Turgeon, Terrapins Growing Into Roles At Maryland
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By DERON SNYDER
First-year Maryland men’s basketball coach Mark Turgeon is a breath of fresh air, and not just because first-year football coach Randy Edsall is emitting so much funk. No matter who occupied the head office at the Gossett Team House, there’s little doubt that athletic director Kevin Anderson at least got the hoops hire right.
Turgeon still is figuring out his team, actually version 3.0. He started the season with just seven scholarship players, didn’t have a true point guard for the first nine games and didn’t get his big man until the 11th game. Yet the Terrapins managed to survive scares from virtually every non-conference opponent and compile enough ugly wins to enter league play at 10-3.
Prevailing on the road Sunday at North Carolina State was too much to ask. But Maryland rebounded to win its ACC home opener Wednesday, surviving the obligatory second-half swoon for a 70-64 victory against Wake Forest.
And Turgeon’s Terps inched another step forward.
“We’re starting to become a better basketball team and figure out ways to win games,” he said afterward. “Tonight, it was second-chance points and at the foul line, which is a good formula. It’s no fun going through games like that. We’d like to win by 16, 18 or 20 points. But that’s not who we are as a team right now.”
