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Maryland’s Steve Blake is a coaching intern for the Portland Trail Blazers

This is the Maryland Minute, a short story followed by a roundup of Terps-related news.

NBA: Charlotte Hornets at Detroit Pistons Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports

Former Maryland basketball star Steve Blake has a new home in the NBA, but this time as part of a coaching staff.

After a 13-year career and a brief stint in Australia, Blake is retiring to pursue a coaching career and already has his first job. As with entering any new field, he’s starting at the bottom and interning under Terry Stotts in Portland.

The Trail Blazers make a lot of sense as a landing spot for Blake. He lives in Portland and played for the organization at four different times during his career, his last stint with the team coming in the 2014-15 season playing for Stotts. Blake will also get the opportunity to work with former teammate Damian Lillard and fellow Terp Jake Layman.

It appears Blake approached Stotts about the opportunity, and Stotts told The Oregonian he’s been around since September helping with workouts and mixing in every now and then. Stotts said he appreciates having a former player on the staff, and Lillard also appears to appreciate the extra guidance from the vet.

Like Stotts notes, Blake’s role with the team is limited so he can test the coaching waters. However, his experience in most roles in an NBA rotation gives him varied perspectives from which to mentor players. Lillard is already seeing the benefits of having Blake around.

"I think having Steve around is good, because it comes from a different lens than the coaches. They're telling it kind of as enforcers -- 'you should have been here, you need to do this, this is what we wanted' -- but with Steve it's more him teaching. He wants to see you improve, see you do better. He's also a vet ... he's been a starter, played good minutes as a backup, he's been on winning teams and losing teams. Just having him here, I think, is really helpful for the players."

The 2002 National Champion looks to have retired his playing shoes for now, but he’s already back in his element.

In other news

Walt Bell dialed up the Wildcat for the first time against UCF, and it didn’t work, but we may see more of it Saturday.

After fatigue caught up to Maryland field hockey at the end off a rough 10-day stretch, the Terps hope to regroup a road match against No. 6 Michigan at 6 p.m. ET.

It’s been a while since a soccer game was played at Ludwig Field. Now there’s a doubleheader in College Park with women’s soccer taking on No. 25 Wisconsin at 3 p.m., followed by No. 3 men’s soccer taking on Northwestern at 7 p.m.

Mark Turgeon is still hot on the recruiting trail, offering the Terps’ third scholarship of the 2019 cycle to local four-star guard Justin Moore, InsideMDSports writes.

Derwin Gray and Damian Prince both rank among the top six most efficient pass blocking tackles in the Big Ten, according to ProFootballFocus.

After being forced into action when Kasim Hill went down, this is Max Bortenschlager’s team for the foreseeable future. Our own Alex Littlehales is here to help you get acquainted with the Terps’ new signal caller.

Introducing Max Bortenschlager

Get to know the Maryland Terrapins' new starting quarterback.

Posted by Testudo Times on Thursday, September 28, 2017