This time of the year, the goal for any college basketball team is to be hitting its stride in advance of postseason play. You don’t want to peak too early, as it appears No. 16 Iowa may have, but you also want to avoid being in a spot where you aren’t sure if your team can reach its full potential. No. 14 Maryland played just one game last week but it was a disappointing one, as they lost at No. 15 Purdue Saturday afternoon.
(Discuss this topic on the BSL forum here.)
There’s certainly no shame in losing to a team that’s both ranked and 16-1 at Mackey Arena this season. The concern lies in how Maryland lost, as two areas that have been problematic all season long reared their ugly heads in West Lafayette. And it can lead some to ask the following question: what is Maryland’s true ceiling?
Defensive rebounding and consistent production from the bench have been issues throughout Big Ten play, and both factored into Saturday’s loss. Purdue rebounded 59.4 percent of its available missed shots, converting those 19 offensive rebounds into 24 second-chance points. It would be easy to assume that Purdue’s size, with two 7-footers in A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas and another capable big man in freshman Caleb Swanigan, was the reason for this beating on the glass. But this was an evenly distributed effort on the glass for Purdue, with seven of the eight players who registered a rebound in the game grabbing at least two offensive boards.
Guard Johnny Hill led the charge with four offensive rebounds, and if you give any team multiple opportunities to score chances are they’re going to cash in enough to hurt you over time.
Just as problematic Saturday was the bench play, which did not carry over from Maryland’s home win over Michigan. In that game Damonte Dodd, Jared Nickens and Jaylen Brantley combined for 18 points and eight rebounds (six from Dodd), with Dodd blocking two shots and Brantley amassing three steals. Against Purdue the bench produced a total of ten points, with Nickens responsible for all of those points. Compare that to Purdue, which received 30 points from its bench with Dakota Mathias responsible for 17 of them, and it’s understandable why the Terps didn’t have enough to get over the hump after tying the game at 76 with just over two minutes remaining. And that lack of depth may be keeping Maryland from using a defensive wild card that helped them out Saturday.
The “wild card” was the full court pressure, with Jake Layman at the front of a 1-2-1-1 look that caused trouble for Purdue in the second half. The Boilermakers have struggled to take care of the basketball at times this season, due in large part to the lack of a consistent option at the point, and Maryland was able to take advantage of this. But if they have more players who can be counted on for consistent contributions, could Maryland look to this setup more often? Part of that would depend on match-ups of course, but the pressure is something to consider moving forward. But when you aren’t sure what will happen when calling upon reserves for contributions, there’s only so much pressure you can use given the concerns regarding foul trouble.
There are positives to take from Saturday’s loss, including the impact of the pressure defense and the fact that Maryland turned the ball over just six times. But defensive rebounding proved costly, and that combined with the turnover issue is the biggest reason why the team picked by many to win the Big Ten before the season began can only hope for a share (and they’ll need some help to do that).
For as much as it’s been said this season that Maryland may have the highest ceiling of any team in college basketball, is that really the case?
Given what’s transpired in college basketball this season, it would be foolish to rule out a Final Four (or national title) run for Maryland; this is still a very talented group at each position. However, the issues (rebounding especially) that were identified by many throughout Big Ten play remain the same as the calendar flips to March. This could be a case where seeing opponents not as familiar with their personnel and style of play will benefit Maryland, resulting in the deep postseason run fans are hoping for from this group. But rebounding, generally speaking, is something that remains consistent for high-level teams. Does Maryland have the ability to address this issue and get it rectified in advance of postseason play? One would assume so given the personnel, but he we are in late February still talking about the same problem.
Maryland closes the regular season with games against Illinois (Senior Night) and Indiana, with the latter coming in Bloomington. Obviously anything less than a split would be a disappointment, with the Fighting Illini approaching the end of an injury-filled campaign representing an opponent Maryland should take care of in the home finale. Do that, and get some help in the form of Iowa knocking off the Hoosiers Tuesday night, and Maryland would still have a shot at a share of the Big Ten title. But they’ve got to get better on the glass, not just for this week but for the upcoming Big Ten and NCAA tournaments as well.
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.