As good as new

As they spoke with reporters following a loss to Duke in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament last March, members of the Terrapins men's basketball team sat with their heads to the ground, shoulders visibly slumped and words short and filled with disappointment.

There would be no next game. For the first time in 18 years, after failing to receive an NCAA Tournament bid and getting snubbed by the NIT, the program was absent from postseason play.

Afterward, guard Sean Mosley expressed confidence, or at least hope, in the year to come.

He had no idea what would happen next.

Within months, star sophomore forward Jordan Williams bolted to the NBA, longtime coach Gary Williams retired, two of the team's three recruits left for other schools and the program had a new face in former Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon.

Recalling the roller-coaster offseason Wednesday on the floor of Comcast Center, Mosley exhaled a long sigh.

"It was extremely hard," the senior said at the team's annual Media Day. "I just want to play a game and get it off my shoulders."

Mosley isn't alone in the sentiment. While the team faces low expectations as it returns a roster barren of frontcourt depth and with just eight total scholarship players, the Terps are ready to put the past year behind them and move on under Turgeon.

Standing at a podium in Heritage Hall in Comcast Center yesterday, the first-year coach made it clear he's just as ready to start, too.

"I have eight players on scholarship … but all eight think they're going to start," Turgeon said. "They are all working their tails off for me. … These next four or five weeks are exciting for me."

The biggest issue facing Turgeon is his lightly regarded and reworked frontcourt, which lost two starters in Williams and Dino Gregory (graduation). Powered by Williams' routine double-doubles, the pair averaged a combined 26 points per game and had nearly half of the team's total rebounds per game.

With both gone — and the departure of forward Hawk Palsson back home to Iceland in August — Turgeon will rely on junior forward James Padgett, senior center Berend Weijs and redshirt freshman Ashton Pankey. The murky future of freshman center Alex Len, who Turgeon said could know Friday about his eligibility for this season, has added only another variable to a frontcourt that last season averaged a combined 5.1 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.

"A lot of people don't think our frontcourt is very good, but I think we're definitely better than what a lot of people think," Pankey said. "I'm excited to prove what we're able to do."

"My bigs aren't as bad as everyone thought," Turgeon said, "and my guards aren't as good as everyone thought."

Still, if the team is to return to the postseason this year, Turgeon will have to rely on those guards — namely Mosley, sophomores Terrell Stoglin and Pe'Shon Howard and prized freshman recruit Nick Faust.

Mosley, who didn't have the type of season he expected a year ago, vowed yesterday he would be "a new Sean Mosley this year." Stoglin and Howard quickly became mainstays in Williams' lineup last season, and the two sophomores should make for an up-tempo backcourt under Turgeon.

"At the core, we're going to be really good," Howard said. "It's going to take time. At the end of the day, we're still sophomores. We're still learning how to play. A lot of people expect great things right away. We're going to be fine, but we're still going to make mistakes."

Despite the questions surrounding the program, Howard and the Terps said they're ready to move on from last season's disappointments and reach the postseason once more.

"The bar is the usual bar at Maryland," Howard said. "Just because it's a new program, a younger team, doesn't mean we're going to settle for anything less than usual. We're trying to get to the tournament, we're trying to be one of the top teams in the ACC and we're trying to compete for championships.

"This is a new team. A new era."

TERPS NOTE: Len is still waiting to hear from the NCAA Clearinghouse regarding his status for this season. The Ukranian freshman, who was unavailable to comment Wednesday, will likely be deemed ineligible Friday, according to Turgeon. Regardless, the Clearinghouse committee will re-examine the decision within the next week and determine how many games Len would sit out to start the year. Still, Turgeon seemed confident the 7-foot-1 center would play this season.

ceckard@umdbk.com