The Maryland Terrapins scored a 78-66 win over the visiting Iowa Hawkeyes Wednesday night in College Park to snap a three-game losing streak. And they did so in front of "let's just say kindly a non-sellout crowd," as Kevin Sheehan put it on the Kevin Sheehan Show on Thursday.
The paid attendance at the 17,950-capacity XFINITY Center on the campus was just 12,031 people to see what was "a good win" for the Terps, beating the Hawkeyes for the second time after being down ten points.
Speaking about the 14-11 (6-8 in Big Ten play) Terps, Sheehan said it is "very rare to see a team perform the way Maryland has this year from this standpoint: they are an absolute wretched offensive basketball team. They are 181 in the country after last night per Ken Pom's adjusted offensive efficiency ranking. A hundred eighty-one. That is as bad as it gets for a Power 5 conference team.
"At the same time, they are excellent defensively. Fifth in the country per Ken Pom's adjusted defensive efficiency number. They play hard, they defend. I know for some of you that is eye-roll territory for some of you Maryland fans, 'Really, Sheehan, you're about to tell me something positive about them?' Yeah, I really am, from this perspective."
The perspective: "When you are not winning and you are terrible on offense, you basketball people will know exactly what I'm talking about here, it is hard to get your team to defend, night in and night out."
Sheehan concludes with this note: Iowa is the highest-scoring offense in the Big Ten (and the 14th-rated offense according to Ken Pom), their two lowest outputs of the season were in two loses to Maryland.
(B1G Network's Rapheal Davis later joined the show to talk about Maryland's win over Iowa and the chances of the Big Ten having a positive showing in the NCAA Tournament. Listen below:)
"Kudos to Kevin Willard and his staff," he added, "They have not come close to having their team throw in the towel on a season that has not gone the way most of us thought it would."
The Terps have No. 14 Illinois in town on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and "it would be nice for the students to show up," Sheehan said, circling back to his original point on the win on Wednesday.
"The place - to say it harshly and not kindly – last night was embarrassing to anybody that's ever been a hardcore Maryland basketball fan," Sheehan said. "I can't remember a more sparse crowd for a mid-February conference game."