Early in his career, Justin Guterding received an earful from another highly competitive Long Island native who immediately made an impact at Duke.

Matched up against Syracuse All-America defenseman Brandon Mullins and all-too-eager to make the most of the opportunity, Guterding took an ill-advised shot in what would become an ACC title game loss. Assistant coach Matt Danowski was not amused.

“When I came to the sideline, Matt said ‘This game is not about you —we need you to make the right play,’” Guterding recalled.

That moment that still sticks with Guterding, who elevated his all-around game this season while helping the Blue Devils (13-4) advance to Saturday’s NCAA tournament quarterfinal against third-seeded Ohio State.

Once a lethal finisher who benefitted from the presence of midfielders Deemer Class and Myles Jones, the junior is now the central conduit in Duke’s offense. He had four goals and six assists in Saturday’s 19-6 rout of Johns Hopkins, and has joined Danowski, Zack Greer and Jordan Wolf as the only players in program history with 90-point seasons.

Along the way, he’s forged a deep relationship with the assistant coach whom he watched a decade ago and has found some substantial common traits.

“I’m so similar to Matt,” Guterding said of their approach to the game. “We’re kind of the same guy, thoroughbreds that want to win so badly.”

For the Blue Devils to thrive this year, it was clear Guterding would need to evolve as a player. Class and Jones were gone, and Duke’s offensive strength shifted as a result to its attack.

Guterding produced a pair of 70-point seasons to open his career, and he and senior Jack Bruckner were easily the most established options on offense.

“Him and Jack were our only two returning starters,” Danowski said. “Whether they wanted to or not, they would have that responsibility. That’s the way it goes. We’re not doing stuff that we hadn’t done before or running things for him. He has been playing well on a team that’s playing well offensively.”

With 49 goals and 44 assists, Guterding is a goal away from joining Danowski as the only players in school history with a 50-40 season. No Blue Devil has ever authored a 50-50 year.

Guterding’s annual assist totals reflect his role in Duke’s offense. He had 18 as a freshman when he was mostly asked to work as a finisher, and bumped the total to 28 last spring before Class and Jones departed.

“The past seasons when we had Myles and Deemer, I took a back seat to them they’re first team All-Americans,” Guterding said. “I played off them, and now it’s my turn and my time to step up as an upperclassman. Credit to the individual work I’ve done with Matt. He’s helped me grow as a feeder and more of an even points guy. Instead of going 50-and-20, now it’s more like 45-and-45 — a lot more of an even game.”

For his part, Danowski credits candor for strengthening the bond between player and assistant coach. Danowski faced his own growth curve at Duke more than a decade ago, and knows better than nearly anyone the process of learning how to most effectively harness an ultra-competitive spirit.

“It just makes it easy,” Danowski said. “We can be brutally honest with each other. He’s done a good job balancing everything. It’s not him versus the defense, it’s Duke versus the opponent. When you’re that competitive, you can get caught up in the battle within the game.”

The ability to even things out contributed directly to the Blue Devils’ improvement throughout the season. Their inexperienced midfield has become more effective, and Guterding is just 10 points shy of Wolf’s single-season school record of 103 set in 2014.

“Guys like Justin are a joy to coach,” Duke coach John Danowski said. “They’re stubborn. Matt was stubborn. Max Quinzani was stubborn. Zach Howell was stubborn. Jordan Wolf was stubborn. The great ones, they’re so fiery and so competitive, but you wouldn’t want it any other way.”

When the subject of making it out of the first round was broached Saturday, Guterding did not shy away from postseason disappointments of the last two years. As much as John Danowski tries to stick to the present, the standard at Duke — three national titles since 2010 — is hard to miss.

And for the ultra-competitive Guterding, there’s some storied company he hopes to join regardless of his final numbers.

“From a legacy standpoint, it doesn’t matter how many points you have or how many goals you score — it’s if you win,” Guterding said. “I want to be like Jordan Wolf, who went off with back-to-back titles [in 2013 and 2014]. Or guys like [2010 national champ] Ned Crotty. I want to have my name mentioned as a winner.”

Terps double up

An interesting development for Maryland of late is its willingness to double-pole on faceoffs. The Terrapins (13-3) did so for much of Sunday’s 13-10 defeat of Bryant, and it’s possible they continue to use the strategy in Sunday’s quarterfinal against Albany.

Coach John Tillman said he planned to take that approach much of the season, but an injury to Mac Pons curtailed those plans since it left the Terps thinner at close defense.

With Pons back as a defensive option, Maryland leaned on the rotation of Nick Brozowski, Tim Muller, Matt Neufeldt and Bryce Young to work on the wings.

“We have four guys we feel like we can use, and now that Mac’s back, we just like that we have a four-man rotation because it does burn your defensemen down a little bit,” Tillman said. “We feel like we have a little bit more depth there and it does save Isaiah [Davis-Allen] and some of the short sticks a little bit, too.”

The strategy helped Maryland win 13 of 25 draws against Bryant, the first time in seven games the Terps held an edge in the category.

Great Danes, Buckeyes seek breakthrough

As much talk as there is annually about new contenders breaking through, only four programs have made their first trip to Memorial Day weekend this century: Notre Dame (2001), Massachusetts (2006), Delaware (2007) and Denver (2011).

The list could grow by two this weekend. Third-seeded Ohio State must upend Duke to advance to the semifinals, while eighth-seeded Albany needs to defeat Maryland to reach Foxborough. Both the Buckeyes and the Great Danes are making their fourth all-time appearance in the quarterfinal.

If both collect victories, it will mark the first time two schools reached their first final four in the same year since Loyola and Yale did so in 1990.

Etc.

Second-seeded Syracuse is 27-5 all-time in quarterfinals, but has dropped three of its last four games in the round. The Orange meet Towson on Sunday. …  No. 1 seeds are 44-2 all-time in the quarterfinals, with 1999 Loyola and 2011 Syracuse the only top seeds to tumble prior to the semifinals. …

An unseeded team has reached the semifinals in six of the last seven seasons, with eventual champion North Carolina doing so last year. Both Duke and Towson are unseeded quarterfinalist this season. …

Denver’s Bill Tierney has coached in 60 NCAA tournament games since his postseason debut in 1990, and Notre Dame’s Kevin Corrigan has 40 NCAA games since guiding the Irish to the tournament for the first time in 1990. Despite that overlap, Saturday marks only the second postseason matchup between the coaches. Tierney and Denver edged Corrigan and Notre Dame 11-10 in the 2015 semifinals. …

In addition to Denver-Notre Dame, Duke-Ohio State is also a rematch from the 2015 postseason. The Buckeyes trounced the Blue Devils 16-11 in the first round that year. The teams also met in the 2008 quarterfinals, a 21-10 Duke rout. Albany-Maryland and Syracuse-Towson are first-time postseason matchups. …

Ohio State’s victory over Loyola in the first round marked the first time in tournament history there was a 7-4 final score. It was also the lowest-scoring postseason game since Virginia’s 6-5 defeat of Princeton in 2012.