Maryland basketball
Turgeon upbeat about next year's team
Trimble back for 3rd season, recruit class has improved
Maryland men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon was “a little high” with his honorary first pitch at Camden Yards on Thursday night.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Turgeon hadn't practiced for the occasion, which was part of the athletic department's Maryland Pride summer tour. Given the transformation of the Terps over the past few weeks, it appears Turgeon and his staff have been a little busy.
In baseball terms, Turgeon and his assistants have been throwing strikes on the recruiting trail.
While the return of point guard Melo Trimble for his junior year had more to do with the 6-foot-3 sophomore's up-and-down performance at the recent NBA draft scouting combine in Chicago and individual team workouts, the three additions Maryland made were more a reflection of the way Turgeon sold his program.
The loss of the team's other four starters from last season's 27-9 Sweet 16 team — including all three frontcourt starters — was certainly one of the selling points that Turgeon made to Duquesne graduate transfer L.G. Gill, as well as to incoming freshmen Justin Jackson and Joshua Tomaic.
“The glaring weakness was Robert Carter's position,” Turgeon said before Thursday's Orioles-Boston Red Sox game. “I'm happy for Robert, it's been great for him, but [his leaving] was unexpected. To get L.G. Gill, to pick up Josh late and a Justin Jackson kind of gives us a lot of versatility to play a lot of different ways.”
Turgeon credited his staff with turning what had been a solid three-player recruiting class ranked between 15th and 21st nationally into a five-man class now considered in the top 10, right behind Michigan State among Big Ten Conference schools.
Turgeon also knew the Terps were fortunate regarding Trimble, the team's leading scorer in each of his first two seasons.
“We put our head down, we got lucky, and we were blessed with Melo coming back. We didn't expect Melo to come back,” Turgeon said. “It helps give us a little momentum going into next year.”
Turgeon said he anticipates Trimble will have a different type of season than he did as a sophomore.
“I think he'll approach this year totally different than he did last year,” Turgeon said. “I keep saying, ‘Last year, Melo had a target on his back, this year he's going to have a chip on his shoulder.'
“I don't think he'll have the pressure on him that he did last year. Our team had a tremendous amount on us. I think he grew from that. Melo just has to play for Maryland and be the best player that he can for Maryland and the rest will take care of itself.”
Turgeon said Jackson had committed to Maryland orally before Trimble's May 25 decision to pull his name out of the draft, less than three hours before the NBA deadline, though the announcement for the 6-7 forward from Canada was held until May 26 while the paperwork was being completed.
“That was a lot of work, Bino [Ranson] did a great job,” Turgeon said, referring to one of his assistants.
As for Tomaic, a 6-8 forward from the Canary Islands, Turgeon said he won't make any decisions regarding redshirting until Tomaic gets on campus in a couple of weeks. It sounded Thursday as if Turgeon believes Tomaic's versatility could be a positive for next season.
“He's a good player, he allows us to do a lot of different things,” Turgeon said. “It's too early to tell [whether he will redshirt] what's going to happen with our group. The good thing is we're going to have unbelievably competitive practices [and] that's going to make our team better.”
Damonte Dodd, who along with Gill will be one of the team's two seniors next season, said the atmosphere surrounding the Terps will be much different than it was last season, when they started No. 3 in the preseason rankings and were picked among the favorites to win a national title.
“I feel that this team is definitely going to be off the radar because they're probably wondering who we have,” the 6-11 center said Thursday at Camden Yards. “Which is good because that's what happened my sophomore year and that's what made us take off because we were working to be great. I feel that it will make this team work harder and we'll go even further this year.”
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