It was a tale of two halves in Maryland men’s basketball’s exhibition game against West Virginia.
In the first half, the Terps struggled and trailed by 15 at halftime. Their nine turnovers turned into 17 Mountaineer points and only forced one.
It wasn’t the type of basketball Maryland played in its first exhibition match against Georgia Tech. But it also wasn’t the style it played for the rest of the game.
The Terps found their groove in the second half, forcing overtime before eventually beating the Mountaineers, 90-81, at the Xfinity Center.
Here are three takeaways from an up-and-down Terps performance.
Andre Mills picks up where he left off
The sparks were there for Andre Mills at the end of last season. He averaged 17.9 points per game over the final 13 games, becoming the center of the Maryland offense.
That stretch doesn’tappear to be a fluke. Mills led the Terps with 27 points on Sunday, including two 3-pointers in overtime. His energy and high motor were on full display, as Mills continuously looked for shots at the rim.
Mills picked up where he left off because he treated the offseason like the actual season.
“I kept the same routine, I still [would] wake up [at the]same time every morning,” Mills said. “Still wake up [at] five in the morning, work out, do free throws, get treatment. Same thing.”
Mills’ offseason consistency has carried over into the preseason, positioning him to remain a focal point of the Terps offense.
Maryland’s frontcourt will cause problems
It’s not often a team has two rebounders as skilled as Pharrel Payne and Tomislav Buljan. And it’s even more rare for them to share the court as much as they did on Sunday.
The two big men combined for 20 rebounds, 14 of which were on the offensive end. They dominated the glass for most of the afternoon.
“When you play with both of them, relative to how are you going to guard [Payne] or Tommy on the post touch,” head coach Buzz Williams said. “But now I think we can put enough pressure on the rim.”
The rim pressure was certainly added with both of them on the floor. Payne scored 26 points, most of which came from scoring or drawing a foul in the paint. Buljan didn’t score a field goal, but he had multiple looks inside, created by the constant rim pressure.
Defensively, the duo also shone. Payne tallied two blocks, while Buljan recorded four steals. West Virginia shot just 39% on layups, a testament to the impact of the Terps new frontcourt pairing.
Baba Oladotun is a work in progress
As a five-star true freshman, Oladotun has big expectations ahead of him.
But it could be hard to meet those expectations right away, especially on a complete Maryland roster.
The forward logged just 10 minutes and looked timid at times. He attempted just one shot and, for the most part, struggled to get past his defender, let alone into the paint.
Oladuton also struggled on defense, at times losing track of his assignment and allowing open looks.
His lack of minutes does not mean Williams does not expect him to play, as the Terps are still trying out a variety of lineups.
“I think next Saturday we’ll try to play different lineups to collect different data because today we were able to get different data. That’s encouraging,” said Williams.
With Williams experimenting with lineups, Oladuton has time to develop. But his limited role on Sunday shows that the freshman still has adjustments to make before becoming a consistent contributor.
