Terrapins men’s basketball center Diamond Stone let his frustration get the best of him with the Terps’ 27-game home winning streak in jeopardy Feb. 13.
After falling to the hardwood late in the first half, Stone rose up and pushed Wisconsin forward Vitto Brown’s head into the floor. Stone remained in the game, but the Terps fell, 70-57. Two days later, coach Mark Turgeon handed Stone a one-game suspension.
Without their freshman phenom the next game, the Terps couldn’t handle a Minnesota team that entered 0-13 in Big Ten play and lost on the road, 68-63. Suddenly, a team that was 22-3 entering the Wisconsin game was reeling. The Terps never fully recovered, going 5-6 in their final 11 games, starting with those two consecutive losses.
A season that began with the Terps ranked No. 3 in the national polls ended March 24 with a 16-point loss in the Sweet Sixteen. The Terps chose to focus on the positives after the defeat — they reached the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2003 — but questions about unfulfilled potential lingered.
Four Terps are projected to be drafted, according to draftexpress.com, more than any other team in the country. The program’s first national championship since 2002 will have to wait, though.
“It’s been the toughest 27-win season I think you can go through because I just never felt like the ball bounced our way,” Turgeon said after the 79-63 loss to Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen. “It’s just been hard on these guys. It wasn’t for lack of effort and wanting to get better. It was frustrating.”
The Terps entered this season with high expectations. Many analysts tabbed them national title contenders. They had the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year in sophomore guard Melo Trimble, a five-star recruit in Stone and three experienced upperclassman: forwards Robert Carter Jr. and Jake Layman, plus guard Rasheed Sulaimon.
With only three returning starters, the Terps’ chemistry was a work in progress early on, Turgeon said. And the their depth took a hit when guard Dion Wiley suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason. Without Wiley, only two reserves ended up averaging more than 10 minutes per game.
The Terps won 15 of their first 16 games, but slipups came. In January, the Terps lost two road games in less than two weeks, and questions about the team’s bench started to emerge.
“We have depth,” Stone said after a 70-67 loss to Michigan on Jan. 12. “No matter who’s in the game, we’re the No. 1 team in the country.”
Even after a 74-65 loss at then-No. 10 Michigan State on Jan. 23, the Terps continued to notch wins and Trimble dazzled.
Then Trimble’s shots stopped falling — starting in a Feb. 13 loss to Wisconsin — and the Terps stopped winning. They finished the regular season 2-4 as Trimble went 25-for-78 during that stretch (32.1 percent).
The Terps improved in the postseason. A loss to Michigan State in the Big Ten semifinals was followed by wins over a No. 12 seed and a No. 13 seed in the NCAA Tournament, setting up a matchup with Turgeon’s alma mater, Kansas.
The Jayhawks, the No. 1 overall seed, pulled away in the second half and never looked back. A team with national championship aspirations had to settle for their season ending with a Sweet Sixteen appearance.
“We have nothing to hold our heads down for,” Sulaimon said after the game. “We did something that the school hasn’t done in 13 years.”
While all five starters averaged more than 11 points per game, Trimble’s three-point shooting percentage dropped to 31.5 on the season, down from 41.2 percent in 2014-15. The conference Preseason Player of the Year had to settle for the All-Big Ten second team.
Next season, the Terps might lose all five starters. Layman, a senior, and Sulaimon, a graduate transfer, will be gone, while Stone, Trimble and Carter could all turn pro.
Layman wasn’t thinking about next year after the loss to Kansas. With his college career over, he took a moment to reflect on how far the Terps had come. Two seasons ago, five contributors transferred away after a 17-win season.
So as long as Turgeon is at the helm, Layman isn’t worried about the Terps’ future.
“They wanted him fired two years ago and look where he is now — at a Sweet Sixteen,” Layman said. “It’s all about hard work and dedication. This group right here really shows that.”
