Terps looking to bounce back in Big Ten tourney versus Wisconsin

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- After full-out debacle on Senior Day in College Park Feb. 24, which saw the Terps lose by 24 to No. 17 Michigan, Maryland (19-12, 8-10 Big Ten) is hoping to rebound in the postseason and salvage what is left of a somewhat tumultuous year.

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With a Wisconsin (14-17, 7-11) team that is having a down season waiting in the wings on March 1 for a second-round Big Ten Tournament matchup, the Terps have taken the the time since the blowout loss to the Wolverines to focus on themselves and regain the confidence they were playing with before last Saturday.

“You’re constantly working on other teams but this week we’re just working on Maryland,” Terps head coach Mark Turgeon said Feb. 27 “Mentally we worked on our players, physically we worked on Maryland, and hopefully it will show. This late in the year if you can’t put together a defensive game plan just walking through in a ballroom, you’re probably not going to win anyway. So we’ll be able to put together a game plan [Wednesday] on Wisconsin, but we’ve really used [Monday and Tuesday] here to work on Maryland.”

After the loss to Michigan, Turgeon said in his postgame press conference that he expected his players to come to practice the following Monday ready to bounce back and stated that any signs of quit in his team would result in a lot of running for the Terps.

According to Turgeon, his players showed him what he was looking for and responded the way he had hoped.

“We’ve fought hard for two days,” Turgeon said. “We’ve really competed. We’ve made everything a competition. We haven’t been great the whole time but we’ve really competed. So it has been a really good two days. Really good.”

One of Turgeon’s goals during the last few practices has been building a deeper rotation for tournament play. Maryland played 11 different players against Michigan, more than Turgeon typically plays, and while that was more the result of a game that had gotten out of hand, the Terps want to continue that trend moving forward in order to stay fresh for a potential postseason run.

“I was just trying to become a deeper team,” Turgeon said. “I tried to give everyone equal opportunity like it was the first day of practice. And that’s kind of what we did. I want everyone to think they’re going to have a chance to help us win. We can’t play six players and win four games if we do get to that point. So we have to be deep on Thursday to have a chance.”

Turgeon believes the Terps started to become a much deeper and better team even before losing to the Wolverines. He pointed to the offensive spurt they had on the road against Northwestern recently and said multiple times after the Michigan game that we was happy with how his team had played for about 11 games leading up to that matchup.

“A lot of guys were playing well,” Turgeon said. “We were becoming a deeper team. We were shooting 48 percent in the league and we lost a couple of good players that really helped us offensively. We’ve been able to rebound, as small as we’ve been, we’ve been able to rebound, been able to hold our own pretty good. Just offensively I think our run at Northwestern late in the game Bruno [Fernando] scored, Darryl [Morsell] scored, and Dion [Wiley] scored. Those seven points really helped us. So we were just becoming more complete. I thought we were much more complete team heading into [the Michigan game]. So I feel like we’re heading in the right direction and Saturday was more of an aberration than anything. I expect us to play well on Thursday.”

But even with the Terps not pushing the panic button and some preparation going into a potential multiple-game run, Turgeon and his squad are not looking ahead of their next opponent and know the Badgers have improved since Maryland beat them by five at Xfinity Center Feb. 4.

In fact, Wisconsin has won three of its last four games and is coming off of a narrow five-point defeat to No. 2 Michigan State. During that stretch, the Badgers standout junior center Ethan Happ has averaged 15.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game. Happ has also been getting help. Wisconsin freshman point guard Brad Davidson is coming off of a 30-point performance against Michigan State in the Badgers regular season finale.

“We have to play really well all four days,” Turgeon said. “ We have to have a lot of different guys step up. And we’ll have to catch guys on good days. But right now we’re just worried about Wisconsin. We have a chance to get to 20 [wins] and considering what we’ve been through and the schedule that we’ve had to play this year we just want to figure out a way to beat Wisconsin and go from there. Wisconsin is playing well. I think we’re playing well. Should be a great game.”

Tip-off at Madison Square Garden between Maryland and Wisconsin is set for 12:00 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.