It was a Jekyll and Hyde week for the Maryland Terrapins. We were all treated to the beautiful concert performed by Melo Trimble on the floor at Northwestern mid-week where the Terps thrashed the NCAA tourney-bound Wildcats in a game where the final deficit didn’t reflect the domination of the home team. Trimble then packed his baton and every available instrument and continued the symphony in Madison, Wisconsin against the Badgers but there was one small problem.

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Most of his teammates forgot their instruments. The ones that did remember were way out of tune. The discord resulted in a 71-60 loss and left the Terps a game out of first place in the Big Ten.

To add salt to the wound of a hard-fought loss, the Terps learned today that junior center Michal Cekovsky will be lost for the season due to a broken ankle suffered in the second half of the Wisconsin game.

There is a lot to chew on with the results of the week and the loss of Ceko so we’ll try to make sense of it all.

First, Ceko…it’s always painful to lose a capable big man this late in the season. While he could be frustrating as hell, the big fella was a defensive presence and the most viable offensive presence of all of Maryland’s bigs. He certainly deserves a better fate than all that this season offered him. All of that said, this team was 9-1 when he couldn’t play earlier in the season. While it’s impossible to say they’ll be ‘just fine’ without him, they can certainly win their share of games and here are the reasons why:

I think there might be some truth to the notion that the other backup center, Ivan Bender, plays better when he’s given more consistent run at the position. When Ceko was available Bender was almost always getting the least minutes of the three five-men. He’s limited, I get that. But he knows how to play and can be a real asset on both ends when he finds a rhythm. He will now be a 20 minute per game guy. Playing Bender also means you will most likely see the Terps scrap to double the post much more than we’ve seen of late. I think one of the best things Mark Turgeon and his staff teach are the defensive rotations on a double team of the post. They have the quickness and the smarts to do it.

Graduate transfer L.G. Gill is another candidate for increased minutes. He may have been recruited as a stretch four to come to College Park but he could be an invaluable contributor as a center. And he could be a match-up problem as well. If he rebounds, he will play.

Back to the week that was…the return of Melo Trimble was easily the highlight. Not only was he burying jumpers from every part of the court he was showing bursts of quickness attacking the basket that we had not seen of late. Northwestern tried four different defenders on him. Wisconsin tried three. The two teams went a combined 0-7. But the guy needs some help.

It was just two weeks ago when freshman point guard Anthony Cowan was completely lost in the flood after two really poor games against Purdue and Penn State. Then he responded in wins against Ohio State and Northwestern with stat lines that totaled 32 points, 10 assists and just 4 turnovers. Now the other prized freshmen- Kevin Huerter and Justin Jackson have to respond similarly as both are in slumps. Huerter has shot a combined 3-11 over the past two games. More importantly he 8 of those 11 attempts have been from behind the three point line. The guy is a weapon. He’s more than capable of putting the ball on the floor and getting in the paint. He should be much more of matchup problem than he currently is right now. In 782 minutes this year he has shot only 22 free throws. Those kinds of numbers make you an easy mark on the enemy’s scouting report. I can promise you they all say “catch and shoot guy. Trail him around screens and force him off the three point line”. In reality he is so much better than that.

Justin Jackson’s name has been found on more than a few draft boards for 2018 and he’s had some splashy games, to be sure. He’s a mixture of speed, grace and athleticism the rest of us can only dream of. In his last three games he’s shot a combined 5-20. It also needs to be noted that his rebounds (total of 16 over those three games) were below what they were when he was engaged and playing his ass off. This is the guy who had 28 and 10 AT Minnesota and followed that up by having 22 and 12 AT Ohio State. No question he’s more than capable but he’s going through a stretch here where there have been some maddening misses around the basket. There is nothing that will fire your team up more than a three point play finished around the basket at critical times.

Finishing out these last four games strong shouldn’t be just on the freshmen but with great talent comes great responsibility. I’m sure they’re up to the task but they’re freshmen. And this is February. They seem to have taken all the Melo-watching as a time to exhale. That stops now.

There are several things to look out for during these last four games. Does Trimble stay nuclear? If he does it makes things easier on those all around him. Teams – starting with Minnesota- will adjust. He’ll be doubled on high ball screens and he has to be a willing passer. Terp big men have to catch and score. It’s a simple as that.

Free throw line disparity? You simply cannot survive disparity like we saw in Madison against the Badgers. You can talk about getting hosed by the zebras. Deal with it. Badger bigs kicked our asses. We have to be better for longer. Getting to the line serves multiple purposes. Sending the bad guys to the line repeatedly means bad news for the good guys. You can’t win like that.

Post defense? It must improve. If Maryland continues to play behind defensively in the post then we should look for continued double teams in the post, resulting in an increase in opponents three point attempts. It’s a calculated gamble.

Rebounding disparity? Sometimes rebounding can be a really deceptive statistic. It was not against Wisconsin. The Badgers did not shoot too many three pointers (12) so most of their misses – and rebounds- were in the paint. Those kill you. But in most games, with all of the three pointers being shot at every angle these days, guards are almost as important as centers when it comes to getting rebounds. It really is a team thing that has to improve.

This season has been nothing short of remarkable. When this team was down by six with five minutes to play against American U in their opener, nobody thought they would be 22-5 with three of their last four at home. The job now becomes to simply play better for longer and shore up obvious weaknesses. It could end up being even more remarkable.

Chris Knoche
Chris Knoche

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.

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