Big Ten Tournament 2016: Maryland basketball did a lot right, but not enough to beat Michigan State

The Maryland men's basketball team fell to Michigan State in a Big Ten Tournament semifinal on Saturday. It was an ugly yet entertaining affair, and Maryland did a lot of things well, but not quite enough to win.

This is how Maryland did in the "four factors" of team efficiency: effective field goal percentage (eFG%), turnover percentage (TOV%), offensive rebounding percentage (ORB%) and free throw tries per field goal attempt (FTA/FGA).

Overall, it's a positive picture. Maryland hung with Michigan State and outplayed the Spartans in several facets of the game. But just like Maryland's win against Nebraska on Friday came down to tons of good shooting, this loss came down to not enough of it.

Shooting

Maryland: 40.7 eFG%
Michigan State: 50 eFG%
National average: 49.9 eFG%

This was Maryland's biggest problem. The Terps' offense from the field was miserable, especially when they went a full 10 minutes in the second half with scoring a basket. That doesn't work, even when a team's defense clamps down. And Maryland's did, holding Michigan State to 6-of-21 shooting in the second half. It wasn't quite enough.

Maryland consistently couldn't create shots from half-court sets, and Melo Trimble was particularly bothered against the Spartans' aggressive press on him – activated whenever the Terrapins tried to set ball screens for Trimble. He shot 2-of-15 from the field, which really hurt Maryland.

"They stayed long on ball screens. They didn't let me have any easy shots - no open shots. They did a really good job," Trimble said. "I've never been through that, people guarding the ball screen like that, what they did to me. This is an adjustment that I'm going to have to make going to the next game, because they might look at film and see they can stop me by blitzing me on the ball screen."

Turnovers

Maryland: 10.1 TOV%
Michigan State: 20.8 TOV%
National average: 18.2 TOV%

The Terps did a nice job here. They only turned the ball over six times, easily a season low. Michigan State doesn't force turnovers in general, but good on the Terps for securing the basketball. If they'd shot just a little better after doing so, they'd have won the game. Then again, they didn't.

Rebounding

Maryland: 28.2 ORB%
Michigan State: 33.3 ORB%
National average: 29.8 ORB%

The Terps actually had 11 offensive rebounds to Michigan State's 10, but the percentage for Maryland was lower because it missed so many more shots. The Terps missed 36 shots from the field, while the Spartans missed 29.

Foul shots

Maryland: .389 FTA/FGA
Michigan State: .300 FTA/FGA
National average: 0.367 FTA/FGA

What a weirdly officiated game. Maryland couldn't buy a call in the first half, and Mark Turgeon took a technical foul as he berated one of the referees for not sending Rasheed Sulaimon to the foul line after multiple Spartans contacted him on a drive to the hoop. Then the officiating turned, and Maryland got 10 of the first 13 foul calls of the second half to go in its favor. Of course, then came the make-ups, and Maryland didn't get the foul shots it could've used most.