COLLEGE PARK — On a night when several new players on both the men's and women's basketball teams were introduced to a enthusiastic crowd at Xfinity Center for Maryland Madness Friday, the biggest name on either team showed off a new skill.
Junior guard Melo Trimble dunked.
It was the first time many had seen the Maryland star dunk in public.
"I always had it in me, it was time to bring it out," Trimble said with a smile as he left the court after the scrimmage.
— Much has changed in the past year for Maryland point guard Melo Trimble. A year ago, he was coming
Trimble's dunk, on a breakaway toward the end of the men's scrimmage, brought several of his teammates off the bench.
It also brought a smile to the face of Kyle Tarp, Maryland's director of basketball performance, who has worked for two years with Trimble in improving his athleticism.
"That's a lot of hard summer work paying off," Tarp said.
Trimble had always been slightly evasive about the topic, going back to his freshman year when a reporter asked him about dunking after noticing that he didn't dunk in the Capital Classic, either during the game itself or on the pregame and halftime layup lines.
Even Joe Wootten, his high school coach at Bishop O'Connell High in Northern Virginia, said before Trimble's freshman year that he had never seen his former star throw one down.
But after his athleticism came into question at the NBA Combine in Chicago as well as at subsrquent individual team workouts, Trimble slimmed down during summer training sessions with Tarp.
Transfer L.G. Gill said after the event Friday that Trimble has been dunking after practice.
"Melo's been getting his bounce up," said Gill, who won the first-ever dunk contest held on Maryland Madness, beating freshman Kevin Huerter after another freshman, Micah Thomas, was eliminated. "He's been working with Kyle after practice. That's the first time I saw it in a game, so that's pretty impressive."
It was also a first for Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. A reporter asked if it seemed as if Trimble was more explosive.
"A little more explosive, let's not go crazy," Turgeon said with a laugh. "He's worked hard at it. I know Kyle was happy he got the dunk. He's been telling me he's been doing it in pickup games, but I don't watch that stuff. It was good to see him to do it live tonight."
don.markus@baltsun.com