I get the fact that it’s only the middle of August and the start of Maryland’s basketball season is a full three months away. And I totally understand that we haven’t seen even a down of college football as this is being penned but I look at this from a totally different perspective. The fact of the matter is that in two weeks the entire hoops roster will be on campus as full-time students and the start of real practice is just six weeks away. Six weeks!
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
Once the college football season and NFL get going here soon, those six weeks will fly by and, as fans, we’ll be dying for any news we can get coming out of Mark Turgeon’s mostly closed practices. I’m sure we’ll get reports about which freshman is doing what and which returning player needs to up his game but, to me, the one key part about this upcoming fall and, perhaps, this entire upcoming season is the search for the kind of continuity that every top notch program has to have if it hopes to have for long-term sustained success.
Don’t get me wrong…I was as thrilled as anyone to watch last year’s team. I totally disagree with anyone who can reasonably assess last season as a failure of any kind. A sweet sixteen season for a program that seemed lost in the desert a few years ago is never disappointing. But the fact of the matter is that a few of the fundamental parts of last year’s team amounted to one-hit wonders. Three fifths of the starting lineup were one year guys. Would you make that deal again?
Hell yes. No question. But it does make things a little more problematic when you’re trying to build both a culture and a program.
One of the toughest parts about coaching in college is that players leave. You build relationships, develop bonds and establish a sense of family with people that you may have thought you had very little in common with. All in pursuit of the same sets of goals. One of the best parts about coaching in college is that the vacuum that is left by players who depart is filled by wide-eyed young guys who have not only a desire to learn, but the talent to take what they’re taught and do something special with it.
So meet your 2016-17 Maryland Terrapins. You might need a program at first but it promises to be worth the watch. Gone is a lot of the size and talent that made last year’s team a consensus top ten team as well as the preseason pick to lay waste to the rest of the B1G. In their place comes a handful of new players who likely won’t find themselves on preseason NBA draft boards but certainly look to be talented enough- and with enough returning talent- to compete with preseason favorites Michigan State and Purdue in the conference race.
Needless to say, Melo Trimble will be The Guy. Hopefully the struggles of the last six weeks of last season are a distant memory and he plays, well, like Melo this season. He’s been a transformative figure in College Park and this program has won 55 games in the two seasons that he has had the keys to the car. This year he’ll have at it with a different cast and a different approach. The change may just energize him.
I was disappointed for Melo that the NBA didn’t work out for him but I’m thrilled he’s back.
He’s going to get immediate help in the backcourt from the incoming freshman. Anthony Cowan enters the program with a history of enormous success in high school at St. John’s and on the AAU circuits. He’s a natural point guard who can play either guard spot and do a lot of things well. I heard the coaching staff was absolutely delighted with the maturity of his game in summer workouts.
I suppose we have to look at redshirt sophomore Dion Wiley as a new player as well. I’m not sure if I ever bought the rhetoric last year that he would have started if he had not been hurt but I did see enough practices to know he was playing his ass off and would have been in the top 6 or 7. They sorely missed the edge that he has in his game – especially off the bench.
Turgeon would appear to have a number of options on the wings this season that he did not have last year. Incoming freshman Kevin Huerter was a 6’4 two guard when Maryland began recruiting him and now he is a lanky 6’7 and the heir apparent to the departed Jake Layman as a small forward. He was not with the team in College Park but his gold medal winning trip with the rest of the USA U18 team to Chile qualifies as a damn good excuse.
As has been the case during their tenure at Maryland, Turgeon and his staff were able to pull of a remarkable “get” late in the recruiting year. They were able to sign former UNLV commit Justin Jackson after the UNLV staff was let go. He’s a gifted and versatile 6’7 220 pounder with a mature game and in the era of the stretch four he will be a very valuable piece of the puzzle.
Throw in two additional recruits in Micah Thomas and Joshua Tomaic – where the Terps appeared to opt for length and upside- and the possibilities are both numerous and exciting.
When you throw in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers combo of Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley and the backcourt looks a little crowded. Someone will not be happy. I like it. Competition is the tide that will lift this whole team.
I think you have to take a “show me” approach on the interior. Damonte Dodd and Michal Cekovsky are great guys. Easy to root for. Likeable and hard-working. They need to be a whole lot better than they’ve been. I would guess Ivan Bender will get his shot to play. He certainly appeared to be comfortable on the court in limited stints last year. Even with that, it may be that this team will be best served if Dodd or Ceko develop into the defensive terror/rim protector they both have the potential to be and Turgeon simply plays his four best players around him.
Whomever that might be.
Terps Analyst
A fixture in the Washington sports scene since his days as a player and a coach, Chris Knoche has accumulated a diverse resume as a media presence in town for more than two decades. That resume has earned him opportunities on both national and local stages and made him a Washington DC staple on radio, television and in digital media.