Buzz Williams might have given a little bit of a warning at media day.
Maryland men’s basketball’s coach tempered expectations. He said that the group might start slow, a trend for his teams. After all, it was a roster built of 15 new players.
It still wouldn’t have mitigated the shock Terps fans almost faced leaving the Xfinity Center on Wednesday night. Instead, the Terps managed to slug it out against Mount St. Mary’s with a 95-90 overtime victory, narrowly avoiding their first loss to the Mountaineers.
There’s probably still some lingering hesitancy, and reasonably so. The Terps depended on a 41-point effort from David “Diggy” Coit while shooting 31 more free throws than the Mountaineers.
Forgetting about the foul stripe imbalance, it still echoed Maryland’s need for time to jell amid injuries. And the Terps might be leaning on some unexpected heroes this season.
“We’ve played five games, and every game there’s been a different role assigned on things that we can’t control,” Williams said. “They continue to have growth.”
Coit’s 41 points were the third-most ever by a Maryland player and the most scored by any Terp inside Xfinity Center. The graduate guard started only three games last season at Kansas and never scored more than 15.
He’s surpassed that in back-to-back games now — and Maryland might need more nights like this throughout the roster survive into the season.
No Terp led his team in scoring last season, and Isaiah Watts took the most shots per game at just 9.6 at Washington State. Six Terps are currently averaging double figures, but there’s still no clear go-to scorer — though Coit might have grabbed the mantle Wednesday.
The guard credited Williams for reestablishing his confidence after a disappointing stint with the Jayhawks, with whom he averaged 5.1 points a game after posting 18.1 at Northern Illinois.
“Every night it’ll be somebody different,” Coit said. “Every night it’s going to be somebody else scoring and making a play.”
Maryland led by as much as 13 midway through the second half but allowed 10 unanswered points from the Mountaineers to cut its lead to three. Mount St. Mary’s took the lead with nine minutes remaining in the frame, and would lead until Coit tied the game with eight seconds remaining. The Terps led for the final 1:43 of overtime.
Williams said that out of the eight players who played, seven recorded career highs in minutes. Many of which were played at different positions than before.
“I think the things that we’re measuring, we’re having growth in … our execution level of those things has got to continue to improve,” Williams said. “The things we’re practicing are translating. We just need them to translate at a faster rate.”
Wednesday marked the third time this season Maryland was outrebounded, this time to the hands of a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opponent.
The Terps’ bench was also outscored by 28 points, the third time the unit has been out paced on the year.
Maryland men’s basketball beats Mount St. Mary’s in OT, 95-90 | PHOTOS
And while it’s exciting to envision five-star freshman Darius Adams playing with five-star Baba Oladotun after his commitment Wednesday, Adams has looked like what he is: a freshman.
The guard generated 19 points off 21 free throw attempts but missed all three 3-point attempts while leading the team with three turnovers. Adams is shooting 9.5% from 3-point range with a 32.5% field goal rate.
Again, pieces are missing.
Center Pharrel Payne, the Terps’ leading scorer and rebounder, missed his first game following an awkward fall in the second half of Saturday’s 89-82 win over Marquette. Guard Myles Rice has played just one game — scoring 19 against the Hoyas on Nov. 9. Forward Solomon Washington, a key defensive piece, hasn’t played at all with an ankle injury.
“This whole season so far, it’s been an adjustment,” forward Elijah Saunders said. “We’ve been adjusting with guys coming in and out of the lineup.”
Williams doesn’t give injury updates, so it’s unclear when the missing trio will return. But five games in, he continues to emphasize the growth of his new roster.
Tempered expectations or not, that progress will need to speed up once conference play arrives in December. Because in the Big Ten, that patience will run out quickly.
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