COLLEGE PARK, Md. — It can be hard to see the value of a loss at the moment of defeat. It certainly wasn’t easy for Maryland after losing in the final seconds of the Round of 32 of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

But instead of letting a last-second layup that won the game for their opponent — LSU — spoil more than just their 2019 postseason, the Terps have used the disappointment of that loss to light a fire under this year’s preseason top-10 team.

“I think [the postseason loss to LSU] is going to help a lot,” Maryland sophomore Jalen “Stix” Smith said. “That fire is there now. Nobody wants to lose in the NCAA Tournament again, so it’s just going to help us build upon that and work harder every day.”

Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon has noticed the hunger in his team and said it has shown in the way the Terps are preparing for the 2019-2020 season.

“We had a terrific year, but because of the way the season ended at the buzzer to go to the Sweet 16 — and to have a chance to come back home and play in D.C. — it's made our guys really hungry,” Turgeon said. “And I don't know if I've ever had a team work as hard as this team did from April until they started practice and it shows. I am really proud of them.”

After watching LSU guard Tremont Waters end their season last year, the Terps each had their own ways of dealing with the disappointment.

Some, like Maryland sophomore Aaron Wiggins, stayed off of social media in order to avoid seeing replays of Waters’ layup or any comments about the play. But now, Wiggins says he welcomes the motivation seeing that play gives him.

“I kept seeing it,” Wiggins said. “I saw it everywhere, social media and everything. I got off social media for like a week or two because every time I’d scroll through Twitter it was like a highlight play of Tremont Waters’ layup, all the way up until the NBA when he got drafted. So I continue to see it. I see it everywhere, but I try not to pay too much attention to it. But every time I see it it just motivates me to push our team to be even better.”

Others, like Smith, got right back in the gym as soon as he could to get up shots after being bounced from the NCAA Tournament.

“I pretty much remember after that game I just talked to my parents and was pretty much like I had a great game but there were still a lot of things I could have worked on,” Smith said. “So the next day I was in the gym just working out. Even if it was just shooting around, I was just doing something to work on my game and cope with that.”

Like Smith, Terps senior point guard Anthony Cowan Jr. said he returned to the gym quickly after the loss to LSU. He added that the postseason defeat “sat differently” with him, and believes it’s something that will motivate him and his teammates throughout this upcoming season.

“It’s definitely talked about a lot and it personally motivates me a lot because I think we kind of went into the perfect situation with if we win that game we’re in the Sweet 16 in D.C. I don’t think we could really ask for much more than that,” Cowan said. “So I think it really motivates us. I think it’s also good that we got a little taste of what it’s like to have success in the NCAA Tournament with just winning one game. So I think that’s big time.”

Maryland’s mixture of postseason success and disappointment is a combination that could pay dividends for the Terps in a season that’s already surrounded by hype.

But the Terps aren’t letting what others expect from them drive their effort or preparation. Rather, the goal to continuously improve remains the same.

“We’re not focused on preseason rankings, we’re just focused on our team,” Terps junior Darryl Morsell said. “Every day we’re just trying to come in here and get better, and our message is to conquer the day. You can’t control what happens tomorrow, yesterday was yesterday and we’re just focused on the moment and the task at hand.”

With plenty of talent on the roster from top to bottom, Maryland is poised for a strong season that the Terps are hoping will end later than the year prior.

But even a top-10 team that returned 80 percent of its scoring from last season and welcomes an impressive freshman class is ready to prove that it can play with a chip on its shoulder.

“With the way the season ended last year, of course, it’s just an extra push for us to get better because nobody wants to end the way we did,” Wiggins said.