Maryland has lost four of last six games going into Big Ten Tournament

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A year ago, the Maryland men’s basketball team had a lot of momentum going into its first Big Ten tournament in Chicago. The No. 8 Terps were riding a seven-game winning streak as they headed to the United Center.

The Terps, who had started the year unranked and picked to finish 10th in their new league, won a school-record 26 regular season games, wound up second behind Wisconsin in the standings and had their first top 10 ranking in more than a decade.

Not this season.

After Sunday’s demoralizing 80-62 defeat here to No. 12 Indiana at Assembly Hall, the No. 14 Terps have lost four of their last six games going into this year’s Big Ten tournament, which begins Wednesday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in nearby Indianapolis.

The Terps, who had started the year ranked No. 3 in the country (behind co-No. 1’s North Carolina and Kentucky), were picked to win the Big Ten and possibly a national championship. Instead, Maryland finished 24-7 and three games behind the first-place 15-3 Hoosiers.

“We’re just back to being underdogs,” sophomore point guard Melo Trimble said outside the team’s locker room Sunday night. “All last year we were underdogs and we played through every game like we were going to come out on top.

“I think going into this post-season, we got the mindset that every team is going to think they can beat us because we’re going through these losses, but hopefully we’re going to be able to turn things around.”

Maryland coach Mark Turgeon, who a year ago was selected Big Ten coach of the year by the media, said he will talk to his team about using its rigorous end-of-season schedule to help build on for the Big Ten tournament as well as the NCAA tournament.

“We will, right now we’re too down to talk about it,” Turgeon said in the media room. “I just said in the locker room, the Big Ten regular season didn’t go the way we wanted it to go. We had a tough road schedule, and we didn’t handle it well.

“We competed in every game on the road this year except for today. … Indiana had a lot to do with it. We’ll move forward and hopefully go into Indy next week and play well.”

The Terps, who are seeded third in the Big Ten tournament, will have until Friday night to start that process.

Asked what Maryland can do to end its recent slide, senior guard Rasheed Sulaimon said, “Just keep being together as a unit. We definitely hit some adversity late in the season, but we can’t splinter. If we splinter, that can allow [the losing] to roll forward into March.”

After earning a double-bye with last Thursday’s home win over Illinois, Maryland will play the winner of Thursday’s game between No. 6 seed Wisconsin and either No. 11 seed Nebraska or No. 14 Rutgers.

The Terps split with the Badgers this season, beat the Cornhuskers in a close game on the road and crushed the Scarlet Knights in College Park.

Maryland’s recent slide began with a 70-57 home loss to Wisconsin that was followed by a 68-63 road loss at Minnesota, which was winless in the Big Ten at the time.

Should the Terps advance to the semifinals, they could meet Michigan State, the No. 2 seed as well as the second-ranked team in the country. Maryland lost in East Lansing in January.

Considering that the Terps had one of the more difficult road schedules in the conference – playing on the road here and at Michigan State without a return game at Xfinity Center – the possibility of getting the Spartans or Hoosiers on a neutral court (if Indianapolis will be neutral should Indiana reach the final) might be easier for Turgeon’s team.

For good reason, Sulaimon is not looking that far ahead.

“We still have a game Friday,” he said. “I definitely think this hard road game [against Indiana] has definitely prepared us for the post-season. Obviously we didn’t do as well as we wanted in the regular season. There’s definitely some things we can learn from going into the post-season.

“Everything is a neutral setting and it will be to our benefit. We’re looking to take care of business and if we happen to match up with one of these teams we lost to on the road again, it’s tough to beat a team twice, so we’ll be looking forward to it.”

Despite the struggles at the end the season, Turgeon said “we’re showing [positive] signs” but warned that the Terps are not simply going to turn on a switch and become the team many predicted they might be.

“It’s not going to change overnight,” Turgeon said. “The last six didn’t go the way we wanted to go, a lot of it was schedule. We had two tough road games here at the end. I really think these games – at Purdue, Michigan at home, at Indiana are going to help us for the post-season. We played in some amazing buildings last Saturday at Purdue and today and it should help us moving forward.”

Perhaps the most encouraging bit of news is that Trimble appears to be regaining the form that made him a first-team all-league player as a freshman and a Wooden Award candidate for his entire sophomore year despite a recent month-long slump.

Trimble scored 17 points against the Hoosiers after scoring 18 against Illinois.

“Like I told Coach Turgeon, my body hasn’t been feeling right,” Trimble said. “Last week in practice, I felt really great and it’s been showing the past two games. My legs are just under me. When my legs are feeling great, I’m great.”

Maybe it will rub off on his team.

don.markus@baltsun.com

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