2011-2012 Season in Review: Maryland

17-15 overall, 6-10 ACC

We're now moving out of the logjam for last place and up the ACC standings.  Maryland was team in transition this past year.  There was plenty of contention, with new coach Mark Turgeon calling out his players early in the season, and some issues with star Terrell Stoglin.  On the court, the Terps were understandably up and down.  They had to learn a whole new system and took a while to get up to speed.  The early season included blowout losses to Alabama and Iona, but wins over Notre Dame and Colorado.

In ACC play, for the most part Maryland beat the teams it should have beaten, and lost to the teams it should have lost to.  Of their six wins, five came at home.  They lost all six games against ranked conference opponents.  The whole team basically revolved around Stoglin.  He was the type of player who would do some pretty incredible things, and once he got hot he kept shooting.  That could be great, or it could get the team in trouble if he kept missing wild shots.  Stoglin led the conference in scoring at 21.6 points per game.

Behind him were mostly nice role players.  Sean Mosley was the only other player to average double figures.  Pe'Shon Howard was injured for much of the season and wasn't really able to build on his strong freshman campaign.  Alex Len had a lot of press, and played well at times, but should have been better than his 6.0 PPG average.  Another interesting player was Nick Faust.  He came in highly touted, but suffered some freshman growing pains in the first half of the season.  He came on in the latter part of the year, though.  His scoring average was 8.9 for the season, but jumped to 13.4 in the last nine games.

Biggest Win:

64-62 at Clemson (February 7)

The win over Notre Dame looked better at the end of the year, but the Irish were struggling early in the season when Maryland played them.  So I'm going to go with Maryland's lone road win, against a Clemson team that finished higher in the standings.  Maryland was actually ahead by a bigger margin and had to withstand a late comeback.  When you look at Maryland's road schedule, it's easy to see why they went 1-7.  The three teams in the league that they did not play on the road were Virginia Tech, Boston College and Wake Forest, three of the four worst teams in the conference.

Worst Loss:

63-61 at Georgia Tech (February 25)

This is really the only game that could qualify as a bad loss on Maryland's schedule.  Georgia Tech came in really struggling, losers of four in a row, and they did not have Glen Rice, Jr.  The final score looked better than it was, as Stoglin made a three pointer at the buzzer to cut it to two.

Postseason Play:

Maryland got a very good draw in their first round 8/9 game, playing a very weak #9 seed in Wake Forest.  They blew open a close game in the second half, and got a nice 82-60 win.  Unfortunately, they had to play #1 seed North Carolina and weren't able to keep up, falling 85-69.  Maryland had a winning record but was not selected to go to the NIT.

Next Year:

Up until a couple weeks ago, Maryland was being touted as one of the rising teams in the ACC with a potential top four conference finish.  That basically went out of the window with Stoglin's decision to go to the NBA.  He was forced to make that decision, as the university announced he would have been suspended for next season.  Whatever he did, it was bad enough to get kicked off the team.  That leaves Maryland without the heart and soul of their team.  The Terps will also be losing Mosley, who was the team's second leading scorer.  Mychal Parker, who only had 4.3 points per game, is transferring.

There is some good news: Maryland brings in a nice recruiting class, including Sam Cassell's son.  If Howard can stay healthy, he and Faust can form a strong backcourt tandem.  Len should be improved next season.  Maryland should be strong defensively, but without Stoglin will probably struggle to put points on the board.  I think that Turgeon is a good coach and he can potentially guide this team to a finish in the 5th or 6th range in the ACC.  But I feel like the Terps are one injury or transfer away from being right back where they were this past year.