 (72%)
Rutgers: 11-21 (52%)
Hopkins: 9-15 (60%)

Overall, he's at 55%. That's a good FOGO. He is absolutely helping this team stay in games they otherwise may not and giving the offense possession they desperately need. But you don't play make it, take it with a 55% FOGO. He's winning every other draw essentially. The two games you could argue they should have done something like that were OSU and Hopkins but the game was a slow pace and the fewer FOs, the less impact he has. The closest they came to actually doing what you're suggesting is the Penn State game....when he DID dominate face-offs in the 2H. But overall, he's a good FOGO who gives them possessions. To play make it, take it and dramatically increase their pace of play, he'd need to be winning >60%. He's not doing that.

Secondly, they don't have shorties who can push transition. There's no Fairman, no Puglise, heck not even really a Josh Coffman from a few years ago. Stamos appears to have some potential, but he's one guy. Kolar, Sharkey, Redd....these guys just are not great athletes. They're not dudes who run the field. Jack McDonald is not a long pole who pushes in transition the way John Geppert was.

There's no point in trying to start playing dramatically faster as if that's the solution when you A) don't have the pieces to do it and B) aren't winning faceoffs to ensure you're dominating possessions. They aren't dominating possessions. It's like 50/50.

We all watch every game this team plays. Some others who are commenting do not and just go off boxscores or the one or two games they do watch. Just GOING UPTEMPO is not the solution. Can they play faster? Sure. Should they manufacture some stuff with sub games and things like that? Yes. It would help.

If going up tempo would suddenly just fix it and make Maryland a great offense, John Tillman would do it. For crying out loud, they had THIRTY THREE goals scored by non-offensive players in 2022. Go find me the last team to do that. He's not an ideologue. He wants to win.

This is the hand they're dealt and it's not a great one. The staff is probably not pressing the right buttons either. But there is no magic fix to this and people not to stop projecting their issues with Maryland's style of play or Tillman's previous proclivities to stall - when it was smart to do so! - onto who he is as a coach. Actually analyze the situation in front of you.

Just as an aside. The PSU game is a bit of an outlier, because PSU gave Maryland multiple transition goals. The PSU fogo would lose the face and inexplicably run off the field and make it 6 v 5. It was very strange. I am not sure that is a good example of Maryland working the transition or PSU having a really poor plan for the faceoff

[Wheels]

Just as an aside. The PSU game is a bit of an outlier, because PSU gave Maryland multiple transition goals. The PSU fogo would lose the face and inexplicably run off the field and make it 6 v 5. It was very strange. I am not sure that is a good example of Maryland working the transition or PSU having a really poor plan for the faceoff

Seriously one of the strangest strategies I've seen in a while, and it wasn't the first time he's done that against the Terps. Just really odd.

Penn State turns the ball over a lot, and they don't ride at all.

So here's Maryland. A team that hasn't looked to run much this year. A team that has turnover issues, and a team has struggled against teams that pressure them on the ride.

And Penn State seems to want to give Maryland a pass on those parts of the game. Really baffling. Penn State hasn't utilized any pressure rides all year, either. Just haven't shown it. They also don't do that deep zone ride that forces Maryland to eat almost 20 seconds on the clear.

Rutgers and Penn State have such a strange mental block when it comes to Maryland. Kinda like Maryland seems to have when playing Michigan.

[keno in reno]

Rutgers and Penn State have such a strange mental block when it comes to Maryland. Kinda like Maryland seems to have when playing Michigan.

Not sure there's a fair basis for this. Maryland has always been more talented than Rutgers every game, and the Terps have won every one amazingly. Maryland has been more talented than Penn State like 39 of the 41 or 42 games they've played, and PSU dominated Maryland in 2019 when PSU was clearly better.
Michigan has won the last few games against not-great Maryland teams. That's not a mental block, that's just circumstances and normal sports competition.

[JerrysWorld]

I don’t think MD will be that much different on offense. They kind of are who they are with the personnel. Maybe a shake up or too there.

But I hope there is a decision to push transition.

[coda]

Rutgers and Penn State have such a strange mental block when it comes to Maryland. Kinda like Maryland seems to have when playing Michigan.

Not sure there's a fair basis for this. Maryland has always been more talented than Rutgers every game, and the Terps have won every one amazingly. Maryland has been more talented than Penn State like 39 of the 41 or 42 games they've played, and PSU dominated Maryland in 2019 when PSU was clearly better.
Michigan has won the last few games against not-great Maryland teams. That's not a mental block, that's just circumstances and normal sports competition.

I think that is more about the face-off.. Michigan is one team that has consistently given Wierman issues.

[jrn19]

Win today and they're guaranteed a home game. They could even really climb up the ladder if they win two this weekend. Lose, and they're going to be going on the road in the first round.

So it's a big one. I agree with everything said above about Penn State being probably the best match-up for them in B1G play (aside from Rutgers, who's just not good.) Chance to win a lot of FOs, a team that's not very good in the clear/ride game. Terps could strangle some possessions and get a nice cushion they can ride. However, have to be much, MUCH better from the jump defending the two man games and picks with Malone. They got ate up in the first half of Game 1 against them off of that, and it's been a problem in first halves for awhile now (see Angelus' first two goals for Hop.) Need to be dialed in there.

[jrn19]

Your bye week adjustment update: Malever moves to midfield and somehow the offense looks *even worse*

[MVPiccoli]

Watched the play live and then replayed it several times on Hulu. Kid was moving right away. Freak landing.

[DocBarrister]

Holy cow. Nasty injury. Hope he’s ok.

DocBarrister

[keno in reno]

Can't tell if this is Tillman's best job coaching or his worst. Best job cuz he somehow got this awful collection of offensive talent to the NCAA tournament. Or worst job because it's clearly his worst Maryland team.

[jrn19]

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Either way, things are clearly broken right now. Program needs a reset in the off-season. Gotta change up how they’re doing things and commit to a massive injection of new talent. What’s happening now isn’t working.

[jrn19]

worst performance + loss of the Tillman era, following up on the previous in the Big Ten Tournament last year to Michigan

Hope Erksa is okay

Things are just broke right now. The offense is cooked, and when Wierman doesn't win FOs, the defense has carried a weight that is now bogging them down. They continue to get off to poor starts on that side as well. We all knew the formula for this team to have success after the first month. They've never really come close to putting it together since then.

They'll go on the road next week, and no matter who they play, it's incredibly hard to see how this changes in a week. Tillman's pulled off some tournament magic tricks before and got them righted, but I'm not sure it's ever been this bad and if there are answers to fixing this offense - that I'm unsure of - it doesn't appear as if the staff has the answers. And you ain't winning a tournament game scoring 8 goals

Things have just totally compounded and snowballed on this team and feels like the end is coming

It'll be the end of an era in some ways with some key pieces of the 2021-22 run leaving. It's time to start anew. They have to autopsy this season especially, but also last year, and find out what's gone wrong. The standard not only isn't being met, they are a mile away from it right now. Need a real overhaul of the roster with a lot of fresh faces coming in next year. The status quo won't work.

But hopefully they can find one more magic trick next week

[Wheels]

Opponents have such little respect for Maryland shooters that when the ball goes behind the goal, every off-ball defensive player basically sloughs in to 5-and-5. Maryland midfielder also slough in, so the recoveries for the defense are pretty easy. Outside of Siracusa and occasionally Spanos, no one dodges with conviction. It's all shadow dodging. Without any outside hammers, there's no need to worry.

I'm not sure Erksa should play attack. Without any space, his greatest asset - speed - is negated. He's not big enough to dodge through contact. He's not a change-of-direction dodger. So moving him to midfield gives him more runway. The lack of a lefty dodger hurts, but probably not as much as the lack of shooters.

Lots of people think you can find portal guys. Maybe you can find 2 good shooters, and maybe that opens up more space for everyone else to dodge or find passing lanes.

The most concerning thing to me tonight was the lack of fight in the team. 11-3 at halftime...just didn't look like they had any fight. They showed some in the 3rd, but once Penn State hit that 13th goal, it was over.

[AllaboutLax]

No one to blame but Tillman when it comes to offense. Period. The last 2 years have been pathetic. Let your offensive coordinator run the offense.

[jrn19]

The Navy fans on here blame Phipps. Everyone else blames Tillman. Maryland fans point out the talent deficit. Everyone’s got someone they wanna blame. It doesn’t really matter. It sucks and they gotta fix it.

I think the team is completely out of confidence and has been for awhile. At least the offense is for sure. 5 goals in the biggest game of the year was probably the straw breaking the camel’s back. It’s snowballed down hill and they’ve never got it back.

I’m not sure about talent in the portal. It’s not going to be deep this year. Maybe you can find the right fit as a shooter somewhere. But I think they need to lean heavily in on the young guys. It’s time to start over and really Re-make the offense. Also, frankly, their portal additions the last couple years were either non existent (2023) or not particularly good (2024.) Sharkey is meh. Alviti has vanished, was just okay when he did play. Griffin King literally didn’t get on the field at all till tonight. Canfield was the one good pickup. So either the talent ID is off or they just aren’t winning the battles in the portal.

Either way, again, it doesn’t matter who’s to blame. Everyone has blame when it’s gotten this bad. It isn’t one thing. But it’s gotta change.

[keno in reno]

I've written several times that top seeds will be really unhappy to draw Maryland early. Completely wrong. This will be the worst offense in the tournament. The defense is fine, but PSU showed how easy it is to attack the shorties. Top seeds will be happy to draw this team.

[masondixonlax]

The Navy fans on here blame Phipps. Everyone else blames Tillman. Maryland fans point out the talent deficit. Everyone’s got someone they wanna blame. It doesn’t really matter. It sucks and they gotta fix it.

I think the team is completely out of confidence and has been for awhile. At least the offense is for sure. 5 goals in the biggest game of the year was probably the straw breaking the camel’s back. It’s snowballed down hill and they’ve never got it back.

I’m not sure about talent in the portal. It’s not going to be deep this year. Maybe you can find the right fit as a shooter somewhere. But I think they need to lean heavily in on the young guys. It’s time to start over and really Re-make the offense. Also, frankly, their portal additions the last couple years were either non existent (2023) or not particularly good (2024.) Sharkey is meh. Alviti has vanished, was just okay when he did play. Griffin King literally didn’t get on the field at all till tonight. Canfield was the one good pickup. So either the talent ID is off or they just aren’t winning the battles in the portal.

Either way, again, it doesn’t matter who’s to blame. Everyone has blame when it’s gotten this bad. It isn’t one thing. But it’s gotta change.

It's the lack of talent period. Tills has a large body of work that proves he's one of the best in the business. Phipps has only been at Maryland since what November? It could be a few down years until new talent comes in and matures to be a legitimate tournament threat. Very little confidence on any of MD's offensive current talent going forward.

[Essexfenwick]

This is Tillman’s greatest coaching job. He got this team within 2-3 goals of a B1G championship. The pieces just aren’t there and he almost pulled off a miracle. I’ve said this for months.

[LaxPundit07]

This is Tillman’s greatest coaching job. He got this team within 2-3 goals of a B1G championship. The pieces just aren’t there and he almost pulled off a miracle. I’ve said this for months.

They lost by 10 in the conference semis….and they were “within 2-3 goals of a B1G championship”? What am I missing here?

[keno in reno]

This is Tillman’s greatest coaching job. He got this team within 2-3 goals of a B1G championship. The pieces just aren’t there and he almost pulled off a miracle. I’ve said this for months.

They lost by 10 in the conference semis….and they were “within 2-3 goals of a B1G championship”? What am I missing here?

Regular season