Guard Dez Wells slips between two Duke defenders on his way to making a layup to tie up the game in the Terps’ 69-67 loss to Duke on Feb. 15, 2014 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
During his 22 seasons as Terrapins men’s basketball coach, Gary Williams took pride in competing against Duke. The Hall of Fame finalist, who retired in 2011, pined to top the rival Blue Devils each year and planned intensely in attempts to best coach Mike Krzyzewski.
But regardless of the result against Duke, it was the next game on the schedule that often left Williams uneasy.
“You have to watch for a letdown,” Williams said last week. “You try to get that through to your team, how important that next game is.”
Williams’ successor, Mark Turgeon, will be tasked with delivering that message to his Terps (14-12, 6-7 ACC) tonight when they host Wake Forest (14-11, 4-8) just three days after a thrilling 69-67 loss to the No. 8 Blue Devils.
The Terps’ emotional bout Saturday in their final trip to Durham, N.C., as an ACC team was their third loss in four games, and several players dropped to their knees in devastation when forward Charles Mitchell’s potential game-winning shot trickled off the rim.
So the Terps’ challenge is to regain the positive play that brought them to the brink of an upset Saturday night when a Demon Deacons team that has lost five straight games hits the Comcast Center floor tonight.
“Is [a letdown] a concern? A little bit,” Turgeon said. “But we’re very confident even though we’ve lost three of four. We’ve gotten better; we’ve played well. So we want to translate it into some ‘Ws.’ The only way to do that is to be prepared.”
Guard Dez Wells is likely to be at the heart of the Terps’ attempt to end a two-game skid.
Wells scored all 17 of his points at Duke in the second half, displaying his ability to change the tone of a game quickly with aggressive play. After sitting with foul trouble for much of the first half, the Terps’ leading scorer made seven of his last nine shots over the final 13 minutes of the game and routinely attacked the basket to give his team a late lead.
“Dez knows he can get to the rim,” Turgeon said Saturday.
Wells’ driving ability could prove key tonight considering the Demon Deacons allow 69.4 points per game, the third-highest total in the conference. But Wells’ leadership could also be a major factor as the Terps’ aim to shake the sting of the Duke loss.
Turgeon labeled Wells the team’s leader at the beginning of preseason practice, and the junior has taken to the role. After Mitchell’s shot fell to the floor Saturday night to essentially seal the Terps’ staggering loss, Wells found Mitchell and put his arm around the big forward.
“We got a lot of tough guys in my locker room,” Wells said Saturday. “We’re not going to hold our heads down, and I’m not going to let anybody hold their heads down because nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. If anything happens, we have to bounce back.”
Turgeon, like Wells, thinks his team can respond. In their past two games, the Terps have hung around while playing on the road against ranked teams. Plus, the Terps are returning home to face Wake Forest, a team they’ve beaten seven straight times.
“We’ll get over it,” Turgeon said minutes after the loss in Durham. “We’re starting to ball now.”
But even Williams, who led the Terps to a 2002 National Championship, admits that his teams were prone to letdowns after battling Duke. So without much time left to improve their slim NCAA tournament hopes, the Terps probably can’t afford to dwell on the classic matchup from three days ago.
Wells certainly seems to agree with the Terps’ former coach. While directly outside the Cameron Indoor Stadium locker room Saturday night, the Terps guard had already turned his focus past Duke and onto the final weeks of the season.
“It’s not about losing,” Wells said. “It’s about how you respond from losing, so we have to come out ready to play our next game and whatever happens, happens, but we have to keep competing to keep our season alive.”
