Terps Continue To Fight Amid Tumultuous Season

Is this the Terps team we’ve been waiting for?

Just as we’re chalking up the season as a lost cause, Maryland basketball starts to show some life and rattles off two impressive wins — one at home and one on the road.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. The Terps beat then-No. 17 Illinois in College Park with the Illini’s star center Kofi Cockburn sidelined and then they went on the road and beat a Rutgers team that hasn’t had much more success than Mayland so far this year. But beating a ranked team by 16 points after losing five of their last six games was an impressive feat by the Terps, as was going to one of the toughest places to play in college basketball — The RAC — and escaping with an eight point win.

So what changed? And can we take this as a sign that things are starting to turn around after an abysmal start to Big Ten play?

Well, for starters, the starters were one change interim head coach Danny Manning made to his game plan. Against the Illini, Manning decided to bring a recently streaking Donta Scott off the bench and start senior Simon Wright instead. It proved to be a great move as Scott came off the bench to lead all scorers with 25 points.

Scott brought energy off the bench and allowed the Terps to take advantage of mismatches down low. Wright only played 5 minutes and didn’t contribute much to the box score, but the change to the lineup certainly did something to Scott and the whole team as the Terps put together their most complete performance of the year so far.

Whether it was strategic or discipline-related, the one-game switch worked but Manning opted to go back to his standard starting lineup the next game against Rutgers. Scott took the floor to start the game with Eric Ayala, Fatts Russell, Hakim Hart, and Qudus Wahab, but the transition back to the starting lineup seemed to throw him off a bit. He shot 0-for-6 from the field and scored just 3 points, however, it did not affect his or his team’s defense and the Terps were able to still hold the Scarlet Knights to 60 points and win the game.

Against Rutgers, it was Maryland’s backcourt that led the offensive charge. Russell, who also dropped 15 against Illinois, scored a game-high 23 points against the Scarlet Knights while Ayala netted 22 to go with his 8 rebounds. It was one of the best shooting nights of the season for the Terps, who shot 45% from the field and 48% from beyond the arc. Maryland also made a season-high 12 threes.

So we saw a couple of different lineups and two different Terps lead the team in scoring in Maryland’s first back-to-back Big Ten wins of the season, but the constant in the two victories was sound defense. And that is what will determine if this winning streak sparks a strong finish to the season or if it’s just a blip on the radar.

In the 16-point win over Illinois, Maryland held the Illini to 39% shooting from the field and 31% from three. Even with Cockburn out, Illinois has players like Trent Frazier and Andre Curbelo who can really light up a scoreboard and they were held in check.

The Terps limited second chances by winning the rebound battle and also created turnovers with nine steals. Sans the steals and rebounding, Maryland did much of the same against Rutgers.

The Scarlet Knights could only muster up 60 points and were held to 34% shooting from the field and 33% from deep. It’s a bit concerning that the Terps only recorded one steal and had a minus-two rebounding margin against Rutgers, but they still didn’t make any shots easy and made their opponent earn every point.

Perhaps the Terps are tired of hearing how poor their season has been and are starting to turn a corner. After all, this is still pretty much the exact same roster that we all projected would have a fantastic season. The issues seemed to be coaching and effort, and both have been much better of late.

The next chance we’ll have to see whether or not this is real or a mirage is when the Terps host the Indiana Hoosiers on Friday night. Maryland is 4-0 all-time against the Hoosiers in Xfinity Center.

A win over a talented Indiana team won’t be easy, but if the Terps can pull it off, they would match their longest winning streak of the season. It could be what gets them on track to turn their season around and get back on the tournament bubble. That’s a big IF at this point, but hear me out.

So far, the Terps have collected a combined six Quad 1 & 2 victories this season. They are one of only five teams in the Big Ten to do so thus far — Wisconsin (10), MSU (7), Purdue (6), Illinois (6) being the others. A win over the Hoosiers would be a seventh.

It’s going to take more than three midseason wins to get Maryland a real look at the postseason, but it has to start somewhere if it’s going to happen, right? And if the Terps are able to put together that type of home stretch to get themselves into the dance, they’d be a hot team that had preseason hype. Sounds like a spoiler to me. I know most teams would hate to see a team as athletic as Maryland as a 10 seed in the first round.

I’m not saying we should get ahead of ourselves and I’ll hedge by saying the upcoming schedule is brutal for Maryland, but they’ve shown a pulse the last two games and we have to respect that. No wins in the Big Ten are easy, especially ones against ranked teams and ones on the road. Let’s see if they can keep momentum going and parlay it into a late season run.