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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 25, 2013Mark TurgeonTHE MODERATOR: We have with us now Maryland head basketball Coach Mark Turgeon. Coach, a few comments about your team, then we'll open it up for questions. COACH TURGEON: We're pleased with the way we played this weekend. We played well, shared the ball, took care of the ball. Defended pretty well, not great, but pretty well. We rebounded better. So we were happy with the win. Looking forward to going on the road. Two games on the road this week, so it's a big week for us. We need to play well this week. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions. Q. You mentioned two road games this week. A lot of teams in this league have been very tough at home and have struggled a little bit more on the road. I know that's normal in college basketball, but it seems to be pronounced in the ACC this year. Can you address this issue? COACH TURGEON: We haven't played well on the road. We played with great energy at Duke. I thought we played well at Florida State. I thought we played pretty well at Virginia Tech. I thought we played well early in the year at Miami. We had a lot of confidence, played pretty well there. Didn't shoot the ball well, but their defense had a lot to do with it. So we'll see. I think a lot of it's young teams. First of all, our league is better top to bottom. It's not even close. My team wasn't great last year, but we're a much better team. The league is so much better. Then you got young players. Young players are usually better at home than they are on the road. So you see that happening with a lot of our teams in our league. The veteran teams, whether it's Duke, Miami, they figured out how to win on the road. Carolina is starting to get there now, playing well down the stretch. I think the league is better and youth has a lot to do with it. Q. Georgia Tech is another team that does that. Does that present a particularly difficult problem, the fact they are so much better at home than on the road? COACH TURGEON: Well, I think everybody's that way almost. So we got to go prepare ourselves just like Brian will do with his team. We'll prepare for Georgia Tech. Hopefully we play well at 8:00 on Wednesday. That's really what it comes down to. Our biggest challenge is trying to play well on the road and hopefully we can do that. Q. You guys with your record, you're one of four ACC teams 19‑8 overall. How do you see your NCAA chances? Do you ever address the idea you guys are a 'bubble team'? COACH TURGEON: Yeah, you know, I think our kids are aware of it. We talked a little bit about it before we went to Boston College. We laid an egg. We don't talk about it anymore. We're just preparing for Georgia Tech. We're a young team, fighting, doing pretty well as young as we are. To get this program where we want to get it, we got to become a good road team. Whether it starts next week, Saturday, next season, at some point we have to become a much better road team. I do think we're going to get there, hopefully sooner than later. But we don't talk about the NCAA tournament. I know our guys are looking at it, but we got a lot of work to do to be a part of it. Q. Mark, just looking at the stats a little bit, Dez's numbers are off slightly, not a precipitous drop‑off, but down a little bit. Is there any kind of a possible fatigue issue or are other teams adjusting to his game? COACH TURGEON: I think he's just missing shots that he was making. Seven assists and one turnover the other day. He did some really nice things in the game for us. Has he shot it as well as he'd like? No. But I think it's been more about Dez, how they've been guarding him. He continues to compete hard and is helping us play well. Q. He's had seven assists in a couple of your recent games. Coming into this season, was that a part of his game that stood out to you or something he's really developed? COACH TURGEON: Well, I think with us, not really having a true point guard, we've just kind of tried to manufacture ball handlers, guys that can get us into things, guys that can make plays. He can make plays. Within our offense, it's kind of equal opportunity the way we do things. We need all our guards to be good with the ball. He's gotten better. He's starting to make better decisions, not trying to force as many things. At Xavier he didn't have to do that. They had two little ball handlers that took care of the ball all the time. Here he's had to do a little bit more of it. Q.  Mark, you mentioned the youth in the league. Georgia Tech had guys like Kammeon Holsey, Daniel Miller. Are you surprised to see two freshmen leading that team in scoring right now? COACH TURGEON: I don't know enough about Georgia Tech, to be honest with you. I think Miller is good. I think Holsey is really good. Udofia played well against us last year. I think the Reed kid had some injuries. Foot fascitis. Nothing surprises me in college basketball, to be quite honest with you. I do think Georgia Tech has some really good freshmen. They're going through a lot of what we're going through, just doing the best you can. It's overwhelming at times to young kids, but those freshmen are good. Doesn't surprise me. Those other kids are really good players, too. Gives them a nice blend as they move forward. Q. Could you share some of the wisdom that Lefty imparted to players, what their reaction was to having him around? COACH TURGEON: I think our players having him around. Lefty is engaging, has a great personality. I think it was good for both sides. I think it was good for Lefty to be in front of a young group of guys, talk to them. He talked about playing hard, listening to your coach, making the most of your opportunity. He talked about academics, how important a degree is, a lot of things like that. He hit a lot of subjects. I made the joke, if I didn't cut him off, he'd still be talking right now. He loved it. It was a great hour he spent with the guys. Our guys really enjoyed it. I know he enjoyed it, too. It helped. Our thing for Saturday was we wanted to play well for Coach Lefty. He doesn't live in the area anymore, doesn't make it to a lot of games. I think our kids enjoyed that because they were able to spend time with him. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for taking time being with us today. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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