Maryland Head Coach Mark Turgeon
Opening Statement
“First, I want to talk a little about Nebraska. I feel bad for them. They lost a great player (Isaac Copeland Jr.). It’s amazing if you lose one guy, the effect it has on the team, especially someone as good as Isaac. I feel bad them because our league is so unforgiving and it’s so hard to win a game and you lose a key player like that, everybody says, ‘what’s wrong with Nebrasketball?’ They lost a great player and the league is terrific. If you ask any coaches in our league, they’ll say Nebraska is as well-coached as anybody else in our league. I think Tim (Miles) does an amazing job. He’s always positive. Defensively though, he’s locked in. They guarded the heck out of us tonight and if they could do a great job with their offense, their spacing, they go to the right guys. They’re just not playing with confidence right now. I know how tough this business is. I feel bad for Nebraska and Tim. Hopefully they can get some confidence moving forward. With that said, we were great defensively. Jalen (Smith), Bruno (Fernando) and Ricky (Lindo Jr.), our fours and fives were great defensively. We did a nice job on (James Palmer Jr.), who’s a terrific player from our area. Our guys were locked in, and Anthony (Cowan) was great on (Glynn Watson Jr.). We did a pretty nice job on (Isaiah Roby) once he started going. That’s the smartest we’ve played defensively this season. It was good to see.”
On Jalen Smith and his team’s offensive execution
“We were really struggling. It was 15-8 and (Jalen Smith) really kind of changed the game for us offensively because we were really struggling. Since the Michigan St. game, I don’t know, two weeks, so 16 days, I think (Smith) has gotten like four or five extra weight workouts in because I asked him to. After practice he sticks around. and we get the pads out and beat on him pretty good trying to toughen him up a little bit. It’s starting to carry over. He still got the ball stripped out of his hands a couple times tonight on rebounds that he had, but he’s working to become a better player and that’s great to see. We need him. I asked him, I asked Serrel (Smith Jr.) and Aaron Wiggins to be more aggressive on offense every time I walk past them. We’re a much better team when we have five or six guys in double figures. So, (Smith) is working. He’s getting more involved. He’s getting more comfortable. Tonight he had some matchups where he can go into the post that he could exploit.”
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