“You’re the only ones who can put expectations on yourselves. We’re disappointed because we want to play better, right? And that’s why we should be disappointed. Not because of what someone said. It’s about us and this group in this room.”

A preseason favorite to reach the Final Four, the Terps began the season 15-1 and ended it losing five of eight, plummeting from the top 10. Shortly before 9 p.m. on the eve of their conference tournament opener, Turgeon walked into a second-floor meeting room of a downtown hotel. Turgeon is not a fiery speaker, but his words were tinged with emotion and he had everyone’s attention. He’d thought about the general message he wanted to impart as they began the postseason, but the exact words were spontaneous, a plea wrapped in praise.

“All right, guys,” Turgeon said. “Couple things real quick. . . .This two-year run that we’ve been on is the best two-year run since our Final Four teams. So we don’t have to apologize to anybody about what’s happened in the past couple of weeks. We’ve done some amazing things, okay? No one’s opinions or no one’s expectations have any impact on what we think about ourselves. . . .

“You’re the only ones who can put expectations on yourselves. We’re disappointed because we want to play better, right? And that’s why we should be disappointed. Not because of what someone said. It’s about us and this group in this room.”

The players were silent, eyes locked on their coach. After closing the season with a road loss at Indiana, Turgeon gave them a couple of days off, urged them to avoid basketball. Now they felt rested and hungry.

“Just believe in each other, realize that we’ve done some amazing things this year with unbelievable pressure on you guys. Unbelievable pressure. That’s gone now. Pressure’s gone. We’re a three seed in this tournament. We'll be a three, four or five seed in the next tournament. Pressure’s gone. Now it’s just us. We gotta get back to being us. All right? It starts here, guys.”