Oriole4Life

Ayala with a huge step back 3 at the buzzer to end the first half. He is leading the team. Hamilton hit a couple of big 3s too. Team is doing work at the free throw line. Stepped up the defense after a rough start. Defense is their calling card! See if Turgeon can keep them focused. Must win.

Good point. I am not sure the stipulations of the contract or if that money is guaranteed. If it is then they would probably ride out the two years. Then again if alumni and program boosters are mad enough then the AD may feel pressure to act.

Extremely disappointing. A loss at Northwestern I can somewhat understand, but not at home to Penn State on senior night. I believe they will need to beat Michigan State to make the tournament. Game could be for Turgeon's job.

Team is playing incredibly well right now. Ayala has upped his driving game, really strong in the paint. The entire team is shooting the lights out. Incredible defense. Dangerous team, leading MSU by 11 right now.

I don't think they are a great team or anything, but there is clearly some talent there. Saying they aren't a tournament team is simply not true, they have several good wins this year. They don't have to win the Big 10 tournament, they could go 2-1 in their final three regular season games as mentioned above and still make it. I agree the Terps offensive sets are sometimes ghastly to watch. Turgeon doesn't have the best gameplans. Lots of hero ball. But if you watch a lot of college basketball you would see that many teams rely on 1-1 moves to score. You need those players who can create their own shot. Turgeon needs to recruit a big man who can score down low. That is a major weakness. We will see if Reese can provide that next year. Anyway, this team will probably make the tournament as a 10 seed and lose in the first round. I definitely don't have any high expectations. Anything is possible in March though!

Terps beat Rutgers today on the road, have won four in a row to go 14-10 overall. Have three games left against Michigan State, Northwestern, and Penn State. If they win all three they are pretty much a lock for the tournament. 2-1 they are still in good shape. Add a win or two in the Big 10 tournament and they should be in very good shape. Ayala and Wiggins have upped their games. Playing like who we thought they were when we recruited them. Morsell has gutted out the entire season with many bumps and bruises. That guy gives 110% every game. Love him. Hope we can make a little run for his senior season. Depth is an issue with this team as well as a lack of interior presence, but they have the talent to hang with anyone provided they execute. Defense is their forte as with most Turgeon teams.

Nice home win vs. Purdue, finished the game on a 6-0 run and won the game by one point. Ayala two clutch free throws at the end. Team is starting to hit its stride.

Terps pick up another good road win at #17 Minnesota. Held the Gophers to 49 points. Ayala with 21 points.

For sure, thanks. I guess my surprise was more at the fact that the Marlins gave Chen such a huge contract. Talk about JAGs. Also amazed that out of all the stars in the MLB (Kershaw, Betts, Harper, etc.) that there wasn't one player last year who got paid more than $22 million.

Off topic, but just out of curiosity I googled Wei-Yin Chen's name, and discovered he was the highest-paid player of the 2020 MLB season at $22 million. I don't know how that is possible, but then again not much made sense in 2020. As far as Santander, he seems like a JAG. Maybe slightly above a JAG. Certainly not a guy to build around, but a capable 5-7 hitter in a lineup of a somewhat contending team. In other words, he isn't that special. I hope Yusniel Diaz gets a chance this year. He was supposedly the cornerstone of the Machado trade, and I have yet to see him in any box score. He isn't getting any younger, let the dude play.

Big win tonight vs. Illinois. Maryland is 2-5 in the conference, but those two wins came against #6 and #12 Illinois on the road. Even if there are no crowds that is pretty good.

Yeah you're probably right. I guess I'm just hoping Marial gets better. We have no one else on the roster that can guard the rim. Scott and Smith are both undersized and neither play good defense. I watched most of the Indiana game tonight and there is no one who can consistently clean up the glass. I don't see this team making the tournament. The team shoots badly. Not enough consistent scoring and the defense isn't as good as typical Turgeon teams. James Graham joined the team today but I don't see him providing a whole lot in his shortened freshman year (although technically it counts as zero). Hopefully it helps his development.

I don't know why Marial doesn't play more. He could potentially defend inside and rebound. For some reason Turgeon didn't want to give him playing time, just letting Michigan abuse us.

Defense sucks tonight. No interior presence to guard the rim. Dickinson is killing us. We are shooting the lights out from beyond the arc which is the only reason we are in it.

Figured I'd start a general game thread. Maryland vs. #16 Michigan tonight at Xfinity Center. Hopefully can close 2020 with a win! Terps small two point underdogs.

Tremendous win on the road at Wisconsin. Contributions from everyone. Donta Scott came up clutch af. Wiggins and Ayala made some huge shots, hopefully they can step their game up the rest of the year. Ayala handled the ball well. And the defense was really top notch all night. Marial showed some moves in the few minutes he was in there.

Wow this team sucks.

Horrible start. Sloppy offense, bad spacing, missing open shots. Wiggins is off, I have high hopes for him. Not having a primary ball handler hurts.

First big game of the year in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Terps are small two point dawgs. First game I get to watch this year, let's get it.

If Ayala can improve his shooting that would be awesome. Today was a good start. I think Wiggins needs to improve his handles and slashing game to be the scorer that would need. His catch and shoot game is pure. Gonna need Marial to improve his offensive game as well. We already know he will defend the rim (theoretically). Needs to work on his conditioning. Ultimately I think our lack of interior presence will be our demise, unless Smith and Scott really ball their face off. We have that Swiss guy Revas as well, I'm not expecting much from him though. The lack of backcourt depth also might hurt unless Dockery and Smart grow quickly. Can Ayala be the primary ball handler and distributor? Maybe. I don't think this team will fall off as badly as most think. Like you said, Morsell/Ayala/Wiggins will keep us in most games. If Scott and Hamilton (who was a top 100 recruit going into BC) can step up then I think we could surprise some people. I see us sneaking into the tournament as a 7-10 seed.

https://247sports.com/Article/Maryland-Basketball-roster-Aaron-Wiggins-Eric-Ayala-Mark-Turgeon-Darryl-Morsell-147583123/ Good article about the roster heading into next season. Hoping we can land Both Gach, he is one of the top transfers still available.

https://247sports.com/Article/Maryland-basketball-recruiting-Terps-make-Ike-Cornish-cut-Crystal-Ball-147226386/ https://www.fredericknewspost.com/sports/level/collegiate/julian-reese-a-four-star-forward-from-baltimore-commits-to-maryland-for-2021/article_06d54e0e-9eac-5b83-a98b-fae9e039c5dc.html Turgeon and the recruiting staff have been working hard on 2021. Signed Julian Reese, ranked #103 overall, a couple of weeks ago. Ike Cornish, ranked #85 (according to Rivals) and a Baltimore native, has the Terps in his top six.

Yeah the transfer market has been a bit disappointing, sometimes that is just luck of the draw. I read yesterday (same 247 article, just updated) about Alabama graduate transfer named Galin Smith who has the Terps in his top 3. 6-9 forward. With him and Jarius Hamilton (assuming he is eligible) we should be okay up front. I just read about Aquan Smart yesterday, seems like a late bloomer, but solid recruit for 2021 class. There is a 6'8 SF from Milwaukee named James Graham, seems like just a verbal commit as of now. https://247sports.com/player/james-graham-46058803/

By the way, Turgeon needs to step up his recruiting. Regardless of what you think he has done with the "talent," his strength has been being able to bring up high level recruits to at least make Maryland competitive. We only have Dockery coming in this year. Won't be able to field a full 13 scholarship roster at this point. For 2021, Benny Williams from St. Andrews looks to be the best possible recruit. Trey Patterson would be a nice pick up as well. I don't know why Lindo and Tomaic left, they would have gotten lots of playing time this year. I hope that a Morsell, Scott, Wiggins, Ayala, Marial starting lineup will at least get us in the tournament (maybe). Bench is going to be thin as hell.

Damn I didn't know Lindo and Tomaic were transferring. Team will definitely struggle next year. Only hope is that Marial develops into a monster and Ayala and Wiggins up their games big time. Not having the conference and NCAA tournaments this year was devastating. Probably Turgeon's only chance to show that he could take the team really far.