Maryland trailed by as many as 11 with just over four minutes remaining and managed to cut the deficit to three-points, but were never able to overcome the final hurdle as Northwestern pulled out a 68-61 win in an ugly game for Kevin Willard’s team.
Jahmir Young led the way with 24 points, including 11-of-12 from the free-throw line, while DeShawn Harris-Smith added another 14 points as he did his damage in the paint. But it was the offensive struggles that, once again, loomed large as Maryland shot just 2-of-22 from three.
Everything that Kevin Willard, DeShawn Harris-Smith and Jahmir Young said after the latest loss:
Willard on Maryland’s three-point shooting
“I thought we got some good open looks early and what’s kind of happened, happened with us against Rutgers and a little bit against Michigan State, kind of just we missed some good looks and it kind of affected us the rest of the way.”
Jahmir Young on Maryland’s three-point shooting vs. Northwestern
“I would say that yeah, we got a lot of open looks. We took a couple of bad ones but for the most part we got a bunch of good looks and I feel like we let it get to us instead of continuing to get open looks and continue to play well. In that regard, we just got down on ourselves early and we couldn’t fight back.”
Willard on the fight through the end
“These guys have played hard all year. It’s just frustrating for them at times when we struggle offensively and they’re battling. It’s been a little bit of a battle all year. We didn’t have an answer for [Nick] Martinelli and I thought he was really good.”
DeShawn Harris-Smith on being aggressive offensively early
“I just feel like I’ve got like an alpha personality. So like when we’re down, I feel like it’s my job to try to rally the team together and do whatever I can to help us win. We’re down 11, I’m just trying to bring energy. So if that means I’ve got to score then I’m gonna try to score. That means I got to get a deflection down on the ground, took a charge. I mean, I was just trying to do whatever it takes to get us some momentum, get us some energy, get us back in the game, and today it just happened to be to score. I think [Jahmir Young] found me on a good cut and Donta [Scott] found me on a good cut. So it was really them just being willing to pass the freshmen or ball in those moments. So, I mean, it was really just all them for believing in me.”
Willard on two games remaining in the regular season
“We’ve got senior night on Sunday so we have four of five seniors that have given a lot to this program. You want to send them off the right way. We have off tomorrow and we’ll get back to work on Friday.”
Young on the biggest disappointment at being 15-14
“Just the fact that we’re losing games under five points. We let a few get away from this at home. We’ve been struggling at home, unlike last year. This year we’ve been playing a little bit better on the road, but we let a couple of slip on the road as well. Just knowing how we could be, where we should be and then just looking at our record, it doesn’t fit our team or anything like that. So, I mean, it’s tough, but I’m trying to keep positive. I’m trying to stay positive.”
On what the message is in close games
Jahmir Young: “It’s tough. It’s been a history for us this year just losing by under five points. It’s tough, but I mean, I’m just trying to take it one possession at a time, figuring out how to get stops and trying to get an open look on the other end. Try to get downhill, whether we’re in a bonus or not. Just trying to create something positive for our group and create momentum.”
DeShawn Harris-Smith: “I mean, I’ve been telling the guys, we gotta be desperate from the beginning. I felt like when we down six and it’s four minutes left and everybody desperate, everybody’s showing energy, everybody’s trying to dive on the floor, but especially right now at the end of the season, we got two seniors. We’re trying to lead them off on the right way. Like we gotta be desperate from tip off. Like we gotta act like we down ten from the beginning. Cause I mean, we play in a great league so if we’re playing behind all year like we have it’s going to be hard to get those wins at the end. So I’ve been telling guys, we gotta be desperate from the beginning. Like we gotta be scared to lose from [the] beginning and not when the clock is three minutes left.”
Willard on the message heading into the postseason
“Right now just want to send these guys out on the best note on Sunday.”
Willard on what Nick Martinelli did well
“[Boo] Bouie is such a smart player, he kind of understood we were going to try to get the ball out of his hands at times. We were in closeout situations on Martinelli. After playing Sunday, we prepared a lot for Langford because Langford had been playing really well in a lot of pick and roles. We just didn’t do a good job on Martinelli. We kept closing out a little bit too deep. We wanted him to shoot the basketball. We didn’t want him to get in there. We just had some blown assignments.”
Willard on how Julian Reese was defended
“They’re one of the better post defensive teams. They were extremely physical with them in the first game and I thought they were extremely physical with them in the second game. They ran both the on Nicholson and Hunger at him. If you get some calls and you can loosen up or they just keep hacking and hacking and you don’t get the calls. [Julian] got a little frustrated, but they did a good job of really being physical with him early, throwing some double teams at them. They did a good job with him.”
Willard on the upcoming senior day vs. Indiana
“I think senior night’s always tough. You want to send out your guys on a really good note. And again, we have… four or five guys that will be going so you really just want to make sure that you play as hard as you can and send those guys out the best way possible.”
On when Willard knew Ryan Langford would be out and how it impacted Maryland’s gameplan
“When he walked in, he was, not a boot, but it was pretty obvious he wasn’t playing. It didn’t change much. I mean, you still have to deal with Bouie. The biggest difference was we worked a lot on Langford’s pick-and-rolls ‘cause he really hurt Indiana with his pick and rolls. I thought we did a pretty decent job for most of the game defending and then I just think in that second half trying to scramble, I just think Martinelli is a smart player. He kind of took advantage of some of our close outs.”
Willard on Maryland’s defense vs. Northwestern
“I didn’t like much about anything tonight, to be honest with you.”
Willard on Maryland’s results in close games and how Willard has done coaching that
“Every year is going to be a new year from now on. Next year will be a whole new group. You’re gonna have to teach it and go through it again…obviously not well. Our issue is really hasn’t been at the end of games. Our issue has been, we’ve had stretches and like we did, we cut it to four and we come down and we have three or four empty possessions– happened to us at Ohio State. We were up four, came down and took two kind of quick bad shots. We were down four, we took two bad shots here and that just, you’re down four instead of being down two. They go down and they score it and it’s like a six-point game. That’s kind of how we’ve been stuck all year. The end of the game, we’ve actually executed pretty well. We just haven’t, we’ve had really bad stretches in these games where we’ve had a chance to either cut it two, to tie it, cut it to five or at Ohio State, we could have got up. At Northwestern, we could have got up and we’ve taken some bad shots. I think that’s been a little bit of the frustration on these close games is that we’ve had stretches within like the 11 to six-minute mark in the second half that we’ve had really bad possessions and it’s caused us to either not get up, not push the lead up a little bit, or put ourselves behind a little bit more where it’s almost — as well as team shoot free throws in this league, it’s really hard to try to get over that home.”
Willard’s description of Maryland’s defense this season
“Well, we’re running fifth in the country so, I guess it’s pretty good. I don’t know if I can get it much better, to be honest with you. Houston’s first. I watched them play and we’re not going to ever get better than them. They’re really good. The guys [that are] in front of us, were close. It’s like a percentage point so I don’t know if I can get it any better. Just don’t ask me about the offense.”
Willard on why Mady Traore didn’t play
“Mady’s going to have a great future. Nicholson’s a big guy and asking him to go in there in that situation and battle him was a big ask.”
Willard on how Caelum Swanton-Rodger played vs. Northwestern
“Cal’s young, he’s young in basketball. He’s young as a kid, and this is a tough conference to kind of grow up in. Cal has a great attitude. He works hard. I thought he, for the most part, he was physical out there. He’s worked hard on that. I thought he gave us some good minutes.”
Willard on the officiating in the loss
“Yeah. I mean, I think I’ve gotta be careful how I answer this question. Sometimes you see certain guys that you have and you know it’s going to be a long night. I thought that, you know, you send a team 31 times to the free throw line, it’s going to be a long night for you.”
On what works well with the zone press
Jahmir Young: “It’s not necessarily early in the game, but just wearing them down. I’m just trying to have them come across halfcourt like under 25 seconds, 24, 23, just to stop them from getting transition buckets or let them run their stuff with a full shot clock so it was really not for steals necessarily, but just to slow them down.”
DeShawn Harris-Smith: “Definitely against a team like Northwestern they’ve got a lot of sets. So we were trying to keep them from milking it down on the shot clock and running all those places. So, I mean, when we ended up pressing, it helps [to] slow them down. Like you said, when they get across, it’d be 20 seconds left. They’ve got to call the play that six, five seconds. So by the time they actually run the plays it’s only 12 seconds left. So we really only have the guard for 12 seconds and that’s important especially against a team like Northwestern.”
Harris-Smith on defending Boo Bouie
“I feel like our coaches do a great job of giving our scout. They watched tons of film telling me his moves and his tendencies. So, I mean, I feel like I really lock into scout. That’s a huge thing at this level, just being able to know what my opponent does and what they like to do. And I felt like it was a team effort. I feel like Ju was guarding the drop coverage well. I feel like defense is just all energy. It takes no skill to like run around and guard the best player. So, I mean, I feel like I just take a lot of pride. I try to hang my hat on defense, especially with me matching the ball well. I gotta be out there to do everything that can help us win. So I’m going to try to guard the best player to keep them under his average. It was going to go out there and would do whatever it takes to win.”
Young on his second-half adjustments
“Really just playing out the pick and roll, just getting into my spot, getting downhill. I’m trying to get stuff in transition. My teammates did a great job of finding me. Just trying to get downhill.”
Harris-Smith on the adjustment to his offensive game
“I mean, I feel like there’s a little bit of both. I feel like I would be getting the games I’ve been trying to be like get myself like get situated early, like not waiting until like the ten minute mark to get my first basket ‘cause then it’s just hard to adjust to the game. So at the beginning of the game I just have the mentality, like when we get an easy one, let me see the ball go through the hoop so I’m just in the right flow. And then like, I’ve been saying all year, like the more games I get under my belt, the more comfortable I’m going to get, the more the game is going to slow down for me. I feel like it’s been doing that all year. I feel like it will carry on to next year. I’m just trying to keep the good energy. Like I said, just keep doing the good things. Keep doing the right things over here and hopefully the energy just continuing to go.”
Harris-Smith on his success around the rim
“I feel like I’m a bigger guard even at this level. So, I mean, I just try to use my physicality to get to the rim and finish through contact. Cause I know, like I said, I’m mastering the ball very well. So I got get inside the paint ‘cause I feel like I can finish well and like I said, they trusted me on the back door cuts. They trusted me to put the ball on my hand. So I mean, I got to do something positive with it and I feel like getting downhill, getting to my left hand, my right hand is just the best thing I can do with it.”
Young on what made it tough to score vs. Northwestern
“It’s always tough paying a team twice. Just knowing each other’s tendencies and your moves and stuff and plays. They haven’t played in a week so they’ve been watching us for a little minute. They knew all of our sets. They made it tough for us to get our easy baskets and easy twos. We got a lot of open threes, we missed them and it cost us.”
Young on the pressure taken off when DeShawn Harris-Smith can produce
“I’m not surprised. He’s been putting in work and, we trust him as a team. He’s one of our best guys on the floor. We need them out there. He’s been producing. It’s not a surprise, but him just getting downhill, him doing what he does well and the game slowing down for him and now he’s figuring it out. So, I mean, he’s going to keep elevating. He’s going to keep going. It’s been great for him to be beside me in the back court and us just being able to go after it.”
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