Maryland's Catalino in a little bit of a rut
This season, No. 8 Maryland has demonstrated a diversified offense capable of milking goals from a multitude of players.
But over the last three contests, the Terps’ biggest weapon – both literally and figuratively – has largely been silent.
Senior attackman Grant Catalino has registered just two goals and one assist in his last three games. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound Catalino, who has led the team in scoring in each of the previous three years, still ranks second among Maryland players in points with 28, but his quiet outings have been noticeable, especially in last Saturday’s 12-11 overtime loss to No. 4 Johns Hopkins where he was limited to a single goal by sophomore defenseman Chris Lightner.
Terps coach John Tillman, however, asserted that Catalino is playing within the team’s offensive system and contributing in ways that may not show up in the final statistics.
“If our offense is running the right way, every game, it should tweak a little bit in terms of who’s getting the goals and assists,” Tillman said. “We’ve kind of evolved as the season has come around. … People have keyed on him, but because they’ve keyed on him, it’s opened up so much more for everybody else, and that’s not lost on our coaching staff. And credit goes to Grant because Grant just wants to win. He doesn’t care if he scores or not. He wants to help the team, and he’ll do whatever is necessary for us to be successful. If that means scoring goals, he’ll be glad to do that. If that means distributing the ball or occupying a couple guys to open up something for somebody else, he’s happy doing that, too.”
One of Catalino’s linemates, senior Ryan Young, is a question mark for Friday’s Atlantic Coast Conference tournament opener against No. 7 North Carolina after the passing of his mother on Sunday night.
If Young, the team’s leader in both assists (17) and points (31), isn’t available, Tillman said senior Travis Reed could be ready to start after suffering a left shoulder injury on March 12.
“We’d probably do it by committee, but I’d probably give Travis the first go,” Tillman said. “That just makes the most sense to me. The hard thing with Ryan is, where is he going to emotionally? Only Ryan knows that and he might not know that.”
