Feb. 28, 2012

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Quotes from Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon in advance of Wednesday's game at North Carolina.

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On how well positioned the team is to regroup after Saturday's loss at Georgia Tech:
"I was obviously negative for me with the media after the game. I was disappointed in the way we started the game, disappointed when the game was on the line, we had the nine-point lead and they were making the run we just didn't compete. We competed when we were down six and we tried to make a run at the end but we didn't compete when we needed to compete so I was disappointed.

"I thought Georgia Tech played well, they made a lot of shots and they deserved to win, but losing is no fun. That would've been, 7-7 sounds a lot better than 6-8 in the league, knowing what we have this week ahead of us. We'll regroup. We had a great practice yesterday. Kids are resilient, they bounce back. It's more the old guys, but I have a pretty resilient staff. We got after them yesterday, we'll get after them today, we'll do the best we can tomorrow and I do think we got better yesterday in some phases. We keep just trying to figure out ways to make the guys better and I think we did that yesterday."

On how he uses the first meeting between Maryland and North Carolina to illustrate the importance of getting on the boards:
"It's a different animal. We're on their court, we're without Pe'Shon [Howard]. I think our guys felt good about the way they competed here and hopefully they can do the same down there. We'll show them clips of us not rebounding today and tomorrow. Hopefully we can do something about it; not many teams in our league have been able to rebound with them. They're plus-12 in the league [in rebounding]. Those are unbelievable numbers. Rebounding, for my team, this has not been a good rebounding team. It's probably been the thing that's most disappointing for me is that I haven't been able to get us to rebound better. Because it's really not that hard to do, it's just effort."

On what he said to the team after the Georgia Tech game knowing they have a really tough opponent coming up:
"It's not about North Carolina. The whole thing I said after the game was `guys I just thought we were maturing. I thought we were growing up.' We really had one guy play well Saturday, maybe one and a half and they're both seniors - [Sean] Mosley and Berend [Weijs]. The young kids just didn't play well, so that's what I gave to them. But it has nothing to do with North Carolina, we worked on us yesterday. I know we're going to play North Carolina, they're 16-1 at home and they should be 17-0 at home. You take away the Duke score and I think they've won by about an average of 18 points a game at home in our league. We know what we're getting into. My thing is that we continue to fight, continue to compete, continue to get better until some committee says we're not playing anymore. Until that happens that's really all I care about.

"I have so many young players - we finished the game Saturday with three freshmen and a sophomore on the floor. We had a chance to win on the road and didn't get it done. So my thing is how much better can I make these young kids before the season ends. That's all I'm trying to do. Make them more competitive, make them want to be a better basketball player, make them want to be a better teammate. That's really all I'm focusing on. You can tell by the way I'm acting today I'm not myself. I'm tired, it's a fight, it's a battle everyday but a lot of coaches are feeling that way today. It's just where you are and what you're doing. I just, I got after them yesterday hard. I don't want them to think Wednesday's game is not important just because we lost to Georgia Tech and had a chance to get to 7-7 and be a part of postseason at a higher level, that we just don't stop trying to be the best we can be. So that's what we're going to try and do. Who knows what lies ahead for us."

On Berend Weijs and what their initial conversations were when Turgeon got to Maryland:
"Just talking to him, the first week all I tried to do was get to know him. I was like `is this kid for real,' he's just so nice. If you watch Berend, Berend works with Alex [Len] before practice, after practice he's talking to Alex all the time. He's just a great teammate. I've asked Berend to help us with the scout team even though he's in the rotation, he's never said boo, just does it. Just loves being here. Those were our conversations at the beginning, just how he likes to play and what he can do. He's just a really, just a great kid. Always happy. The thing I noticed from Berend from day one and I still fight him on it is just how hard he is on himself. He makes a mistake he hangs his head quickly. So I hope I've helped him with that, not to be so hard on himself as he moves forward with his life not just with basketball. But that means he cares. He cares about a lot of things. He's been a fun guy to coach, he really has. He's tried; he has limitations, but it's amazing for a guy that didn't play a lot last year how much he's helped us this year."

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