BIG TEN BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 7, 2021

Mark Turgeon

Maryland Terrapins

Men’s Head Coach

MARK TURGEON: Thank you. Happy to be here after not having this last season. It's great to be in the building we're going to play the Big Ten tournament in. It's good to be here.

Obviously excited about my team. Added a lot of new players, got some good veteran guys coming back. We've had a great summer, we've had a great fall. The guys have worked hard. Probably the best thing we have going for our team right now is the chemistry. The guys really get along and they're fun to coach.

Two guys I brought today, Eric Ayala, a terrific player for us, going into his senior year, big-time scorer, multiple position, but playing mostly off the ball and needs to score a lot of points for us. Donta Scott is here, one of the most improved players I've ever coached from his freshman year. Donta wasn't a great shooter coming out of high school, shot 45% from three last year, which is an extraordinary number. Gotten better, is a tough guy for us.

If you don't know Donta's family, their house was flooded, lost their house September 1st. Terp Nation stepped up through a GoFundMe, did great things for their family. Really proud of our fan base and what they were able to do for Donta's family. Gives them a chance to get their life back together, a little bit of normalcy. They lost everything. Lost 90% of their belongings and their house. Good job, Terp Nation. Thanks for stepping up.

Q. What were those few months like in the off-season when you were trying to bring in the newcomers? You liked the chemistry. How has that integration happened so quickly?

MARK TURGEON: First of all, we try to recruit good kids. When we were fortunate. I think if you watched us play last year, it was pretty evident we didn't have a point guard and we didn't have a true center that was ready to play at a high level. We were able to get a couple early out of the portal, local kids, which really helped.

Then we just kept trying to piece it together. Ian Martinez was a great get for us, great kid, really good player. Then Xavier Green late. We go through the summer, do we have enough? He thinks he's going to go pro. Been in college for a long time. He puts his name in the portal. We studied him, watched him. We played against him last year. Felt like he was a good piece.

We kept trying to add pieces. We got great depth. Added Pavlo in the summer, too. We got some really good depth. We're probably as big and athletic as we've been in a while. We're faster. Again the guys that were with us really worked hard, too.

But chemistry is good because we have good kids, we recruit good kids from good families. Our culture is really good. We have a great culture. Our guys buy into it right away.

Q. With the changes in the transfer portal, roster management has become huge. As we go forward, how much will that start to dominate in regards to filling your spots as opposed to recruiting junior college kids?

MARK TURGEON: I think the portal was at an all-time high last year because it was the first year. I think the portal is going to be a big part of what we have going forward. I don't know if there will be 2,000 kids in it again. It's an important piece of recruiting.

Roster management is the most difficult thing we do as coaches year in and year out. You have to do a really good job of recruiting the players you have, make sure they stay. That's important. You didn't have to do that 20 years ago. Guys just stayed. But you have to do that now. We know it's a part of the game. So we work hard on that, a big part of our strategy. You don't keep them all.

Then you just try to blend it. You try to get the best high school players you can. You look at your needs. But I do think the portal gives you a second chance if an early signing doesn't go well to try to fix your team. I think that's why our league is so strong this year at the top, really throughout the whole league. Some guys did a really nice job in the portal. It's given them a chance to be an elite basketball team again.

Q. At Rhode Island Fatts was the kind of point guard who had to call his own number a lot. He's surrounded now by talented players. How is he adjusting to be a distributor first and an option second?

MARK TURGEON: Great question.

When I recruited him, we talked about that. He didn't need to score 17 a game, even though he's capable of getting 17 in a game for Maryland, 25 in a game, he's capable of doing that. We talked about that.

He wanted that. His body was worn out. He was breaking down a little bit. He's terrific. I mean, I knew he was good, but he is a heck of a player. He can make an impact on both ends. Some kids can just make an impact on one end. He gets shots, his team wins every scrimmage it seems like, then he gets two or three steals a practice just because he's so fast and anticipates well.

I knew he was good, but I didn't know he was this good. We tease him, for a guy shorter than me, he's a heck of a player and a great kid from a great family.