COLLEGE PARK — The Maryland men's basketball team watched tape Thursday from its 76-65 loss to No. 7 Virginia the previous night at Xfinity Center.
The film session was mostly devoted to dissecting the team's defensive lapses and the easy baskets that resulted for the Cavaliers.
Refreshments were not served during the 40-minute session, though refreshers were offered from Terps coach Mark Turgeon and his assistants.
"It takes a lot when you have a lot of young guys, new guys playing. You have to show them on tape. You have to drill them," Turgeon said Friday before practice. "Hopefully a lot of the things start to carry over."
Turgeon hopes that film study pays off Saturday afternoon, when No. 21 Maryland (7-1) plays Winthrop (3-3).
The coach acknowledged that the Terps' first loss of the season came at the hands of "a great team that was very mature and played a great game."
"It was the first time we got punched in the mouth," Turgeon said.
The loss can also be attributed to the fact that the Terps — who came into the game allowing opponents to shoot only 35 percent from the field — allowed the Cavaliers to score easily inside, with 18 of their 26 baskets coming on layups, dunks and putbacks.
Virginia was 26 of 49 from the floor overall.
"We felt defensively," Turgeon said. "We didn't give much resistence to Virginia."
The Terps were also outrebounded 32-21 and were able to retrieve just three offensive boards.
Junior forward Layman said rebounding is "still an issue. I think for us in rebounding, it's just being tougher. I think they were just more aggressive than us on the boards and tougher than us."
Freshman point guard Melo Trimble said there can be a disconnect between how a team practices and how it plays, especially on defense. Add to that the hyped-up atmosphere of the first big crowd of the season — an announced 15,371 — and players sometimes forget what they practiced and the coach preached.
"I guess we just looked at who we were playing against. We knew they were good, and we just thought we were going to try to outscore them instead of playing defense, and that's what hurt us," said Trimble, who scored 16 points, including 12 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Asked what he learned from Thursday's film session, Trimble said, "The helpside [defense] wasn't good. Just the way we were sitting down [in defensive stances] wasn't good. I wish we could rewind back and get down in our stance and get in helpside and get back to our principles
It wasn't just Maryland's young players who had defensive lapses as Virginia took an early double-digit lead and led wire-to-wire.
Though Layman did a good job early slowing down Justin Anderson, the junior forward — who as a high school senior at nearby Montrose Christian gave up his Maryland scholarship when Gary Williams retired — scored 11 of his 16 points in the first half.
Both Trimble and senior guard Richaud Pack gave junior guard Malcom Brogdon (18 points) too much room to shoot. Centers Damonte Dodd and Michal Cekovsky got schooled inside by senior center Mike Tobey (14 points).
"We needed to play with more effort. We didn't match intensity. We didn't match physicality," Pack said. "It took us a while to get used to it because we hadn't played a team that physical. We just have to practice being more physical and have a more physical mindset."
Pack said it was the hardest and most physical he has seen an opposing team play since he faced eventual national champion Louisville as a sophomore at Florida International.
"It was the most impressive defense I've seen in a long time," Pack said of the Cavaliers.
Still, the Terps managed to score 65 points, the most Virginia has surrendered this season, despite playing their third straight game without senior guard Dez Wells (fractured wrist).
Turgeon said he thought his team's offense became more aggressive toward the end of the first half, when the Terps closed what was a 12-point deficit to eight at halftime and to just six when Layman opened the second half with a dunk.
"I thought as the game went on we were able to spread them out," Turgeon said. "I don't think we competed defensively. I thought we tried to compete offensively, but we didn't compete defensively."
NOTES: Senior forward Evan Smotrycz, who sat out Wednesday's game after spraining the ankle above the left foot he broke in October, is not expected to play against Winthrop. "I think he's getting better, but I don't think he's ready to try it on the court," Turgeon said. ... Winthrop is coming off a 79-76 overtime loss at Jacksonville (Ala.) State, where Turgeon started his head coaching career. The Eagles won at Clemson earlier this season.
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