Did Terps turn a corner, or is this just a glimpse of what could’ve been?
MIKE BURKE
Allegany Radio Corporation Sports
The No. 12 Maryland Terrapins didn’t back down from the bully. In fact, the Terps popped the bully in the kisser and sent him home reeling in their 67-55 win over No. 11 Ohio State Tuesday night at Xfinity Center.
“If I were to go into a back alley, I would want Donta with me,” Maryland guard Darryl Morsell said of his teammate Donta Scott. “I know he would fight for me and give it his all. He carries that same demeanor and mindset on the court.”
In fact, Scott, the freshman forward from Philadelphia, did carry that demeanor and mindset against Ohio State, hitting a pair of big shots, making a couple of tremendous entry passes, playing great defense and continuing to show more promise with each game. But in truth, all of the Terrapins played with that same demeanor and mindset, and they established it with their defense.
Forward Jalen Smith set the example, playing tough all night on Ohio State’s brutish Kaleb Wesson. Wesson treated Smith with the same regard that an annoyed dock worker would treat a pesky fly, swatting at the sophomore from Baltimore, hooking him and knocking him down as though he were a mere annoyance.
Yet Smith kept getting back up and used his superior speed and reach to front Wesson, post him and essentially stay in his face, forcing the Buckeye center to earn 15 frustrating points.
Morsell once more was the Maryland leader and, along with Smith, set the mood for Maryland’s play, which was scrappy, toe-to-toe, yet happy. Maryland’s pressure on the ball and its tenacity in the frontcourt held Ohio State in check at 31 percent from the field, and 18 percent on 3s. It was a nice carryover from Saturday’s win over Indiana when they forced turnovers to set up easy baskets.
There are still too many Terps who are not holding their own offensively, and we won’t even get into the maddening halfcourt offense. Yet these players are making up for that defensively in forcing easy baskets which, in turn, helped the Terps bury seven 3-pointers in the first half, and that’s what they‘re going to need. Maryland is better when it runs, but there won’t be many track meets on the remaining Big Ten schedule.
Eric Ayala seemed to be what the doctor ordered coming off the bench, sparking the Terps while keeping them grounded and focused at the same time. And Anthony Cowan had another Cowan-like performance with 15 of his 20 points coming in the second half.
Whether he is playing the point or the 2, the ball still needs to be in Cowan’s hands more often. And that’s not something that could have been easily said until this season.
Oh, and 7-foot-2 freshman Chol Marial, he of the 7-foot-8 wingspan, is going to be making a difference more and more. You can see why he was at one time the top player in his national recruiting class, for aside from his size, he has skills.
Inside, the Terps did a better job of going straight to the rim, rather than play for the foul as they are so apt to do. If Mark Turgeon and his staff ever get it through to their players that going for the dunk makes for almost automatic, they’ll find that the fouls they seek will come more often than not.
In turn, a more aggressive approach to the rim will continue to open up better looks from the perimeter.
We’ll find out soon enough, though, if the win over Ohio State proves to be an igniter for the Terps and further separation from the uninspired play we saw during their two-game losing streak, or merely more of the same-old, same-old. Maryland goes back on the road Friday at Iowa, then again to Wisconsin on Tuesday.
The road hasn’t been a kind place for Maryland yet this season (see losses at Penn State and at Seton Hall), but based on what we saw Saturday against Indiana and Tuesday against Ohio State, these players seem to enjoy playing with each other again.
Let’s hope that they do, because they’re going to need each other, as opportunities like this don’t come along very often.
This Maryland team is capable of having a season to remember. But they’re going to have to go through a lot more back alleys and up against some of the same bullies again to determine what it’s going to be remembered for.
Mike Burke writes about sports for Allegany Radio and Pikewood Digital. He began covering sports for the Prince George’s County Sentinel in 1981 and joined the Cumberland Times-News sports staff in 1984. He was the sports editor of the Times-News for nearly 30 years. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @MikeBurkeMDT