Mark Turgeon || Maryland Head Coach
Mark, it seemed that every time you got close enough to maybe take the lead, they’d get a lead on offense, a rebound score or make a pretty good defensive play.
MT: Yeah, they’re good. Their starting five is terrific. Lamar Stevens was off the charts tonight. We had no answer for him. Besides that, I thought we competed, but you’re right. It’s a couple of games now when we absolutely have to have rebounds, we can’t get them. We’ve got to figure it out. We’re playing four guards. We got to figure out how to get those rebounds, but we battled. I didn’t think we competed in the first half defensively. I thought in the second half we really tried hard.
Mark, with the smaller lineup, how difficult was the matchup with [Lamar] Stevens, and what are some of the things you try to do just to slow him down?
MT: Well the ones I was disappointed with, we gave him two wide open threes, and we’re not supposed to guard him like that. That kind of gets you going a little bit. He’s made 18 all year, but we can’t be six feet off of him acting like we’re not guarding him. He’s a heck of a player. Those hurt, but then, after that, he made some incredible shots-fade-aways, fifteen, seventeen footers overhand. I did think we gave him a few layups early. He was terrific. He was so efficient.
About five seconds left after that last free throw miss, one timeout left, what went into the decision to not call that one.
MT: Down four. It had nothing to do with the game.
It seemed like Kevin [Huerter] got off to a pretty good start, and then it looked like, whether he was just out of rhythm or tired or both, he just couldn’t get going until right at the end of the game.
MT: They got a really good defender in Josh Reaves. He’s terrific. He’s not kind of good. He’s really good. He blew up a lot of things out there, so I think you got to give him a lot of credit. Number five, I’m sorry I’m missing his name for them. Help me out, Zach. I can’t see anything. Wheeler, yeah he’s a great defender too, so he came in and guarded Anthony [Cowan Jr.] and pressured us. That’s why Dion [Wiley] and Jared [Nickens] were getting open looks. Tight game, but I thought those two had a lot to do with it. Kevin got a little tired, probably.
Mark, you guys have lost a few games this year, at least recently, close games on the road. Did tonight feel like those, and how then is that margin of error when you’re trying to get over the hump?
MT: My guys battled. Are you serious guys? Let’s be real. My kids battled. We had like four guys out there. My guys battled. Anthony [Huerter] makes the layup. We clear the side. It’s a one-point game. They got a heck of a team. They got maybe three NBA guys on that roster. They got a heck of a team. My guys battled.
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