Friday night No. 24 (Coaches Poll) Maryland opened its 2016-17 season with a 62-56 win over American, with the game being closer than many anticipated. With four starters from last season’s Sweet 16 team having moved on, no one’s expecting this to be a quick process for Mark Turgeon’s team when it comes to meshing together into a group capable of contending for a Big Ten title. And while Friday’s game did produce some nervous moments, the reminder that this group will need time to develop was accompanied by Maryland’s first win of the season.

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With health issues dictating the starting lineup, Turgeon called upon guards Anthony Cowan and Kevin Huerter to join Melo Trimble on the perimeter. Cowan’s presence takes some of the pressure off of Trimble when it comes to running the team, a luxury Maryland did not enjoy last season. There were times when Rasheed Sulaimon was given the responsibility of setting things up, but he wasn’t a “true” point guard and Jaylen Brantley didn’t develop at the rate many hoped for during his first year in College Park. Cowan’s assist to turnover numbers weren’t good Friday night, as he finished with no assists and four turnovers, but his activity as the first line of defense was of great importance to Maryland and that will be the case throughout the season.

“Anthony really got it going defensively,” Turgeon said following the win. He got a couple steals and deflections. That was big on his part.”

All three freshmen had positive moments Friday night, with Kevin Huerter spending much of the night defending preseason all-Patriot League selection Delante Jones (ten points on 4-for-11 shooting, three assists and three turnovers). Huerter made just two of his six shots on the night, but his three with just over three minutes remaining gave Maryland a six-point lead and some much needed breathing room. As for Justin Jackson, he grabbed a team-high nine rebounds off the bench in 26 minutes of action. Add in the 11-point, six-rebound performance from grad transfer L.G. Gill, who’s playing a role different than the one he had at Duquesne, and Maryland had to be pleased with the play of their new additions.

The returnees are where the improvements need to be made, not only for Georgetown Tuesday night but for the season as a whole. Trimble will have to do more in the way of scoring for this group, and he’ll need to be better at valuing the basketball as well. Trimble had four turnovers on the night, but the occasionally lackadaisical ball-handling was an issue throughout the roster. If the turnovers are coming as a result of overly aggressive play, you can live with that to a certain extent. But more often than not Maryland’s turnovers Friday night looked to be more about a lack of attention to detail than anything else.

Obviously that will have to change, as will the lack of production from some of their veterans most notably Jared Nickens. With Dion Wiley missing all of last season, him going 1-for-6 from the field isn’t a major surprise given the need to shake off the rust that comes with not playing in competitive games. But Nickens, who shot 34.7 percent from three last season (down from 39.0 percent as a freshman), missed all five of his shots Friday night and really didn’t add much during his 15 minutes on the court.

As Wiley continues to make progress, it will be interesting to see how those minutes are divided especially if Nickens struggles. Maryland needs another consistent shot-maker to emerge, thus giving Trimble the scoring help he needs, and one would expect Nickens and Wiley to both be in the mix there. Both center Damonte Dodd (two points, two assists) and guard Jaylen Brantley (three points, two turnovers) had quiet nights, with the former’s lack of rebounds being made up for by Gill and Jackson.

“The good thing is that I have choices,” Turgeon noted. “If someone’s not playing well I could just go with somebody else. In the end we figured it out, it just took us awhile. We are a definite work in progress. I think we’re going to be a heck of a team before we’re done. We’re just trying to figure it out.”

 

Obviously it’s incredibly early in the season, but if anything is to be taken away from Friday it’s that how players who held bit roles last season adjust to greater responsibilities will have a significant impact on Maryland’s 2016-17 campaign. Georgetown will provide a tougher test for the Terps which is what this group needs, especially players such as Dodd, Nickens and Wiley.

 

Thoughts on Georgetown

 

Last season’s meeting between the Georgetown Hoyas and Maryland Terrapins was a highly anticipated affair, with it being the first time since the 1973-74 season that the two teams met in College Park (first meeting in the series since 2007). Georgetown tested the Terrapins, with Maryland winning 75-71, but in the end that result was simply a footnote as the Hoyas finished a disappointing 15-18 and missed out on postseason play for the first time since 2004. Tuesday night the two programs meet again, this time at the Verizon Center, and if Georgetown’s opener is any indication of the future this is a different program than what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing under John Thompson III.

 

Of course one shouldn’t go crazy in analyzing Georgetown’s 105-60 win over USC Upstate, as the Spartans aren’t representative of the talent the Hoyas will face when playing the likes of Maryland or their Big East foes in conference play. But they played at a higher tempo than many of JT III’s prior teams at Georgetown, opening things up offensively with a lineup filled with players capable of handling the responsibilities of multiple positions. Chief among those players was 6-foot-5 wing Rodney Pryor, who joined the Georgetown program as a grad student after a standout career at Robert Morris.

Scoring both inside and out, Pryor scored 32 points on 13-for-16 shooting from the field against USC Upstate. Will he find things as easy to come by against Maryland? Probably not, but Pryor’s a skilled player who will have to be accounted for defensively if Maryland’s to leave the nation’s capital with a win. Pryor and freshman guard Jonathan Mulmore both played well Saturday, as did many of the Hoyas’ returnees including L.J. Peak, Jesse Govan and Isaac Copeland. Throughout most of Saturday’s game Georgetown had at least four players on the court who were essentially interchangeable, which isn’t a great departure from what they’ve generally done under Thompson.

What was different was the way in which the Hoyas executed their offense, playing with a speed one generally wouldn’t associate with them. As a result Maryland will need to be at their sharpest defensively, with Cowan at the point of attack (should he start again) and the guards and wings being active in passing lanes while not getting beat on backdoor cuts.

Raphielle Johnson
Raphielle Johnson

BSL Analyst

Raphielle’s been writing about college sports for more than a decade, making the move to college basketball alone in 2013. Beginning his work with the former website CollegeHoops.net in 2003, Raphielle spent 3 years writing for NBCSports.com beginning 2013, covering CBB and the Olympics. In 2016, Raphielle joined Heavy.com. If there’s a game on, there’s a strong likelihood that he’s watching it.

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