The Terrapins men’s basketball team has often referred to its Feb. 27 loss at Georgia Tech as “rock bottom.” It was the team’s second bad road loss in nine days, and the glaring defeat struck a near-fatal blow to its NCAA tournament chances.
No one bottomed out worse that game than Pe’Shon Howard, though. That Wednesday night loss marked the completion of his fall into the deepest depths of coach Mark Turgeon’s doghouse. The junior guard played a near-season-low eight minutes, missed all four of his shots and dished out zero assists as the Terps suffered a 78-68 loss.
If you had asked any Terps fan after the game if Howard should transfer after the season, you probably would’ve heard a resounding “yes.” The loss to the Yellow Jackets marked the 11th consecutive game Howard came off the bench after starting at point guard in 14 of the team’s first 15 games. Turgeon cut his minutes per game from nearly 25 to less than 15, and he was averaging just 3.1 points per game at the time.
But when Turgeon announced yesterday that Howard had been granted permission to transfer, the news wasn’t the foregone conclusion many likely thought it would be more than a month ago. In fact, it came as a bit of a surprise.
Three days after his junior campaign seemed to derail completely, Howard put on one of the best performances of the season. Back in the starting lineup for the first time in nearly two months, the guard played a team-high 30 minutes in the Terps’ March 2 win at Wake Forest, scoring eight points and tallying four assists.
That wouldn’t be the end of his resurgence, either. Howard started each of the Terps’ final 10 games of the season, averaging 3.8 points and 3 assists in more than 28 minutes per game as the team advanced to the ACC tournament and eventually the NIT semifinals.
The numbers might not be staggering, but Howard was doing exactly what the Terps needed him to do. He provided the team a veteran leader on the court, a steady presence at point guard and a strong defender against opposing ballhandlers.
It seemed like he was finally past all the adversity that had plagued him over the past year and a half. He missed the first nine games of the 2011-12 season with a broken foot and sat out the last nine after tearing his ACL, forcing him to spend much of the offseason rehabbing.
And the time off showed in his first 26 games this past season. Howard often looked lost on the court during that stretch, shooting worse than 28 percent from the floor and averaging close to two turnovers per game. The guard scored zero points, dished out zero assists and turned the ball over seven times in a Jan. 19 loss at North Carolina, and he was suspended for the Terps’ 83-81 upset of then-No. 2 Duke on Feb. 16.
But with a strong nine-game stretch to close the season, Howard looked as though he was back in Turgeon’s good graces. He had proven his worth running the second-year coach’s offense, and he had all but cemented himself as the team’s starting point guard heading into next season.
The transfer speculation had been forgotten, and Howard seemed genuinely excited for what laid ahead.
“Coach has done so well with this young of a team,” Howard said after the Terps’ season-ending loss to Iowa last week. “It’s only his second year, and you’ve just got to look at the great strides we’ve taken. I just hope we can improve over the summer and build on it next year.”
The team has taken strides, has room to improve and will be able to build on its postseason run this season. Only Howard won’t be a part of it.
Instead, he will probably be back home in California. His grandmother is sick, and Howard told Turgeon he’d like to play his final season of eligibility closer to his family.
His departure will leave the Terps thin at point guard yet again. Barring a new addition, Turgeon’s only options at point guard will be returnees Nick Faust and Seth Allen — two natural shooting guards who struggled at the point this past season — and 2013 commit Roddy Peters — a highly touted guard who spent much of his senior season at Suitland High School recovering from shoulder surgery.
Howard is more proven at point guard than any of those players. Despite the ups and downs — mostly downs — of his three years in College Park, Howard seemed poised to play an integral role for the Terps in his senior season.
Terps fans spent a large part of this season wishing Howard was gone or at least buried on the bench. Now that he’s transferring, they might end up spending the early part of next season wishing he was back.
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