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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 4, 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: Well, we are happy with the weekend. We had a good road win which hasn't been easy for us, but played really well. Proud of our guys. Looking forward to this week. Obviously North Carolina coming in, Senior Night. Probably one of the hottest teams in the country right now. They're really playing well. Went to the small lineup, different team. Be a great challenge for us. But looking forward to it. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Was that the most mentally tough your team has been, given it was on the road, given the foul trouble? Was it a matter of just time that it would happen? COACH TURGEON: Well, yeah, I think it was as mentally tough as we've been on the road this year. We were pretty tough early at Northwestern, but the game kind of flowed for us. To overcome what we've overcome, we weren't very good on the road, then get out of the foul trouble we were in, keep plugging. Comes down to a couple things. We had a not‑so‑fun film session on Thursday after the way we defended at Georgia Tech. We had a good practice on Friday. I think it was a mindset going in with our guys. They decided, hey, it's time for us to grow up and start winning on the road, at least play with a little toughness on the road. I think they made up their mind they were going to do it. They had to do it. We were pretty good offensively, take away the turnovers. But you don't take them away because we tend to do that. So we fought through the turnovers and fought through the foul trouble and got it done. On the road trip we got outscored I think 11 and 11 on the foul line both games. You better be good defensively. We got to play without fouling, but we got to be tough enough to overcome those type of things on the road, too. Q. After the game you were talking about how defense determined who was going to start your players. I've been asking questions about defenses because we have to pick an all‑defensive team. Who has been fundamentally your best defensive players this year? COACH TURGEON: Like our team, we've been up and down. I think our best defender obviously around the rim is Alex Len. He's been inconsistent, but when he's on, a really good defender. Not only blocks shots but affects shots, a good rebounder for us. Probably fundamentally most sound and has a chance is Pe'Shon Howard. He did a great job on Harris Saturday. He's been inconsistent, up and down throughout the year, but hopefully down the stretch he'll continue to guard that way. Q. You played everybody in the league.  Are there two or three guys around the league that jump out at you as great defenders? COACH TURGEON: Boy, I don't ever think about it. I think the Jontel Evans at Virginia does a good job, really starts their defense. I'm sorry. I think the big guys at Miami are smart and as good of big defenders as there are in our league. They're really good, all of them, but especially the starters with Gamble and Kadji. I haven't thought about it because we don't have to vote for a while. Just trying to figure out how to get another win at this time. Q. Before you played Duke, there was a lot of talk about your NCAA chances, how important that game was. Obviously responded with a great game. Seems to be a feeling that you guys are still right there on the bubble and need help. Do you think that translates to the same kind of emotion with North Carolina this week? COACH TURGEON: Well, we try not to think about where we are just because people think we're on the bubble. We might not be. You don't know what the committee's thinking, where they have us. We're fired up to play North Carolina because it's North Carolina. They're one of the hottest teams in the country. Hopefully should be ranked this week by the way they've been playing. So we'll be excited for the game because of that. It's our last home game, Senior Night. It's a tough week for us, North Carolina at home, and at Virginia who is pretty good at home. Tough week. We put ourselves behind the eight ball, lost a few games we shouldn't have lost maybe on paper. We did, so we are where we are. We got 20 wins with this young team. Headed in the right direction. Proud of this group. Haven't been as consistent as we'd like, but hopefully we can get some wins down the stretch. Q. Can you talk about the process that you've gone through with Pe'Shon the last few weeks. Is it a combination of your patience and his perseverance or are there more factors involved? COACH TURGEON: Well, I've been extremely patient with him since the summer. I think I've been patient. I think when I told the team that our best defenders were going to start at Wake Forest, he sat right up in his seat. He knows he's one of our better defenders. I said, I'm going to base our decisions on defense, not who can make a shot. So I think he just was right away in tune to what we were trying to do. It's been no fun for him. Been up and down, in and out of the doghouse. But he responded, which was good to see. It was good to see him smile again. I kept telling him through the drought, Pe'Shon, you're so important to this team. Mentally he wasn't where he needed to be. Saturday he got back into it mentally and hopefully he'll finish the season that way. Q. Were you surprised how well he had given how little he had played the last few games? COACH TURGEON: I was a little surprised how well he played for 30 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised that his endurance was good. He continued to guard. Didn't seem to get tired. He got a little tired defensively. Took him out. We were able to rest him when we had the lead three or four minutes in the second half. Probably got seven or eight minutes on real‑time. That was good for us. But took care of the ball for the most part. Made good decisions. Got us into our offense. He was talking out there, communicating, which we're not great at sometimes. It was good. I was happy for him. It was good to see. I kept telling him, A lot of basketball left in your career, son. Let's don't wait till next year. Let's try to get it going right now. And he did. Hopefully he'll stay consistent. That's been our biggest problem. I just told him, Pe'Shon, we don't need you to score, we've won 20 games without you scoring. We need to defend and get into our offense. I think he took that on as a challenge to do those two things. Q. The game you had against Carolina, was that sort of the start of when things started to fall apart? He really had a tough game down there. COACH TURGEON: No, no. We lost to Florida State at home before that. I think it was a start of showing who we really were. We've been right around the .500 mark, below it, above it. We've been up and down. But 75% of the teams in the country may look like you're up and down, but it might be who you're playing. League's a lot better. Carolina was great that day, especially in the first half. The first half, they were tremendous. Got to give them a lot of credit. They were ready to go. This will be an entirely different game because they're in a small lineup now, it's at our place, much further along. It will be interesting. But they are one of the hottest teams in the country, I really believe that, right now. Q. Coach, seeing it's Senior Night, James and Logan had some big shots over the weekend. How important is it to see those guys finish strong given this week? COACH TURGEON: Well, James has been here. He was on the championship team when he first got here. Didn't play a lot. He experienced some thrills. The last two years, his sophomore and junior year, haven't gone great. He's continued to stick with it and gotten better. He's a great kid, will graduate. I'd love for him to go out on a good note. If he doesn't play well that night, he's had a great career. There's a lot of basketball left after that. But then there's the final game, ACC in a post‑season tournament after that. I'd like for him to play well. You always want your seniors on Senior Night to play well. Logan, it's been a one‑year deal. I think it's been great for him. I know academically it's been great for him. It's been great for him to be a part of the ACC. He's had a good time with it. You'd like to see him play well, too, on Senior Night. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thanks for taking time being with us today. We'll hear from you next week. COACH TURGEON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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