Maryland Stakes Claim for Weirdest Team in Big Ten; Rolls over Minnesota at The Barn
Minnesota had an argument for the best home advantage in the country this year: sitting at 11-0 at home with wins over Michigan, Iowa, MSU, OSU, and more. Their 0-4 road record, with all by at least 12, suggested their home advantage was even bigger than it seemed. They certainly seem like a Weird Team.
Then into The Barn came Maryland, AKA, THE Weird Team. Maryland sits at 9-7 overall, and 3-6 in conference. Nothing impressive at all. Until you see that their three conference wins are at Illinois, at Wisconsin, and at Minnesota. Between those three squads, only Illinois has lost an additional home game this year outside of Maryland (OSU).
The realized version of what Chaos Team Indiana football aspired to be unfortunately doesn't play anymore ranked teams on the road this year, but has home matchups with Wisconsin, OSU, and Minnesota left.
And oh yeah, Michigan rolled them both at home and on the road.
A tip of the hat to the weirdest team in the country!
January 23rd, 2021 at 4:28 PM ^
I think they’re who they say they are. Brooks plays, we hand them their first home loss. Instead Maryland saves Turgeon for another year which is good for us because we can just keep beating Maryland, from now on!
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
Where is this Turgeon hate coming from? The dude won the conference just last year!!!
I feel like he has pre-championship Jay Wright syndrome in that people think he under performs w the talent he accumulates ala Bill Self.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:13 PM ^
I watched his team attempt to run an offense today. It was rudimentary. I’ve seen middle school teams run more complex sets. They won today because Minnesota couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn, pun intended.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:16 PM ^
When someone celebrates a coach coming back is equated to hate there has to be a serious examination of the English language ASAP.
January 23rd, 2021 at 7:12 PM ^
You know what you said... Would you prefer disrespect instead of hate?
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:17 PM ^
I know quite a few Maryland fans who don't like Turgeon because he underachieve relative to the talent he recruits and the sets doesn't look as smooth as some of the elite. Turgeon does just enough not to get fired but doesn't do much for the fans to be confident that they can do some damage in the conference.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:19 PM ^
Last year was very strange. 12 of the 14 teams finished with 8 wins or more and three teams tied for first with 6 losses each. It was a very even year across the league and Maryland won the scheduling lottery by not playing at Michigan and Illinois and having to only play Wisconsin once.
His biggest criticism has been underperforming in the post-season with the talent they amass regularly.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:31 PM ^
I don't dislike him as a person or anything, but his actually game-planning and playcalling are awful to watch most years, even when he has top-notch talent.
I looked up Maryland under Turgeon and they've had a top-20 Kenpom offense or defense 3 times total - offense in 16 (24), defense in 19 (21) and both offense and defense in 2020 (18 and 22). Of course, last year's Maryland team had a senior PG in Cowan and a top-10 pick in sophomore Jalen Smith. Jay Wright over the same time period (2012 to 2020) has had a Kenpom top-25 offense or defense 13 times, often top-10 or even top-5. And Maryland isn't some backwater basketball outfit; they reside in a talent-rich area in the DMV and won a title recently enough for it to be relevant.
Turgeon seems like a decent coach who can recruit pretty well, but he's not shown a consistent upswing to make me believe he can lead a team to a title.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:37 PM ^
Turgeon has been at UMD since 2011 and has only one Sweet 16 appearance. I wouldn’t be thrilled with that as a fan. Keep in mind, Maryland has won a national title in this century (2002). Yes, he shared the league title last year (aided by a favorable schedule) but that’s about the only significant accomplishment he’s achieved there, in a decade on the job.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:55 PM ^
I don't like him because he looks like he is perpetually walking into a crop- dusted fart.
January 23rd, 2021 at 6:22 PM ^
Turgeon's a terrible coach. Hell, Maryland didn't even play that well today. They scored 27 points in the 2nd half and half of those were free throws (they missed a lot of those, too). Minnesota just sucked worse (I will give Maryland some credit for that).
8.5.7
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:18 PM ^
Please tell me a worse B1G coach than Turgeon....Izzo doesn't count.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:23 PM ^
IZZO because he doesn’t count!
January 24th, 2021 at 12:28 AM ^
Holtmann
January 23rd, 2021 at 4:30 PM ^
Would Maryland wind up being two Quad 1 wins for us? Do they still do Quads?
January 23rd, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
BEFORE today, they were 47 in NET. I believe that means the home win was not Q1, but the road win was. I THINK they have to be top 30 in NET to be a Q1 home win. We'll see how much they move up after this win
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:19 PM ^
Since we are a #1 seed it doesn't matter. Quads are for teams on the bubble...lol.
January 23rd, 2021 at 4:36 PM ^
Chaos is a turtle.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:05 PM ^
How much does this hurt Minny? Do they still project to be a quad 1 win for us?
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:11 PM ^
This turtle was playing like gamera Today! How did we let MN beat us?
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:21 PM ^
We don't have Brooks and they shoot very well
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:26 PM ^
Yeah, things unraveled when Chaundee Brown subbed out and Zeb came in. IIRC, score was 41-35 when Liam Robbins blocked Austin's hook shot and things just went downhill from there.
January 23rd, 2021 at 5:25 PM ^
On a related note, it would be nice if Ohio State did us a favor and beat Wisconsin on the road.
Ohio State already has 4 conference losses. Wisconsin has 2.
Wisconsin racking up another loss would give Michigan some margin for error just as Indiana did with Iowa. (Iowa now has 2 losses.)
January 23rd, 2021 at 6:17 PM ^
Its never good to hope for an OSU victory, but it is nice to get something out of it . Thanks suckeyes
January 23rd, 2021 at 6:29 PM ^
Well shit frank, good call
January 23rd, 2021 at 6:50 PM ^
Think that big lotto winner from Maryland bought the team some imported Red Bull out of their winnings...
January 23rd, 2021 at 7:04 PM ^
I mean, the entire Big Ten is a little weird. Our own loss to Minnesota looks like a head-scratcher. Sometimes you're on, and sometimes you're off. Fortunately, we've seen a lot more of the former out of Michigan than the latter.
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:15 PM ^
Year ago, Missouri football had the same weird rep - beat a highly ranked team on the road and then stink it up vs. Kansas.
This just makes me feel better about beating them twice.
Any win in this weird year should be celebrated!
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:45 PM ^
Prediction: they beat UM in the tournament then lose by 40 to OSU the next game.