WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. — Maybe it was brain freeze brought on by the sub-zero temperatures that Maryland has met this week in its first two-game, five-day road swing in the Big Ten.
Or maybe it was Maryland senior Dez Wells developing short-term amnesia with no lasting side effects.
Sitting courtside after practice Friday at Mackey Arena, where Wells and the 11th-ranked Terps will play Purdue Saturday, the 6-foot-5 guard was asked what happened to him Wednesday at Illinois.
"Who'd we play last?" Wells said with a smile. "I don't even remember it. It didn't happen to me."
Of course, Wells was kidding. He knew exactly what happened to him as well as the Terps in their 64-57 loss to the Fighting Illini at the State Farm Center. Wells had one of his worst games at Maryland, finishing with just six points and two rebounds in 27 minutes.
He shot 2 of 8 from the field, starting the game with a fadeaway jumper in the lane that barely reached the rim and ending it with an airball from 15 feet that was so off-target it looked as if the basket had moved as Wells shot.
Asked what happened, Wells said: "Thinking too much and just not playing my game, I just wasn't myself that night. That's something I take on the chin and I'm going to attack this game [against Purdue] like that game never happened."
Since returning from a fractured right wrist that kept him out a month, Wells has played well only in spurts.
In his first game, on Dec. 27 against Oakland, Wells played facilitator for much of his 22-minute stint until taking the game over by scoring a majority of his 10 points toward the end, including a lob dunk on a pass from freshman point guard Melo Trimble.
In the first two Big Ten games, Wells had his moments, including hitting a 3-point shot in the waning seconds to send the opener at Michigan State into overtime and a steal-and-dunk in the second overtime period to help seal the victory. He also had a good all-around game (12 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks) against Minnesota.
Wells, who started the season making 27 of 40 field goals, shot 5 of 20 the night he was injured in the first minute of an upset of No. 17 Iowa State in Kansas City and shot 16 of 41 since coming back, including 11 of 32 against Big Ten teams.
Wells downplayed the impact the injury has had on his season.
"I feel amazing.," he said. "I felt amazing when I had a broken wrist and I was playing. That says a lot about how I feel about myself. I feel good and I'm confident and I'm ready to contribute to my team for us to win."
The Terps need him to be the complementary scorer to Trimble as he was earlier this season for the success to continue in the Big Ten. Even more importantly, Mark Turgeon said he needs Wells to be the kind of lockdown defender he showed signs of becoming.
Turgeon said that the Terps need Wells to be "the tough Dez, the bully Dez" against a physical team such as Purdue.
"His timing's off, he's got to rely on his teammates more," Turgeon said. "He's just got to make better decisions. And he hasn't guarded as well as he was guarding before he got hurt. We need him to guard better and take on a challenge. The first couple of games he was okay, the other night he took a step back."
Senior guard Richaud Pack said he expects Wells will be back to his old self soon.
"At Iowa State, we leaned on him to make big buckets, Arizona State we leaned on him some, today we leaned on him at some of those points and he just didn't make some of those plays," Pack said Wednesday. "He usually does make them. It's not a big deal. He's a go-to guy and we'll keep going to him."