COLLEGE PARK — — Mark Turgeon has been spending lots of time lately with the kids — and not just his three young children. The Maryland coach is now working with a handful of freshmen on a team that appears to be the youngest he will coach since Wichita State in 2001-02.
First-year players — there were a half-dozen of them — were an integral part of a Shockers team that went 15-15 (9-9 Missouri Valley Conference) in Turgeon's second season in Wichita, Kan.
Maryland, which has begun holding 16, one-hour, summer-session practices, may start as many as three freshmen in some games this season. Only four scholarship players — Nick Faust, Alex Len, Pe'Shon Howard and James Padgett — are due to return.
Maryland's incoming class is its most touted since the group that entered after the 2002 national championship season.
But the
clearly lack experience. To help fill that void, Maryland signed Logan Aronhalt, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound shooting guard who graduated from Albany, where he averaged 11.6 points and 3.6 rebounds.
Turgeon said he recently told Aronhalt: "You've got a chance to be a leader."
"Every kid wants to play and he's proven that he can play," Turgeon said. "He's going to be a big piece to what we're doing."
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