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PURDUE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 31, 2018

Mark Turgeon

West Lafayette, Indiana

Maryland - 67, Purdue - 75

MARK TURGEON: I know it's late, so I'll be quick.

Proud of my team. Purdue is a great basketball team. We were a little out of it early. Turned the ball over. Really couldn't find a rhythm. A lot of that had to do with Purdue and their defense.

Thankfully for us they missed a few jump shots they were making at home, so we were able to hang around the first half. The second half I thought we were offensively as good as we've been for a long time. Kind of had to reinvent ourselves.

We just couldn't guard Haarms. He's a beast. Had no answer. Sean played five minutes, five fouls. Josh couldn't guard him, which isn't fair to Josh. Then I was really proud of my freshmen. Second half, Darryl figured out how to play with someone not guarding him. No one's guarding him in the lane, he was terrific. He figured it out.

Then I thought Bruno was terrific. Played with those four fouls. He was good. Of course, and he and Kevin are always playing well for us.

You don't get a participation certificate, but we're getting better. We've had a tough schedule. I think this gives us a little confidence moving forward.

Q. Given the situation with Cekov, how much will this help the team in terms of the showing it did?
MARK TURGEON: Cekov, it's his heel on his surgically repaired foot. He landed on it funny. He's going to see his surgeon tomorrow. I think they've done an MRI and x-ray. I think they're doing a CAT scan next. We'll know more tomorrow on him.

But we'll see. It gives us confidence. Dion twisted his ankle, he couldn't play in the second half. We were down to six. Josh is our sixth man, unless I want to play the walk-ons.

We are who we are. We keep battling. Guys have positive attitudes. A lot of fight in us. I'm hoping some good things happen for these guys because they really continue to play hard.

Q. Equally frustrating and encouraging at halftime when you're down 11 given they didn't shoot as well. Was there a feeling in the second half maybe that hole was a little too deep?
MARK TURGEON: Yeah, no, we felt like we could come back. We came back, cut it to three. As close as we got. But no, I told the guys, I said, We're down 11, but we didn't play very well. I'm sure Purdue didn't play very well either. We could play better, and we did.

I think we had four assists at halftime, 11 turnovers. We ended up with 18 assists, only three turnovers in the second half. We did a lot of good things.

Their team is pretty good, pretty veteran, pretty intimidating. Took us a while to get used to it. I think we wore them down defensively a little bit with our offense. Our offense was hard to guard.

Q. I don't know if you were aware of the situation with Vince Edwards being ill tonight. How did he affect the game tonight?
MARK TURGEON: He's gotten more athletic. I don't remember him being that athletic. Some rebounds, way up there. I don't feel sorry for them if they have one guy sick. I got three guys out. Played the whole damn game, geez.

Q. What did you see from Bruno in the second half? Was that an emphasis at halftime to get him the ball more?
MARK TURGEON: Bruno, he settled into the game. He played like he's been practicing. Sometimes young kids practice a certain way, then they get in front of the lights, they turn into another player. Those guys are hard to coach. Bruno has done that to me a few times.

Tonight in the second half, he settled in, he just let the game come to him. He looked like he's been playing in practice. He's been healthy for a while. It's hard to guard that kid. So good. Matt has done a great job with him, their staff.

Bruno played seven minutes with four fouls. I don't know what we would have done if Kevin and Bruno fouled out. To the walk-ons.

Q. (No microphone.)
MARK TURGEON: Well, we were working on his three. That was a mistake. After the Michigan State game, this was like 7:00, I think I left the building at 4:00. Said Darryl, I love you, but we got to get a midrange game.

He said, I'm heading to the gym right now.

It was a devastating loss for us on Sunday, but... Made some nice cuts, got all the way to the rim. He had to learn how to not be guarded and play basketball. He was able to do that in the second half.

Q. When you cut it to three, they went on a 7-0 run. It seemed on one of Kevin's shots, you looked away. Was it the shot he took? Looked like he rushed it a little bit.
MARK TURGEON: I don't really remember. I thought we shot three quick ones in the stretch because we can't do that here on the road against a team that's so good offensively.

But we also fell down on defense. Anthony was trying to help. Thompson hit one. Then we had two wide-open threes in that stretch. That's probably the one. Jared had one, got the rebound, threw it to Kevin, had one. Didn't make them. It's basketball.

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