Maryland Basketball: Melo Trimble not living up to the hype

Melo Trimble came into the season with high expectations for the Maryland basketball team. However, he has underwhelmed thus far this season.

Melo Trimble came into this season with major expectations. After an surprising freshman season in which he led Maryland to a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament and averaged over 16 points per game, Trimble announced he would return to school (via ESPN) not long after the Terps lost to West Virginia in the round of 32.

Thus, the hype began for Maryland. The Terps were going to come into the season as one of the top teams in the nation, and Trimble would lead them as one of the best players in the nation. He was even selected as Big 10 preseason Player of the Year (via bigten.org).

But, it hasn’t quite worked out. Not for Trimble, at least. He has almost no chance of winning Big 10 Player of the Year, as Denzel Valentine is the obvious favorite right now, with Jarrod Uthoff not too far behind.

Maryland is doing alright, however, sitting at 23-6 and they have been ranked in the top 10 every week this year, though they figure to drop out of the top 10 next week, and have hit a slide lately. It just so happens to perfectly coincide with Trimble hitting a slide.

The Terps have lost three of four: one loss at home to Wisconsin, a bubble team, one on the road at Minnesota, giving the Gophers their first Big 10 win this year, and one on the road to Purdue, the best of the three losses. The other three losses are not good losses by any stretch of the imagination.

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In Trimble’s last six games, he’s averaging just over 10 points per game. He’s only made 14 field goals in those six games, and on just 20 percent from the floor, and about 22 percent from three. To make matters even worse, he’s turning the ball over more as well, posting five or more turnovers in three of his last six games.

What’s interesting to me is where Trimble’s offense is coming from now. Last year, he shot 41 percent from three, and about 44 percent of his shots came from there. 29 percent of his shots came at the rim, and he made 55 percent of them. The final 27 percent of his shots were mid-range jumpers, and he connected on those at a respectable rate of 38 percent (all stats via hoop-math.com).

This year, he’s done a complete 180. His shot distribution is similar to last season’s (26 percent at the rim, 26 percent from mid-range, and 48 percent from three), but his percentages are drastically different. His three-point percentage is down to 33 percent this year, and from the mid-range he’s shooting a dreadful 30 percent. However, at the rim, he’s been nearly unstoppable, shooting 72 percent, an extremely high percentage for a guard.

Maryland Terrapins /

Maryland Terrapins

To make matters even worse, he got to the free throw line over 12 times per 100 possessions last season. This year, it’s down to eight times per game. The most efficient player in the country isn’t nearly as efficient as he once was, and it’s clearly affecting Maryland.

Most people probably figured Trimble’s overall scoring would be down coming into this season. The Terps added Diamond Stone, Rasheed Sulaimon, and Robert Carter, three guys who have all taken much of the scoring burden off of Trimble’s shoulders.

I figured the addition of other scoring threats would lead to more open shots for Trimble, and even better efficiency. It hasn’t, and it’s worrisome. Has Trimble hit his ceiling already?

Perhaps it has to do with how teams are defending the Terps. They figured to be one of the better three-point shooting teams, yet are shooting 36 percent from three. A good number, but hardly elite. Instead, they’re shooting 57 percent from inside the arc, good for sixth in the country. As a team they shoot 75 percent at the rim. That’s better than most players shoot from that area, making that an astounding number for an entire team.

These numbers would lead most to believe that defenses are content to stay on the shooters, and give Maryland layups instead of open jumpers. That’s entirely possible, but it still doesn’t explain Trimble’s cold-stretch that he’s currently in the midst of. Nor does it explain his decrease in his free throw attempts.

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What I can explain for sure is that if he doesn’t snap out of his current funk, it could spell trouble for Maryland come tourney time.

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