Maryland’s first road test of the season turned into a lesson in how quickly things can get away from a team.
The Terrapins fell to Georgetown, 86-74, on Saturday, Nov. 7, dropping to 1-1 and giving the Hoyas a second straight win in the series after their 70-60 victory in College Park during the November 2025 meeting. Afterward, Buzz Williams didn’t sugarcoat what he saw.
“From a physicality standpoint, we weren’t there,” Williams said. “From a communication standpoint, we weren’t there. From an aggressiveness with a high IQ on what’s right, relative to time, score, momentum, we weren’t there.”
Maryland now has a quick turnaround before another rivalry matchup, this one against Virginia on Friday, Nov. 13. But the Georgetown loss laid out a few clear problems the Terps need to clean up fast.
The biggest one: shot selection.
Georgetown was efficient all night, shooting 51 percent from the field and hitting 15 of 30 from 3-point range. Maryland, meanwhile, finished at 41 percent overall and just 3 of 20 from deep. The Terrapins generated looks, but not enough of the right kind, and Williams made it clear he sees that as more than a simple cold shooting night.
“We define shots by medals: gold medal, silver medal, bronze medal, no medal,” Williams said. “We didn’t have near the gold attempts that you need to have in order to win on the road.
We count no-medal shots. They include blocks.
I think they had six blocks. So if you have six blocks and you’re shooting too many average shots, and you only attempt one free throw, that probably means you’re not shooting what we would call predictable shots and have a chance to offensive rebound.”
He also tied those offensive issues to the other end of the floor.
“I don’t know that our offense helped our defense at the rate that it has to in order to win on the road,” the coach said.
Pharrel Payne was the one bright spot Maryland could hang its hat on. The center scored a game-high 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds, continuing a strong start to the season.
That matters even more considering the road he’s already traveled. Payne was averaging 17.5 points and 7.2 rebounds before last season ended with a knee injury against Michigan.
At Maryland’s media day on Oct. 22, Payne opened up about the grind of getting back.
“We weren’t doing the best to begin with and then I was hurt,” Payne said. “The mental part of it is the biggest part that nobody really talks about, but it’s always tough to know that you’re out for the season. At that point in time, I felt like there’s nothing I can do to help.”
Even after his big night, Payne kept the focus on the bigger picture.
“We just didn’t play to the level we should’ve,” Payne said.
Maryland’s foul trouble only made the comeback attempt harder. The Terps went into halftime down 48-26 and needed a clean start to the second half to have any shot at flipping the game. Instead, they opened the period with four quick fouls, which let Georgetown get to the bonus early and stay in command.
Williams pointed to discipline as the issue, especially on defense.
“That’s not the way that you want to start,” Williams said. “We want to make more than the opponent attempts, and so we have to defend without fouling - way too many reaching-type fouls.”
He added that the timing of those fouls mattered just as much as the total.
“Some of that was on those second-half starts, but just categorically, I think we got to the bonus first in the first half, but we were 8 to 10 minutes behind getting to the bonus in the second half, and that’s a large margin relative to how we need to play,” the coach said.
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