Maryland men’s basketball traveled to Milwaukee to take on Marquette in a homecoming for head coach Buzz Williams.
Williams and the Terps came away with a massive non-conference win, beating Marquette 89-82.
Here are the takeaways from the game.
Pharel Payne Dominates, Injury leaves question marks for Maryland
Pharrel Payne was dominant in the limited minutes he played against the Golden Eagles. Payne tallied 13 points in just 17 minutes and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field.
After two early fouls, Payne checked out of the game with the Terps up 13, but that lead quickly evaporated without Payne on the court. Maryland looked dysfunctional on offense without Payne and the Terps struggled to grab any rebounds.
When Payne checked back into the game in the second half, disaster struck for Maryland. With 12:16 to go in the second half, Payne went up for a dunk and on the way down took a scary fall. A potentially devastating injury meant he would not return for the rest of the game.
“When I got back to the huddle our kids said ‘coach, you got to pray for him,” head coach Buzz Williams. “I didn’t talk about ball, we just prayed for him.”
Despite Maryland rallying behind its injured teammate, Payne missing extended time could be a huge problem for the Terps.
Injuries have already piled up with Myles Rice, Solomon Washington and George Turkson all out for the game, along with Rakaese Passmore who is out for the season.
Payne’s importance on both sides of the ball for Maryland can’t be understated, especially with a lack of frontcourt depth for the Terps even while fully healthy. Forwards Elijah Saunders and Colin Metcalf will likely be called upon to step up in Payne’s absence.
Maryland finds its 3-Point Shooting led by Watts and Coit
Coming into the game Maryland’s biggest question mark was perimeter shooting. The Terps had struggled from beyond the arc thus far, especially in the loss to Georgetown.
Those questions were put to rest early by David ‘Diggy’ Coit who knocked down three tough shots from beyond the arc in just the first nine minutes of the game. Isaiah Watts added one of his own as the Terps started perfect from three.
Despite the hot start, the Terps did have a stretch very reminiscent of the previous struggles from deep. Maryland shot just one of its next 11 attempts.
However, Maryland was able to regain its form from deep in a timely fashion, led again by Watts. He hit two more threes in the second half, with Coit and Elijah Saunders knocking one down each.
Maryland ended the game 8-of-22 from deep, a respectable 36.4%. Coming into the game against Marquette, the Terps had shot a dismal 28.2% on the season.
For Maryland to be able to continue to score the basketball at a high enough rate to win games, it will need to continue shooting similarly to how it did against the Golden Eagles.
Watts and Coit finding their rhythm from deep could give another element to the Maryland offense that they had been missing up to this point.
Maryland was outclassed on the boards
Buzz Williams prides himself on his team’s ability to get offensive rebounds and extend possessions. In Williams’ last two years at Texas A&M, the Aggies led the country in offensive rebound rate.
Against Marquette, it was the Golden Eagles who dominated the Williams-led Terps on the offensive glass. Maryland had just four offensive rebounds to Marquette’s 20. In the first half, Maryland did not come away with a single offensive rebound, even with Payne still on the court.
“We are trying to teach them some of the things we learned at our previous stop in regards to offensive rebounding,” said Williams. “It’s a lot of teaching, it’s a lot of emphasis.”
The discrepancy allowed the Golden Eagles to attempt 21 more shots than Maryland, allowing them to almost overcome a poor shooting night.
For Maryland, an inability to get offensive rebounds will force the Terps to be hyper-efficient with the shots that they get, which puts more pressure on their offense, especially the guards.
Maryland was outrebounded 44-35 overall, and in the first half the margin was even wider. Elijah Saunders collected 11 for the Terps with Darius Adams adding seven, but the rest of the team combined for just 13 total rebounds.
With Payne now injured, rebounding will be an uphill battle for the rest of the season. Payne averaged eight rebounds through the Terps’ first three games of the season. Now it will be up to the rest of the team to fill the gap left by Payne’s absence.
