When Diggy Coit transferred from Kansas to Maryland men’s basketball, he knew he would have to change much about himself. That included both his game and leadership style.
Five games into his Terp career, Coit’s transformation has paid off. After scoring 19 points on Saturday against Marquette, the graduate guard poured in a career-high 41 points in a 95-90 overtime win against Mount St. Mary’s on Wednesday night.
“Coach Buzz just said something — when you go through bad things or negative things, you view it as that, and it might be the best thing to ever happen to you,” Coit said, referencing a rocky season at Kansas in which he averaged a career-low 5.1 points.
Coit made eight of his 10 3-point attempts on Wednesday and went 11-for-11 from the free throw line. He scored 16 of Maryland’s final 19 points, 24 of its 37 second-half points and drained a game-tying 3-pointer in the closing second of regulation. Coit then added seven points in overtime.
Coit also scored the most points by a Maryland player in Xfinity Center history and tied Greivis Vasquez, Len Bias and Gene Shue for the third-most points in a single game.
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“I was just trying to make the right play, like trying to read the game,” Coit said. “It was more like, ‘Okay, what’s the right play right now?’ And I feel like everybody made the right play.”
Maryland has played without a chunk of its rotation for much of the season. Wednesday took that to an extreme.
Senior forward Pharrel Payne exited Saturday’s win against Marquette via stretcher after a scary injury. Though unavailable Wednesday against Mount St. Mary’s, reports say Payne’s injury is much less severe than initially anticipated — he walked around the Xfinity Center floor Wednesday night without a visible brace or limp.
Payne’s absence offered a sobering reminder of his importance — and a look into how much Maryland may struggle until he returns.
Reserve big man Collin Metcalf received his first start of the season. The senior center was held scoreless in 15 minutes, while freshman forward Aleks Alston provided little in 10 minutes off the bench.
Their struggles forced starting power forward Elijah Saunders into playing 44 minutes. He grabbed just five rebounds and shot 4-for-12 in an underwhelming outing.
The Virginia transfer manned the center position down the stretch with Metcalf and Alston’s struggles. Williams said he played more than 20 minutes confused and out of position.
[Pharrel Payne suffers gruesome injury, but Maryland men’s basketball beats Marquette, 89-82]
“He played all but one minute and three seconds, and he got five rebounds,” Williams said. “I personally think he can do more.”
A trio of Mount St. Mary’s (1-4) players — 6-foot-10 Luke McEldon, 6-foot-2 Xavier Lipscomb and 6-foot-8 Justin Amadi — combined for 21 rebounds against Maryland’s undersized frontcourt.
Metcalf, a Northeastern transfer, played a season-high 12 minutes against Marquette. He played just 10 combined minutes in the first three games, and Williams said after the exhibition against UMBC that he did not think Metcalf “was very productive.”
His first stint to open Wednesday was halted two minutes in after committing an illegal screen — a continued trend amid a short leash from Williams.
Maryland began 2-for-8 from the field and led Mount St. Mary’s by just one point midway through the first half. The Terps gained separation into the break, jetting out to a 13-7 run before extending their lead to as much as 13 in the second half.
During a first half in which the on-court product wasn’t particularly enticing, a 16-year old 10.5 miles down the road stole much of the attention.
Baba Oladotun, a five-star forward and Silver Spring native, committed to the Terps early on in Wednesday’s game. His announcement, which came in front of teammates, family and friends at James Hubert Blake High School, drew loud cheers and chants of “Baba” from the Xfinity Center crowd.
Minutes after Oladotun’s commitment, Maryland fell behind by as much as six points. But the Terps clawed back, culminating in Coit’s game-tying 3-pointer to close regulation. Maryland then outscored Mount St. Mary’s, 18-13, in overtime to secure the win.
“I thought the group with very little experience together — and many of them only five games of experience in their life at this level — their rate of growth has been tremendous,” Williams said.
