Rush the Court will be providing wall-to-wall coverage of each of the NCAA Tournament from each of the 13 sites this year. Follow our NCAA Tourney specific Twitter accounts at @RTCEastregion, @RTCMWregion,@RTCSouthregion and @RTCWestregion. Kenny Ocker is at the Spokane pods of the South and West regionals this week.
Three Key Takeaways.
- The run Maryland went on is the stuff of champions: The Terrapins trailed 41-39 midway through the second half before Diamond Stone finished off a lob. Jake Layman then slammed home a breakaway jam. And Melo Trimble pulled up on a fast break to hit the Terps’ first three-pointer after 15 misses. From that point on, the game was over. The 16-1 run took what had been a competitive game and turned it into a blowout – and Hawaii never got within 10 points again.
- The Terrapins are still very frustrating: That second-half run should never have been necessary. Two days after doing its best to squander a 17-point second-half lead to South Dakota State, Maryland sleepwalked through 30 minutes of Sunday afternoon’s affair. Until waking up for the second-half run, it seemed like another showing of squandered talent by coach Mark Turgeon’s squad. When you have NBA shoo-ins like Stone and Trimble and another player in Rasheed Sulaimon who will likely get a look, it’s inexplicable to keep lesser-talented teams in the game again and again. Why there’s not at least one ball screen – if not two, three or four more – set for Trimble on each play, the world may never know.
- It’s a real bummer Hawaii won’t be in the NCAA Tournament next year: The Rainbow Warriors worked hard, hustling to as many rebounds as they could get their hands on all weekend, and they play fun, energetic basketball. But first-year coach Eran Ganot inherited a postseason ban for next year and loses two scholarships for each of the next two seasons, thanks to improprieties under former coach Gib Arnold’s regime. But Hawaii will always have its upset win over #4 seed California on Friday, the program’s first ever NCAA Tournament win, and the first by a team currently in the Big West since 1990.
Star of the Game: Maryland sophomore point guard Melo Trimble. His three-pointer – the Terps’ only successful conversion in 18 tries – changed the game. His 24 points led all scorers. He made 13 of his 14 free throws. He grabbed eight rebounds. He had three assists.
Quotable:
- “We weren’t very good at the start. We were nervous.” — Maryland coach Mark Turgeon
- “Melo *finally* hit a three for us, and when that shot went down, everybody got loose.” — Rasheed Sulaimon
- “After that 12-minute media timeout, we were a happy team.” — Melo Trimble
- “I told a bad joke, but I told them not to repeat it.” Turgeon, on what he said during the aforementioned media timeout.
Sights and Sounds:
- Someone in the Hawaii section had a sign that says “Cinderella Wears Flip-Flops.”
- Three-quarters of the Spokane Arena cheered for Hawaii at the outset. A lot of support from Oregon fans – perhaps a return on letting the Ducks borrow Marcus Mariota for a few years? But that fan support wasn’t recaptured after halftime, when Maryland ran away with the game.
- The scoreboard was wrong multiple times in the first half, each against Hawaii. Mock cheers erupted when it was fixed.
- The Maryland band‘s song selection during the Terps’ game-changing 14-0 run? Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run.” Apt.
What’s Next? Maryland gets the enjoyable task of facing the tournament’s top seed, Kansas, in Louisville in the Sweet Sixteen. Hawaii gets to spend a lot of quality time on the beach, dreaming of coming back to the NCAA Tournament in two years.