COLUMBUS, Ohio — Buffalo, given five days of preparation, committed 17 turnovers against West Virginia’s press and Bobby Hurley sounded almost pleased by the results.
Now Maryland, after edging Valpo, faces only a two-day turnaround, though coach Mark Turgeon admitted to peeking ahead.
“Something I never do, but I did this year, is we practiced on press offense earlier this week versus six, seven guys,” he said. “I had a feeling that it might come to this.”
Maryland (28-6) commits 12 turnovers per game and overcame a season-worst 21 in a 68-66 win at Michigan State. The Mountaineers force 19.5 per game, a category in which they’ve paced the nation all season.
“It’s really hard,” Turgeon said. “We played a game (Friday), and we’re going to have to have a ton of energy for (Sunday) night, so we can’t practice too much today.”
“Not a lot of prep time … but we’ll do some things. I’ve got smart players and they should be able to react.”
Bob Huggins suggested the Big 12 schedule helped his team acclimate to quick turnarounds.
“We played so many Saturday/Monday games, and at least we don’t have to fly across the country to play the next one,” Huggins said. “So we’re kind of used to it to a degree.”
Miles and the Maryland crew: The Round of 32 matchup against Maryland had an immediate effect on Baltimore native Daxter Miles and his cell phone.
“About a thousand text messages and calls,” he said of people reaching out from back home.
While the freshman guard wasn’t recruited by the Terps, he denied that brings added motivation.
“I didn’t really want to go to Maryland,” he said. “I wanted to go to Syracuse.”
Staten’s knee: How was Juwan Staten’s knee the day after his first game action since Feb. 24?
“I feel good,” he said. “Conditioning was a little shaky last night. I was real tired. Kind of hit the bed early. But I feel good today. My knee feels good. It’s not a question.
Midnight Madness: Friday night’s Dayton-Providence game tipped off at 10:50 p.m. in Columbus and ended after 1 a.m.—not exactly the schedule to which players are accustomed.
“You’ve got all these games to cram on TV, and it’s going to happen,” Huggins said. “It just tickles me to death that we’re doing this for the student-athletes,” Huggins said. “It’s all for the betterment of the student-athlete.”
Turgeon was no fan of games dragging past midnight.
“My opinion is it’s not good—not good for anybody. Not good for the players. Not good for the fans,” he said. “I’ll probably get in trouble for saying that, but I wish we could start earlier. Long day as it is sitting around being nervous.
When Huggins gets hot: Whether it was a beef with an official or a disbelief over his team’s failed fast-break alley-oop, Huggins presented TV cameras with some quintessential flare-ups during the win over Buffalo.
How does the barking and flailing affect his players?
“You see our style of game, right? We gotta be animated,” said senior guard Gary Browne. “We’ve got to have a coach like that. And he’s doing a great job by doing that. Sometimes we’re not animated, he makes sure we are.”
Huggins’ animated style has rubbed off on Staten, who arrived from Dayton with a reputation for being stoic.
“It’s something that I had to get used to, because when I first got here, it was kind of throwing me off,” Staten said. “I never been around a coach so animated. But as I’ve gotten to know him and as I’ve played for him, it kind of gets me going more.”
Fashion sense: Huggins’ casual sideline attire always surfaces as an interview topic, and Saturday was no different.
“I like it,” Staten said. “Why follow the same tradition as everybody else? Create your own. I like it, especially the way he coaches. He’s going to do a lot of sweating. Why mess up a good suit?”
Huggins entertained the question also.
“I used to dress really nice, by the way. If you all dig up some old pictures, pretty good looking guy,” Huggins said.
“I’m at the point in my life now, I’m on the downhill. I’ve been doing this a long, long time and I’m going to be comfortable. I did wear a suit for a little while this year, just because I don’t like people to think they have me figured out.”