John Tillman on Maryland men's lacrosse heading to Final Four, win vs. Georgetown

Ahmed Ghafir
5 hours ago
8 min read

For the fourth time in five years and ninth time in 11, Maryland men’s lacrosse is back in the Final Four after the Terps took down Georgetown, 9-6, in front of over 17,000 fans in Annapolis on Sunday afternoon.

Braden Erksa led the way with three goals, including two early in the fourth quarter to give Maryland cushion after Georgetown cut the deficit to one twice in the second half. With now nine ranked wins this season, Maryland is now set to take on six-seed Syracuse next Saturday, May 24 at 2:30 PM in Gillette Stadium.

Head coach John Tillman breaks down what went right for Maryland on Sunday:

On the defensive matchup vs. Georgetown A Aidan Carroll

“It’s usually a combination of three things. Jesse [Bernhardt] puts together a good game plan. He and coach [Tim] O'Branski kind of work that end the field. We have really good parts, but really smart parts. You have good athletes down there, but guys that like they understand how to play, not only on ball, but off the ball. Because if you just watch that, like Duke game, probably watched it too much, but even just the first possession, I think they set picks in four different areas, and you have to be on point. So not only is it like you marking your guy, but your pick games got to be good. Like, you've got to let that guy know. You got to know where you are. You can't get picked off. And they are really good at it. And I think the third part is, and I get, I know we get picked on a little bit for it, but like, we had a guy like Johnny Gardiner this week was Aiden Carroll and he was phenomenal. And he just kept dodging and dodging and dodging. And then Eliot Dubick was too. And those guys are awesome, because they are definitely guys that bring it and they talk so much smack to these guys. And I always get on those guys, because I'm like, listen, if they score, you got to take it. Stop it. And so I think the combination of having a scout team and guys that buy into that role, which is not easy, because you want to play, but then these guys, understanding game plan and Jesse put it together, you need those three things and you just need to get enough reps. And then on game day, like today, it was just listen, we played this game. It is a Big Ten game. Like we played this all year long. Don't change anything. Like it's going to be a grind. Don't flinch. And I agree. I think Jonah [Carrier] was tremendous today. We needed them. And then when he started winning face offs, I felt like just the flow of the game changed, because early on, they were kicking our teeth in on ground balls. I just felt like they were better off the ground. They did better job on the wings, and that was something we tried to address. But Jonah was huge today.”

On avoiding comfort in late game situations, postseason success

“We talked about it with the guys that just breaking the game down and just like, each possession, just that's all that matters, and each clear and then each offensive set and then each ride. Like just break it down to small parts. Don't overthink it. And we did put a big emphasis. They've been starting strong. So, like, the first five minutes for us was huge, because if you watch that Duke game, they definitely come out hot. They're up 2-0 early. And then you could just tell that sideline was just buzzing. They had great energy. So we wanted to make sure, like regardless of what happens today, that first five minutes huge. So every day of practice, the first five minutes was a focus. And so we just needed to match that because Kevin does a great job with his group. He gives the best speeches. He gets the guys going. So we knew they'd be buzzing. I think the other thing that crowd was we just got a lot of juice from them, which really helped, because there were definitely some times where it was not going great. They go up 4-3, and then we took that punch and then the punch back, I thought was huge. And then to have the lead halftime was huge.”

On senior M Geordy Holmes

“The first two goals were, as Patrick said, we practiced some ten-man just in case, because I know Kev does a lot with the riding and clearing. And a lot of times we'll bring Spanos back and we found him. He found Daniel, and then Geordy was an offensive guy in high school so we have a lot of confidence in him. He's great in a clearing game. He makes good decisions, but he hammers the ball. Like he does shoot the ball really well. So even in practice, he is not afraid to pull the trigger. And with this group like we need some transition. We got to explore those opportunities, especially in games like this. Like the six on six opportunities gonna be tough so if you can get some transition, you gotta explore it and make the most of it. And I thought Geordy was great. That was huge for us.”

On the physicality between Maryland vs. Georgetown

“I mean, Maryland's always been a team that prides itself on being physical. We got some big dudes that like to throw their body around. And so I think our guys like being physical down there – sometimes being a little too physical. And Georgetown’s physical. I thought at times like they knocked us around. And so that's just Kev. Kev does a really good job with that group. So it was like that – those Big Ten games are all like this. It just felt like that the whole time. Again, really good defense. Teams that are just struggling to kind of get some leverage and create opportunities because the defenses are so good.”

On containing Georgetown’s attack

“I think, you know, just staying on point. I think with their personnel, you have to be very keen to the knowns. If you look at, you know, like, [Fulton Bayman] has been great behind the goal and they set a lot of picks for him back there. And then you'll see [Aidan Carroll] up top. And then [Kade Goldberg] is an excellent feeder and got a nice goal today, but [Jack Ransom] is good inside. Jordan Wray can stretch you. So really, just identifying the skill sets, and then the guys, knowing personnel, we call KYP, and just knowing what each guy does, well, even [Lucas] Dudemaine had a great goal, two goals like cuts left-handed Canadian, very skilled, can shoot the ball. So I think if you can play some of those tendencies, it'll help you. But John Hogan's done such a good job of that offense that they're just going to work you and probe, and if you break down, it's a problem. And we had some breakdowns and they scored and then sometimes where Logan bail us out, which is huge.”

On going against Georgetown head coach Kevin Warne

“It's kind of like this whole week was an interesting dynamic with Michael having been at Georgetown, and then obviously, with Kevin have been here, and then Michael and I have both coached here. Obviously, it's always special to be here. [I] spent a lot of time here. I owe this place a lot. And coming back here, we talked about it this week, just the place in general. It was our second time here. The guys ran the Travis Manion run. And obviously he was a guy that we talk a lot about. He's the cousin of one of our players. We talked about Brendan Looney. Billy Looney spoke to our team this year. So we just talked about, like, what this place means. We had the guys kind of look around yesterday, take it all in. Obviously the courage and just the strength and the bravery and just the character of the people here, making sure that we represent that. In terms of just the two staffs, it definitely, I mean, Michael was the [offensive] coordinator for Kevin. So there was this, each day, what do you think Kev is thinking here? What do you what should we do here? What are they going to do? And so you're trying to kind of anticipate some things. So we definitely, you know, you can't deviate too far from what you do, but you can throw in some little wrinkles. But you are kind of hypothesizing, like, would they do this? Would they do this? Like, who's going to match up with who? And then, hopefully it helps, but Kev, I spent five years with him. He is a great coach. I'm not surprised at the success they've had. He is dedicated. I love his family. Kevin, I either call or text almost every day. He texted me on Tuesday or Monday with a picture of his daughter Campbell in Maryland gear that I'd sent her and he's like, what the heck. My family's against me right now, and I think they were harassing him and Patrick as well, but their family's great. We're still very tight, so it's an awkward week, but we have jobs to do and we got to stay focused on that. And I respect that. He's trying to get his program to where he wants, and we have an obligation to take Maryland where we need to and do our best for our kids. So it really turns into Maryland vs. Georgetown. It kind of stinks for a week, but then you get past it, and this summer, we'll probably give each other rides to different recruiting events. He'll distract me with funny stories so I can't really recruit and we'll probably eat a lot of bad food. But again, I can't say enough good things about Kev and obviously his staff but he's a good friend and again, a lot of our success here at Harvard, I have to give to him, because he did such a great job. He'd never do it alone, and you need a great staff. And Kevin was great.”

On Braden Erksa’s three goals vs. Georgetown after five turnovers in round one

“Braden’s awesome. We're still trying to figure him out a little bit. We love him to death. He's so dedicated and he's so darn talented, and so we're – and Michael has a great relationship with him. He's always putting in extra work. He really cares a lot. And there are flashes of like today where he can just do things that you're like, holy crap, like you just can't coach that because he's so bouncy, he's fast. And in games like this, that can make the difference. Certainly I thought they kind of matched up the way that you want, the way that we thought putting [Robert Plath] on him but he got some different guys on him and he is so fast that if you don't support the matchup, he can run by you. And if you help too much, he can find that open guy. So again, I think guys are starting to feel comfortable with him down there. And he's kind of an underrated inside guy. We have him on man-up. He had a couple good looks today I'm sure he wants back but we'll keep throwing to him because we have a lot of confidence that down the road he’ll throw the ball in for sure.”

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