Turgeon is not thinking about an at-large berth
In the ACC standings, there’s so little separation between Miami (16-9, 7-5) and Maryland (15-11, 5-7) that if the result of the Hurricanes’ 90-86 double-overtime victory over the Terrapins three weeks ago was reversed, the teams would be in a virtual tie.
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But despite being on relatively equal footing in their first season as ACC coaches, Jim Larranaga of Miami and Mark Turgeon of Maryland couldn’t have sounded more different Monday when assessing their prospects for an NCAA tournament at-large bid.
While Larranaga stumped for his Hurricanes like a politician, Turgeon refused to engage in the at-large discussion when asked what combination of regular-season and ACC tournament wins it would take.
| Up next |
| Miami at Maryland |
| When » Tuesday, 8 p.m. |
| Where » Comcast Center |
| TV » Ch. 20 |
“Four wins in Atlanta,” Turgeon said with a wry smile, speaking of the site of the ACC tournament. “Let’s don’t kid ourselves here.”
Larranaga, formerly the coach at mid-major George Mason, stated the case for big conference teams on the NCAA tournament bubble, using his former school as an example of a team that should not be rewarded.
“If you looked at their nonconference strength of schedule, it’s in the 300s [actually 264 on Monday],” Larranaga said. “That’s not the resume that the committee has looked for over the years. You look for people who have really challenged themselves in the nonconference.”
When Maryland hosts Miami on Tuesday night, it is an opportunity for the Terps to avenge their earlier defeat and take steps toward replacing the Hurricanes on the NCAA tournament bubble.
Maryland forward Berend Weijs still believes there’s plenty at stake for the Terps in the regular season.
“We gotta win every game,” Weijs said. “We still got two ranked teams coming up — North Carolina and Virginia. If we come up against a couple ranked teams in the ACC tournament, if we can beat [them], I don’t think we’d have to win all the way.”
Miami and Maryland are different teams than when they met Feb.?1 in Coral Gables. While the Hurricanes were without 6-foot-11 junior Kenny Kadji, who missed the game with an injury, the Terrapins’ lineup included sophomore point guard Pe’Shon Howard, who has since suffered a season-ending torn ACL.
Kadji has the unusual distinction of leading Miami in blocked shots (1.7 per game) and 3-point shooting percentage (.478), hitting 22 of 46. He joins Reggie Johnson (11.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg) in a formidable frontcourt that could pose problems for the Terps.
“Our post play has been minute by minute, timeout by timeout. Two of the last three games, they haven’t been very good — all of them,” Turgeon said. “Today I’m writing down the [starting] five, and I couldn’t write a fifth name down.”
Howard’s loss has forced inconsistent freshman Nick Faust to play the point. Faust had five turnovers in Saturday’s humbling 71-44 loss at Virginia.
“The thing I was most disappointed in Nick Saturday was he didn’t guard anybody,” Turgeon said. “Nick’s been one of our best defenders. He just decided he wasn’t going to guard. He let his offense affect his defense.”
