Maryland’s head-scratching 68-61 loss to Northwestern on Wednesday night seemingly evaporated its already slim hopes of an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. That leaves only a chance for a magical run in the Big Ten Conference Tournament to sniff a shot at a ticket punched via automatic bid.
The Terps might be able to lighten that load if they can win their final two outings, regain the No. 10 seed and earn a first-round bye. But before any of that can happen, as evidenced against the Wildcats and over the past few weeks, they’ll have to clean some things up.
When prompted to give his pros and cons from the futile comeback against Northwestern, Terps coach Kevin Willard said plainly, “I didn’t like much about anything tonight, to be honest with you.”
Here are three observations from Wednesday night’s loss.
Terps stay defensive
The positive defensive showing shadowed by an under-performing offense has become quasi-commonplace around Xfinity Center.
Outside of Houston’s top-ranked defense in the country –– Willard said, “We’re not gonna be able to be better than them” –– only a few percentage points are separating Maryland from the short list of better defenses.
In the Big Ten, they’re first in fewest points allowed (64.3) and second in 3-point field goal percentage allowed (31.7%). Northwestern coach Chris Collins admitted he was nervous about how his team would even be able to score.
“I knew we’d have to compete hard,” Collins said. “If any team takes 26 points out of the lineup, it’s gonna be different. We’ve been one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the country. We only made two 3s tonight.”
The disparity between either side of the ball has been the headline in the sky for the Terps this season. “Just don’t ask me about the offense,” Willard half-joked.
In Wednesday’s loss, they shot 2 of 22 from range. On the season, they rank 297th in Division I. That’s 6.1 made 3s per game. For reference, Nebraska leads the Big Ten with 9.4, good for 25th in the nation.
Fifth-year guard Jahmir Young said of Wednesday’s outing: “We got a lot of open looks. We took a couple bad ones. But for the most part, we got a bunch of good looks. I feel like we let it get to us. Instead of continuing to get open looks and continuing to play well in that regard, we got down on ourselves early and couldn’t fight back.”
Timely shots are not falling
Maryland lost to Rutgers by three on Feb. 6, by four to Ohio State on Feb. 10, by five to Illinois on Feb. 17, by four to Wisconsin on Feb. 20 and by eight to Northwestern.
The Wildcats held as much as an 11-point advantage in the game’s final minutes. The Terps cut that down to as few as three, marred by ensuing empty possessions.
“Our issue really hasn’t been at the end of games,” Willard said. “Our issue has been we have stretches where we cut it to four then we come down and have three or four empty possessions. That’s what happened at Ohio State. We’re up four, came down and took two bad shots. We were down four and took two bad shots here. They go down and score and it’s a six-point game.
“That’s kind of how we’ve been stuck all year.”
DeShawn Harris-Smith wants the ball
Harris-Smith, a freshman guard out of Paul VI Catholic, already speaks with a confidence matching his fifth-year senior counterparts.
“I’ve been telling the guys we gotta be desperate from the beginning,” said Harris-Smith, who scored 14 points, including a pair of late layups, and grabbed five rebounds in 36 minutes. “I feel like when we’re down six and it’s four minutes left, everybody’s desperate. … We gotta act like we’re down 10 from the beginning and scared to lose from the beginning, not when the clock has three minutes left.”
It’s clear both from his on-court ferocity and the tenor in his postgame address, using the word “desperate” four times in 30 seconds, that Harris-Smith sets high expectations. He’ll forge an even greater role next season as the lone returning starter to Maryland’s backcourt given that Young’s and Donta Scott’s final year of eligibility is set to expire.
Harris-Smith said he feels like he has an alpha personality, trusting his teammates in late-game situations but yearning to be the one to make the difference.
“When we’re down,” Harris-Smith said, “I feel like it’s my job to try to rally the team together and do whatever I can to help us.”
Indiana at Maryland
Sunday, 2 p.m.
TV: CBS
Radio: 105.7 FM