COLLEGE PARK — A year after Maryland coach Mark Turgeon used a center-by-committee approach, and months removed from seeing two members of that committee leave for other schools, the Terps have continued that strategy this season.
The collective result, if not the individual performance, has improved during the course of what is now a 26-5 season.
As the No. 8 Terps head to Chicago for their first Big Ten Conference tournament, Turgeon seems happy with what the combination of what 6-foot-11 sophomore Damonte Dodd and 7-1 freshman Michal Cekovsky — with a little help from senior forwards Jon Graham and Evan Smotrycz — are giving him inside.
"I think we've gotten a lot of contribution lately going back to Wisconsin, Jon Graham against Penn State [scoring a career-high 16 points], Checko [Cekovsky] around the rim for about five minutes of that Nebraska game [Sunday] as we made our run.
"Damonte's doing some things that he hasn't done since he's been here. Rebounds in traffic, finishing around the basket with his left [hand]. As our team is getting better, individually we're getting better. If we get contributions from the three of them — and we play Evan there, too — it gives us a chance to have depth."
Of the three, the player everyone calls "Checko" has made the most progress, and given that a number of pro scouts and front office executives believe he has a chance to play in the NBA, the always-smiling Slovakian also has the biggest upside.
Cekovsky appears to be getting more confident on the court and more comfortable speaking to reporters in English off it.
A little more than a week ago, the smile was replaced by a grimace. Cekovsky's freshman season appeared to be in jeopardy of ending with a freak injury when he felt pain in the left knee "doing a regular jump" prior to the Senior Day home victory over Michigan State. He limped to the bench.
Two days later, an MRI showed a sprained knee, and Cekovsky didn't make the trip to New Jersey to play Rutgers. But when the Terps won at Nebraska, Cekovsky did many of the things he had demonstrated in a 24-minute stint against Wisconsin All-American Frank Kaminsky, when Cekovsky had six rebounds and one block.
"Every game is important to me, especially after [the] injury," Cekovsky said after returning for the Nebraska game, which the Terps won, 64-61, at Pinnacle Bank Center. "I'm happy I'm healthy, thanks to [the] trainers of Maryland basketball who did [a] great job. I'm back very quickly.
"I was scared, because I didn't know what was it, but I'm really happy that it wasn't serious."
Cekovsky said his game has grown in recent weeks in large part because "everybody believes [in] me, coaches, players, everybody trusts me. I'm feeling better [in terms of confidence since] maybe five games ago. I think it's growing up, my confidence, game by game it's better."
Playing more with his back to the basket after first being mostly a perimeter-shooting power forward who patterned his game after NBA star Dirk Nowitzki, Cekovsky has shown more in practice, according to Turgeon, than he has during games.
Cekovsky knows the Terps, at least right now, depend on him more as a shotblocker and rebounder than scorer.
"I think it's my role on defense, to contest some shots, I'm 7-feet tall, so I have to do that," he said.
Cekovsky's emergence against Kaminsky came at a time when Dodd was struggling. After showing signs of becoming a regular contributor at both ends earlier this season, Dodd had as many fouls (33) as points during a nine-game stint.
Dodd, who played behind both Charles Mitchell and Shaquille Cleare most of last season, has had flashes of breaking out of his slump recently, including getting six points, four rebounds and two blocks in 20 minutes against Rutgers last week and, after a shaky start, five points, four rebounds and two blocks in 13 minutes against the Cornhuskers Sunday.
Before the Rutgers game, Dodd said he was trying to get back to where he was early in the season, before an injury to his left leg slowed him. Dodd said he "let it affect me more mentally than physically" but also acknowledged he hurt the team at times by trying to do too much offensively.
"Now it's just a matter of trying to get my head back together ... and get back to to who I was," Dodd said. "It was kind of exciting [scoring more] I think I tried to do a little more than than what I was supposed to [do]."
Dodd said it wasn't just him.
"Coach always says that at one point he feels we all got away from who we were," he said, "we tried to play one-on-one basketball, but as a team now we're trying to doing out role, that's why we're so much more successful."'
It certainly hasn't hurt Turgeon's rotation to have two seniors with a high basketball IQ — Graham and Smotrycz — playing in some of the tighest situations. Graham has contributed more offensively than in the past, while Smotrycz has vastly improved his defense.
That Dodd has started a majority of this season's games — Cekovsky started his first game against Northwestern, Smotrycz at Iowa and on Senior Day with Graham against Michigan — the collective contribution has helped vastly upgrade the position from last season.
Junior forward Jake Layman said Cekovsky and Dodd have improved as the season has gone on.
"We need them to play well for us to win games like these," Layman said Wednesday. "We have a lot of confidence in them. When it's the big stage, they always come up big for us."
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