Terps Squander 17 Point Lead To Lose To UVA in OT 61-58

Wednesday night I commented to Coach Turgeon that the press was successful against Carolina, he then proceded to criticize the effectiveness of our press. I had a feeling that his answer was a disguise for the implementation of a more pressing type defense. Sunday night the press invigorated the entire squad early on and Maryland probably had it’s best half of the season, leading 32-19 at the break.  But that was that.

It was almost like we allowed UVA so many chances to play itself back into game that it  was just a matter of time before reality set in. Maryland’s swarming defense held Joe Harris to a 4-18 shooting night. But Maryland could only muster 22 points in the 2nd half, missing shot after shot. Turgeon employed a 1-3-1 zone that baffled UVA. Just remember how they torched the Terps in College Park

Nick Faust had another good game scoring 15 including 3 threes. But the Terps just hit another wall when it counted. They finish the regular season 8-10 in the ACC. As the 7th seed, they will face Wake Forest on Thursday night at 7PM. Should they be victorious, a rested Duke squad –now ranked #1 seed by Joe Lunardi –will be awaiting them on Friday at the “neutral” Greensboro Coliseum.. At this point the only ticket to the dance would be an improbable ACC Championship 4 game run. 

The Terrapin boards were filled with criticism, and venom last night. I believe the more logical feeling is disappointment. Again when you shoot 20-61 from the field, you just aren’t going to win many games. I still believe greatly in Coach Turgeon and we all must remember this is but his 2nd season.

By the way, I have begun to hate playing in the ACC. Because I know how much the rest of the league despises Maryland for its move to the BIG 10, I can’t help but feeling suspicious the raw deal heads our way daily. I guess it’s just paranoia.

Coach Turgeon commented post game:

Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon

Opening remarks:
“Obviously, I’m proud of my group. We made a great effort tonight and it’s a tough place to play. We came out ready to play and built a big lead. We knew they were going to come back on us and they did. In the end we just couldn’t get enough stops, made a mistake on [Joe] Harris late, gave him a wide-open three when they tied it. That was just really bad defense. We just didn’t show on the screen. And then we just couldn’t make enough plays. We had the ball around the rim; we had their guys beat. They blocked a lot of our shots. We just couldn’t make enough plays, but our effort was there.”

On the last play of the second half:
“I’m 99% sure of what happened. We didn’t want [Joe] Harris to catch it. Jake Layman did a great job because he didn’t catch it. They threw it in, my guy tried to steal it, and let him [Mike Tobey] in for a layup – not very smart.”

On frustrations after many opportunities around the basket:
“We’re not capable of doing it. You just can’t fault our effort. You get to the rim and we can’t finish around the rim. We had a chance for second-chance buckets and just couldn’t do it. We missed a lot of shots, but even though we shot 32 percent and only scored 58 points in 45 minutes, it felt like we had control offensively. It never felt like we were being dictated by them, which is hard to do in this building.”

On his team
“We’re a young basketball team. We played well tonight and we played smarter tonight. We played with effort. If we had played with this effort on Wednesday night, we would have had a different outcome.”

 

 

Maryland Basketball
There Are 4 Responses to this Post
  1. freddy from boca

    once again all the criticism from the coach is thrown on the players as the coaches must have had another perfect game. a lot of these players were recruited by turgeon. if they are not good enough to win games maybe the coaching staff isn’t that good at identifying and developing talent. i’m sick of turgeon constantly throwing the team under the bus rather than do the classy thing and keeping anything negative in the locker room and away from the media. this team didn’t move forward as the year went on and to me a lot of that is coaching. mark turgeon…just shut up!

    Reply ·   11/12/2019

  2. Scotty Dub

    A frustrating way to close the regular season for sure. However, this is a young team that should get nothing but better next year. This team has TONS of potential and the incoming class should add to that. I like Turgeon and think he’s building something for the long run, but if he can’t get us to the dance next year more and more people are going to be calling for his head.

    Reply ·   11/12/2019

  3. John

    Can anyone explain that technical on Pe’Shon Howard? It seemed like a weak call.

    Reply ·   11/12/2019

  4. freddy from boca

    to john howard motioned and or said something to the uva crowd which the ref thought was inappropriate.

    Reply ·   11/12/2019

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