Maryland basketball has been an underdog in each of its big road upsets over ranked teams this season, but that's not the kind of 'dog' Darryl Morsell was talking about when he described his team after its win at Minnesota.
"I always say we all dogs, man. A team full of dogs and we built for this. We love coming in, you know, the other arenas and just leaving our mark. So that's big. We got a lot more to accomplish as a team and a lot we can definitely get better at," he said.
The Terps, left for dead by many at several points this season, have answered the bell each time. In their dominant 64-49 win at Minnesota, it was their defense that powered them. They held the Golden Gophers to 29.1 percent shooting and a season-low 49 points. They'd scored fewer than 60 points just twice before.
"We locked in defensively from the first possession and guys were dialed into the game plan. We started the small lineup. I started five veteran guys that were here last year, just looking for a spark, looking for something to get us going and it was really good defensively. You know, Darryl locks in on [Marcus] Carr, we're into our matchups, we were fighting, we're guarding the ball, we were fighting on the post," Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. "We fought, you know, we really rebounded well we were giving up a lot of size, so defensively we were just terrific and and and maybe two possessions in the first half, we weren't very good on defense, but really the rest of the game we were really good. We had some silly fouls, we fouled some jump shooters, but guys were great and they did it the whole game. So they showed me something tonight, which is great.
"Minnesota is a terrific team, especially in this building, so for us to come in here and hold them to 49 shows you the guys were really locked in defensively today."
Turgeon has tried multiple tactics to get his team playing more consistently, from trying to build their confidence to chiding them about lack of effort.
"We just talked about when things go bad, don't put our heads down. And we've been doing that way too quickly this year and I don't know why. Maybe it's COVID, maybe we're not winning as much, maybe the league's just so darn good it wears you out. But we just talked about keeping our heads up and no matter what happens. If they hit five threes in a row, keep our heads up, we'll go on the next play. And I thought our attitude was better tonight," he said.
"You know, it's such a hard league, it's such a great league and it's such a long season, especially with COVID. You know, you just got to try to keep the guys in a good space. I thought we were in a good space tonight."
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