Despite an 8-0 start to the season, the Maryland men’s basketball team will now have to seek different ways to win after beginning the New Year with a lackluster performance in an 81-46 loss to Michigan.
Michigan started the game on a 19-1 run en route to a 44-13 halftime lead. During a tough stretch of games in December during which the Terps lost to Wisconsin, Tennessee and UCLA, they got off to similar bad starts and had to fight from behind.
Maryland (10-4 overall, 1-2 Big Ten) was able to give itself a chance to win against Wisconsin and Tennessee despite the slow starts, but the loss to the Wolverines resembles more of how the Terps performed against the Bruins.
Maryland head coach Kevin Willard mentioned in December that rest could help the Terps’ slow starts, but the slow starts are becoming a consistent theme.
“We’ll go through this one and look at it and dissect it. … Some of the starts that we’ve had are unfortunate, and we’ve just got to figure it out,” Willard said after the Michigan loss.
Maryland shot 4-for-30 (13 percent) from the field in the first half against Michigan and dug itself into a 31-point deficit at the half. Against UCLA, the Terps’ poor start led to a 29-point deficit at the end of the first half.
“We can’t come out with the energy that we came out with,” Willard said. “… It baffles my mind that even if something’s not going right we didn’t dive for loose balls. [Michigan] got every loose ball.”
The Terps will have to figure it out quickly as conference play continues, with another stretch looming that will test how good they really are. Their next two game feature games against Rutgers (Jan. 5) and Ohio State (Jan. 8) within the span of four days.
In addition, Maryland will have to face three ranked opponents (Purdue, Wisconsin, Indiana) in the month of January.
“The one thing about the personality of this team is that they’re so quiet … [when] we can’t score, we can’t get going into stuff,” Willard said. “Especially if it’s a bigger team, you’ve got to figure out how to score.”
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