COLUMBUS, Ohio — For a second, let’s forget the Terrapins men’s basketball team lost Sunday night.

Let’s forget the 23 turnovers. Let’s forget the brutal moving screen the referees didn’t call that left Melo Trimble writhing in pain on the ground. Let’s forget the freshman star looking on helplessly for the final eight minutes, 27 seconds of a season-ending 69-59 loss to West Virginia because of a head injury. Let’s forget Dez Wells’ heart-wrenchingly disappointing performance in his final college game.

Just for a moment.

Because there’s one thing we can’t forget: how this team and coach Mark Turgeon, abandoned by five transfers in the offseason and overlooked by everyone, brought relevance back to College Park.

It was the most unexpected of seasons. The Terps were picked to finish 10th of 14 Big Ten teams before the year began. But thanks to the dazzling displays of Trimble, the heroics of Wells, the drastic improvement of Jake Layman, the leadership of Richaud Pack and the blind confidence of sharpshooter Jared Nickens, the Terps proved all the doubters wrong.

Every last one of them.

“I grew up watching Maryland, man. Maryland was always feared. Maryland was always talked about, known for winning. When I first got here, that mentality, that culture started to go away. And then me and the senior class, we got together, and we wanted to bring that back,” said forward Jon Graham, son of former Terps great Ernie Graham. “We brought that name back. … We brought Maryland back.”

No Terp before this season had ever won 26 regular-season games. Not Juan Dixon. Not Steve Blake. Not Greivis Vasquez. Not Gary Williams.

This team achieved things no one thought were possible. And it happened through teamwork and devotion and hard work. The Terps didn’t cut any corners. They committed on the defensive end. They trusted Turgeon. They played for one another.

Every time a Terp hit the floor, all four other players in the game rushed to attend to their teammate.

“It’s amazing how we gelled and came together. I didn’t think I could learn to love a group of guys this quickly,” said Richaud Pack, a senior graduate transfer. “This is the best team I’ve ever played for — on and off the court.”

Each game saw a different hero. Granted, Wells rose to the occasion more than others. But from freshmen to seniors, guards to forwards, everyone played his part in this resurgent season.

In the spring of 2014, after the five transfers departed from College Park, the program was in flux. Turgeon was questioning himself. Fans so used to prominence demanded more.

Twelve months later, the situation couldn’t be any more different.

“I’m a Terp for life,” Wells said. “And I’ll be proud of that.”

The Terps locker room at Nationwide Arena took 20 extra minutes to open up for the media Sunday. Turgeon had a message he needed to get across to his team.

“I just wanted to thank them for giving me a great ride this year,” the fourth-year coach said while choking back tears. “A year ago today, I wasn’t in a very good place, and today I’m in a really great place because of that group.”

It’s not just Turgeon.

The program is in a much better place, too.

And while next year’s team will be missing key pieces — Wells, Pack, Graham, Evan Smotrycz — the effect this season had on the program will linger for a long time.

“We still made our mark,” Pack said. “If I see these guys do better, I’ll know that I was part of that group that started it off.”