Maryland Men’s basketball ushered in the Manning Era this Sunday afternoon with a hard-fought 67-61 loss to Northwestern, two days after former head coach Mark Turgeon mutually agreed to part ways with the program.
In what could be described as a somewhat somber yet optimistic stretch for the Terps, the men (5-4) did their best to play through this day – their Big Ten opener – with heavy hearts.
“It seemed like a lot longer than 48 hours,” said interim head coach Danny Manning. “It’s not in the coaching playbook, situations like [this]. There’s a lot of emotion, and rightfully so. It’s a tornado, whirlwind of emotions. It will continue.”
Guard Hakim Hart, the game’s leading scorer with 18, got things going from the tip, draining a three from the wing to put the Terps ahead. He would go on to score another bucket before the Wildcats (6-2) responded with a 9-0 run.
To halt this the Terps brought in the bench to provide a spark in the form of big man Julian Reese and back-up point Ian Martinez. Unfortunately, the latter went out with a head injury after running the floor for only 16 seconds. Reese wounded up contributing four points (2-2 shooting free throws) and five boards in a losing effort.
The contest was mostly a back-and-forth affair. Defensively both Maryland and Northwestern employed stifling 3-2 sets, which resulted in double-digit turnovers for each (14 and 11, respectively). On the scoreboard, however, The Wildcats would pull away ever-so-slightly through dominating play in the paint, where they scored nearly half their total tally (32, 18 in the first half).
The Terps had few answers. Guard Fatts Russell (11 points) scored on a drive and contributed four of his five total assists to keep his team afloat. Hart nailed a couple more crucial three’s to tie it early in the contest. Guard Eric Ayala (10, but six turnovers) did what he could. However, Northwestern capped the first half with a 6-0 run and a 30-27 lead with an emphatic alley-oop finish from Wildcats’ forward Pete Nance (son of former NBAer Larry Nance, Sr.) via guard Chase Audige.
The Nance/Audige duo nearly did the same thing on the other end to start the second half. Only this time the high-flyer finger-rolled the rock off the glass with a finesse that even the Xfinity Center faithful would have collectively scored a “10”.
Moments later Hart, whose play was inspirational in defeat, revved up the crowd, concluding a fastbreak with a lay in and another with a three ball to tie the game at 32. The Terps then held a brief 37-35 lead, thanks to a Donta Scott three from the corner. The Wildcats came back roaring the following five minutes, outscoring Maryland 12-4.
Russell responded with a three to bring the Terps within three, but Northwestern kept Maryland at arm’s length from there, going on another 6-0 run that sealed the momentum for them with about eight minutes remaining. Hart ended the scoring for the Terps with a drive to make the final 67-61 in Manning’s debut as MD coach.
“Today we didn’t come out and do the things necessary to give ourselves a chance to win the game, in terms of making enough plays,” said Manning. “But I thought there was some fight. And we have to continue to build upon that.”
But beyond the scoreboard, the last 48 hours have been a chance for the coaches to serve as support for the players while Manning had conversations with the parents of players.
“Just wanted to share with them that nothing changed with how our staff feels about all the young men on our team. One of the parents understand that, yes, it was a challenging last couple of days, right. And you compound that with finals coming up, stress is coming to an end. So we just want to make sure that you know, we reached out to them and let them know that we're going to do everything we can to continue to support them in every facet. And if you have anything that you need to share with us about your child that can help us, please do it. And we've got to do the same thing. Because we're all on the same team in regards of helping all of our young people be successful. And just want to let them know that they can reach out to us and share different things that are going on.”
More from Manning
Opening statement: “First of all, thank all of you for coming out. Before I take any questions, I just like to say a few things about my friend Mark Turgeon. Turge a good friend, teammate, coaching peer, mentor. I came to Maryland because of him. I wanted to work alongside him and learn from him. Nobody wanted to win more than Turge. He won here in Maryland, he won in a tough conference and he won a lot. I can't speak for him, but I know that our team will continue to follow the direction that his leadership provided for so many years. And you know, that started today. I didn't expect to be in this position, but I'm ready to take on the responsibility of helping lead this team with the rest of our staff. I promise Turge and I promise Damon [Evans] that I will do that and I owe it to this team. So that's our coach's mindset. And we still feel like we're close. Obviously, there’s no moral victories, but we feel like we tighten up and fine tune a few areas, we can still accomplish what we want to accomplish. I know a lot of you will, might have a few questions about the coaching change and I'll try my best to answer those but understand my focus is also in our staffs focus is on our players and making sure they receive the support that they need at this time.”
On last 48 hours: “It seemed like a lot longer than 48 hours. You know, that's not in the coaching manual. That's not in the coaching playbook. You know, it's not situations like that. And so we got the information, had a chance to visit with Turge. There's a lot of emotion. There was a lot of emotion and rightfully so. And to the point of, we were supposed to practice earlier in the day, and we pushed it back to give our guys a chance to digest. And we came back in and I thought for what we got accomplished in terms of getting the guys to move up and down the court was good but more importantly, we had a chance to sit down and talk and everyone had a chance to express their feelings and what they were thinking. And we need to continue to do that because it's a tornado, whirlwind of emotions. And they bury, and it will continue. And that's just that's part of life and so we just got to make sure we can continue to address that. We came back the next day and I thought we had a really good practice. The energy level was good guys were spirited. And there was something where we felt like it was a good day for us. You know, today, we didn't come out and do the things necessary to give ourselves a chance to win the game in terms of making enough plays. But I thought there was some fight. And you know, we've got to continue to build upon that. So to answer your question, we as a staff just tried to be supportive of our guys, let them know that we're therefore, also trying to implement the game plan about what we were trying to accomplish and do out on the court. And, you know, that's been our focus and that will continue to be our focus as we move forward.”
On reaction: “My initial reaction was complete and utter shock. You know, absolutely shocked. And then as we continued to talk and things of that nature. You know, you go through this and you go through a lot of, families go through a lot and it gets tough at times. You know, there's no secret gets tough. And he just made the decision that he felt was best for himself, for his family but more importantly for this team. You know, he thought that our team needed a different voice. And, you know, that was one of the lasting things that he said to me, he was like, Danny, we're close. You know, we got to fine tune some areas, and then we can string together some games. And I think a new voice can help move in that direction a lot quicker. And so to me that was extremely unselfish piece for him to recognize that in his eyes, but also to follow through with it. But that's the Turge I know.”
On communication with Turgeon: “I'll talk to him, will stay in touch Absolutely. Absolutely.”
On team’s emotions: “It was hard, a lot of emotion. You know, these guys came to Maryland to play for Turge. Right? He signed the scholarship papers. He signs our checks, he hired us as a staff. And so it was yeah, it was extremely hard, in terms of just a lot of emotion. And it was, it depends on how you look at it. But as more so a lot of love without emotion. Like thank you for the opportunity the players or the staff or coach Turge, you helped make me a better person, you helped make me a better man, you helped me mature in my early you give the young man. So you go through all those emotions. And so obviously the guys that have been here the longest, probably the most shook in regards to when that decision was made. But they also know that they have to be resilient because that's something Turge talked about all the time. So like I said, just a whirlwind of emotions and they'll continue to be a whirlwind of emotions. I think they did a really good job of coming in. When we had our walkthrough earlier before the game, being locked in and understanding what we were trying to accomplish game-wise in terms of put it in the game plan and following through.”
On Ian Martinez status: “I think [Marcus Dockery] has put himself in a situation where you know, I was not here with Doc his freshman year but by all accounts from everyone on our staff, he's really worked hard to improve and put himself in a situation where we thought he's been practicing really well and the thought process was to go into the game and give him some minutes. Obviously, with Ian [Martinez] going down on those minutes got extended a little bit. But I do think Doc came in and you know, gave us really good nine minutes from not playing to being out there.”
On how he picks up with a roster midseason: “Well, I understand that and our staff understands that we talked about and we’ll continue to say that change is hard. And there's some things that we're going to massage in as we continue to move forward. But it can't be a stopped cold turkey, we're going to all this now, right? And so the thought process is we continue to massage in and then over the break, we'll try to implement a little bit more. But it's not going to be something where it's just complete wholesale, brand new system because we want to make sure our guys when they're out there, there is a comfort level with what we need to do, execute offensively and defensively.”
On Qudus Wahab and Julian Reese’s scoring opportunities: “You guys don't know me that well, right. And so we're gonna go through a learning process. But we have to do a better job as a team in terms when we get our scoring opportunity of cashing in. Across the board, we didn't do that today. I am a big believer in paint touches. I'm a big believer of in ball reversal. I thought paint touches led us to 22 free throw attempts. We want that to be part of our formula for scoring points. Paint touches, putting pressure on teams, getting into the bonus before our opponents, get to the double bonus. And I thought there were periods of time in the game, that we did a good job of that, then we went away from it, and then we tried to come back to it. We just have to be a lot more consistent and that's my message to the guys and our staff. We want paint touches, we want the ball to move. When the ball moves, it forces long close outs, meaning the balls on this side of the court, the defense usually loads up on the side of the ball, we get it to the other side of the court, that means they're running out to you. It's a great time to drive a close out and try to get another paint touch. So those are things that we'll continue to work on with our guy, but I think they're very important. And that's part of what we will continue to emphasize is paint touches and ball reversals or ball swings, whatever adjective that you would like to put on.”
On Ian Martinez: “No, I’m not a doc but when I went out there, he looked out of it. I'm not a doctor, right, but I hit my head on the wood a few times. Yeah, I mean, he came back a couple days. And, you know, obviously once we get the you know, word on what the doc say we'll go from there and obviously follow the protocol that's needed. And, you know, we need him. We need him to come back. He's a dynamic young man. And you know, he'll be back as soon as you can.”
On Hakim Hart’s performance: “Didn't play well enough. You know, didn't play well on them. And we share this with our young men. Nobody's gonna feel sorry for us. We got to figure out a way when we get out there and Hakim [Hart] gave us a chance in terms of offensively making shots and doing some really good things for us offensively. But you know, I want him to get to the free throw line, right? He shot the ball well, he did. And we had a lot of didn't shoot it. Well, we had a lot of guys get to the free throw line. But I just think that across the board, those are things that we got to continue to work on. But yeah Hakim offensively, he gave us a chance to be in the ball game with how we played 7-of-10, terrific percentage at any level.”
On talking to the parents of the players: “Just wanted to share with them that nothing changed with how our staff feels about all the young men on our team. One of the parents understand that, yes, it was a challenging last couple of days, right. And you compound that with finals coming up, stress is coming to an end. So we just want to make sure that you know, we reached out to them and let them know that we're going to do everything we can to continue to support them in every facet. And if you have anything that you need to share with us about your child that can help us, please do it. And we've got to do the same thing. Because we're all on the same team in regards of helping all of our young people be successful. And just want to let them know that they can reach out to us and share different things that are going on. If you haven't remember, if you have somebody that's going through a rough patch in your family that might have an effect on your child and our team, please share that information. And we'll do the same in that regard. And so and it was just basically for me it was a get to know all the parents. You know, I had the assistant coach at all what in my lane everybody had a few of her in charge up and now it becomes a little bit more of the whole group and so just wanted to put my face in front of them and let them know that I'm going to continue to follow Turge’s footsteps and making sure that they're taken care of as best we can and let them know that we love them and we want them to be successful young people.”