Quotes from Mark Turgeon
1/2/2012 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2012
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Quotes from head coach Mark Turgeon in advance of Maryland's game with Cornell Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Comcast Center.
On what he's learned since the team is nine players deep with the return of Pe'Shon Howard and Alex Len:
"What I've learned? It feels like coaching again. They're still adjusting to it - coming out for a bad shot or a defensive mistake, just not doing what they're supposed to do. They're still adjusting to that, where they got to play through them [in the past]. What have I learned - about them, that we have some good pieces. The pieces we've added have given us some depth. What I've learned is the seven guys that got to play a tremendous amount of minutes early gained confidence, and I have confidence in them. So now I think we all feel comfortable as a staff with all nine guys that are in our rotation that they can do it, do it right and play well. If there is a blessing to Pe'Shon [Howard's] injury and Alex [Len] having to sit the first 10 games, it really helped Berend [Weijs], it really helped James [Padgett], it really helped Mychal [Parker], it really helped Nick Faust. I think it's going to make us a better team in the end."
On Alex Len's play over the last two games and what has surprised him:
"I thought he'd be a lot more nervous. That probably surprised me that he's been pretty comfortable out there. Now he had a dunk the first game then we got him the ball the start of the second game to kind of get him going. But he's an intelligent basketball player, he has a good feel and he's obviously very skilled. And then he's just bigger then everybody so he can just reach over them and make plays other kids can't. His numbers are a little higher than I thought they'd be - 13.5 [points per game] and 7.5 [rebounds per game] I think is what he's averaging and I only played him 22 minutes I think this last game. So his numbers are even a little bit better...
"I know his teammates trust him and rely on him and know he can do great things, so that helps. I think you'll see a kid that starts to dominate a little bit more defensively when he gets use to playing. He might block three shots a game but he might alter three or four more. I think that'll come with time."
On running the offense through the post more in the future:
"Yeah I think we already have. I think we've incorporated a lot of things for Alex, for James, for Ashton that we've done. We just haven't showed a lot of it in games yet; haven't had to. It takes us a while; we put things in, for me to feel comfortable to run it in games. So there's a lot of stuff we have in that we haven't shown in games yet. We might show some of it tomorrow, I don't know. But yeah we are running more for [Alex Len] and we should because he can really pass the ball. If he starts to get doubled he can just see over it and make passes. We've worked a lot on that."
On the importance of getting Pe'Shon Howard and Alex Len a few games before ACC play starts:
"It was huge for us. Pe'Shon will get four under his belt before ACC [play] and Alex will get three. I usually don't like to play this many home games, and I definitely don't like to play this many games over the holidays. It's really hard on all of us. But this year it's almost a blessing. It's been a blessing that we didn't load up the front end and we had these games for those guys. It's really been helpful."
