Maryland coach John Tillman and Greg Danseglio have a postgame ritual where Tillman texts the long-stick midfielder, “I don’t know where we would be without you.” And Danseglio always texts back, “Thanks, Coach. Have a good night.”
“He says that to me, and I tell him that we’d be in the same spot,” Danseglio said Thursday, three days before the top-seeded Terps (14-2) host Quinnipiac (12-3) in an NCAA tournament first-round game at Maryland Stadium in College Park on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. “It’s just a credit to the coaches and the system that we play. I really think that a lot of guys could be where I’m at. I’m just happy and grateful that it’s me.”
Perhaps Danseglio, a redshirt senior who sat out last spring after transferring from Virginia, is right. But when Matt Neufeldt, a key contributor at long-stick midfielder as a freshman in 2015, was lost in the fall because of a torn ACL in his knee, Danseglio moved from close defense to long-pole. He leads Maryland in ground balls (59) and ranks second in caused turnovers (15).
Danseglio said he hated the idea of losing Neufeldt.
“When Matt went down, I was upset for him because Matt’s really tough and was one of the best freshmen in the country last year,” Danseglio said. “I just felt really bad. I didn’t know who was going to play pole.”
Despite Danseglio’s humility, Tillman hasn’t budged on his stance about Danseglio.
“I’m not sure where we would be without him,” Tillman said. “He’s just been a great factor for us this year. He does a really good job with our settled defense – whether it’s playing the ball or playing off the ball. He’s really good in the clearing game, and he’s good on wings on faceoffs. So he’s a very complete defenseman.”
Danseglio said he doesn’t monitor his personal statistics and has one priority when he’s lining up on a wing for a faceoff.
“I kind of just look at every faceoff as, ‘What can I do to make sure I don’t have to play defense?’” he said. “Everyone always laughs at me when I say that. They want me to shoot more and do all of this. I’m just like, ‘Well, if I shoot and something bad happens, then I have to go back and play defense.’ It’s not that I don’t like playing defense, but giving the offense an opportunity to get in the flow and set their tempo early in the game is something that is really important for us. So we try not to do too much, just trying to get the ball to the offense and let those guys settle in a little bit.”