Quotes from Mark Turgeon
1/20/2012 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2012
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Quotes from head coach Mark Turgeon in advance of Maryland's game at Temple Saturday at 11 a.m.
On what they need to do to beat Temple:
"Well, I'm a broken record. I said the same thing to my team, you guys must get awful tired of hearing it. They're going to play a small lineup, they lost their center so they'll play four guards a lot, three and a half guards. So we have to be able to guard the basketball, we have to rebound better. So guarding the basketball and keeping them off the foul line would be huge for us, and rebounding. Shot selection and taking care of the basketball, playing smarter. For us to be any good on the road we have to do those things no matter who we're playing, defend and rebound and play with better poise. It's a pretty simple formula. [Temple head coach Fran Dunphy] is worried about how he's going to guard our big guys and I'm sitting here worried about how I'm going to guard their little guys. They're going to try to space us and drive us and we're going to try and pound it inside. We'll see which one wins tomorrow."
On where he feels he is in getting Pe'Shon Howard and Terrell Stoglin to understand how he wants them to run the team:
"I think we're making strides, it's just not coming along as quickly as I want it to. I think they know what I want them to do and I think you're saying `is Pe'Shon going to shoot more and is Terrell going to shoot less' maybe is what you're getting at. Pe'Shon's trying, he's getting his legs underneath him, he's lost a little confidence in his shot. But he's been more aggressive in practice to the point yesterday I said `I don't want you to shoot all the balls, just shoot when you're open.' So he's working at that.
"Terrell's numbers the other night were remarkable. I just got on him more about defending and being a better team player that way defensively, because being good defensively you need all five guys doing it. He's responding. I met privately with a lot of guys yesterday... our first individual workout with Terrell I was like there's no way I can coach this kid, he's not going to make it till practice starts. Now I think about how far he's come and what he's doing, and he's just a sophomore."
On how Stoglin has responded to Turgeon wanting more out of him:
"He's trying. I told him yesterday, I said `Terrell I could coach you for the next 20 years and I'm never going to be satisfied.' He wants that. He doesn't want me to be, `oh you're doing great kid.' He needs to hear it every now and then so I tell him that. I've said it publicly to you guys that I can't imagine where we'd be without him. There's give and take in that relationship. I think he respects what I'm trying to get out of him. He has an ultimate goal in his life and he knows I can help him get there. So that's what I'm trying to do."
On if he has to bring perspective to the team that they can be better than they are:
"I don't think our guys are satisfied. What I learned yesterday meeting with the guys is that they care about each other, their chemistry is good and they're having fun and they feel like we're going in the right direction. Sometimes you don't know truly how they're feeling; a lot of times kids come in my office and tell me what I want to hear. So we'll see, but that was the good thing about it.
"I think that's what Terrell was saying, we're young, we're inexperienced, we're going through things for the first time with guys on the road and it shows. But there's hope that we can get better. I don't know what's going to happen wins and losses but with our schedule we have to get better. I mean just playing against such great competition in some of the venues we're going to play in; it's going to make us better. It's all part of the maturation process of a program getting to where it needs to be. There are things that we're going to go through this year that's going to help us for next season. I think that's kind of how we're all viewing it with a young team."
