After suffering its first loss at home in nearly 13 months, Maryland men’s basketball’s next home game against Minnesota just got a bit tougher. Maryland will now look for its second conference road win under Willard in the same place they did it one season ago, but the vastly improved Gopher squad has confidence heading back to The Barn. Minnesota is coming off a narrow 73-71 win at Michigan on Thursday night, moving to 11-3 (2-1) on the season, and now winners in seven of their last eight games. After Sunday afternoon’s game, Maryland won’t have much time to rest with consecutive road trips against Illinois and Northwestern before returning home to host Michigan State. After being outmatched by the nation’s top team, head coach Kevin Willard pointed to the opportunities that remain ahead to begin building a postseason resume. “I think it's a great opportunity for us. I think that's what's great about this conference. Every night you’ve got a chance to go out and either redeem yourself or keep playing. It's something that the depth of this league is, the more I go through it, is something that I'm really impressed with, because again, it's top to bottom. You look at Minnesota, how well they're playing, they've won five in a row. You look at some of the wins Michigan's had. You look at Michigan State who really struggled early, but now starting to play well. So it's a deep league, but it gives you great opportunities to kind of get you're right back into contention. And they will,” Willard said on 105.7 on Thursday. While Maryland sits second in the conference in points allowed (63.6), the woeful offense remains a glaring concern as the Terps sit in the bottom three in field goal percentage (40.9%), three-point percentage (27.2%) and free-throw percentage (69%). Willard admitted the fans’ concerns about the shooting are “definitely valid. “We've really struggled to shoot the basketball this year. We had made really good momentum the prior four games, we had shot over 37% and all those games. Obviously won at UCLA, made some big shots,” he added. “I think guys were getting more comfortable. The other night you gotta get Purdue credit. They really did a great job of chasing Jahmir Young off the line, making other guys shoot the basketball that are struggling to shoot the basketball right now. But you know, this is something that, it's kind of a learning curve for a lot of guys. So, yeah, I think it's valid but it's something that we concentrate on every day. We're working on every day, we have gotten better. We just had a setback deal night." While Maryland has been able to turn to Jahmir Young on a nightly basis, the problem has been who else can step up to support him. Donta Scott has been able to answer the call at times, but Julian Reese’s struggles have been a growing worry after averaging seven points while shooting just 37.5% from the field and 20% from the foul line over his last four games. “ has struggled the last two games, got foul trouble at UCLA. They did a really good job of throwing Bona at them early and trying to get him off block. Edey, he's a tough guy to score on down low so I think Ju was trying to use some of his perimeter skills, try to get some dribble handoffs, try to get Edey away from the basket. He’s also got to do a little better job with just being a little bit more assertive. He's played so well for us. He's really carried a load more than anybody. He’s had a tough couple of last two games, but I have a lot of confidence in Julian and really the load he's carried for us all season long.” While Maryland squandered its opportunity to pick up a signature win at the start of the new year, Willard remained confident that the Terps would turn the tide with conference play picking up. “It's also experience. The other night again, unfortunately for Jahmir , he was coming off, he really got the flu really bad after the UCLA game and missed six days of practice. So he was a little bit rusty and we've been really relying on Jahmir to do most of the heavy scoring and kind of when he started struggling a little bit, some of the newer guys, tried to pick it up and your first time playing in front of a big crowd at home, playing against a really, really good defensive team, sometimes you need to experience some of those things to kind of get your confidence. If you've never been through those experiences, playing against a great team, playing against at home and your first big crowd, those nerves are different. Your shots feel different. You have to experience those things,” Willard said. “Like I said, these guys, we were in the gym this morning at 8:00 AM, they’re in here, they have great attitudes. They're working hard. We'd won eight out of nine before Purdue. One bad shooting night over the last five games, I still have a lot of confidence in where these guys are going.” More from Willard: On whether Purdue is as good as the hype “Obviously disappointed in way we played, but I think you got to look at Purdue and the growth that they've taken, the pieces they've added. Definitely by far if you look at who they played, who they beaten, I think they are the front-runner to be the national champion this year.” On what Maryland’s rotation looks like in 2024 “We’ve been messing around with Donta Scott a little bit, moving to three, playing some four. The only difference I might make is just moving Donta to a different position a little bit more permanently and not spend so much time trying to play him at two positions. Again, with the way we're shooting the basketball, maybe trying to give him some different opportunities against bigger matchups where we can get some pick and pops and maybe get him some free shots.” On seven players averaging 10+ minutes per game “I think it's a combination of both. A lot of things. We struggled really early. We had some injuries early on so we had to play some guys but I also think it's trying to get some of these freshmen some minutes and some big minutes so they get used to it so we can see what they have. Again if you don't experience playing high-level games...you’re never really going to get that feeling of, or I'm never gonna get to know what they can do. I've played a lot of guys this year it's hurt us at times, but at the same time, I think it's going to be very beneficial for us in the future.” Related Links Local LB talks transfer, top five, pair of set visits (+)Maryland men’s lacrosse releases 2024 scheduleSpalding four-star QB Malik Washington breaks down his top sixMaryland signee Ryan Howerton among standouts in UA All-American GameMaryland CB Ja’Quan Sheppard grades among highest defenders through bowl gamesWhat I’m hearing in the trenches, ’25 targets for Maryland football (+)
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