Monday night’s game against Pittsburgh was supposed to be a measuring stick for the Terrapins men’s basketball team.
The circumstances were ripe. The Terps are entering ACC play in earnest, and they started conference play on a positive note Saturday with their big win over Georgia Tech. Guard Seth Allen’s return to the lineup appeared to be a boost, and things were clicking.
But the Terps absolutely failed Monday night’s test at Petersen Events Center, losing 79-59 to the Panthers.
After Saturday’s victory, there was reason for optimism. The win over the Yellow Jackets was one of the Terps’ most complete performances of the year, and the result never really felt in doubt.
At Pitt, the opposite was true. After a strong first half, the Terps absolutely fell apart. After shooting 42.9 percent in the first half, the Terps shot 28.6 percent in the second. Forward Evan Smotrycz scored nine points and shot 3-of-4 in the first 20 minutes. The rest of the way, he was 1-of-9 and finished with 14 points.
The most encouraging sign of the Terps’ win over Georgia Tech was that they didn’t let any lull define the outcome of the game. Early in the season, slow starts and doldrums would allow opposing teams to separate and create deficits too significant to overcome.
Monday, the Terps went cold late in the first half, and the Panthers put together an 11-2 run that ultimately provided all the separation they needed in their first ACC home game ever. The Terps never snapped out of it, despite Allen’s season-high 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting.
In the final 24:21, the Panthers outscored the Terps, 52-31.
So how can the Terps fix this?
It’s hard to tell. Allen’s return has had more of an immediate impact than most thought possible, and he continued that strong form on the road. He should get stronger as the Terps get deeper into ACC play, which can help stabilize the team and get it playing how coach Mark Turgeon envisioned before his preseason injury.
But the rest of the team failed to match Allen. And it became obvious that the Terps need more then one or even two players to have good games to pull off wins, especially against tough teams in hostile environments.
Smotrycz had the best first half of any Terp, but he absolutely fell off a cliff in the second half. Forward Jake Layman and guard Nick Faust were a combined 0-of-7 in the first half and finished with 10 points on 3-of-14 shooting combined. Guard Dez Wells was essentially a nonfactor with five points.
And once again, the Terps’ post players were essentially nonexistent. One game after having one of his best showings of the year against Georgia Tech, center Shaquille Cleare scored the game’s first two points on another nifty inside move. But Cleare and forwards Charles Mitchell and Jonathan Graham combined for eight points on 4-of-6 shooting.
The Terps are an inside-out team. They need the post players to be making moves and shots in order to free up Smotrycz and Layman — especially Layman, who is marked commodity now — for open 3-pointers. For whatever reason, be it game-planning or Pitt’s defense, that didn’t happen.
Maybe the Terps were too tired. Maybe the two games in three days plus a road trip in poor weather conditions could have had some adverse affect on their play.
But a 20-point loss, even on the road in a hostile environment is a great disappointment for a team with so much promise.
And as it was earlier in the season after other tough losses, the question become how the Terps will rebound after a bit of a layoff at Florida State on Sunday, which becomes yet another measuring stick.
