Give and Take

Turnover margin will kill this team. All season the team has been effective shooting the ball (last 60ish minutes notwithstanding), good at rebounding it, and has had an advantage on the FT line, yet their efficiency numbers on both sides of the ball were only so-so.

 Why? Part of that was simply that those first numbers were so high because the competition was weak, but I would submit that a bigger portion of that was turnover margin. Quite simply, the team coughs the ball up far too often, and does absolutely nothing defensively to pressure the team into their own giveaways. It's a recipe for disaster to be giving the opposition three and four extra possessions every single game.

Of the 347 DI teams, and the Terps are 325th in pace-adjusted TO-margin (defensive TO% - offensive TO%), good for worst among power conference teams. The other teams which are even close to - albeit still ahead of - Maryland are Utah, South Carolina, Cal, Texas, Georgia and Rutgers. Not one of those teams has a serious shot at the NCAA Tournament, and realistically any of them would be happy with an NIT right now. That's where Maryland is.

 Look, Coach Turgeon has already said that he's uninterested in installing a press as part of the team's game to game defense, but given how lax the late game press was tonight, Turge would be well served to practice and employ it with more regularity, especially with the depth, length and athleticism of this particular group.

On the other side, there's no simple answer as almost everyone in the team's backcourt struggles to take care of the ball. Only Logan Aronhalt has a TO% below the national average, and as we all know, his role is that of a spot up shooter.

 It's hard to say this was THE backbreaker tonight. After all, the Terps only barely shot 30%, and turnovers or not, the team managed 47 points in a relatively fast (70 possession) game, but once again, they gave up 6 extra possessions due to turnovers, forcing only 8 and giving up 14 - mostly in a putrid 14 point first half. In a seven point loss where neither team did much with the basketball, it's not easy to overcome nearly twice as many giveaways as takeaways.

 Given Turgeon's stated defensive preference - the team also finished last in conference play last season in TO% - it's probably not reasonable to think that the team will be playing 40 Minutes of Hell defense anytime soon, but why have the turnovers increased from bad to season-crushing this season?  Surely Allen and an allegedly healthy Pe'shon Howard at the point supported mainly by semi-vets Dez Wells and Nick Faust ought to be better than last year's group of Faust or a hobbled Howard at point, supported by Jonathan Thomas in spot minutes and Stoglin and Sean Mosley on the wing, but so far not so much.  Turgeon's ability to solve this one is where the season hinges.