Nick Faust

The criticisms have stayed the same much of the Terrapins men’s basketball season. Nick Faust is too trigger-happy, too passive defensively and too turnover prone.

And those critiques haven’t just appeared on blog posts or Internet forums. They’ve become a staple of Terps practices. Coach Mark Turgeon believes the sophomore guard has plenty of deficiencies, and he’s not shy about pointing them out.

But as the No. 2-seed Terps prepare to face top-seeded Alabama tomorrow in an NIT third-round matchup, Turgeon has traded the nitpicking sessions for moments of public praise. He regularly references Faust when discussing his young squad’s “growth” and has lauded the Baltimore native’s improvements in each of the Terps’ past four news conferences.

After all, no player — outside of perhaps guard Pe’Shon Howard — so clearly exemplifies the inexperienced bunch’s recent strides. Faust is averaging 13.2 points per game on 50 percent shooting since a Feb. 19 loss at Boston College, and his stats only tell part of the story.

Gone are the head-scratching plays that made Turgeon livid on the sideline. Gone is the me-first attitude that seemed to plague much of the team during conference play.

Faust has not only upped his scoring average more than a point per game in little more than a month; he has helped an erratic group find a semblance of stability in an up-and-down campaign.

Since slogging through a disappointing loss at Georgia Tech on Feb. 27, the Terps have played some of their best basketball of the season.

They beat Wake Forest on the road March 2. They upended then-No. 2 Duke in the ACC tournament in North Carolina on March 15. And they ousted Niagara and Denver — two teams that won regular-season conference titles — in the NIT’s first two rounds last week.

The Terps are “peaking,” forward Dez Wells said. And much of the late-season revival coincides with Turgeon moving Faust back to his natural position on the wing.

After inconsistent play earned Howard a spot on the bench, Faust struggled to fill the void up top. He averaged 7.2 points per game on 33.3 percent shooting and owned a 1.2 assist-to-turnover ratio in 13 games as the team’s primary floor general. The Terps, meanwhile, posted a 6-7 record and effectively cemented their status as an NIT participant.

But Faust has flourished since Howard regained the Terps’ starting point guard gig during the March 2 win over the Demon Deacons. He has reached double-digit points in seven straight contests, and has tallied six or more rebounds three times.

“I definitely think me doing what I need to do has helped him out,” Howard said. “He’s been huge for us. You know, just being aggressive out there and doing all the little things to help us win ballgames.”

Though the turnovers are still mounting, the old-school Turgeon can hardly stop gushing over Faust’s renewed commitment to defense. Faust is finally starting to use his lengthy frame to his advantage, Turgeon says. He’s disrupting opposing offenses and crashing the boards with authority.

“He’s defending now. That’s what I like,” Turgeon said after the win over Niagara. “I’ve been begging him all year and he refused. … You guys might not see that change but I see tremendous change in him.”

After enduring months of criticism, Faust has emerged confident and comfortable. The former All-ACC Freshman Team member is not the go-to player he envisioned when he entered the season as the Terps’ top returning scorer, but he has settled into a nice complementary role.

And though he’s not playing in his preferred postseason tournament, he can’t help but appreciate how far he’s come.

“I guess things are just going my way right now,” Faust said with a smile last week. “I feel like I’m finally getting into a groove.”

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