COLLEGE PARK, Md. — College hoops in February. It typically sets the stage for March Madness. That could be maddening for Mark Turgeon’s Terrapins.
"We can’t think about March. We’re too inconsistent. It’s too overwhelming for us to think that way. It’s too hard with everything," said the University of Maryland head coach. "It’s about Purdue."
Coming off an up and down January, the University of Maryland men's basketball team (9-8, 3-7) hosts the No. 24 Boilermakers (12-6, 7-4) on Tuesday night. The Terps fell 73-70 at Purdue on Christmas Day. Darryl Morsell missed the potential game-tying free throws in the final seconds.
"Me, personally, I was unsuccessful in the opportunities that I had late in that game," he said. "So, it definitely was used as motivation moving forward."
Against Purdue Morsell and his teammates have to keep an eye on Brandon Newman. The redshirt freshman guard is coming off a career-high 29 points in a win over Minnesota.
"He was really the difference in the first game, I thought," said Turgeon. "They’re hard to guard, man. They have a great low post game. They got really good shooters."
"He just had his career game last game. So, he’s probably feeling pretty confident," said Terps guard Eric Ayala. "As a team we have the personality to guard anybody in the country."
And beat anybody in the country. The Terps have a program-record three road wins against ranked teams this season. However, they own no home wins in Big Ten play.
"We did talk about being a good home team and having our road mentality at home. We got to come out with a chip on our shoulder," said Turgeon.
Tip-off Tuesday is set for 6:30 p.m.
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