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Experience, stability at point guard will be critical for Maryland

Mark Turgeon (AP Photo)

AP

In their final season as a member of the ACC, Maryland struggled with consistency as they fell short of a spot in the NCAA tournament. The offseason was by no means smooth, with the arrival of a very good crop of freshmen being offset by player departures that may ultimately benefit all parties in the future. With a new season in a new conference (Big Ten) right around the corner, Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon is hopeful that his team can snap Maryland’s NCAA tournament drought.

Maryland has a number of options on the perimeter, with that resulting in the Terrapins changing things up offensively in order to properly take advantage of those weapons. The combination of perimeter weapons and experience, with Maryland having four seniors in the rotation, will be key for Maryland as they get acclimated to their new conference. Don Markus of the Baltimore Sun wrote about the team’s experience in the article linked above.

The team’s leading scorer in each of his first two seasons at Maryland, Wells is expected to be one of the top players in the Big Ten. But he should have help from fellow seniors Evan Smotrycz, Jon Graham (Calvert Hall) and transfer Richaud Pack in guiding a team that welcomed a recruiting class that, with Reed, was considered a top-10 group.

“It’s huge,” Turgeon said of his team’s large senior class. “We haven’t had it. Sean Mosley started the first year as a senior [in 2011-12], and a bunch of seniors came off the bench. Then we had Padge [James Padgett] and Logan [Aronhalt] coming off the bench [in 2012-13], and last year, we had no seniors on scholarship. It’s big for us.”


The biggest change for Maryland is the arrival of Romelo Trimble, a gifted point guard who will be handed the key from the moment Maryland starts practice if that hasn’t occurred already. Stability at the point was something the Terrapins lacked in 2013-14, even with Seth Allen (now at Virginia Tech) returning from a foot injury to average 13.4 points and 3.0 assists per game.

If Trimble can hit the ground running, Maryland should reap the rewards offensively. The Terrapins will be tested in the Big Ten, but the feeling is that with improvement on both ends of the floor they’ll be able to earn their first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2010.

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