The Maryland Terrapins (10-4, 1-2 Big Ten) took the court in Ann Arbor, Mich. against the Michigan Wolverines (8-5, 2-0 Big Ten) and Hunter Dickinson had his way en route to a 81-46 lopsided loss for the Terps.
Oy vey is all one can say about the performance the Terps put up against the Wolverines on New Year’s Day. Terps’ head coach Kevin Willard address the lineup changes made in the game and took responsibility for the loss.
“Those guys that came out, they played out hard. Noah [Batchelor] came out and gave us a good effort. I thought Jahari [Long] looked better than he looked in a while, just from an aggressive standpoint. Big Cal [Caelum Swanton-Rodger], he is out there. At least he’s hammering people and being physical and if you’re gonna foul, make it count. This is on me, that has nothing to do with the players.”
The Wolverines scored 16 unanswered points in the first five minutes of the game. Dickinson had eight of those 16 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field. He got what he wanted early. His first shot came off of a screen, and the other shots were him showcasing his dominance in the post area.
The Terps didn’t help themselves with the three early turnovers they had. Their first points didn’t come until the 14:15 mark in the first half, when Noah Batchelor made 1-of-3 free throws.
Ian Martinez gave the Terps their first field goal of the game with a three-pointer but it didn’t matter because Michigan and Hunter Dickinson didn’t let up. The Wolverines led 21-4 with under 12 minutes to go in the first half and the Terps’ struggles on the offensive end showed themselves.
They drove inside, they were met at the rim, and when they shot from the outside, no dice.
Julian Reese had two fouls 10 minutes into the game, and getting him in foul trouble was going to be key for the Wolverines given the Terps’ lack of depth at his position. Patrick Emilien also collected two personal fouls. Both players fouled out later in the game.
Michigan out-hustled the Terps on the boards and moved the ball much better offensively. The score was 25-4 with under eight minutes to go. the Terps had a choice, they were either going to chip away at this lead by playing their style of basketball or continue to allow Michigan to control this game.
Dickinson went into halftime with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field in a dominant first half for the Wolverines. They had a comfortable 44-13 lead, and guard Dug McDaniel poured salt in the wound at the buzzer with a running hook shot.
You could ask, was this first half about how good Michigan is or how bad Maryland was? It’s a mix of both.
Jahari Long’s corner three to start the second half gave them a bit of a spark, but the danger there is that the Terps could look to live or die by the three-point shot. He was the only bright spot for the Terps in the second half, with a team-leading nine points.
Dickinson finished the game with 32 points and 12 rebounds. No Maryland player scored in double figures.
When asked whether he would avoid looking at the film from this game, Willard said it’s necessary to take a deep dive.
“No, No. We’ll go through this one and. Look at it and dissect it because it’s something I think some of these starts that we’ve had are unfortunate, but we just gotta figure it out. … We didn’t do anything with toughness, and that just baffles my mind. Even if something’s not going right, we didn’t dive on the loose balls, they got every loose ball. The one thing about the personality of his team is that they’re so quiet, they’re so quiet. We can’t score, and we can’t get going into stuff…we gotta figure out how to score against [bigger] teams.”
This game was a wash. The team ran up against a brick wall in the Michigan Wolverines on Sunday. To be fair, expectations for this team went through the roof with their 8-0 start, and then reality hit them in the face. This is adversity that the Maryland Terrapins can overcome. They’ll have to dig deep because their conference schedule doesn’t get any easier in the next few weeks.
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