Maryland basketball coach Mark Turgeon is selling water at the edge of the desert with no takers in sight.
The incoming Terps coach has an extra scholarship after losing two recruits following coach Gary Williams’ retirement and Jordan Williams to the NBA before that. Now Turgeon is using the “dead period” — he can’t have contact with recruits until next month — to create a list of available big men. There has to be someone 6-foot-10 out there who wants to join an ACC team that was long a contender under Gary Williams and plays before a rabid 17,950 on the doorstep of the nation’s capital.
“We need guys with some size and some length,” Turgeon said. “We’ve got a lot of playing time to sell.”
Normally, it would be an easy sell. But in late May, anyone worthwhile has already committed. Even junior colleges are empty. Turgeon isn’t desperate to spend a scholarship on someone who could haunt him for four years but sure would like to find a big man for a team with no proven players underneath.
“We’d like to add a piece, but it has to be the right piece,” Turgeon said. “I won’t add a stiff just to add a stiff. I want a basketball player.”
Maryland has plenty of players — they’re just all guards. Terrell Stoglin, Sean Mosley and Pe’Shon Howard must carry the Terps, who look like a .500 team if no one emerges down low.
Turgeon conceded the Terps may run more this coming season simply to offset a weaker frontcourt. But that means relying on guards who didn’t deliver regularly last season. Turgeon won’t bother with excuses.
“As a coach, you figure out a way to win games. We’ll be adaptable,” he said. “Next year’s team will be a lot of guards, so we’ll have to play faster than we did last year. The bottom line is winning games. … Our guard play should be fantastic.”
Oddly, Turgeon hasn’t watched film from last season and doesn’t plan to, barring some unexpected free time that rarely comes to coaches. He would rather not form opinions until he works with the players himself.
Maybe 6-10 center Berend Weijs can build off a promising freshman season in which he saw little playing time. Maybe 6-8 forward James Padgett can show the talent that made him the nation’s 21st-ranked high school center.
For now, Turgeon is readying his recruiting staff and meeting with current players. Summer school starts soon, and the players will return to campus ready to impress a new coach. Freshman guard Nick Faust will enter school in June after graduating high school.
“I feel pretty good about the relationships we’ve built,” Turgeon said of the current roster. “The guys that are coming back, including Nick Faust, we’ve developed good relationships with.”
Examiner columnist Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more on Twitter @Snide_Remarks or email [email protected].
