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BIG TEN CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 2, 2019

Mark Turgeon

Rosemont, United States

MARK TURGEON: It's great to be here. Obviously I think the Big Ten every year does a tremendous job with media day. Not a lot of wasted time, which coaches like, so we get in, get out, get to talk about our team, which is terrific.

I want to thank Jim Delany for the job he's done, making every job in the Big Ten a great job. We're going to miss him. I know this is his last media day, so thanks to Jim and all that he's done and the things he did for me when we joined the league, playing the tournament in D.C., and just a lot of things that he helped integrate us into the Big Ten. So Jim will be missed.

Obviously I think the Big Ten -- I've been in a lot of leagues in my career. I think the Big Ten is terrific. We're coming off one of our best seasons ever, obviously our best NCAA Tournament ever, most wins, most teams on to the final 32. So it was a terrific year. I expect it to be the same, obviously, this year.

A lot of great teams, maybe a little bit better at the top than we were, but every bit as deep. That's the thing about our league, there's just so many good teams, so many good coaches in the league. So it's terrific.

My team, I really like my team. Obviously we haven't played a game yet, so we all like our teams, but very talented, got some great depth as long as our young guys keep getting better. And play a terrific schedule. We've got a terrific league schedule again. Play a lot of the so-called top teams a couple times, so we're excited about that. Just looking forward to getting started.

With that, I'll open it up.

Q. Can you talk about the expectations on Maryland this year in terms of being picked second, and how does a young team that maybe hasn't had that on them, how do you as a coach help them deal with it?
MARK TURGEON: Yeah, we love it. We're excited. Our guys only know one way, and that's to work hard. Our culture is terrific right now. Our guys are in the gym early, in the gym late, in the gym with me during the day. They're embracing it. We're all embracing it. We want more, and we want to be great. We're excited. We know we have a good team, and if we didn't think we were good and we were picked second, we'd be worried. But we think we have a good team. We'll see what happens and you've got to play the games. But we think we have a talented team that's embracing the situation and looking forward to everything that comes with it.

Q. How would you compare Makhi Mitchell's game to Bruno Fernando's?
MARK TURGEON: Makhi? You know, big, strong, physical guys. Both pretty athletic. Bruno is at another level athletically. Makhi is very skilled, can really -- he's got great hands. Him and his brother both have great hands. They can catch everything. Makhi and Makhel both have great feel for the game, tremendous passers. They've been able to pick things up real quickly. And you look at Makhi, and you might not think he's a great athlete, but he can really run the floor, and he's very physical. He's really what we needed.

We've added some toughness to our team. Last year was amazing what our group did with five freshmen in the top eight. We weren't very physical, but we figured out how to win just enough games to make the tournament and win a game. But this year our sophomores are bigger and our incoming freshmen are strong and athletic.

But Makhi is a guy, if he continues to let us coach him and continues to get better and continues to work on his shot and things, he's got a chance to really, really help us a lot this season.

Q. Can you talk about what it means to the program to have two unanimous Big Ten team selections, and where do you see Anthony Cowan developing further under your tutelage?
MARK TURGEON: Yeah, so Anthony had a terrific summer. Going into his senior year, he made the decision he wanted to come back to Maryland and make an impact and have a legacy, so he has a chance to do a lot of things. He's scored a lot of points, he has a lot of assists, he has a lot of steals, but he wants to win at a high level. So I think that's really his biggest thing going into the season.

The thing with Anthony is we're just trying to get him to quit turning the ball over so much, especially live ball turnovers. It's something we've really worked on. He's gotten better at it. He's had some tremendous early season days for us. So you know, we're expecting Anthony to be terrific.

And then he's just a tremendous defender. I think for his size, I don't know if there's a better defender in the country for what he does. Jalen, obviously, we're glad he's back, wonderful kid. We don't call him Sticks anymore, we call him Logs because he's gotten so much bigger. He never has his shirt on anymore, he's always trying to show his upper body off. But Sticks, Logs, has really worked hard to expand his game. He's become a much better perimeter defender. We've worked on everything, worked on his low post. And so he had a terrific freshman year. I think with Jalen, we just want more consistency, and that's what he wants, too, and he should be able to do that for us this year.

Q. What do you think of the California Fair Pay to Play Act, and what sort of obstacles do you think that presents? And also do you think it's a good law, a sign of progress?
MARK TURGEON: Yeah, I think it's obviously a very complex issue. As a coach, you always want more for your student-athlete. I remember when I played, missing meals and not having enough money because you didn't have time for a job. It's a little different today than it was then. So you always want what's best for the student-athlete. You want them to be comfortable. There's a lot of pressure on them. They do a lot of great things for our University, especially my kids.

It'll be interesting to see what happens. I think what we all want is just an even playing field when it's all said and done. I know it's going to be a process, and so it'll be interesting to see what happens over the next three or four years.

Q. Who do you think has made the biggest jump of this group of freshmen -- group of sophomores from their freshman year?
MARK TURGEON: That's a really hard question because they've all made a big jump. During the summer I thought it was Aaron Wiggins. He made a huge jump. Kid was working out like four times a day. He really got better. We need him to be more aggressive offensively for us to take that next step. Eric Ayala totally changed his body from when he came here. You know, Eric -- I'm not sure Eric could dunk when we got him. Now he's reverse dunking and double pumping on dunks and things, so he's gotten more athletic. His shot has even gotten better. I didn't think he was a great shooter when we signed him, now I think it's he's one of the better shooters I've ever coached.

Ricky Lindo has put on 30 pounds from August going into his freshman year until now. Ricky just turned 19 last week. He's very young. He's improved tremendously, just needs to get more confident. But I think he's an unbelievable defender. He can go one through five for us. He guarded Happ some games, to switching one four ball screens and being on a point guard. He's special for us.

Jalen obviously has put on 35 pounds since he's been here, continues to get better. Serrel has become more consistent offensively for us.

They've all gotten better, which is exciting for us. Josh Tomaic made a step -- Darryl Morsell, leadership, maturity, calmness. It's really great to see. He's really at peace with himself. He's not turning the ball over like he was last year. He really made a huge change the last five or six games for us, and it's carried over. I think everybody has really been -- we didn't like the way the season ended. It was devastating because we loved each other, and we loved that team. We had to say goodbye to a couple guys. We've worked extra hard because of the way the season ended.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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