COLLEGE PARK — Michal Cekovsky kept showing it in practice. Despite being given little opportunity in games – 14 minutes over Maryland's previous three – the 7-foot-1 freshman from Slovakia had given his coach confidence that he could contribute against No. 5 Wisconsin on Wednesday night.
When sophomore Damonte Dodd was whistled for his first foul a little more than three minutes into the game, Turgeon made the switch. It turned out to be one of the most fortuitous early fouls for the Terps this season. Cekovsky changed the game defensively in 14 first-half minutes, and perhaps also changed his role going forward.
The player everyone calls "Checko" didn't put up huge numbers in his 24-minute stint – the most minutes he had played since early December – but his six rebounds, four points and one block displayed much of what he had been doing behind the curtained-off practices at Xfinity Center the past few weeks.
"Understand, Checko's really been practicing well," Turgeon said. "He's been practicing well for three or four weeks. I knew this night was coming. I didn't tell it was coming, because I think he would have been worried about it. I knew it was coming."
At a team meeting recently, Turgeon asked, "Who's the most improved player in practice the last two weeks?"
The answer?
"They all said Checko," Turgeon said.
What Cekovsky did in making 7-foot All-American Frank Kaminsky work hard for his 18 points wasn't that big a surprise to Turgeon and the rest of the Terps. They had seen it earlier in the season, when Cekovsky got a similar chance because of Dodd's early foul trouble against Iowa State.
"Remember Iowa State, way, way, way back when? He guarded [Georges] Niang," Turgeon said. "He did a tremendous job on Niang and he gained confidence from that. He used his length. He got a little bit tired because he's not in game shape. It's great, if you want to make a stretch run and you want to be a good team, you need guys to step up like Checko. That was really great for our basketball team."
It was also great for Cekovsky in his maturation as a college player. He was considered a four-star prospect coming in, and at least one NBA general manager said he could be a first-round draft pick after two or three years at Maryland. But Cekovsky seemed to have taken a step back the past month.
The lack of playing time might have made him press a little when he got a chance, yet it didn't seem to make a difference Wednesday.
"The coaches believe in me. I try to stay positive and I keep working hard every day," he said. "It's tough because of my school schedule [having to take English classes for several hours a day on top of his regular work load], but I'm trying hard, trying to do my best."
Asked about his development, Cekovsky said, "It's a process and everything is hard for me, but I think it's coming step by step."
Said fellow freshman Melo Trimble: "Michal Cekovsky hasn't played a lot, but always stayed in, and in practice he brings everything and gets us better, and it showed today."
Cekovsky called Wednesday's game "a new experience for me" because of the environment of a sellout crowd. He admitted that when he first stepped onto the court "it was really hard, a little pressure" but he eventually became comfortable. He showed it with a baseline dunk in the first half and a tip-in in the second half.
It will be surprising if Turgeon doesn't use Cekovsky more down the stretch and into the postseason, perhaps even giving him a chance to start if Dodd – who had four fouls in seven minutes, failing to score or grab a single rebound – continues to struggle.
Will Cekovsky use Wednesday's game as a catalyst?
"I'm going to try," he said, smiling.
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