Maryland men’s basketball head coach Buzz Williams led his team to its first signature victory Saturday. While Pharrel Payne went down with an injury, the Terps’ guards led the way with a resounding performance.
The Terps ultimately took down the Golden Eagles, 89-82.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
Maryland lost its star
For all the potential early-season concerns about Maryland, one thing was clear: Williams had brought a star with him to College Park in Pharrel Payne.
That just made it all the more gut-wrenching when Payne went up to slam down his 13th point of the game with a two-handed dunk, celebrated with a swing on the rim, then landed in a splits position and immediately grabbed his right hip area, in obvious pain.
It already looked bad, but got worse when Maryland’s medical team brought out a stretcher out onto the court to transport Payne off the court to a local hospital. Williams had no update on the nature of the injury post game.
That injury would have been hard to stomach if anyone in a Maryland jersey had sustained it, but Payne in particular was the focal point of everything it looked to do on offense. When he left the game for approximately the last 10 minutes of the first half, Maryland saw its 13-point lead erased. It struggled to generate anything but free throws without him.
So when the Terps started the second half slow, and Payne got hurt trailing by five, it seemed the game was all but finished.
“He’s our best player, that’s well received in our program,” Williams said. “I’ve never seen him hurt, the angle that I saw it did not appear good.”
Supporting cast arrived
Maryland was anything but finished. The team rallied around their injured big man, sparking a comeback and outscoring Marquette, 36-24, after Payne’s injury.
Despite the inspirational response from Maryland, concern for the team’s long-term prospects without Payne remains. His injury will likely slide Northeastern transfer Collin Metcalf into a prominent role, if not a starter.
Metcalf played just nine minutes across Maryland’s first three games but played 12 against Marquette, scoring four points and coming up with two nice blocks. But he struggled on the glass — grabbing just two rebounds — and offers a lot less offensive versatility than Payne.
In Maryland’s only previous game against a high-level opponent — its 70-60 loss to Georgetown — more than half of its points came from the combination of Payne and Myles Rice, who didn’t play against Marquette with a left ankle injury.
The Terps desperately needed a jump start from the rest of their roster — they got it in a major way. It started with Diggy Coit, who came out of the gate firing. He had three 3-pointers early in the game that took the air out of Fiserv Forum.
After Payne went down, it was the combination of Andre Mills and Elijah Saunders that jumpstarted Maryland’s run. Saunders displayed some of his veteran experience as he rebounded a missed free throw, went out on the break and pulled up for a wide-open 3-pointer that cut the lead to one.
“Their response [after Payne went down] was great growth for our program,” Williams said.
Later in the game, it was Isaiah Watts — who had just nine points combined heading into Saturday all against Coppin State and Alcorn State but finished with 18 Saturday.
With just over three minutes left, both teams had gone over three minutes without a bucket, yet Maryland held a six-point lead, needing to put the game out of reach after a couple lucky blown layups by the Golden Eagles.
Mills forced a shot over a double team and missed badly, but Watts flew through the air, absorbing a bump and finishing the and-one. Watts followed that up with a dagger 3-pointer to put the game away.
True freshman Darius Adams also put together his best game of the season. He had 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor and three assists.
Rebounding disaster
Maryland surged to an early lead on the back of its incredibly efficient offensive performance. However, it blew that lead due to a disastrous rebounding effort. The Terps constantly allowed Marquette multiple bites at the apple.
The Terps had just four offensive rebounds of their own while giving up 20 — off those boards, they gave up 25 second-chance points. And while Maryland scrapped for loose balls, it couldn’t seem to corral them. It felt like the much smaller team.
“We are beyond bad at [rebounding],” Williams said. “Not just against Marquette, we weren’t in the top 100 in defensive or offensive rebounding entering today’s game.”
On multiple possessions, the Golden Eagles got three or more chances at the cup before drawing a foul or finishing a layup. In another instance, the Terps worked hard for 30 seconds to earn a stop, only to give up an offensive board and then a wide-open wing three for Adrien Stevens, which extended Marquette’s lead.
When Maryland began to come back, its rebounding was still far from perfect — but it did improve thanks in large part to Saunders, who led the team with 11 boards. Adams also chased down a couple crucial loose balls.
“If you saw all the drills we did for rebounding, you’d think we’re putting on a coaching clinic,” Williams said, “but we’re not executing well at all.”
This issue is something the team will likely be forced to correct without the help of their current leading rebounder in Payne. They’ll count on all five players on the team to box out and fight for boards, something that should be central to the style of basketball Williams likes to play.
