Guard Richaud Pack moves past a San Francisco State defender during the Terps’ 86-52 victory over on Nov. 1, 2014 at Xfinity Center.
Mark Turgeon had been, in his own words, “fighting” his Terrapins men’s basketball guards to share the ball and play more unselfishly during his first three seasons in College Park.
During Saturday afternoon’s exhibition opener against San Francisco State at Xfinity Center, though, the fourth-year coach didn’t have to worry about that. The Terps routinely worked the ball around the Gators’ 2-3 zone and often took wide-open shots as they drained 54.5 percent of their attempts from the field and 51.9 percent of their 3-pointers in a 86-52 win over the Division II opponent.
But as an unwillingness to move the ball seemed to subside for the Terps, who have five new rotational players this season, another old issue — turnovers — arose.
So the consensus among Turgeon and his players Saturday was that the team’s challenge moving forward will be to maintain the encouraging ball movement and offensive efficiency while cutting down on their giveaways after coughing the ball up 19 times against the Gators.
“We probably need to move [the ball] maybe as much we did but smarter,” guard Richaud Pack said.
The Terps’ miscues Saturday came despite a relatively solid performance from the team’s young backcourt. Instead, it was the frontcourt that appeared mistake-prone. Forward Jake Layman committed a team-high six turnovers, while interior players Damonte Dodd and Michal Cekovsky each had two.
Freshman Melo Trimble, meanwhile, handled the point guard duties and dished out five assists compared to just two turnovers.
Still, Trimble, like his coach, expressed displeasure over his missteps.
“Just minor mistakes,” Trimble said of the turnovers. “I know I’ll get better at it.”
Guard Dez Wells, who served as the Terps primary facilitator against San Francisco State, also recorded five assists to two turnovers. And Wells played a big part in the Terps’ improved ball movement, too.
With the Gators sinking into their zone, Wells often would slide in between defenders and catch the ball at the high post, where he could drive to draw in the defense before kicking the ball out to open shooters. Wells, has developed into a willing distributor, Turgeon said, and has led the Terps in assists during each of the team’s first three weeks of practice.
Against San Francisco State, Wells and Trimble combined for 10 of the Terps’ 18 assists.
“Melo was really good the whole game,” Turgeon said. “And I thought Dez was great sharing the ball.”
The Terps other rotational guards — freshmen Dion Wiley and Jared Nickens and Pack, a fifth-year transfer — also proved steady. Wiley and Pack combined for three assists and three turnovers, though Nickens had none.
And as Turgeon pointed out, the Terps weren’t entirely prepared for San Francisco State. The Terps have implemented a motion offense this season and have spent most of their time working on perfecting that, but because the Gators stuck with a zone throughout the entire game, Turgeon’s team couldn’t run their new sets.
Rather, the Terps ran their zone offense all game, a scheme Turgeon introduced just two days earlier.
“We put in press offense Thursday morning and we put in zone offense Thursday morning,” Turgeon said. “To play the way we did after starting practicing those two things Thursday morning was very impressive.”
After spending the last few years struggling to settle on a starting backcourt, Turgeon said he’s loved coaching Trimble and the other newcomers. Plus, he’s grown comfortable running his offense through Wells and seems confident in his group’s ability to adapt to different defenses through the season.
So Turgeon’s not overly concerned with the turnovers, a problem he called “very correctable.”
He just wants the team to continue making strides.
“I always think you can pass better,” Turgeon said. “Eighteen assists is pretty good. Maybe we could have been a little bit better.”
