#5 Wisconsin v. #14 Maryland 2/24

[ArtVanDelay]

"They should be able to celebrate as they please" is contradictory to "Maryland is a school that shouldn't storm the court." You only get one or the other.

It's just my opinion that Maryland shouldn't storm the court. Obviously the students felt it was worthy of a court storming, and I think they should be able to do what they want to do. My opinion has nothing to do with the students being able to do what they want. I'm not one of these people calling for an end to court storming.

[ArtVanDelay]

UMD pulls the upset tonight. 61-60.

I was hoping Melo could make those last 2 free throws so I could have gotten UMD's score correct.

[Tony-OH]

This is it. I'd also add that Nickens did about 3 good things that helped in big spots. Layman had an odd game. He did a lot of good things but couldn't get much to fall and struggled a bit more on defense than I've seen in some time.

Wells was ridiculous but Checko provided huge minutes and I don't think we win without those minutes.

Great win for the Terps!

Layman had an off night overall, but he always has one or two drives that get the team and the crowd pumped. He's so athletic that it makes you wonder why he can't do more, more often. the good thing about Layman is he's a hustler. He's always scrapping for balls. Then again, this entire team hustles. Amazing the difference in this team from last year with all the poison players here last year. Grant it Trimble is a huge difference maker who is a special, special player, but I've never seen such a turn around in a program.

[Tony-OH]

It's just my opinion that Maryland shouldn't storm the court. Obviously the students felt it was worthy of a court storming, and I think they should be able to do what they want to do. My opinion has nothing to do with the students being able to do what they want. I'm not one of these people calling for an end to court storming.

Some people will end up making a big deal out of it but honestly, who really cares. This [program has made such a turn around that I see this win as kind of an epic release from the fan base and students. Beating a very good top 5 basketball team, in February while ranked #14, after wondering whether we would get invited to the NIT the last four years is a pretty amazing turnaround.

[TakebackOPACY]

A few thoughts:

• Woohoo!
  
• Wisconsin played as good as advertised, and we beat them! Based on that game and on their resume, if they're not in Kentucky's bracket, I will seriously consider picking Wisconsin for the Final 4.
  
• Wells has played himself back into 2nd round NBA draft possibilities. If you've watched his last seven-to-nine games, you'd have to consider that maybe his injury was hindering him before that. (I still think he's more likely to make a lot of money overseas than become an NBA mainstay; but five weeks ago, I thought he had played himself totally out of the draft.)
  
• Cekovsky was brilliant! !! Looking at the box score you'd think some of his minutes came from Dodd's foul trouble; and I'm sure there's some truth to that. But reading the articles this week about rebounding and boxing out, you'd have to think he earned those minutes in practice. My favorite moment was a 1st half defensive rebound (I think by Layman) in which Ceko blocked out Kaminsky facing Kaminsky and completely ignoring where the ball might have gone. It shows that Ceko is EXTREMELY coachable and will emphatically do anything that is asked of him.
  
• Turgeon coached his tail off leading up to this game, and in this game. The lean toward Ceko, the stress on boxing out, the early-shot-clock attacking... Bo Ryan is a great coach and Turgeon was not out-coached. I don't think we win this game if we didn't have the weekend off (and Wisconsin played on Saturday). But give credit where it's due, and where criticism has come previously. I haven't previously felt like Turgeon's coaching and game-planning lead to anything like this win.
  

[Finisher]

Grant it Trimble is a huge difference maker who is a special, special player, but I've never seen such a turn around in a program.

He's so under control and such a smart player at such a young age, it's pretty incredible to watch. Does he leave after this year though?

Look, we've got three guys who will get drafted. We have more talent than almost every team we're playing. Seems like Trimble is usually on and then it's a question of whether Wells or Layman is on (for some reason it's hard for both of them to perform in the same game). But in short if two of the three have good games we can beat anyone. If we could somehow get all three guys in a groove in the tourney not many teams at all could stop us.

[TakebackOPACY]

A few thoughts:

• Woohoo!
• Wisconsin played as good as advertised, and we beat them! Based on that game and on their resume, if they're not in Kentucky's bracket, I will seriously consider picking Wisconsin for the Final 4.
• Wells has played himself back into 2nd round NBA draft possibilities. If you've watched his last seven-to-nine games, you'd have to consider that maybe his injury was hindering him before that. (I still think he's more likely to make a lot of money oversees than become an NBA mainstay; but five weeks ago, I thought he had played himself totally out of the draft.)
• Cekovsky was brilliant! !! Looking at the box score you'd think some of his minutes came from Dodd's foul trouble; and I'm sure there's some truth to that. But reading the articles this week about rebounding and boxing out, you'd have to think he earned those minutes in practice. My favorite moment was a 1st half defensive rebound (I think by Layman) in which Ceko blocked out Kaminsky facing Kaminsky and completely ignoring where the ball might have gone. It shows that Ceko is EXTREMELY coachable and will emphatically do anything that is asked of him.
• Turgeon coached his tail off leading up to this game, and in this game. The lean toward Ceko, the stress on boxing out, the early-shot-clock attacking... Bo Ryan is a great coach and Turgeon was not out-coached. I don't think we win this game if we didn't have the weekend off (and Wisconsin played on Saturday). But give credit where it's due, and where criticism has come previously. I haven't previously felt like Turgeon's coaching and game-planning lead to anything like this win.

Oh, and please let me see that Dez Wells dunk again. Ferocious and came out of nowhere. Dunk of the year?

[LayzieDES]

Oh, and please let me see that Dez Wells dunk again. Ferocious and came out of nowhere. Dunk of the year?

https://vine.co/v/OQLdYBFxI9j

[TakebackOPACY]

We can beat anyone but Kentucky IMHO. Only Kentucky can beat Kentucky by playing WAYYYYYY below their ability. Honestly, those kids looked bored most of the time.

I understand what you're saying; but frankly, if we can beat anyone but Kentucky, we can beat Kentucky on a given day. If Kentucky had to play a 2014-15 Big 12 schedule, or if they played an old-fashioned (home-and-away) major conference schedule, would they be undefeated the way they're playing? Probably not.

I think a more interesting (but still irrelevant) question about these Terps would be, if they played like they did tonight against a full-strength UVA, would they beat them? I still think full-strength UVA was too good. But UVA is not full-strength, and I'd have to say this Wisconsin team is more capable than a Justin-Anderson-less UVA.

[Munson]

I don't know why, but one of my first thoughts after the game was I hope Diamond Stone was watching.

[Tony-OH]

A few thoughts:

• Woohoo!
• Wisconsin played as good as advertised, and we beat them! Based on that game and on their resume, if they're not in Kentucky's bracket, I will seriously consider picking Wisconsin for the Final 4.
• Wells has played himself back into 2nd round NBA draft possibilities. If you've watched his last seven-to-nine games, you'd have to consider that maybe his injury was hindering him before that. (I still think he's more likely to make a lot of money oversees than become an NBA mainstay; but five weeks ago, I thought he had played himself totally out of the draft.)
• Cekovsky was brilliant! !! Looking at the box score you'd think some of his minutes came from Dodd's foul trouble; and I'm sure there's some truth to that. But reading the articles this week about rebounding and boxing out, you'd have to think he earned those minutes in practice. My favorite moment was a 1st half defensive rebound (I think by Layman) in which Ceko blocked out Kaminsky facing Kaminsky and completely ignoring where the ball might have gone. It shows that Ceko is EXTREMELY coachable and will emphatically do anything that is asked of him.
• Turgeon coached his tail off leading up to this game, and in this game. The lean toward Ceko, the stress on boxing out, the early-shot-clock attacking... Bo Ryan is a great coach and Turgeon was not out-coached. I don't think we win this game if we didn't have the weekend off (and Wisconsin played on Saturday). But give credit where it's due, and where criticism has come previously. I haven't previously felt like Turgeon's coaching and game-planning lead to anything like this win.

Great point. The way they played tonight, you have to give Turgeon a lot of credit for changing some things up. the Terps looked very prepared to face Wisconsin.

As for Wells, I could see him being a bench guy in the NBA but not too many stocky 6-foot-5 guys in the NBA. Still, he's a gamer and bug time player in big time games so maybe he gets a shot before making nice living overseas.

[Tony-OH]

He's so under control and such a smart player at such a young age, it's pretty incredible to watch. Does he leave after this year though?

Look, we've got three guys who will get drafted. We have more talent than almost every team we're playing. Seems like Trimble is usually on and then it's a question of whether Wells or Layman is on (for some reason it's hard for both of them to perform in the same game). But in short if two of the three have good games we can beat anyone. If we could somehow get all three guys in a groove in the tourney not many teams at all could stop us.

Losing Trimble just frightens me. He's so enjoyable to watch play, especially because he's not a flashy look at me kind of player, yet he's go the game to be just that. He's a bit of a tweener so hopefully he'll stick around for at least one more year. Either way, I'm going to enjoy watching him this year as a Terp and worry about that after the season.

[Oriole4Life]

Gonna just copy and paste what I just wrote on another forum -

Great win! One of the best games I've seen Maryland play all year.

- Dez Wells was so relentless in attacking. Explosive. He showed why he will be an NBA player, top 20 pick in my opinion. And he made his shots, period. Defensively he was strong too.

- Melo Trimble has such amazing handles, driving, and finishing ability. When the shot clock was running down, he would just break his defender and finish. Amazing skills.

- Team played solid defense, boxed out, and rebounded. Good movement on offense. Cekovsky had his best game of the year. All in all the team was amazing in transition. Nickens had a couple good shots. Basically good decisions and shots all game except a few.

I have no problem with storming the court. This is Maryland's comeback year. Nationally televised game. If you watched closely security did a great job shielding the Wisconsin players from the fans. Nothing to get riled up about.

Team needs to keep it going. I don't want to see a weak conference tournament showing or a one and done in the NCAA tournament. That would almost defeat the success of the regular season.

[TonySoprano]

Definitely a huge win! I'm not mad about it. I would have stormed the court too, after I saw everyone else doing it.

When was the last time Maryland beat a top 5 ranked team this late in the season?

M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D

Maryland will win!

[LayzieDES]

I don't know why, but one of my first thoughts after the game was I hope Diamond Stone was watching.

He retweeted some good things last night from Maryland fans (The Turgeonites had a sign during the game that said "All this gold could use a Diamond Stone") & players (commit Jaylen Brantley seemed to be working on him last night.) Of course big recruits do that stuff all the time these days also. I think the supposed lean is still for Wis or UCONN, but MD is definitely in play & KY seems to be lurking now. I think the OK State interest has faded.