It hasn't been the same since February for the Maryland Terps.
A team that felt like they were making progress with a host of young players faltered when crunch time came.
As quickly as the new season began in Orlando, it ended. Xavier moves on to face Florida State Saturday in the second round.
Where do the Terps look for answers?
What went wrong?
Sure, the Terps started the season with a few lackluster performances in weak non-conference games. At the beginning of the season, I had the feeling of "this team might be okay, but they're not there yet."
But then conference play kicked in... and the young guys started to show up.
Melo Trimble gets on the Naismith watch. Kevin Huerter starts taking over games. Michal Cekovsky looked like a solid big man. Then, he got hurt.
The Terps started dropping crucial conference games even before that injury, but one thing remained constant: a lack of identity.
I find myself going into Terps games wondering what their in-game strategy is. And that comes back to the head coach.
I sat in the newsroom yesterday talking about the game questioning the validity of Mark Turgeon as a solid bench boss. Good recruiter? Sure. But what about strategies he draws up on the white board?
The Terps lack a true offensive strategy.
For a team that stays on the perimeter, not a lot of threes are going down. It feels as if Melo tries to take over a game like Steph Curry without having his shooting ability.
Where do the Terps turn?
Can they blame this on youth?
Regardless if Melo comes back next year or not, they may have to start looking at the man patrolling the sidelines. If not, we may never know who the Terps really are.
