The Maryland Terrapins took what was a great season and added a lot of turmoil after a 0-2 road stretch with losses to Oregon and Washington.

75-69 Loss @ Washington

Every single Maryland Basketball fan has had one main thing to say about this teams flaws for the last three years. We. Can’t. Make. Threes.

Well we were taken off our feet in the first 13 games of this season when we saw threes actually falling. In our game against Washington we went back in time and relived the last three years.

This Maryland team ended 2-11 from the three-point-line and failed to put up 70 points. A team that has been averaging some of the most points in all of division 1 basketball just looked horribly sloppy on the road and lost to one of the worst teams in the big ten.

Washington already has a home loss to Seattle University and a home loss to USC by over twenty points.

Kevin Willard has had his struggles on the road but this game was one of the most embarrassing of his tenure.

In this game the two most consistent offensive players for the Terps had a really rough game. Jakobi Gillespie ended the game with 1 point, 3 turnovers, and 5 fouls. Derik Queen ended the game with 4 points and only 1 board.

Some positives though: We saw JuJu Reese put up 22 points, Jordan Geronimo went 5/6 with 10 points, and Deshawn Harris-Smith had one of his best games of the season off the bench with 8 points, 2-3 from the field.

Overall it was a horribly sloppy performance though, typically we see Maryland forcing the other team to play sloppy but it looked like Maryland was the team stuck in that rhythm.

The Terps’ went into the half up by three and were out scored 45-36 in the second half.

This game will go down as a Quad 2 loss but can easily change to Quad 3 if Washington does poorly in Big Ten play.

83-79 Loss @ No. 9 Oregon

What could have been the Terps’ first marquee win of the season @ Oregon the Terps let it slip through their hands.

This wasn’t nearly as bad of a loss as the Washington game but what could have been a great chance to get our first ranked win of the season, on the road against a team that will stay highly ranked throughout the rest of the year, was fumbled.

Again the Terps’ went into the half up three and was outscored in the second half. This time though, they were up by 13 earlier in the first half.

In a big game like that the Terps’ needed to make sure they maintained a larger lead into half, as the Ducks’ put up four points in the last minute to cut the lead to three, and then they needed to come out of the half strongly, but instead the Ducks started the second half with a 14-2 run that put them up by nine.

This is the first time in the season where I really was upset at Kevin Willard for the management of the game. He waited too long to use his timeout in the second half, and he needs to understand how important those moments surrounding the half are.

The Terps’ did continue to fight and even held a lead with around three minutes left in the game, but the Ducks found a couple of open threes and took home the win.

Another complaint: Why does Kevin Willard not believing in fouling? When down by 4 with 50 seconds left he let the Ducks run an entire possession instead of fouling and creating some opportunities for his offense to do some work.

When looking at the schedule it was obvious that this one be a hard one on the road but after losing to Washington this would have been a huge way to get back on track.

The Terps’ were able to score in this game at least. Gillespie and Queen were both good as well as Rodney Rice who lead the team with 19 points and was really explosive.

It was a really good effort from the Terps’ in what was a possible resume builder. It just sucks as it could have practically erased a bad loss before it.

The lapses mainly were due to the defensive effort in allowing Oregon to heat up for runs, as well as allowing them to have consistently open threes. The Ducks’ shot 12-28 from three point land, including Jackson Shelstad’s 5-5.

Takeaways:

Kevin Willard has been bad on the road: Since got to Maryland he has been 6-19 on the road. That is terrible. Kevin Willard has typically been good at improving different struggles on the team throughout each year, and has arguably gotten better year-to-year, but at some point he needs to address these lack luster road numbers. Schedule some early testers on the road. Get your guys ready to play in those environments. Especially as most of his teams have been guys playing with each other for the first time.

1-3 to start conference play: I don’t want to say we should take our eyes off of the conference title but we will have to if we don’t get back on track and have a run soon. 1-3 to start the conference is really rough and we still got some testers left.

We need to get back to the East Coast ASAP: It was an understandably rough enviornment to play in the west coast. Three hour time difference. Other team’s campuses. It’s time to get back to College Park and get into a rhythm.

Friday vs UCLA is a must win?: UCLA is a ranked game and a good team, but we need to get back on track YESTERDAY. Time to get a big win. We can’t start 1-4 in conference play.

JuJu and Queen still struggle to get on the same page: It has been one of the biggest struggles that JuJu Reese and Derik Queen are trading good performances, and seemingly can’t both produce at the same time. That is something that Kevin Willard needs to continue to work on, because that is what will change this team into a top 20ish squad.

Next Maryland game is on Friday vs no. 15 UCLA at 8pm. I will be getting ready to go to Tampa Bay for the Commanders playoff game which means that YOU have to go and take my place at Xfinity Center.

image via (x/TerrapinHoops)