Coach Turgeon Post Game:“I thought we were great defensively. The first 20 minutes we really prepared well. I think in the last eight days we’ve gotten so much better as a team. A lot of it is preparation; I think we really guarded their sets well. In the second half they spread us and we weren’t quite as good, but we were still pretty good in that stretch. I thought our execution was better than it has been. Quite frankly, I think up until the 38-minute mark we were as good as we’ve been this year. It felt very comfortable when we had double-digit leads and the guys were playing well, but true to course the way we are, we had to make it interesting. Giving up layup after layup and we missed free throws, but give credit to them because they had a lot of fight in them. We had one bad turnover against the press and besides that I think we handled it pretty well. I’m proud of our group, it was a great win for us. Any win is a good win. We are 3-3 in the league and we’re heading in the right direction which I’m happy about. It shows in the way we play.” 

Senior Captain Sean Mosley is the glue of this team. When all was failing including trouble at the free throw line, Sean nailed 5 straight free throws to more or less secure the lead. He wound up with 15 points and  remember he has only 4 games left in Comcast.

The ACC’s leading scorer Terrell Stoglin finished with 28 including 21 in the 2nd half. You can criticize his 0 assists and 5 turnovers all you want but without him there would several less W’s.

Another great crowd lifted the Terps when the lead was collapsing. Let’s a Saturday afternoon ACC game–I bet that would work for attendance.

Kevin Plank and John Feinstein were in the house today.

It seemed like Coach Turgeon wanted to get Pankey and Padgett into the play immediately today as the first 4 plays were feeds down deep.

The effort of this team is unmatched across the board. If they can bring these “habits” on the road with them then watch out!!!

It appears as each game passes Nick Faust’s strong moments improve. He was a force in the first half. hen things are going right for Nick his aggressiveness seems both powerful and under control. He is one of the guys improving mightily with each game.

So we begin to enter crunch time for the Terps–10 games left in the regular season–4 at home –6 on the road. Miami on Wednesday is a great test for Maryland. After the max effort exerted the past 2 games, a repeat could produce victory.

Check out Sean Mosley’s account of the game.

On the team’s improvement:
“Each and every game I think we are starting to mature, slowly but surely. If things weren’t going our way on offense early in the season it affected our defense. But now when we aren’t scoring the basketball we can still get stops. We held them to 19 points in the first half and that was a great job by us. When we aren’t scoring the basketball we try to frustrate the other team, get stops, get to the free-throw line and get things going again.”

On the team’s defense:
“We didn’t want them to get a three-point play, but at the end of the day we didn’t want them to get easy layups at the basket like they were getting. During the game sometimes you get caught up in not wanting to foul and stop the clock. At the end of the game though we had guys go up to the free-throw line and make big free throws for us, that is what is most important. That’s why I think we are starting to mature overall. It is definitely a big win for us.” 

This kid will be a Coach someday–count on it!!!

Sean was special today, going 10-10 from the could line and hitting a crucial 3 after Terch pulled to within 4. I talked to him after the game and will play the interview on Terp Talk Thursday night.

Stogs had another off shooting night , going 4-12 but he made back to back threes that gave the Terps a 8 point lead they never relinquished. 

The 1st half was certainly not memorable with the Terps taking a 5 point 24-19 lead into the half.

James Padgett had another strong game with 14 points and 9 rebounds. Alex Len was scoreless but had 9 rebounds and as usual caused havoc underneath the defensive bucket.

Some of the key stats of the game: Both teams shot 33% from the field—The Teps won the rebound battle 38-36. Maryland was 19-23 from the free throw line.

The Ravens game kept probably almost all of the Baltimore contingent from the game–thus scattered empty seats everywhere. It’s incredible that the game starting time couldn’t be backed up a few hours. Why? TV.

Coach Turgeon was pretty happy after the game–mainly because he appreciated the defensive effort. Recently, Glen Rice Jr has been on fire but not tonight. He was but 2-8 from the field and only had 2 foul shots.

Coach Turgeon commented on the play of Nick Faust: ”Nick [Faust] was great. I was pretty hard on Nick during films after the last game and he played exactly the way he needs to play right now. He needs to make plays defensively and get steals for us, as well as help us build our lead and really concentrate on guarding and rebounding. As I said on the radio, I need guys to grow up and Nick is growing up. He is listening and trying to do what is best for the team, and not what is best for him. We won today because he grew up and helped the team the way he was supposed to today.”

Stogs ha 31 and Sean who always seems to play well at Verizon had 17

Padgetts game continues to improve as he was physically dominant

Mike Brey commented post game

“You know, given where our group is right now, I’m proud of our group because I wanted to see us battle for 40 minutes, and we’ve been kind of searching for that a little bit. Credit to Maryland though, they made all the really tough plays, especially with loose balls. We didn’t really get any loose balls, and I thought we showed our youth at times. I love that we battled to come back, and [Terrell] Stoglin’s just like world be free, man. He’s like the microwave of College Park. He makes tough shots. We wanted to play that last possession out and see if we could get it back, and we went zone, and he had a heck of a tough shot — he had a lot of tough shots, he’s a heck of a scorer. For us, we’re going to go back and see if we can get a little better in practice, get a little healthier, see if we can win a home game. Little steps for this team, very little steps.”

On Maryland:
“Mark [Turgeon] does a great job. He’s just a really good coach, and he’s got their system in. They run their stuff, they get stuff for [Terrell] Stoglin, who’s just a heck of a player, and [James] Padgett — I was very impressed by Padgett. He wore us down. Scoring, rebounding, he was a tough matchup for us. But nothing different than what they’ve been doing, and what they’re trying to instill with their guys.”

On Maryland forward Sean Mosley:
“I love him, I told him after the game. He is a man. I’ve usually had a rotation of men like that; last year, we were the ultimate man’s team. He’s just a man, he’s steady, he doesn’t do things he can’t do, but he makes winning plays. He’s a great college basketball player because he’s been here four years, he’s a man, he knows who he is. Very impressed with him, and he made plays like a man tonight for their team to win.”

Stoglin making good decisions tonight but missed a couple free throws

Points spread out evenly

Little concerned as Illini keeps pressure on –Can the Terps Hold Up?

Terp Talk Thursday Night 11-21-11

Terrell Stoglin was simply incredible last night scoring 32 on 12-21 shooting and playing his heart out all over the court.

Sean Mosley had the kind of game that we will need in order us to win. He was 4-5 from the 3 point line and wound up with 16 points.

It is hard to believe that Nick Faust is a Freshman. Handling the point almost the entire game Nick finished with 15 points, 3 assists, 3 turnovers and 5 rebounds.

Coach Turgeon was charged up on the sideline. it was easy to tell how much he wanted this win. By the way Nick is fine–that was just some cramping at the end of the game.

This did not even look anything like the team that lost to Bama on Thursday night. I was just sorry it was only on ESPN3. But you can watch it again if you want. Next up—Iona on Sunday at 2 PM on the U.

Remember it’s just the first game and I seriously doubt if we will shoot as poorly the rest of the season

When Sean is 1-8 from the field and Stogs is 0-9—you are just not going to win.

At 10-1 Alabama you kind of knew the game was in jeopardy .

It is very rare that any team doesn’t have a bit of a hot shooting streak in a game. This was the exception.

Pankey (4 points and 10 rebounds) and Padgett (9 points 5 bounds) exhibited great effort but were no match for the Bama bigs. (47-29 in rebounds)  This is why I would have appealed the Len decision but that’s old news.

The Terps play Friday at 6:30 against Colorado on ESPN 3

Faust played a respectable game for a Freshman at the point with 3 assists and but 2 turnovers in 26 minutes.

Not much help from the walkons but that is to be expected.

in 2 games Terps are 2-21 from the 3 point line.

Something bothers me when I have to listen to a Tar Heel (Hubert davis) ridicule Maryland.

As Coach Turgeon said–Never watch the replay of this game.

Period. I’m out. Tomorrow is another day!!!