Terps locked in after loss to Clemson
In the aftermath of the Maryland men’s basketball team’s disappointing 67-51 loss at Clemson last Wednesday, senior guard Darryl Morsell (Mount Saint Joseph) and junior guard Aaron Wiggins were among players who sent encouraging words to a team group chat.
“They sent messages in the group chat like, ‘Hey guys, we’ve been here before. The season has a lot of highs and low,’ ” senior guard Reese Mona said Sunday. “Coach [Mark] Turgeon always says, ‘You can’t get too high, can’t get too low.’ So that’s something, we can’t get too low, bounce right back. And like Darryl said, we’ve been here before. We’ve taken tough losses before. It’s about how you bounce back, how you respond. So we’re just looking forward to this Rutgers, can’t wait to play and a bounce back.”
The Terps got a taste of what life in the Big Ten Conference will be like again, and after their showing at Clemson, the team has turned its attention to its conference schedule, which begins Monday night when it hosts No. 21 Rutgers.
Maryland struggled to form any sort of offensive flow in the first half against Clemson, shooting 26% from the field at halftime. After the game, Turgeon said he didn’t have his players ready to play against the Tigers’ physical defense.
Rutgers senior unlikely to play Monday
Rutgers might be without one of its top scorers from last season in senior guard Geo Baker, who injured his ankle in the team’s season opener. Baker, who averaged almost 11 points per game last year, has yet to play since suffering the injury but returned to
practice Saturday. The absence of Baker, who was a third-team All-Big Ten selection in 2019, would be a big blow to the Scarlet Knights, who are off to a 4-0 start.
But Rutgers has done well to compensate for his loss. Three players are averaging at least 16 points, led by junior guard Ron Harper, whois averaging 22 points per game.
“We’re preparing like he’s going to play
some,” Turgeon said. “They’re really good without him and they’ll even be better with him downthe road. We’re just worried about us right now. We’ve got enough problems. We’ve got to figure ourselves out.”
Choppy start for Chol
Sophomore center Chol Marial had an encouraging start to his second season at College Park, playing a career-high 17 minutes and recording seven points and two blocks, also career highs, against Old Dominion. But since then, he’s struggled, particularly on the defensive side against smaller lineups. Marial played just five minutes against Clemson and only recorded one rebound. Turgeon has said that as the team enters Big Ten play and faces bigger lineups, he hopes Marial can have a big impact.
At 7-foot-2, Marial is by far the Terps’ tallest player and the only one in Turgeon’s rotation whostands taller than 6-foot-9. Turgeon said before the season that the one-time fivestar recruit was beginning to look like the player he was in high school before injuries derailed him.