For Maryland to make noise in postseason, Cowan and Fernando need to score big

Maryland dipped into its extensive history Sunday, bringing in a who’s who of Terrapin lore to celebrate the 100th season of basketball.

Dozens of players returned, spanning more than a half-dozen decades. Tom McMillen and Joe Smith, Keith Booth and Lonny Baxter, Johnny Rhodes and Steve Blake, all with jerseys fluttering from the rafters. The arena was packed, sold out for only the second time all season.

And then? A 69-62 loss to Michigan that simultaneously was anything but surprising (the Wolverines, after all, are 26-4) and disconcerting for an increasingly familiar reason.

“A couple guys we count on offensively just didn’t play particularly well tonight,” coach Mark Turgeon said.

This is an ongoing occurrence for Maryland (21-9, 12-7 Big Ten), one it probably didn’t see coming as it was rattling off seven consecutive victories in January to place itself in the Big Ten title race.

The engine of the Terrapins’ 16-3 start was guard Anthony Cowan Jr. and forward Bruno Fernando. This was no surprise. They were the two most established returning players — two of the only established returning players — on a roster Turgeon so often reminds everyone is among the five youngest in the country.

In Maryland’s first 19 games, the Cowan/Fernando combo managed to stitch together at least 25 points in every game, and often much more than that. They were understandably the Terps’ top options, with Cowan’s speed and ability to get to the rim complementing Fernando’s ferocious rebounding and efficiency as a finisher.

Maryland was always going to look to other pieces to contribute, whether it was Eric Ayala’s stability, Aaron Wiggins’ outside shot or Darryl Morsell’s defense. To be at their best, the Terps required a reliable Jalen Smith and help off the bench from Ricky Lindo Jr. and Serrel Smith Jr.

But at its core, fair or not, Maryland needed Cowan and Fernando to play — and score — at a consistently high level.

In the last 11 games, the duo has combined for less than 25 points in seven of them. Maryland’s record in those contests? 2-5.

Fewest combined points in 2018-19, Anthony Cowan and Bruno Fernando

The latest was Sunday, when Fernando collected 12 points and 10 rebounds in a fairly typical showing for him of late. Cowan finished with 10 points, all but three in the final 2:05.

“Anthony was trying as hard as he could out there and really couldn’t get anything going,” Turgeon said. “Ran a couple plays, got him some good looks and they just weren’t going for him. It was one of those nights.”

There’s been a few of those lately, and Cowan’s probably as frustrated as anyone. His scoring average entering February was 17.0 points a night. It’s been 12.4 an outing since, a considerable decline for Maryland’s best backcourt option.

Chalk it up to a variety of developments. Cowan draws stout defenders nearly every game, and perhaps none more feisty than Michigan’s Zavier Simpson. Cowan, like any player, will invariably go through slumps in their careers. Opponents have certainly done their part to scheme against the junior.

Whatever the preferred explanation, the outcome is the same. When Cowan isn’t as productive, it’s likely to have a ripple effect for Maryland.

Given how often the ball is in Cowan’s hands, that influences the number and quality of the opportunities Fernando enjoys. Entering February, Fernando was averaging 14.9 points while shooting 66.5 percent from the floor. In Maryland’s last eight games, he’s posting 12 points a night on 54.0 percent shooting.

Those are still useful numbers. Yet even accounting for better competition than what Maryland saw during portions of nonconference play, it’s still a noticeable dip.

None of this is to suggest Maryland would be wise to alter its identity 30 games into the season. Not that it would happen, anyway.

“We’re definitely not going to go away from, per se, our bread and butter,” sophomore guard Darryl Morsell said. “We’re going to keep feeding them. The whole team, we trust in Bruno. The entire team trusts in Anthony. Even when they’re missing shots, we have confidence they’ll make the next one.”

The afternoon began with Juan Dixon, the Maryland basketball legend with perhaps the deepest reservoir of self-assurance, narrating an overview of the previous century. It included an appearance from Melo Trimble, who popped out of a box representing a time machine during a timeout.

(Alas for Maryland, since time travel has not yet been invented, it was not the Trimble of two years earlier who emerged. That was the Trimble who still had a year of eligibility remaining when he ultimately turned pro.)

There’s no Dixon coming to make this a memorable March in College Park, and no Trimble returning to lend his gift for getting to the foul line at will. Whatever help Maryland, which has dropped two in a row and is just 5-6 since Jan. 21, will receive is coming from what already is in its locker room.

Turgeon insisted the Terps got better Sunday; in comparison to their performance Wednesday at Penn State, it wasn’t an especially high bar.

“We’re disappointed,” Turgeon said. “We wanted to win. We wanted this bad today, and we just couldn’t get it. We couldn’t get it. We just didn’t get it done. We’ll regroup. Have a chance to get to 13-7 in the toughest league I’ve ever coached against, the toughest schedule, with the youngest team I’ve ever coached. We’re disappointed, but we lost to a top-10 team that played better than we did.”

What Maryland needs isn’t simply to be better. Its best players must be closer to the best version of themselves in the coming weeks than they have for the last month. And if it doesn’t happen? Suffice to say, the 100th season of Terrapin basketball probably won’t be one fans talk about for decades to come.

(Photo of Anthony Cowan: Tommy Gilligan / USA Today Sports)