COLUMBUS, OHIO — Their frames of reference go back a few years rather than a couple of decades.
Maryland freshman Melo Trimble can recall watching Connecticut's Kemba Walker lead the Huskies to a national championship in 2011 and then seeing last season as Shabazz Napier did the same thing.
"I can remember them taking over the tournament," Trimble said after practice in College Park on Wednesday.
Senior Dez Wells has vivid memories watching his former favorite team, Duke, win a national championship in 2010 behind some solid backcourt play from Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer to help complement forward Kyle Singler.
When fourth-seed Maryland (27-6) plays in its first NCAA tournament in five seasons starting Friday against 13th-seed Valparaiso (28-5) here at Nationwide Arena, the Terps will likely go only as far as their dynamic pair of guards will carry them.
Trimble can see he and Wells doing what Napier and Ryan Boatwright did last season when the Huskies, who started out as a seventh seed, wound up winning the title by upsetting heavily favored Kentucky in the title game. Yet he doesn't think he and Wells can do it alone.
"I think we've got a great team, not just me and Dez, to pull off something like that," said Trimble, the first freshman to be named first team all-Big Ten by the media since Indiana's Eric Gordon in 2008.
It would be a rare feat, given Trimble's relative inexperience.
Since Arizona's Mike Bibby became the first freshman point guard to help his team win a national championship in 1997, only two others — Duke's Chris Duhon in 2001 and Syacuse's Gerry McNamara in 2003 — have been able to accomplish that feat.
The importance of having good guards in the NCAA tournament is not a new phenomenon.
Bobby Hurley helped a Christian Laettner-led Duke team to the NCAA final against UNLV in 1990. The Blue Devils were blown out by 30 points, yet came back to beat the Runnin' Rebels in a semifinal rematch the following year en route to the first of two straight national championships.
Hurley, in his second year as Buffalo coach, said Thursday that having quality guards is still a key to any team making a long run in March — and into April.
"I don't think a whole lot has changed in that regard," Hurley said. "It's always key when you're season's on the line to have the right guys making decisions for you and making plays to extend your season.
"As a coach you go into a game where everything's on the line and if you have players that you trust at those positions with the ball in their hands creating and making plays, then you're going to have a good chance to advance."
Still, there are some who believe that a team can make a deep run in March — and even win a national championship — without having great guards as long as it has a dominant big man, as Kentucky did when the Wildcats won it all in 2012 and Florida won back-to-back titles in 2006-07 led by big men Al Horford, Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer.
"I think it's become something that people say [in needing great guards to win in the NCAA tournament] like having a great quarterback," said ESPN analyst Jay Bilas. "You have to have everything…If you only have great guards, you're not going to be able to get rebounds and guard the post and you're going to lose because of that reason."
Yet given his choice, Bilas said he would rather have great guards rather than a strong frontcourt, as Maryland does.
"If you have to have one or the other, you choose guards, because you can play a perimeter game and be able to hang with people," Bilas said. "But if you have a goal of beating the best teams, like a Kentucky or Wisconsin or Arizona, you are not going to do it with guards alone."
Maryland coach Mark Turgeon, who played in four straight NCAA tournaments at Kansas and helped the Jayhawks reach the 1986 Final Four as a junior, understands that it will likely take more than Wells and Trimble to advance.
Turgeon also knows the strength of his team.
"Obvously we feel pretty good, we've got guards," Turgeon said Wednesday. "It's Melo, it's Dion [Wiley], it's Jared [Nickens], it's Richaud [Pack], whoever it is. We've got really good guards, so that helps you. Even Jake Layman is like a guard too playing [power forward]. The reason we're 27-6 is that we have really good players."
Most of them are guards, starting with Trimble and Wells. The evolution of Trimble and Wells as one of the nation's top backcourts has not been without its share of bumps. Trimble struggled taking on such a vital role his first few games. Just as he started getting comfortable, Wells fractured his wrist.
The month-long injury to Wells gave Trimble no choice to become Maryland's on-court leader — "the guy we want with the ball in his hands at the end of the game," was the way junior forward Jake Layman said early on.
After a mid-season back injury and recurring leg pain led to Trimble missing 13 straight shots over two games and scoring a total of seven points, the 6-3 freshman has averaged nearly 19 points over Maryland's last 10 games. During the same stretch, a healthy Wells has averaged 16 points and seven rebounds.
Longtime Maryland coach and Hall of Famer Gary Williams, who watched Juan Dixon and Steve Blake develop into a backcourt capable of leading the Terps to two straight Final Fours and win a national championship in 2002, has seen the chemistry develop between Trimble and Wells.
"I think Melo Trimble did a great job this year despite all the publicity he's gotten personally, he's willing to give it up and make sure Wells is very involved," Williams said.
Williams said that guard play has always been important to a team's success in the NCAA tournament, yet the way the game has evolved in using screen-and-rolls rather than the kind of Flex offense the Terps ran nearly exclusively for more than two decades had put "a premium" on guards.
"Even teams like a Virginia that are very patient and run the shot clock down quite a bit, at the end of the shot clock there's always a screen and roll or a clear-out for the point guard," Williams said. "In the last 10 years and these kids grow up in AAU and there's not a lot of time to practice, it's easier to run and that's what they're used to.
"It's definitely become critically important that you have a very good point guard."
Which is what Maryland has at it plays its first NCAA tournament game in five years.
Despite the difference in their ages, Wells has a tremendous respect for what Trimble has done to transform the Terps this season.
"He's come a long way, he's done a lot of great things throughout this year," said Wells, who was chosen by Big Ten coaches as a first-team all-league player. "He's been an amazing point guard for me and for the rest of this program. He's a special player."
Just how special might depend on how long Maryland keeps playing.
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