Terps enjoy much needed break from basketball ahead of Bowie State

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- After playing--and winning--four games in a 10-day stretch, No. 2 Maryland received a well-deserved day off for Super Bowl Sunday.

On a day where the attention of most is aimed toward the gridiron as opposed to the hardwood, head coach Mark Turgeon told his team that he wanted them to get away from basketball completely to focus on relaxing and rejuvenating themselves mentally and physically.

“We took Sunday off,” Turgeon said. “I told the guys they couldn’t think about basketball, be in the gym, anything. Just to get away and we all did that.”

The Terps took full advantage of their downtime but were eager to get back to work Feb. 8 as they prepare to host Division-II opponent Bowie State Tuesday night.

“That was our day [Sunday],” Maryland shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon said. “We had a brutal schedule--four games in 10 days, a couple of road games. So [Sunday] was just about enjoying what we accomplished over that four-game stretch--to go 4-0--and to just kind of take a deep breath and enjoy some team activities.

“We watched the Super Bowl together and stuff like that. When we’re in the middle of the season like this, we don’t really get many breaks, so we took advantage of yesterday but now we’re right back in it. Guys are already in the gym before practice getting ready and preparing. We’re just focusing on us. [Tuesday] is another opportunity for us to get better and we’re looking at it as such.”

Despite playing nearly all of the minutes in the backcourt with sophomore point guard Melo Trimble, Sulaimon said his body is still feeling fresh at this point in the season and he believes the same goes for his teammates because of Maryland’s excellent strength and conditioning staff.

“Me personally, I’m feeling great,” Sulaimon said. “I know a couple of guys, just from talking to them, are feeling great as well. All of the credit goes to our strength and conditioning staff and the way they help us prepare for games and the way they help us recover with various stretches, keeping our bodies fresh, and everything like that. So it’s really a testament to those guys for making our bodies feel well. As far as how we feel moving forward, we’re fine and we’re ready to battle each and every time our name is called.”

One of Turgeon’s biggest challenges this season has been managing the minutes of such a deep and talented roster, especially when it comes to the Terps guards.

“Between games, it’s up to be to keep our guys fresh, make sure we’re keeping our rhythm,” Turgeon said. “And that’s really been the biggest challenge for me.”

Over the four-game winning streak, Maryland’s bench has only averaged 6.75 points per game and Bowie State figures to be a matchup where Turgeon could perhaps get his starters a little bit more rest before the home stretch of the season.

And while Turgeon admitted that’s what the Terps would like to do, he added that it’s all dependent on how they play against the Bulldogs.

“I think [the Bowie State game] will allow us to keep our rhythm and hopefully expand our bench a little bit,” Turgeon said. “I’d like to share the minutes [against Bowie State]. I want our guys to play well. We’ve had a lot of big games, a lot of close games, we’ve had road games. There hasn’t been a lot of margin for error. But I don’t want to sit here and say I’m going to do it because it might not happen that way. But we hope to play well and that happens.”

One area where the Terps have been playing very well as of late is defense, holding their last four opponents to 68 points or fewer. Maryland currently leads the Big Ten in scoring defense (63.8 points per game), field goal percentage defense (.385), three-point field goal percentage defense (.272) and blocked shots (72) during conference play.

Turgeon has gotten the Terps to take on a defensive identity this season and Maryland’s focus on that end of the floor could only have been reaffirmed after watching the best defensive team in the NFL--the Denver Broncos--win a Super Bowl Feb. 7.

“We feel like defense wins championships and in order to accomplish our goals we have to be able to stop people from scoring,” junior power forward Robert Carter Jr. said.

While Turgeon will certainly want his defense to continue to play at a high level, he pointed out that Bowie State will also give the Terps a good chance to work on playing offense against the zone--an area where Maryland has struggled at times this season, but that will be crucial to improve before postseason basketball begins.

“[Bowie State] changes their defenses, so they’ll play some zone,” Turgeon said. “We need to get better at zone offense. So we’ll work on zone offense [Monday] in practice and try to getter better movement. So that’s good for us because we’re going to get zoned a couple of times down the stretch with the remaining teams on our schedule and there’s a possibility in the NCAA Tournament that we’ll see zone too. So it will be good preparation.”

Tip-off at Xfinity Center Feb. 9 is set for 6 p.m. EST as the Terps look to get their 22nd win of the season.