Fear the turtle?
No one in college basketball has since Maryland’s Terrapins won their only NCAA title inside Atlanta’s Georgia Dome in the spring of 2002. In fact, the Terps haven’t even reached March Madness since 2010.
But the year after Maryland won in 2002, the freshman phenomenon Carmelo Anthony guided Syracuse to its first and only NCAA crown.
Now the Terps have a “Melo” of their own in freshman point guard Melo Trimble, who just may prove good enough to help Maryland win its second NCAA title in 13 years.
Maryland Terrapins
* Record: 26-5 (14-4 in Big Ten) * AP ranking: 8 * NCAA RPI: 9 * Best win: 59-53 home win over Wisconsin * Worst loss: 80-56 at Ohio State * Best stat: Hitting 75.7 percent of their free throws, the Terps are the 12th best foul shooting team in NCAA Division I. * Difference maker: Freshman guard Melo Trimble is getting most of the publicity these days, but senior wing Dez Wells may be the toughest matchup. A muscular 6-foot-5, he’s strong enough to overpower smaller players and quick enough to fly past taller ones. With averages of 15.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals while hitting 50 percent of his 3-pointers and 80 percent of his free throws, there may not be a more complete small forward in the country. * Reason to doubt: Despite having seven players who stand 6-9 or taller, the Terps out-rebound opponents by only 1.7 a game, have suffered four of their five losses by double figures and managed 14 of their 26 wins by single digits. Their margin for error would appear quite small as the tournament progresses. * Will be trendy in Indy at the Final Four if … Trimble and Wells can average 18 points apiece in tourney play and they don’t get pounded on the glass. * Prediction: Sweet 16 * Coachspeak: “They have good talent and they’re well coached. That is a nice recipe to win.” — Minnesota’s Richard Pitino after a 70-58 loss at Maryland
Wiedmer’s seeds
Editor’s note: The NCAA men’s basketball tournament begins one week from tonight. For the final time before Selection Sunday, our own Mark Wiedmer predicts the top four seeds in each regional. Remember that the selection committee is supposed to do everything possible to keep conference foes who already have met twice apart until a regional final, at least. It has been encouraged in the past to use an S-curve, meaning the strongest No. 1 would face the weakest No. 2, and so on. * EAST: 1. Villanova, 2. Virginia, 3. Iowa State, 4. Oklahoma ‘ SOUTH: 1. Duke, 2. Gonzaga, 3. Northern Iowa, 4. Baylor * MIDWEST: 1. Kentucky, 2. Maryland, 3. Kansas, 4. Wichita State * WEST: 1. Wisconsin, 2. Arizona, 3. Notre Dame, 4. Louisville
“He’s one of the best in the country and he’s made the most free throws,” Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said of Trimble after his team lost by 12 points to the Terps in January. “That kid is going to be a very, very good player.”
Said Maryland coach Mark Turgeon after watching Trimble’s 21 points, four assists and seven rebounds help lead the No. 8 Terps past Nebraska on Sunday, a victory that set a school record for most regular-season wins with 26: “He is just a heady kid who plays smart. In the end, Melo does what he does: He makes big shots and makes big plays.”
It’s a team with lots of big players. Maryland has seven players who stand 6-foot-9 or taller, including 7-1 Michal Cekovsky and 6-11 Damonte Dodd, who leads the team with 43 blocked shots.
But it’s two of Turgeon’s smaller performers — the 6-3 Trimble and 6-5 senior wing Dez Wells — who consistently have done the most damage.
Trimble averages a team-high 16.1 points a game, and Wells — who hit game-winners against both Northwestern and Nebraska — averages 15.3 points and 5.3 rebounds. And just to prove the big guys can do more than look good in an airport, 6-9 junior Jake Layman averages 13.1 points and 5.9 rebounds and hits 76 percent of his free throws.
“I’ve got really good players,” Turgeon said after Maryland defeated then-No. 5 Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago. “I don’t know how many more times I can brag about Melo. And Dez is special.”
After 61 years in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Terrapins have been a surprisingly good team in close games during their first season in the Big Ten. Fourteen of their 26 victories have come by nine points or less, with four coming by three or fewer points, including a double-overtime win at Michigan State.
Not bad for a program that didn’t crack the Top 25 until the fourth week of the season.
“They have four guys that play the 5 spot. That is really unique,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said after a two-point loss at Maryland. “They have all the pieces; the front line, they have an impossible matchup with Dez Wells. We don’t have a guy like that that we can match, but a lot of teams don’t. (And) Melo Trimble played like one of the top league guards around. They’re good. They’re really good.”
And never were the Terps better when it mattered most than when they somehow came from 11 down with three minutes to play at home against feisty Northwestern.
“We have never come back from a deficit like that, but Coach Turgeon was really confident in us and asked us if we wanted to win and we said yes,” Trimble noted after that 68-67 win. “We believed and we came back and won.”
He also singled out Wells, who transferred to Maryland after his freshman season at Xavier.
“Each of us individually keeps us in it, especially Dez,” Trimble continued. “He is very positive and always asks us about our heart, if we still want it, if we still want to win. Having Dez on the court always puts us in a better mindset.”
According to Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, having Trimble and Wells on the court together also increases the Terps’ chances for victory.
“Sometimes it just comes down to a guy being quicker or better,” Ryan said after losing by six at Maryland late last month. “Wells and Trimble are better off the bounce.”
Having won seven straight and eight of its last nine, Maryland appears to have enough bounce in its step to challenge anyone in the country once the NCAA tournament begins a week from tonight.
“They can beat people a lot of ways,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said after watching the Terps hit 11 3-pointers and 20 of 22 free throws in a 16-point Maryland win over his Spartans.
“They have two things that aren’t common. They have an enormous amount of depth, and they have enormous size. And Trimble’s the best I’ve seen in awhile. When they shoot the way they did tonight, they’re great.”
Maybe great enough to have a second freshman named Melo lead his team to an NCAA championship.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.