Losses motivate Terps for long postseason run
Turgeon focuses on defense ahead of Big Ten tourney
Having repeated consistently since preseason practice that his talented group would probably be the proverbial work in progress until March, Turgeon knows that he and the Terps must fix things quickly or risk being called one of the most underachieving teams in school history.
Whether Maryland (24-7) has taken the necessary steps should be evident when the third-seeded Terps play in the Big Ten Conference tournament quarterfinals tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Maryland will face No. 11 seed Nebraska, which beat No. 6 seed Wisconsin in a 70-58 upset Thursday night.
Once considered a potential No. 1 seed in this year's NCAA tournament, the Terps will likely have to advance to Saturday's semifinals just to have a chance at a No. 4 seed after losing four of their last six regular-season games.
“I think the regular-season grind is behind us,” Turgeon said. “I think our guys have moved on. I think that happened when we landed Sunday night [after losing at Indiana]. Practices have been good. Attitudes have been good. … I think you can see a little more pep in their step, and they're excited with what lies ahead.”
Senior guard Rasheed Sulaimon said the Terps are looking at the Big Ten tournament “as a mini-version of the NCAA tournament.”
“Instead of six games, it's three games and [if] you lose, you go home,” he said. “We're going to use the Big Ten tournament as preparation for the NCAA tournament and at the same time we're going to try to win it.”
Before today's matchup was determined, Turgeon said the uncertainty of whom the Terps will face has given him the opportunity to correct his team's problems rather than focus on running through what challenge their next opponent presents.
“It's great not thinking about who you're going to play,” Turgeon said. “You have a good idea who you think it's going to be. It's a chance for us to really work on us because I don't know what next week is going to be like, how well we're going to do this weekend, if we'll play until Sunday night, then have a quick turnaround. We don't know. This week is really a work week to make us better.”
Turgeon said much of the week's practices have been spent on defense. Though the Terps finished the regular season at or near the top of the league in several defensive categories, they struggled at that end in all the recent losses as well as in a four-point win over Michigan.
“We've got to get back to guarding; we haven't done that as well,” he said.
Some believe the Big Ten tournament will be a positive step for the Terps, while others think the danger signs for a quick exit in the NCAA tournament are hard to ignore.
Shon Morris, a former Northwestern basketball player who works as an analyst for the Big Ten Network, said on air Monday night that he wouldn't be surprised to see the Terps find their way out of the funk that has caused them to fall from a No. 2 national ranking a month ago.
“All the pressure coming in here is going to be on Indiana, Purdue and to a lesser extent Michigan,” Morris said Thursday. “It's hard to be disappointed in a team that's 24-7, but a lot of people are. They're a team that no one's really expecting them to make a run and the way this thing lays out, they may have a chance to put things together, especially with Trimble getting healthy.”
ESPN analyst Dan Dakich, who worked several Maryland games this season, predicted in January that the Terps could be one of those teams that would have trouble living up to the expectations, in large part because there were a number of important players who were not only new to the team, but also new to the Big Ten.
“The Big Ten at the upper part of it is tough,” Dakich said Thursday. “That's what I tried to say at the beginning of the season. … Success is hard. You have success at a school like Maryland and people are telling you how great you are. And you've got to be able to handle it. I think they've handled it fine, I think they've had a good year. Based on their schedule, it was tough for them to have a great year against the top teams in the Big Ten.”
Dakich is not sure Maryland is going to be able to turn it around based on the way the Terps have played of late and the teams they might play in the tournament.
“This is what I saw against Indiana and if I was Mark, it would concern me,” Dakich said. “I thought they came out to play a really good game. They looked good, they were athletic, they made some shots. And then I thought Indiana just took them apart. Really connected teams that have talent never get taken apart. They don't crumble, and I thought for a lot of that game Maryland crumbled.”
Dakich said Maryland has enough talent and size but that the chemistry of the team must get back to where it was earlier in the season.
Trimble has heard many fans turn into doubters the past few weeks, and the Terps want to use that to silence them.
“Before, at the beginning of the year, we were at the top of the rankings and everyone pretty much had respect for us,” Trimble said. “I think now that we took a couple of L's, people have lost respect for us and we're not in the picture of anything. Knowing that and knowing what people are saying about us gives a chip on our shoulder and makes us more hungry, and that's something we all like.”