As Maryland men’s basketball coach Mark Turgeon wrapped up his opening statement for his postgame press conference Saturday, he opted to address the one major blemish from his team’s 72-62 win over Ohio State before the reporters could.

“Take away turnovers,” Turgeon said after the Terps had recorded at least 15 giveaways for the third straight game. “I don’t wanna talk about it. Don’t ask me about it, even though I’m talking about it now.”

Three days later, after Maryland’s last practice in College Park before traveling to play Penn State on Wednesday, Turgeon still shied away from addressing the stat-that-must-not-be-named, although he admitted that “you guys know what it is.”

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It’s not that Turgeon’s unaware of the problem. He knows that one out of every five Maryland possessions has ended in a turnover, ranking No. 266 nationally, according to KenPom. He talks to his team about turnovers and addresses ways for them to improve.

But the eighth-year coach believes harping on the issue won’t do his players any favors. And Maryland’s still finding ways to win, rising to No. 17 in this week’s AP Poll and clinging to a top-four seed for the Big Ten tournament with three regular-season games remaining.

“My guys are smart,” Turgeon said. “So we talk about Penn State. We talk about finishing the season strong. We talk about getting better. That’s kind of been our focus.”

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Early in the season, turnovers were a nagging reminder of just how young Maryland’s squad is. The Terps compiled 18 in a comfortable win over Mount St. Mary’s, followed by 19 in a blowout against Marshall. In their first meeting with the Nittany Lions — a 66-59 victory on Dec. 1 — they racked up 17, with guard Anthony Cowan responsible for six of those.

While the issue never really went away, the turnovers didn’t come back to bite Maryland until Jan. 26, when Illinois forced 21 of them and pulled off an upset at Madison Square Garden.

“Turnovers, they can easily cost games,” guard Aaron Wiggins said.

“It’s something we all know we’ve got to get better at,” forward Bruno Fernando added, “for us to be the type of team we’re supposed to be.”

After losing to the Illini, the Terps had 12 turnovers or fewer in each of their next four games, leading to wins over Northwestern, Nebraska and No. 14 Purdue.

But they returned to sloppy play against then-No. 6 Michigan, committing 16 turnovers in a 65-52 loss. Three days later against then-No. 21 Iowa, Maryland had 17 giveaways and needed a clutch putback from Fernando to pull out the win after blowing a 12-point second-half lead.

On Saturday, Maryland built a 16-point edge midway through the second period, only for the Buckeyes to whittle it down to two points.

A travel and an offensive foul on forward Jalen Smith — two of his four turnovers of the day — saw a double-digit advantage slip to nine points. Then, Fernando’s errant pass with about 6 minutes to go led to forward Justin Ahrens’ 3-pointer, making it a one-possession game before the Terps pulled away for good.

“Of course, preventing any type of turnover is going to be better for the team,” Wiggins said. “Keep teams from getting back into games. It’ll be easier wins.”

While Turgeon tiptoed around the T-word Tuesday, taking care of the ball will be imperative as Maryland closes out the regular season. That starts with a Penn State team that’s won four of its last six.

Regardless of where the Terps fall in the AP poll, they know that they won’t be able to paper over this season-long issue forever.

“They’re as frustrated as I am with it,” Turgeon said. “We’re still figuring out ways to win, and win comfortably … but we can’t continue to do it.”