When I got to Xfinity last night, I was greeted with the news that Ceko might be out 4-6 weeks with an ankle sprain. Also that Dodd was out again. Thoughts of victory began to escape my mind.
But last night for any of you doubters out there, Coach Turgeon really did a fantastic job of getting his guys ready. The Terps dominated a very good 10-3 Illinois squad. Coach John Groce raved about the efforts of Maryland last night. Hats off to Turge and his staff.
The 3 guards all had excellent games and combine that with ferocious man on man pressure d and victory was never in doubt.
from umterps.com
Melo Trimble scored 20 points and Jaylen Brantley added 13 as Maryland routed Illinois 84-59 on Tuesday in the Big Ten opener for both teams.
It was the sixth victory in a row for the Terrapins (13-1), who have won their conference opener in all three seasons since joining the Big Ten. It was Maryland’s largest conference-opening win since an 89-60 victory over Clemson on Jan. 5, 1974.
Malcolm Hill had 21 points for the Illini (10-4), who saw their six-game winning streak come to an end.
Maryland played without two of its top post players. Junior Michal Cekovsky rested a left ankle injury, and senior Damonte Dodd missed his fifth consecutive game with a sprained left knee ligament.
Their absences mattered little against the Illini, who never led and were outscored 48-24 in the paint. It also provided an opportunity for Maryland graduate transfer L.G. Gill, who matched a season-high with seven rebounds.
Todd
Maryland played hard. (Basket)balls to the wall for 40 minutes. It seemed like they won all the 50-50 balls.
Jaylen Brantley is a different player this season from last season.
I’ll toss in a few cautionary words based on the old baseball adage that you’re never as good as you look when you’re winning or as bad as you look when you’re losing. A friend invited me to the game last night and I said to him as we were leaving the X-Box, that this struck me as one of those games where things went really well for MD and poorly for IL from the tipoff and the situation just snowballed.
It happens in sports and it can happen a lot in college sports. Remember, MD football beat Purdue 50-7. MD was better than Purdue but probably no 43 points better. A similar thing happened. The Terps got rolling early and Purdue got steamrolled.
· 11/12/2019