The energy, the vibe and the karma in the afterglow of the Maryland Terrapin’s heart-stopping 75-72 win over the Indiana Hoosiers at Xfinity Center was so palpable last night it made their maddening late game collapse against Nebraska on New Year’s Day seem like it happened ten years ago instead of just ten days ago.
Except it shouldn’t.
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Even as this heady, selfless group of Terps continues to thrill and surprise their fans the team needs to keep the lessons of that Cornhusker debacle in the very front of their mental file cabinets as they head towards a grueling stretch of Big Ten play with four of the next five coming on the road – at Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Ohio State. Since their entry into the Big Ten the Terps have never won in Champaign, Minneapolis or Iowa City. Much work needs to be done to improve on an already impressive 15-2 start.
Let’s get back to those lessons before we assess a direction.
Lesson number one from Nebraska: Never, ever let your foot off the gas. In that game the Maryland efforts on the defensive end and backboards in the last six minutes showed either signs of fatigue or a team that figured they had the opponent dead and buried. They were never able to control the Nebraska backcourt and were never able to finish a defensive possession with a rebound.
You’ve gotta play 40 in the big leagues…35 will never get it done.
Lesson number two from that game: As great a finisher as he has been in two plus years in College Park, this team cannot continually rely on point guard Melo Trimble to save its collective bacon at every point in crunch time. He needs help. This is especially true in Big Ten play. These coaches know him. And they fear him. They game plan for him, especially what he likes to do with the game on the line. All of that simply creates opportunities for others to play superhero. Fortunately the program happens to have three freshmen who appear more than happy to step up and do that.
Last lesson: This team is – and always has been- demonstrably better with Damonte Dodd a part of the equation. He may never, ever be that dominating back to the basket big that can get you points whenever you want but his presence and his personality are crucial. He’s always been a top notch interior defender and that hasn’t changed. The great thing about him right now is that he appears to be a guy who knows his days in the uniform are limited and he’s going down the back stretch of his senior season. He’s a terrific team-first guy.
We haven’t played even a quarter of the conference season yet but, for all intents and purposes, it appears that the only thing certain about this season will be the uncertainty. Sure, Wisconsin is good. So is Purdue. Indiana will get it together and embarrass some teams. All of that was expected. How about the rest of the league? Minnesota is ranked. MINNESOTA! Michigan Head Coach John Beilein told me that he thought that Penn State has the best Nittany Lion team he has seen since he came into the league ten seasons ago. Rutgers is playing so much better – and so much harder- than they did a year ago it makes you wonder how in the world they didn’t make a coaching change earlier. Nebraska won in Bloomington and College Park to open league play with an improbable 2-0 record before they were brought back down to earth by a really skilled Northwestern club.
Then there is Maryland.
I loved the guys on last year’s team. Great guys all. That said, this team is so much easier on the eyes aesthetically. The ball moves, good choices are made and they have a host of guys willing to do the dirty work. Last year’s group had too many guys who wanted to play the piano and not enough who wanted to carry it. They won a ton of games and got to the sweet sixteen but I don’t think there is any question this team is much more likeable. I can only imagine it’s a hell of a lot more coachable as well.
The freshman class of Anthony Cowan, Kevin Huerter and Justin Jackson may have been surprises at Verizon against Georgetown in November but they’re known quantities and big game hunters now. Freshman Amir Coffey at Minnesota may be having the biggest singular impact of any of the conference freshmen but as a collective unit the Terps troika is doing some things that none of the rest of the Big Ten can touch. It’s funny that it wasn’t that long ago those three were thought to be important building blocks for a program that was retooling. They are that and a whole lot more. Now they’re integral 30 minute per game guys who start for a power conference team that happens to be 15-2 and tied for first in their conference at 3-1.
While he is quick to deflect much praise you have to hand it to Head Coach Mark Turgeon as well. I read some of the message boards and shake my head at some of the shots that are sent his way. I also love the fact that he doesn’t give a shit what people think. He’s going to put his head down and do something today that will make his team better tomorrow. Dude is 70-18 since the start of the 2014 season. In that same time he is now 27-6 in games decided by six points or less. Few schools in the country can match that first stat and each school in the country would love to claim that second stat.
I’ve heard it said that the NFL is “an 8-8” league. That means that most of the teams are all very similar and that some players on one team will make enough plays in games that will allow that team to get to 11-5 or 12-4 while, conversely, another team –either due to critical injuries or general nonperformance will drop to 5-11 or 6-10. This Big Ten feels a little bit that way this season. Right now the Terps are on the right side of things with guys regularly making plays when needed but that worm can turn in the blink of an eye. With four of the next five on the road they’ll need to continue to make plays and play 40.
Terps Analyst
A fixture in the Washington sports scene since his days as a player and a coach, Chris Knoche has accumulated a diverse resume as a media presence in town for more than two decades. That resume has earned him opportunities on both national and local stages and made him a Washington DC staple on radio, television and in digital media.