TT Court Vision: Maryland comes up short against Indiana on the road

Welcome back to the film room. In its first matchup of 2021, Maryland men’s basketball suffered a loss to Indiana, 63-55, on the road.

While the Terps came out strong defensively, holding the Hoosiers to just 21 first-half points, they couldn’t contain Indiana’s offense in the second half. They also failed to get anything going offensively themselves, netting their second lowest point total of the season.

Despite leading by 10 at one point, Maryland’s stagnant offense and inability to rebound and defend in the second half allowed that lead to dwindle.

Let’s break it all down.

The Terps’ defensive intensity didn’t last

Indiana scored twice as many points in the second half as it did in the first frame against the Terps. Indiana shot just 30% from the field and 0-for-9 from three in the first half. Maryland was aggressive with double teams, rotated quickly and ran shooters off the three point line in the first half.

However, a big part of the difference between the halves was how Maryland handled Hoosiers star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis, who finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds. The sophomore was limited in the first 20 minutes, but went off in the second frame, scoring 17 of his 22 points.

This is a clip from the first half that shows how the Terps did a good job of containing Jackson-Davis initially. Jackson-Davis is operating from the mid-post and begins to back down Jairus Hamilton. Hamilton is on an island to start and does a good job of developing a solid base with his hands out wide.

Hakim Hart’s man is behind the three-point line on the wing. Hart has his eyes on Hamilton’s matchup and waits for the perfect time — when Jackson-Davis’ turns his back — to go double. This forces Jackson-Davis to kick the ball out.

Eric Ayala and Aaron Wiggins do a great job of rotating as a result of the double, closing out on the perimeter. Indiana ends up shooting a well-contested triple that misses.

This is another example of good post defense on Jackson-Davis. Hamilton is again in single coverage down low, with the double coming late. The Terp forces Jackson-Davis to catch and turn into a bad angle on the baseline, where it is difficult for him to use the backboard. Hamilton keeps his arms up without fouling and forces the Hoosier to take a tough shot that results in a miss.

Without Darryl Morsell, a senior leader and the best defender on the team, Maryland had a difficult time accounting for Jackson-Davis in the second half when he went off and propelled the Hoosiers to take control of the game.

Maryland is in a 3-2 zone here. The first problem is that Indiana’s guard easily splits two Maryland defenders and is able to get in the lane. Hart and Wiggins can’t allow that gap to be penetrated. As Indiana’s guard gets deep in the lane and help comes over, Jackson-Davis begins creeping in the paint.

No one notices or decides to check him, so Indiana’s guard dumps it off to Jackson-Davis for a deep paint touch. By the time Donta Scott gets there, he is out of position. Jackson-Davis takes one dribble and soars for a ferocious slam to get him and his team going.

Indiana out-rebounded Maryland, 43-33, and grabbed twice as many offensive boards. This is late in the game when the Terps are trailing by eight. A three goes up and Maryland, a smaller team at this point because Galin Smith had fouled out, fails to locate and box-out.

Too many gold jerseys are just staring at the ball, waiting to jump up and grab it. Meanwhile, white jerseys are flying in and dominating the glass. Even as a smaller team, Maryland needs to put bodies on people when shots go up and make an effort to box-out.

This is another example of Maryland failing to properly box-out Jackson-Davis. He soars up and grabs the offensive board, while also getting the put back bucket to go at another crucial point in the game with under two minutes to go.

Maryland struggled to get anything going offensively all night

In the postgame press conference, Turgeon remarked how the Terps failed to move the ball and knock down shots. The film shows a ton of offensive possessions with isolation basketball and a whole lot of ball watching.

Maryland is trying to feed Smith in the post for what they see as a mismatch. Indiana’s defender does a good job fronting the post. However, the Terps show no creativity to get Smith the ball.

Scott should try to get somewhere with his dribble to create a better passing angle or swing the ball to see if someone has a better entry point. Instead, he forces a pass that is not there, with no one else working to get open, resulting in a turnover. This is stale four-out-one-in offense that fails to generate any production, yet it’s used often by the Terps.

Scott is trying to make something happen on a drive, but he gets caught in the lane with nowhere to go. His teammates show little movement on the perimeter while they call for the ball.

Ayala tries to cut down the middle of the lane, but that brings in more traffic and the defense begins to converge on Scott. He has no options and is eventually called for a three-second violation.

Maryland did not run too many set plays throughout the game, other than pick and rolls. This meant players tried to make things happen themselves, often to no avail. Here is an example of Ayala doing just that. He drives left and begins to back down his defender in the corner before throwing up an incredibly difficult shot that does not come close to going in.

This clip shows, once again, the poor spacing by Maryland and the lack of success it had creating anything offensively. There is no ball reversal and the Terps are operating on only one side of the floor. Scott hands it off to Hamilton in a crowded spot, who then shoots a somewhat contested three that misses badly.

Wiggins shined as he dropped a career-high 22 points

If there was any positive to take away from the game, it was the excellent game by junior Aaron Wiggins. He recorded a double-double and shot the ball well from deep, hitting four of his seven three-point attempts, an encouraging sign.

Wiggins is patient here before he finds his spot on the drive, spins off his defender and knocks down his go-to turnaround jumper. The junior loves to implore this move, especially against smaller defenders, and has become quite good at it over the last couple of seasons.

Here is Wiggins knocking down a catch-and-shoot three ball, one of his four makes in the game. He can score a number of ways, but if his long ball is consistently falling, it would seriously elevate his game and the Terps offense moving forward.

Wiggins offers more than just scoring. He is an underrated passer and playmaker for this team. Here, Hamilton goes to set the screen on Wiggins man, but slips it instead. Wiggins sees the defender in the weak side help move toward Hamilton on the roll to protect the rim, so Wiggins whips a cross court pass to Hart in the corner who knocks down the trey ball.