I have been this frustrated by a Maryland basketball team in the past. It was a team that made the NIT and lost at home to Manhattan. It was 2005-2006. The season before ended in Madison Square Garden with a loss in the NIT Final 4. Two seasons before Maryland won the ACC Tournament.
Ekene Ibekwe and Travis Garrison were on the 05/06 Terps team along with Will Bowers. It was a low IQ team that was a 6th place ACC finisher with an 8-8 conference record.
In my mind’s eye, it was a season that we could not wait to end.
Fast forward to today, where a 17 point 1st half lead and a 13 point halftime lead were not enough to overcome the Wahoos. A game this evening where one was calling into question the coaching of Mark Turgeon and the Terps non-existent offense. Soft play down the stretch by Alex Len (again) and poor decision making leaving the Terps a 3 point loser on the road going into the ACC Tournament.
It has been a season that has gotten away, where Terp fans intensely miss the bench coaching of Gary Williams. It is a season that for the Terp faithful can not end soon enough. A season in which 2nd year coach Mark Turgeon routinely seems to be on the edge of a nervous break down and calls player out on a regular basis.
Turgeon is being exposed for not being the bench coach that Gary Williams was. He seems to be slow to adjust the team and is often caught flat-footed coming into the second half of games.
Maybe the spotlight is too intense for Mark coming into a national level program in a big city. It is possible that he does not want to be in the B1G Ten. Maybe the grass was not greener in College Park than in College Station (Texas A&M).
I would caution those that are ready to fire Turgeon that we went through a season or two like this with Gary. What was called to attention was a lack of recruiting, but never a lack of coaching.