DURHAM, N.C. — The Terrapins men’s basketball team isn’t equipped to deal with the pressures of Cameron Indoor Stadium.
There’s nothing quite like playing there. The cathedral-style arena holds just 9,314 people, but it’s the loudest group of 9,314 people you’ll ever hear. They aren’t sitting around the court; they’re standing right on top of it.
They’re in your ear, too. Dez Wells was treated to repeated chants of “No means no.” Self-described former fat kid Charles Mitchell heard choruses of “Please don’t eat me.” The Cameron Crazies even thought up something for Alex Len, serenading the Ukrainian big man with chants of “U.S.A.”
It’s the type of atmosphere that could make any team crumble. Especially a team like the Terps.
As No. 1 Duke pulled away for an 84-64 rout Saturday, it was clear the Terps didn’t have anyone they could count on to lead them. As the Blue Devils got better and Cameron Indoor got louder, the visitors got quieter.
Coach Mark Turgeon’s team couldn’t defer to a Greivis Vasquez in crunch time. It couldn’t feed a Jordan Williams in the post. It couldn’t even count on a Terrell Stoglin trying to singlehandedly shoot the Terps back into the game.
The team simply doesn’t have a go-to player, a guy who wants the ball in his hands when the game is on the line. When Duke turned its eight-point edge into a 20-point romp during a nine-minute stretch in the second half, the Terps had no one they could rely on to right the ship.
They couldn’t even turn to the guys who had been there before. Guards Nick Faust and Pe’Shon Howard, forward James Padgett and center Alex Len have all experienced the intensity of playing in what Turgeon called an “inspired arena.” But you could hardly say any of them stepped up when the Terps needed a spark Saturday.
Faust jacked up 12 shots, but made just three of them in a nine-point, four-turnover performance. Howard played better than recent showings, but his five points and three assists weren’t enough to make a dent in the Blue Devils’ lead. Padgett was nearly invisible with two points in six minutes. Len managed to post a solid eight-point, 10-rebound line, but took just six shots and looked physically overmatched against the smaller Mason Plumlee.
In fact, forwards Charles Mitchell and Wells — both of whom had never been to Cameron Indoor before — were the only Terps to make any sort of substantial impact on Duke’s defense. But as much as their contributions showed up in the box score, their efforts weren’t very noticeable on the court.
Mitchell scored 13 points and grabbed seven boards, but he did it in 13 foul-plagued minutes. Wells looked like he could’ve been the leader the Terps needed when he scored all seven of the team’s points in the game’s first four minutes, but he scored just six over the final 36 minutes and finished the afternoon with 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting.
“The thing that’s been holding our team back — and I’ve been saying it for about a month — is immaturity. We don’t have a Mason Plumlee our kids can rely on,” Turgeon said after the game. “We don’t have that. So we’re not going to grow up as quickly as a Duke team.”
He’s right. Seven of the Terps’ 10 rotation players are underclassmen, so the team is still far from mature. Wells has the ability to be a go-to scorer, but he hasn’t quite figured out how to bring it on a nightly basis. Though the 7-foot-1 Len is a projected NBA lottery pick, he still struggles to dominate smaller players at times. Guard Seth Allen has also shown the ability to light up the scoreboard, but Turgeon benched the freshman in the first half after he was tardy for a team meeting earlier in the week.
There’s no question the Terps have talent. The problem is none of those talented players are veteran enough yet to control a game when their team needs them.
The Terps have grown a lot during Turgeon’s second season in College Park. Saturday’s loss to top-ranked Duke at hostile Cameron Indoor, though, showed they still have plenty more growing up to do.
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