In the warm-ups before Wednesday night’s game against Rutgers, Melo Trimble noticed that the No. 14 Maryland men’s basketball team was lackadaisically going through the motions, moving without hardly breaking a sweat.
But he also noticed that fellow freshman Jared Nickens was hitting most of his shots.
“He never shoots any layups in warm-ups,” Trimble said, cracking a smile, “but he was making his shots in warm-ups — threes and stuff like that.”
Those observations proved to be an omen of what was to come. The Terrapins started slowly against the Scarlet Knights, then looked sluggish again coming out of halftime, but they eventually secured a 73-65 victory with the help of Nickens, the willowy spot-up shooter whose role on team continues to grow.
Nickens made his fifth start of the season Wednesday and finished with 12 points on four three-pointers, including two at key junctures late in the fourth quarter. The first three sparked a 7-0 run with a little more than six minutes remaining that helped the Terrapins pull away, and the second gave them a two-possession lead with 2:22 on the clock.
“They were both big, and Jared can do that,” coach Mark Turgeon said. “The best thing about it is he didn’t hesitate. He just rose up.”
As the Terrapins prepare for a rematch with Michigan State on Saturday, they do so with the knowledge and expectation that Nickens will play a larger role. In the first meeting between the two teams in East Lansing on Dec. 30, he produced a stat line filled with zeroes, missing all three of his shots and going scoreless in 16 minutes of action. Maryland held on to win in double-overtime, 68-66.
In the weeks since, Nickens has experienced an uptick in both playing time and productivity. After playing only seven minutes in a win over Minnesota, he has averaged 18 minutes over the past three games and started the previous two. He’s shooting nearly 44 percent from beyond the arc during that span.
“Coach Turgeon just told me to stay focused, keep working hard at practice and my opportunity will come,” Nickens said. “Depending on how the game is, we’re going to need different lineups, so I don’t cry about it or anything. I just keep my head up and keep working hard.”
As part of a freshman class featuring Trimble, fellow highly-touted local product Dion Wiley and 7-foot Slovakian center Michal Cekovsky, Nickens was somewhat overshadowed entering this season. He was viewed as one of several shooters that would be available off the bench, a complimentary piece rather than a weapon.
As the season has progressed, however, Nickens has grown more confident. And his teammates share that faith in his shot.
“We know Jared can shoot threes, and we know he has a lot of confidence in shooting them. And so do we,” Trimble said. “Whenever he misses one, we’re surprised and we know he’s going to take the next one and make it.”
Moving Nickens into the starting lineup alongside veterans Dez Wells and Jake Layman has helped the Terrapins better spread the floor while also spacing out the younger players in their rotation. Despite the team’s slow starts at the beginning of each half Wednesday, Turgeon endorsed Nickens as a starter entering Saturday’s game, and beyond.
“I think that’s more of a byproduct of the way we approached it, not who we started,” Turgeon said of the sluggish start. “I’ve got weapons. I’ve got different guys I can go to, which is great. So I can always figure out, eventually by 40 minutes, who’s going to help us win the game. So I’m in a good position. I’d like for us to play better than we did and be a little bit mentally prepared to play better, but we’re getting closer to that rotation.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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