By Roman Stubbs, The play that stuck with Dez Wells following Maryland’s comeback win over Northwestern wasn’t his acrobatic, game-winning put-back with 1.4 seconds left on Sunday night. It was the play that had occurred roughly 10 seconds earlier, when Northwestern’s Tre Demps beat Wells on a pull-up jumper to put Maryland down by one. Wells was stewing over the play even after he earned redemption, a fitting microcosm of Maryland’s thrilling but unsatisfying win. Coach Mark Turgeon said on Wednesday that he thought Demps’s jumper was “justice” because of how poorly his team had played for the first 36 minutes. “There was a lot of emotion going on throughout it. I’ve been coaching a lot of games over my career, 500-and-some games .?.?. never had anything like that,” Turgeon said of the comeback victory. Thursday’s trip to Ohio State will mark the second time in as many years that Maryland has visited Columbus, and following last season’s 76-60 shellacking in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, Turgeon vowed to change scenery. The team would stay at a different hotel and eat at a different restaurant this time, he said, and would “do things a little differently” in preparation for the game. No. 16 Maryland (18-3,6-2 Big Ten) will need a different defensive effort Thursday, too, if it is to compete with what Turgeon calls the most “talented team in the league.” After being exposed for long stretches against Indiana and Northwestern last week, the Terrapins face an Ohio State team that leads the Big Ten in shooting percentage (50.9), is second in scoring (80.0) and boasts one of the country’s hottest players in freshman shooting guard D’Angelo Russell. A candidate for Big Ten freshman of the year, the 6-foot-5 guard is second in the Big Ten in scoring (19.4 points per game) and will enter Thursday’s game fresh off two of his best performances of the year. He had 33 points, six assists and seven rebounds in a two-point win over Northwestern last week, and then poured in 22 points, 10 assists and six rebounds to lead the Buckeyes to a convincing 82-70 win over No. 22 Indiana on Sunday. The hallmarks of Russell’s game are his smooth-left handed stroke and the ability to pierce defenses off the dribble — “He’s so smooth that he doesn’t look fast, but he’s fast,” Turgeon said…
Continue Reading: Maryland basketball meets D’Angelo Russell, Ohio State seeking better defense
