Faceoff wins could be a special factor for Maryland
The challenge of facing off against Trevor Baptiste in the NCAA Division I tournament semifinals looms as a daunting one for the Maryland men’s lacrosse team.
Baptiste — a junior and finalist for the Tewaaraton Award, college lacrosse’s version of the Heisman Trophy — has won almost 90 percent of the faceoffs he has taken in the postseason for Denver and has proven he can score as he has done 12 times this spring.
But if anything, the Terps are looking forward to the battle. After all, they gained the advantage over Albany freshman T.D. Ierlan, the country’s No. 2 faceoff specialist, in an 18-9 win in Sunday’s quarterfinal.
“Obviously, he’s [Baptiste] a great faceoff guy, and everyone knows that. But we played a great faceoff guy last week,” said senior defenseman Tim Muller, who at times will play on the wings on faceoffs. “So
I think that gives us a lot of preparation. We can look at what we did there and see if there are any similarities between them. If you can win some faceoffs and get some more possessions, that’s definitely going to be beneficial.”
How top-seeded Maryland (14-3) fares on faceoffs against Baptiste will play a significant role in today’s semifinal against the No. 5 seed Pioneers (13-3) at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The Terps are 5-2 in games in which they have won fewer than 50 percent of their draws, but1-2 in games in which their success rate dropped below 31 percent.
As impressive as a 16-of-30 showing against Ierlan was, the team now faces Baptiste, who leads the country in faceoff percentage at 75.7 and ranks second in ground balls per game at 10.8.
Baptiste has won 89.8 percent of his draws (44-of-49) and scooped up 31 loose balls in a pair of postseason routs against Air Force and No. 4 seed Notre Dame. He had an astonishing 95.5 percent (21-of-22) and13 ground balls in a 16-4 win over the Fighting Irish in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
Denver coach Bill Tierney said Baptiste’s season is even more remarkable considering what he endures from opponents.
“He has seen guys tackling him, grabbing him, grabbing his stick, hooking on his arms,” Tierney said. “He’s seen it all, and I’m assuming we’ll see some of that a little bit this week. But the idea for him is as a young man and a competitor, he’s just at another level.
“He will lose faceoffs. We’ve lost faceoffs in a lot of games. The idea is to learn from the ones you lose and hope you can correct it.”
ESPN analyst Matt Ward said the Terps must win at least 40 percent of the draws to have a shot at advancing to Monday’s title game.
“If they get into a situation where Notre Dame found themselves in, that’s 20 extra possessions for Denver,” said Ward, the former Virginia attackman and 2006 Tewaaraton Award winner. “The margin from 60-40, you can make up with ground balls and stops in the cage and caused turnovers. When it’s 80-20, 70-30, 90-10, you’re basically putting your goalie in a position where he has to save 100 percent of his shots and you have to get every single loose ball, and that’s becomes something that most teams can’t overcome.”
Maryland has gone with the trio of sophomore Austin Henningsen, senior Jon Garino Jr. and junior Will Bonaparte for faceoffs. Henningsen (47.2 percent) has been the primary faceoff specialist, but Garino won 85.7 percent (12-of-14) and collected eight ground balls against Ierlan on Sunday.
ESPN and Big Ten Network analyst Mark Dixon pointed out that the Terps have not been shy about rotating the three players, who were not made available by the school for interviews.
“If Henningsen is struggling, they have no problem with throwing Garino out there,” the former Johns Hopkins midfielder said. “If Garino is struggling, they have no problem with throwing Bonaparte out there. … Nobody likes to call their baby ugly from a mental aspect, but I think Maryland does a great job of recognizing when it’s time to throw this guy out there or that guy out there to be successful.”
Coach John Tillman said he has faith in Henningsen, Garino and Bonaparte.
“You have to be optimistic that you will have success,” he said. “So you can’t go into it feeling like, ‘OK, guys, we’re not just going to win any.’ You always have confidence in your guys when you’re putting together your game plan, and you have contingencies.
“But we have to basically play the way the game’s going. If we’re not winning faceoffs early, you hope that you can dig yourself out. If you are, you’ve got to make the most of those opportunities.”
Muller said the onus is not isolated to the faceoff specialists.
“Like Coach always says, ‘It’s a 10-on-10 faceoff,’ ” he said. “So we all have to be involved, and we all have to be ready. The wings are definitely a big part of it, getting in there and making it a ground ball. If they get it clean, making them turn it over. So it’s definitely a three-on-three battle up there and then it turns into a 10-on-10 battle.”