COLUMBUS, Ohio — Though he loathes looking too far ahead on the schedule, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon knew he had to do so early last week.
One glance at the NCAA tournament bracket was all Turgeon needed. Should the fourth-seeded Terrapins defeat No. 13 seed Valparaiso in their first NCAA tournament game, he knew it was likely that West Virginia, and its stifling full-court press, would await in the next round.
That’s precisely what happened. Maryland fought off the Crusaders, 65-62, on Friday, and will now have to deal with the pesky fifth-seeded Mountaineers and their suffocating defense.
“I had a feeling that it might come to this,” Turgeon said. “We’ve prepared a little bit earlier in the week, when we had time, for West Virginia.”
That meant, at times, putting six or seven defenders on the court during one 20-minute session on Tuesday, restricting the offense off the inbounds pass, taking away lanes and trapping ball-handlers.
Kansas coach Bill Self, who began preparing his team two weeks in advance of its first meeting with West Virginia in mid-February, put eight defenders on the court. Buffalo coach Bobby Hurley practiced, for stretches, with seven defenders pressing the offense — himself included.
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Both teams lost.
Such is the problem posed by West Virginia, which installed the full-court press as a staple of its defense prior to this season and has spent four months smothering teams with it. Nicknamed “Press Virginia,” the tactic has allowed the Mountaineers to lead the nation with 19.5 forced turnovers and 10.8 steals a game.
It’s not just the press itself that’s effective. Once the ball is thrown inbounds — if the ball is thrown inbounds — the Mountaineers will run a variety of traps to prevent it from advancing much farther.
“We try to get the ball to guys who really can’t handle it and make them make decisions,” said forward Jonathan Holton, whose usual assignment is to defend the inbounds pass. “Then, the guys who actually make the decisions for the team, we try to deny them and try to keep the ball out of their hands.”
Bob Huggins, in his eighth season as West Virginia’s coach, had toyed with the idea of employing a full-court press for several years, but could never find the right time. As the coach at Cincinnati in the early 1990s, he ran a tenacious three-quarters press that wore down opponents and helped the Bearcats made deep NCAA tournament runs.
When the Mountaineers experienced significant roster turnover after last season, he decided it was time. Players were quick to buy in, enthralled by the havoc it could cause on opponents. And, because of the level of energy required to operate it efficiently, they knew it would lead to an expanded rotation. The Mountaineers, for much of the year, have run 13 players deep.
Buffalo seemed to be the type of team that could answer that strategy — a quick, frenetic, downhill unit that aims to use its speedy guards to get the ball across halfcourt. In the first half on Friday, however, the Bulls struggled to throw the ball inbounds, couldn’t get upcourt and frequently panicked.
“There’s no way for us [to simulate that],” Hurley said after the game, a 68-62 loss. “We don’t face teams like this usually that are physical in trapping and that are relentless the way they play their defense.
“I think our guys, as the game wore on, started to figure out how hard they needed to cut, how we needed to attack it. But initially, in the early stages of the game, it’s just hard to figure that out as a player. It’s just not something we face very often.”
Maryland, like Buffalo, will rely upon guards Melo Trimble, Dez Wells and Richaud Pack to get the ball up the court. They also have a pair of adept ballhandlers in forwards Jake Layman and Evan Smotrycz, each of whom can help break the press.
The Terrapins’ experience is limited — they were dogged by VMI in November but still won handily, and Oklahoma State frequently played up on the ball a month later — but they believe they have answers.
One could be in turning the Mountaineers’ physicality against them. Because of the constant defense, they also rank dead last among full Division I teams with 23.3 fouls per game, which could get Maryland, which shoots 75.7 percent from the free throw line, a few easy points.
“I’ve got smart players and they should be able to react,” Turgeon said. “And, we couldn’t simulate their pressure no matter how hard we tried — or their speed. We’re just going to have to get used to it [on Sunday].”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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