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2021-2022 Season


ChuckS

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New season.  We are presently number 20 in the country.  A couple games in and we have looked okay against GW and Vermont, teams we should beat.  Five out of the nine players in our rotation are transfers.  I don't like what the change in rules in regards to transfers (players no longer need to sit out a year) has done to college basketball.  This feels a bit too much like free agency.  What happened to recruiting high school kids?

Anyway, Ayala and Donta Scott are back and Qudus Wahab (big man/junior transfer from Georgetown) looks like a solid addition.  Our new PG is a 5'11 senior transfer from Rhode Island, Fatts Russell.  He is super quick but not a good a three point shooter and does not appear to be an elite finisher at the rim.  I think he will likely be exposed in conference play trying to score in the paint against the towers of the Big 10.  I hope they don't expect too much for him, but it seems he is in line for big minutes.  There is a freshman big, Julian Reese who looks promising. 

It's early but this feels like another team that will make the tournament, destined to exit in the first or second round. 

 

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19 hours ago, Finisher said:

We lost to George Mason last night. So another year with solid talent that gets wasted by Turgeon.

You think the Terps have "solid talent"? Can't imagine that bringing in 5 transfers and a few meh freshmen is going to lead to anything special. This should be a bubble team at best.

Turgeon seems like a good man and a good mentor. But he's not a good coach and he's a below average recruiter. Really wish Maryland would hire a coach who could confidently lead this team into the tourney every single season.   

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13 hours ago, Jagwar said:

You think the Terps have "solid talent"? Can't imagine that bringing in 5 transfers and a few meh freshmen is going to lead to anything special. This should be a bubble team at best.

Turgeon seems like a good man and a good mentor. But he's not a good coach and he's a below average recruiter. Really wish Maryland would hire a coach who could confidently lead this team into the tourney every single season.   

On paper they seem pretty solid. Not great or anything. Donta Scott, who I really like, and Wahab, big body coming over from Georgetown, should give you two capable bigs. Danny Manning joins the coaching staff so hopefully he can help develop our bigs, which has been an issue under Turgeon. As for the guards, we know Ayala, solid core guy. We've brought in Fatts Russell to handle point to let Ayala focus on scoring more.

As I type this we barely beat Hofstra. Reese looks legit, of the freshmen. Offense will be an issue though. Need more from Hart.

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Just saw my first game of the season vs. Hofstra.  Right now the team is not playing with confidence.  Russell is more of a distributor than scorer, which is fine, but he is so quick I'd like to see him drive more.  The game plan was horrible, we should have been feeding Wahab and Reese down low all game with Hofstra not having a center.  Wahab didn't play at all the second half which didn't make sense to me.  Bad shot selection, dumb turnovers, can't have that.

I do think the team has talent, you can't say they are void of that.  Ayala is an above average scorer, he can shoot the 3 and has a good driving game (he had a huge shot at the end of the game), plus he plays good defense.  I like Martinez off the bench, he is a long energetic guard.  Reese looks like a very good player, tons of size and plays good defense.  Scott is a do it all guy.  They may not be Final 4 worthy, but this is a tournament team.  My concern is their depth, or should I say lack thereof.  I don't know what happened to Graham or Cornish, but apparently they aren't playing right now.  Hart doesn't contribute that much imo, he can occasionally hit a 3 like he did tonight, but he isn't a guy who can create his own shot.  Green and Dziuba are JAGS.  

I've defended Turgeon because he seems like he has a smart basketball mind and strong positive personality, but in the end results are what matters and there hasn't been much success.  He just got a contract extension though, so he will be here for a while.  I don't like how next year's recruiting class is looking, only one commitment so far (Klintman) and no other top prospects.  Desmond Claude is my hopeful target, we are going to need a PG.

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15 hours ago, Oriole4Life said:

I've defended Turgeon because he seems like he has a smart basketball mind and strong positive personality, but in the end results are what matters and there hasn't been much success.

He's a decent team builder, like there's always enough talent for his teams to be competitive. But realistically you're just never going on a March run with this guy. If you gave Gary most of his teams, they'd be Sweet 16, some Elite 8 finishes mixed in. With Turgeon you're lucky to the make the tourney and win a game. His in game coaching is just so poor, there's no consistent cohesion on offense and he's really bad with player rotations and building depth.

Anyway, this team is shooting 25.4% from three right now, which is especially horrible since this is the cupcake part of their schedule.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Worst shooting team I have ever seen.  Russell should never take another 3 ever again.  Really dumb turnovers too, the team had a chance to build on their lead a few times but kept throwing it out of bounds like fools.  Then they couldn't guard the 3 even though that is obviously what Virginia Tech does best.

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So I think VT won on that blocked layup that somehow made it in the basket.  And if this was the team's first, or even 2nd, loss this year, I'd be a little more lenient.  But it's our 3rd loss and this game was winnable.

 

I'm getting a lot closer to the fire turgeon camp.  Russell doesn't play like a Turgeon point guard and the team doesn't play in transition enough to take advantage of his strengths.

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Our two game-changing transfers are a tiny point guard that can't shoot and a slow-moving big man who can't pass.  Guys like Graham, Cornish and Dockery came here as recruits but are losing minutes to 25 year old Old Dominion transfer Xavier Green and Elon role-player Simon Wright.  We can't shoot and can't rebound.

This might be the end for Turgeon.

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4 hours ago, Gofannon said:

This might be the end for Turgeon.

We can only hope.

Fatts Russell is just straight up bad. Bad shooter, bad decision maker. Like, did nobody scout him or look at his stats? Terrible fit and Turgeon's offense is generally clueless to begin with.

Gross thing is they have talent with Reese, Scott, Ayala, Hart to a degree .. just gonna be completely wasted.

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Lost to Northwestern today.  Can't go 17-59 from the field and expect to win games.  Don't know what type of chances Manning has of turning this season around, probably not much.  Still a way to go, but starting to look like a lost season.  I'm worried tons of guys will bolt after this season - Reese and Cornish mainly.  Ayala has regressed his entire career.  Russell just isn't that good.

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I try to watch the games when I can but I don't go out of the way anymore. The Terps have just been so blah under Turgeon that it sucked any joy of watching them play. The large turnover as well just makes it like a brand new team, and one that can't shoot. 

I'll see who they hire before becoming invested into them again. Turgeon leaving was a long time coming and about four seasons too late, but at least it happened. 

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1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

I try to watch the games when I can but I don't go out of the way anymore. The Terps have just been so blah under Turgeon that it sucked any joy of watching them play. The large turnover as well just makes it like a brand new team, and one that can't shoot. 

I'll see who they hire before becoming invested into them again. Turgeon leaving was a long time coming and about four seasons too late, but at least it happened. 

I'm of course if favor of giving these kids the chance to maximize their worth but the rate of transfers makes it hard for me to root for a team.  There just seems to be so little continuity.

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23 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I'm of course if favor of giving these kids the chance to maximize their worth but the rate of transfers makes it hard for me to root for a team.  There just seems to be so little continuity.

Agreed. I think the rule should be you have to do two years at your initial choice before going pro or being able to transfer. The thing I always enjoyed about college basketball is when you had a great Freshman class and could wish upon them as seniors. Now, half will go pro and the other half will transfer.

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