When each chapter of the season comes to an end, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon allows himself to take a deep breath. The year can be a grind. That grind can create tunnel vision. It’s important to step back, survey the broad landscape and appreciate each chapter for what it was.
This season, that means embracing a feeling of accomplishment, if only for a moment. So as the eighth-ranked Terrapins enter the postseason, beginning with Friday’s game against Northwestern or Indiana in the Big Ten tournament, Turgeon wants to be clear: regardless of how the season ends, it will be a successful one.
“I think all the pressure’s off,” Turgeon said Wednesday afternoon. “I think wow, we’ve had a heck of a regular season, we have a nice team, let’s just go have some fun. So I think the opposite of maybe what you’re thinking. Pressure’s really off us.”
In Turgeon’s first three years in College Park, the Terrapins entered the conference tournament needing a deep run, if not an outright championship, to qualify for the NCAA tournament. This year, they flew to Chicago knowing their spot in the dance is already reserved.
Maryland won its final seven games of the regular-season, climbing 11 spots in the Associated Press Top 25 and cracking the Top 10 for the first time since 2003. By virtue of their regular-season success, the Terrapins secured a double-bye in the Big Ten tournament. After Sunday’s win at Nebraska, they were able to take two days off. Starters were told not to come to the gym. Melo Trimble got a massage.
“Today’s the first day my trainer’s come in to me and said everybody’s healthy and ready to go,” Turgeon said. “You know how long that’s been? It’s been a long time.”
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Physical health is valuable, but Turgeon also believes his players are mentally fresh entering their most grueling stretch of the season. There is a comfort that comes with overachieving, as they have this year, and a confidence that comes with repeated success in tight games.
The Terrapins are 10-0 this season in games decided by six points or fewer, a statistic which they attribute to poise, not luck.
“A lot of games, you see guys at the free-throw line, and you can tell they’re nervous,” senior Dez Wells said. “I feel like in those close games, the guys who have prepared, who are ready, who have confidence to step up there and make free throws and to take care of the ball down the stretch, those teams deserve to win. I would say luck, like I said, is throwing the ball 90 feet with your eyes closed and it going in. That’s luck. There’s nothing lucky about us winning.”
The Terrapins had little at stake in the final week of the regular season, when they traveled to face Rutgers and Nebraska, two of the Big Ten’s bottom-feeders. But Turgeon urged his team to treat those games as a form of preparation — close games in front of hostile crowds that could mimic a tournament atmosphere. In the second half of Sunday’s game against the Huskers, for example, he huddled his team and said, “let’s approach it like [a tournament game] right now.” They went on win by three.
Trimble said those moments, and Maryland’s overall success this season, have caused any pressure that may have existed in November to dissipate. Wells agreed.
“I think the only pressure you have is the pressure you put on yourself, and the only pressure you should put on yourself is to prepare and to perform,” Wells said. “All the other outside pressure should not matter, shouldn’t be overwhelming. We’ve been in this position before. Some not at this level of basketball, but everybody’s had pressure. You just go out there and do what you’ve been doing.”
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Barring any significant upsets over the weekend, the Terrapins will enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 2 or No. 3 seed. They are favored to win their first tournament game since 2010 and, if the seeds hold, reach the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2003. A run beyond that is not out of the question. Of course, a first-round upset is possible, too.
Regardless of the result, Turgeon knows this season has already left an impact. Maryland is back on the map.
“No matter what happens, we know it’s been a great year,” Turgeon said. “We know going forward that this year’s going to help us. I think we’ve set a standard now. And I think Dez started it. This senior class has started a standard that we want to live up to.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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