#8 Maryland (16-14, 6-9) vs. #9 Wake Forest (13-17, 4-12)
Thursday, March 8, 2012 | Noon | Atlanta, Ga. (Philips Arena)
ACC Network-WNUV 54 locally in Baltimore | Terrapin Sports Radio Network

Maryland opens play in the 2012 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament in a first-round matchup with Wake Forest. The Terrapins beat the Demon Deacons, 70-64, on Jan. 11 in the only regular-season meeting between the teams this year.Terrell Stoglin had 20 points, with James Padgett and Sean Mosley adding 15 each in the victory that marked the first league game of the year at Comcast Center.

Sophomore guard Terrell Stoglin earned second team All-ACC honors on Monday in balloting by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. Stoglin remains atop the list of scoring leaders in the league with a 21.2 points-per-game average. He had 25 points in the last game of the regular season on Sunday against Virginia, becoming only the third Terrapin in history to reach 1,000 career points in only his second season.

Nick Faust earned a spot on the 2012 ACC All-Freshman Team on Monday. Faust has averaged 13.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.4 steals in the seven games since he returned to the starting lineup after the season-ending injury to Pe’Shon Howard. It marked the third straight season the Terps have put a student-athlete on the league’s All-Freshman Team (Jordan Williams in 2010, Stoglin in 2011). Faust has six double-figure games in the last seven.

The Terrapins are the eighth seed in the ACC Tournament for the sixth time. Maryland is 5-3 in matchups with Wake Forest, including five straight victories. The Terps lost their first three tournament meetings with the Demon Deacons (1954, 1961, 1963), but turned things around with a win in the 1973 semifinals. The other wins have come in 1984, 2001, 2004 and 2009.

Scouting the Demon Deacons

Wake Forest finished the regular season 13-17 overall with a 4-12 mark in the ACC, getting its four conference wins over Virginia Tech, Boston College and Georgia Tech at home and also defeating BC in Chestnut Hill.

The Demon Deacons possess two of the top-six scorers in the conference in guard C.J. Harris and forward Travis McKie… Harris is fourth in the league with 16.8 ppg and is also the team’s top 3-point shooter, having connected on 48-of-111 attempts (.432) this season… McKie is sixth in the conference with 15.9 ppg and is averaging a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game.

Wake is the best free-throw shooting team in the league (.736), led by Harris (.856) and McKie (.730)… Sophomore guard Tony Chennault is third on the team in scoring (9.3 ppg) and has a team-high 85 assists… Fifth-year senior forward Nikita Mescheriakov is fourth on the team with 7.7 ppg.

Upcoming

The winner of the opening first-round game will face top-seeded North Carolina at noon in Friday’s quarterfinals.

The Terrapins are in the top half of the bracket, meaning they would play in the 1 p.m. semifinal, with the championship game also scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Follow the Entire Tournament

First-round coverage of all four games on Thursday will also be available on ESPNU nationally, with blackouts in the ACC geographic footprint.

Fans can also follow the tournament on Twitter: @ACCmbb, with hashtag #ACCTRNY

#24/rv Virginia (21-8, 8-7) at Maryland (16-13, 6-9)
Sunday, March 4, 2012 | 2 p.m. | Comcast Center
ACC Network | Terrapin Sports Radio Network

• Maryland plays host to Virginia on its traditional Senior Day, when the Terrapins honor the graduating seniors of the Class of 2012. The game also has an effect on the standings in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with Maryland in eighth in the league with a 6-9 record and Virginia in fourth at 8-6 before the Cavaliers’ Thursday-night game at home against Florida State. Maryland is 13-3 this season at Comcast Center.
• Based on the standings prior to Thursday’s games (Florida State at Virginia, Virginia Tech at Clemson), the Terrapins could finish in either the seventh or eighth spot in the league. A climb to seventh would need a Terps’ win Sunday over Virginia and a pair of Clemson losses (Tigers close Sunday at Florida State).
• Sophomore guard Terrell Stoglin had 16 points on Wednesday against the Tar Heels. That brought his season total to 610 points, marking the 18th time in school history a player has had 600 points or more in a season. The last one to accomplish that plateau was Greivis Vasquez, who had 647 in 2010. Stoglin also comes into today’s game with 986 points in his career and has a chance to become only the third Terrapin in school history to reach 1,000 points in his first two seasons. Joe Smith had 1,290 points from 1993-95 and Tom McMillen had 1,283 from 1971-73.
• Freshman Nick Faust had a career-high 17 points on Wednesday at North Carolina. Faust has been playing his best basketball of the season down the stretch and has five games in double figures in his last six outings. His previous season-highs have come against some of Maryland’s best competition of the year, with 15 points at Duke and against Colorado at the Puerto Rico Tipoff. Faust leads the Terrapins in assists (63) and is second to Sean Mosley in steals (28).
• Junior forward James Padgett had his second double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds against the Tar Heels. The 13 boards were the most of the season by a Terrapin player. He also had five offensive rebounds, giving him 102 for the year. It marks the eighth time in school history a player has grabbed 100 offensive rebounds in a season.
• With 16 wins, Maryland has most likely advanced its string of consecutive winning seasons to 19. The last time a Terrapin team finished below .500 was 1992-93, when the Terps went 12-16 in the final year of crippling NCAA sanctions. Each school in the ACC has had a losing season since the Terps (including Duke, 13-18 in 1995 and North Carolina, 8-20 in 2002).
• Maryland lost to Virginia, 71-44, in the first meeting of the season between these two teams on Feb. 18. The Cavaliers have won two straight in the series, including a 74-60 win in last year’s game at Comcast Center. Maryland still leads the overall series between the teams 106-69.
• Virginia comes into the game 24th in the most recent Associated Press poll. The Terrapins’ last win over a ranked team was a 79-72 win over then-No. 4 Duke on 3/3/2010 in Comcast Center.
• The men’s basketball program today will pay tribute to senior players Sean Mosley, Berend Weijs and Jon Dillard, along with managers Donald Darang and Phil Baldwin. Ceremonies will be held during pregame.
  

  Scouting the Cavaliers

• Virginia comes into the game 24th in the most recent Associated Press poll, with a 21-8 overall record (8-7 ACC) following a 63-60 loss to Florida State at home on Thursday.
• Senior forward Mike Scott leads the team in scoring (17.3 ppg) and rebounds (8.2 rpg), and is shooting 57.4 percent from the field, best in the ACC… Sophomore guard Joe Harris is also scoring in double figures with 11.4 ppg and is shooting 39 percent from 3FG.
• Virginia ranks highly in several defensive categories, coming in at second nationally in scoring defense (52.6 ppg), 14th in field goal percentage defense (.390), and second in the ACC in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.287).
• The Cavaliers are also third in the conference is turnover margin (plus-1.62) and assist-turnover ratio (1.1), with junior guard Jontel Evans leading the team and ranking fifth in the league with 3.8 assists per game.
  

  Upcoming

  The Terrapins will leave Tuesday, March 6 for the 2012 ACC Tournament, to be played at Philips Arena in Atlanta, with its open practice day coming on Wednesday… Maryland will be the No. 8 seed in the tournament and will play the 9th seed at noon on Thursday… The winner of the opening first-round game will face the No. 1 seed at noon in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Maryland (16-12, 6-8) at #6/6 North Carolina (25-4, 12-2)
Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012 | 7 p.m. | Chapel Hill, N.C. (Smith Center)
ESPN / ESPN3 | Terrapin Sports Radio Network

Maryland (16-11, 6-7) at Georgia Tech (9-18, 2-11)
Saturday, Feb. 24, 2012 | 2:30 p.m. | Atlanta, Ga. (Philips Arena)
ACC Network-WNUV 54 in Baltimore | Terrapin Sports Radio Network

COLLEGE PARK — After the University of Maryland basketball team suffered a disastrous second half letdown in a 71-44 loss at the University of Virginia Saturday, it would have been easy to believe a season ending freefall had begun.

Head coach Mark Turgeon said he only needed 48 hours to believe that wasn’t going to be the case.

“I was so down. There was nothing going on on the bus (after the loss in Charlottesville), there was no one talking except me and I was just yelling at my assistants, just venting to them” Turegon said. “We finished practice (Monday) and we had a great practice. I said ‘you know what? Everybody around here thinks we’re just going to roll over and quit and you showed me today that we’re not.’ I went home and had a great night with my family, enjoyed dinner, slept well, and that’s all you can ask as a coach.”

Turgeon’s intuition proved totally accurate, as his Terrapins rallied from a late deficit Tuesday night to beat Miami 75-70 at Comcast Center. The Terrapins (16-11, 6-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) trailed by five points in the final two minutes of the game, but got big plays from G Sean Mosley and F/C James Padgett to overcome the Hurricanes (16-10, 7-6 ACC). Turgeon called the win the best his team had recorded all season.

“I know the (December) Notre Dame game probably looks like it’s better, but under that circumstance and under this circumstance it was just a great win for out team.”

This circumstance being just days removed from the Terps’ worst performance since an early season beatdown suffered at the hands of Iona in the 5-Hour Energy Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Maryland scored just 13 points in the second half of their loss at John Paul Jones Arena, looking at times as though a thin roster and lack of NCAA Tournament hopes had combined to suck the life out of the team.

The life returned in a big way Tuesday night, proving Turgeon’s message was still ringing with a thin group of overachieving players.

“If we would have lost this game by, I would have been really, really disappointed, but I would have been really proud of my team.” Turgeon said. “Tonight I really felt the coaching-we’d call a play and they’d actually run it. We changed some things offensively which really helped us. Our guys played as a team. The crowd got into it late. We made all the plays – Sean (Mosley) made a big three, Padgett the and-one, (Freshman G) Nick (Faust) the big steal, we stepped up and made free throws. It was just a great win for us.”

A win over a Tournament bubble team in Miami does not suddenly lift the Terrapins’ postseason hopes, but it likely prevents a young group of players from feeling sorry for themselves and sleepwalking through the end of the season. It might not pay dividends immediately, but it could have a long term effect as Turgeon suggested postgame.

“That’s the kind of win right there that will carry over hopefully for the rest of the year and into the future because we are a young team and we’ve got to learn how to win. And when you win a game like that, you’re learning how to win. And I know our program has won-I understand they won 19 games last year. But this group hasn’t won and so to win a game like that is just going to help our young kids.”

Perhaps the most important of those young kids is Faust, who also said the victory was the biggest of his career.

“I would say this is a win that will carry over. We’ve seen that we can play as a team and overcome. Even when we’re down we can still get back in the game; so this is a win that will carry over.”

While it was Sophomore G Terrell Stoglin (20 points) who again lead the way for the Terrapins, the positive contributions from Padgett (16 points, six boards and the late three point play) and Faust (eight points, eight rebounds and a crucial late steal) offer a bright spot and a building block for players and fans alike moving towards Turgeon’s second season.

The next two or three weeks aren’t likely to be very rewarding for the Maryland program, but the sustained growth from this group could be exactly what is needed to reap rewards in the future.

Either way, it’s a much better feeling than watching a group of players fall apart as they did just three days earlier.

-G

• Miami (16-9, 7-5) at Maryland (15-11, 5-7)
  Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 | 8 p.m. | Comcast Center
  ACC Network (WNUV 54 in Baltimore) | Terrapin Sports Radio Network

• Maryland plays its return match with Miami in a Tuesday-night test at Comcast Center. The Terrapins and Hurricanes played one of the best games of the season so far in the Atlantic Coast Conference on Feb. 1 when the `Canes prevailed in a 90-86 double-overtime game. The Terrapins are 15-11 after last Saturday’s 71-44 loss at 22nd-ranked Virginia, and come into the game tied for seventh place in the league with a 5-7 conference mark. The Canes are 16-9 overall and in a three-way tie for fourth in the league with NC State and Virginia at 7-5.
• The Terrapins got 33 points from Terrell Stoglin in the double-OT loss at Miami earlier in the season. The talented sophomore had six 3-pointers and went 9-for-9 from the free-throw line. Maryland came back from a 16-point deficit in the final seven minutes of regulation to send the game into overtime.
• Maryland is completing a tight turnaround in its schedule, with three games in six days. The Terrapins played host to Boston College last Thursday, traveled to Charlottesville for a game early Saturday afternoon and complete the whirlwind against Miami on Tuesday at 8 p.m.
• Stoglin continues to lead the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring, now at 21.4 points per game. Stoglin has 24 straight games with double figures in points, and has 18 games with at least 20 points or more. The Terrapins are 12-6 in games in which he hits the 20-point mark. Against Boston College, Stoglin set the school record for 3-pointers in a season by a sophomore. Now with 72, he has surpassed the 64 of Greivis Vasquez in 2008.
• Nick Faust has been playing particularly well of late, taking over the point guard role after the season-ending knee injury to Pe’Shon Howard. Faust has averaged 14.0 points per game in his last three outings, scoring in double figures in the last three and four of the last five games. He has also stood out at the defensive end, getting 11 steals in the last six games. His five against Boston College marked the first time a Terp player had that many in a game since the ACC Quarterfinals in 2010 when both Greivis Vasquez and Landon Milbourne accomplished that feat.
• Maryland has won the last two straight over Miami in games played in Comcast Center, including an 81-59 victory on 1/26/2010 in the most recent matchup in College Park.
• After road games at Georgia Tech on Saturday and at North Carolina on Feb. 29, the Terrapins will play their final game of the regular season at Comcast Center on Sunday, March 4 on Senior Day against Virginia.
  

  Scouting the Hurricanes

• Miami is 16-9 and 7-5 in the ACC following a 74-56 home win over Wake Forest on Saturday… The Hurricanes are 4-6 on the road this season, but have won three of the last four, beating Georgia Tech, Boston College and Duke while falling to Florida State.
• Junior guard Durand Scott is averaging a team-high 12.9 ppg and is one of four Hurricanes averaging double figures… junior forward Kenny Kadji (12.8), senior guard Malcolm Grant (11.6) and junior center Reggie Johnson (11.1) are the other three… Both Scott and Kadji had 18 points in the win over Wake Forest.
• Miami ranks second in the ACC in 3FG made per game (7.5), with Grant, Trey McKinney Jones and Shane Larkin leading the way… Grant has made 49 of 162 (.302), McKinney Jones 30 of 84 (.357) and Larkin 27 of 76 (.355)… Against Wake Forest the Hurricanes made 12 of 31 3FG attempts (.387).
• With the 6-foot-10, 284-pound Johnson and 6-foot-11, 251-pound Kadji, Miami has an imposing frontcourt… Johnson is averaging a team-high 7.1 rebounds per game, while Kadji has a team-best 40 blocks.
  

  Upcoming

  After road games at Georgia Tech on Saturday and at North Carolina on Feb. 29, the Terrapins will play their final game of the regular season at Comcast Center on Sunday, March 4 on Senior Day against Virginia.

  The Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament will be held March 8 to 11 at Phillips Arena in Atlanta.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — As a tie game at halftime turned into a blowout loss to the University of Virginia Saturday, University of Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon decided he couldn’t sit back and watch his scholarship players go through the motions anymore.

With roughly three minutes to play in the game, Turgeon inserted five walk-on players into the Terrapins’ lineup and stuck with them for the rest of the game. It only made a blowout loss more lopsided, but the head coach was in need of making a statement.

“I just had enough” Turgeon said. “Selfishness, not boxing out, not defending. I wanted to do it earlier. You can go down our whole list-if you can tell me one guy that played well today, I’ll argue that you’re wrong. We were 0-14 or however many guys we played today.”

The number actually was 14 players, and none had anything to offer in the second half of the Terrapins’ 71-44 loss to the Cavaliers at John Paul Jones Arena. The Terps (15-11, 5-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) had managed to erase an early deficit and tie things up at intermission thanks to 14 points from G Terrell Stoglin. Stoglin wouldn’t score again after the break, and the Cavs (20-6, 7-5 ACC) outscored Maryland 40-13 the rest of the way.

It was as ugly (if not uglier) than I’m sure it appeared on television. Maryland shot a putrid 5-24 (20.8%) from the field and turned the ball over 12 times after returning from the locker room. Those 12 points resulted in 20 points for the Wahoos, while the Terps forced just one UVa turnover after the half (which actually did result in two points).

There’s no silver lining to Maryland’s second half effort. It was abysmal. It made spectators wonder why the team even bothered to return to the floor after the break. It was so frustrating that the coach compared it to Maryland’s previous season low point.

“This reminded me of Puerto Rico today. I thought we looked like we were disinterested as far as trying to be tough on defense and rebounding. Our execution was poor.”

Turgeon was referring to the team’s early season trip to San Juan for the 5-Hour Energy Puerto Rico Tip-Off, where they lost two of three games-including a blowout defeat at the hands of Iona. After the stretch, Turgeon referred to his team as “the biggest challenge I’ve ever had in coaching; it’s not even close.”

Similarly, Maryland played the three games in Puerto Rico without sophomore PG Pe’Shon Howard, who missed his third straight game Saturday (and will be out for the rest of the season) with a torn ACL. The Terps were also without freshman C Alex Len in Puerto Rico due to suspension. Len tallied zero points, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero blocks and zero steals to go with one turnover and two missed field goals in 20 minutes Saturday. It’s difficult to determine which scenario would have been preferable.

This is the part of the column where I note that Maryland was playing a second game in roughly 40 hours after recording a win over Boston College Thursday night in College Park. Neither Turgeon nor senior G Sean Mosley would use the turnaround as an excuse, but Turegon was willing to admit the span “was hard” on his team. Now I’ve noted it.

I should also probably note that a tip of the cap is warranted for Virginia F Mike Scott, who bowled over four different Maryland defenders en route to a 25 point, seven rebound performance. Scott’s dominance of the Terrapins was perhaps “Plumlee-esque” Saturday. Consider that noted as well.

Sitting nearly an entire level away from the JPJ Arena floor, I started to wonder if the Maryland players had quit in the second half. For what it’s worth, the coach disagreed.

“We didn’t quit, we just hung our head. I wouldn’t say we quit, we just kind of felt sorry for ourselves and weren’t competing as hard as we can compete. I know it might have looked that way a little bit, but I don’t think we quit.”

Perhaps the players never actually quit, but it was a brutal effort that came at a time where it would be easy to see the team give up a bit. This is a difficult stretch for a Maryland team that has frankly overachieved with a thin roster. The players are smart enough to know that there’s no hope of a NCAA Tournament at-large bid and even slim NIT hopes aren’t enticing enough to maintain a high level of energy until March. The only tangible difference between winning and losing at this point is the reaction generated from coaches and fans.

When things aren’t going their way, it is understandable that players may be a little more willing to pack it in down the stretch. It’s not a condemnation of the collective heart of this group of players, it’s just more a look at reality for a team that is too thin in both quantity and quality.

It’s also not an excuse for poor effort down the stretch. Maryland’s second half performance was absolutely unacceptable even against a Virginia team in need of a strong effort to hold on their place in the nation’s Top 25. Things won’t necessarily get any easier for Maryland, as bubble dwelling Miami invades Comcast Center Tuesday and the final three games of the regular season include a return contest with Scott and the Cavaliers plus trips to North Carolina and Georgia Tech.

If Turgeon thought the stretch after the Puerto Rico trip was going to be a challenge, it would be hard to find the right word to describe the rest of the season.

The word is definitely not “easy”. That much I know.

-G

MARYLAND (15-10, 5-6) AT #22/22 VIRGINIA (19-6, 6-5)
Saturday, February 18, 2012 • 1 p.m. EST
Game #26 • Road Game #7 • Charlottesville, Va. • John Paul Jones Arena
Radio: Terrapin Sports Radio Network – Johnny Holliday (Play-by-Play), Chris Knoche (Analyst)
TV: ACC Network – Tim Brant (Play-by-Play), Cory Alexander (Analyst)-Locally on WNUV-TV.

• Maryland travels to Charlottesville for its first matchup of the season but the 176th all-time with Virginia, which is currently ranked 22nd in both polls. The Terps are tied with Clemson for seventh in the ACC with a 5-6 mark, just one game behind the fifth-place tie between the Cavaliers and Miami. Maryland and Virginia close the regular season on Sunday, March 4 at Comcast Center in a 2 p.m. matchup.
• Maryland scored its most lopsided victory of the season on Thursday in an 81-65 victory over Boston College. The Terrapins took control with a 14-0 run over a 2:45 stretch of the first half that gave Maryland an 18-10 lead. All 14 of those points were by sophomore guard Terrell Stoglin. The streak extended to a 29-4 run over 7:51 that put Maryland ahead 33-14 with 7:53 left before halftime. Stoglin had 19 of his game-high 24 in the first half.
• Stoglin set the sophomore record for 3-pointers in a season against BC, with his five giving him 68 for the year. Greivis Vasquez had 64 during the 2008 season for the record. Stoglin became the 16th Terrapin with 100 3-pointers in his career in that game and has tied Terence Morris (1995-99) for 15th on the all-time list with 101. Stoglin has accomplished that milestone in only 58 career games.
• Junior forward James Padgett came off the bench against BC for the first time in 14 games and played well. His 15 points (one off his career-high) came on near-perfect shooting, as he went 5-for-5 from the floor and 5-for-6 at the line. Padgett also had eight rebounds for the Terrapins.
• Maryland is in a tight stretch of quick turnarounds, with less than 48 hours between the BC and Virginia games. The Terps play three games in six days, including Tuesday’s home game with Miami.

Scouting the Cavaliers
• No. 22 Virginia enters Saturday’s game with a record of 19-6, including 6-5 in the ACC… However, the Cavaliers have dropped three of their last four and sit in a tie for fifth in the standings… Virginia is 12-1 at home with the lone blemish a 47-45 loss to Virginia Tech on Jan. 22.
• Senior forward Mike Scott, an ACC Player of the Year candidate, leads the team in scoring at 16.9 ppg, third in the league… He is also first in the conference in field-goal percentage (.596) and sixth in rebounding (8.2 rpg)… Sophomore guard Joe Harris is second on the team in scoring (12.0 ppg)…. Junior guard Jontel Evans is fifth in the conference in both assists (3.7 apg) and steals (1.6 spg).
• Virginia is the top defensive team in the ACC… The Cavaliers are allowing a league-low 52.2 ppg… Opponents are shooting just 39.2 percent from the fl oor which ranks third in the ACC… The Cavaliers
also shoot the ball well, connecting on 46.1 percent of their field-goal attempts, fourth in the ACC
• Tony Bennett is in his third season as head coach… Prior to his stint there, he spent three seasons as head coach at Washington State, where he led the Cougars to two NCAA Tournament appearances.

Upcoming
Maryland has a little better than a 36-hour turnaround before its 1p.m. tipoff at Virginia on Saturday…The Terps then return home on Tuesday for their rematch against Miami (2/21)… Maryland has five
regular-season games on the schedule, two at home and three on the road… Of the five remaining, three are against nationally ranked teams, including the home-and-home with the Cavaliers.