Maryland at Michigan

[JohnBKistler]

Another tough road game against a Top 25 (#23) team. 

Unfortunately, due to injuries and recent events, I have been forced to downsize my expectations for the Terps. Not that they were high in the first place; I expected them to be an NCAA bubble team. However, now, I think they are an NIT bubble team - at best. 

Having said that, here is what I would like to see tonight:

> Be within 10 points at some point in the 2nd half. 

> Keep Michigan from scoring 50+ points from the 3-point line. 

> Avoid scoring droughts of 5+ minutes.

> Keep the final margin of defeat to within 20 points. 

On a side note, being a Catonsville native, I am keeping tabs on the UMBC Retrievers. Dave Odom's son, Ryan, has them playing well.  If they get hot at the right time, they could make a run in the conference tournament.  

[JohnBKistler]

At the half, Maryland is up 10 on Michigan. Maryland has played well on both sides of the ball. But the main story seems to be that Michigan has not recovered from their upset win over cross-state rival MSU on Saturday. In the first half, Michigan couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. They missed layups, 3 pointers (2-9) and a bunch of shots in between. 

Maryland allowed Michigan to cut the lead to 10 at the half, and they are another mini-run from getting right back into it. So the game is not over by a long shot, but the second half holds to be much more watchable than the previous MD games on the road. 

[JohnBKistler]

And there it is, the patented MD drought. From 1:29 in the first half to 16:33 in the second (just shy of 5:00), MD went scoreless and allowed Michigan to storm back on a 14-0 run and tie the game at 30-30. Maryland , to their credit, then went on a mini-run of their own to take a 6 point lead at the under 16:00 timeout. 

It is clear that Michigan has come out of their slumber; Maryland will need to play well to earn this much-needed road victory. 

[JohnBKistler]

Maryland quickly reverting to form with what Bill Raferty termed "faulty defense"...Michigan with a barrage of 3s in the first 10 minutes of the second half (8-10) and what was once a promising chance to get a big win on the road begins to slip away from the Terps. 

[JohnBKistler]

To their credit, Maryland kept it close in the second half, including overcoming another killer 5:00 minute scoring drought.  Combined with Michigan not hitting their free throws, it opened up the door for Huerter to hit the Terps biggest shot of the year and give Maryland a 1 point lead with 3.5 seconds to go.

But shoddy defense (and questionable coaching of the defensive alignment) on the last play allowed Michigan to force a foul and win it at the line. 

Encouraging, yet ultimately dissapointing. A struggling Minnesota team awaits the Terps at home on Thursday in what is probably their last chance for a win this month. 

[tntoriole]

Mark Turgeon is the worst coach in Maryland history.  His recruiting skills are highly overrated.  And his in game coaching is terrible. 

[Can_of_corn]

8 minutes ago, tntoriole said:

Mark Turgeon is the worst coach in Maryland history.  His recruiting skills are highly overrated.  And his in game coaching is terrible. 

Bob Wade.

[eddie83]

That was just sickening. Would have been a huge resume win.  

If you aren’t going to guard the in bounds man then to me you have a CF type around mid court. Way too easy of a pass was executed. 

[Finisher]

Possible tournament killing game.

Turgeon could be outcoached by some High School coaches. I really feel bad for guys like Huerter and Cowan, they deserve better.

Maryland does not maximize their point production during their runs (they should've been up 20+ in the first half as pathetic as Michigan was playing) and the total opposite is true when our opponent goes on their run. We hemorrhage points. Happens every game. Stop collapsing and leaving guys wide freaking open from three.

It's just utterly hopeless.

[tntoriole]

22 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Bob Wade.

I agree.   Bob was definitely  in over his head.  In fairness, he had a much worse situation after Driesell leaving and Len Bias death coming in than Turgeon has had.   Still in his very short tenure, he recruited 3 guys who became NBA round 1 picks....Brian Williams,  Jerrod Mustaf and Walt Williams 

[glenn__davis]

That last play just epitomizes the Turgeon era.

It's stupid to not have someone guarding the inbound pass, especially when you have a guy like Fernando who can cause problems there.  But OK, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and say that getting the extra defender makes it harder for Michigan to score.  So you go that route - and somehow, guarding 5 on 4, you still allow a clean pass to at 92% FT shooter, with no one around him!  How does that happen?  I've heard some criticism of Bruno for fouling - Bruno had to foul, otherwise he's going straight to the basket with no one stopping him.  What was Cowan doing?  He was just short of half court with his back to the ball.  I have no idea what that was supposed to be.  

Just a horrible play with horrible execution.

I read elsewhere that Turgeon is now 0-24 in his career against ranked teams on the road.  And I get that he's in a really tough spot now with the schedule, injuries and sicknesses, and I feel for them, but there is just no evidence that this team is ever going to have significant success under this coach.  We start out good, then teams start to make adjustments and we look like we forgot how to play basketball.  It happens over and over and over.

Unfortunately he's not going anywhere for a while with his contract, but hopefully he can do enough to keep this program from fully falling into irrelevancy before he's gone.