Melo Trimble Has Unfinished Business: Plans to Return
Melo Trimble plans to come back for his sophomore season as a Maryland Terrapin. After suffering a head injury in the round of 32 loss against West Virginia, he had to watch his team be outplayed on both sides of the court and he couldn’t do anything about it. Although the decision isn’t finalized and Trimble still has to meet with his head coach Mark Turgeon this week to discuss his NBA future, 247 Sports’ Jeff Ermann reported that the plan for Trimble is indeed to stay a Maryland Terrapin and forego the draft, citing a source close to Trimble.
I’m sure this decision to come back is motivated by the loss and he feels like has unfinished business.
In a previous article written on his potential draft state as a “one and done” I made this analysis:
"But does he have enough talent in him to be a one and done college player? No, I don’t think so. I’m not knocking his talent in any way, but the NBA is a totally different animal. While so many players spend a year playing college ball and then go to the NBA, I don’t think it would be the right move for him to make.He would be better suited to declare after his junior season, because he’s still young and has a great deal to learn and accomplish with his teammates. Next season, he’ll have to take a step up in his leadership since seven seniors will be gone from this team including Dezmine Wells, Evan Smotrycz and Jonathan Graham. Being a college player with the Maryland Terrapins coached under Mark Turgeon for another two or three more years would help groom him for the NBA."
Both Turgeon and Trimble would be losing the senior leadership that those guys bring but still have the talents of Dion Wiley, Jared Nickens, Michal Cekovsky, Damonte Dodd and Jake Layman, in addition to transfer players Ivan Bender and Robert Carter.
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Melo Trimble has a formidable team to come back to with all of those players mentioned above. Not to mention the fact that they already have signed top junior college point guard Jaylen Brantley and are in the running to sign big man Diamond Stone. If the Terps manage to get both of them, this team could make a better run in the NCAA Tournament next year. The tandem of Melo Trimble and Jaylen Brantley could be dangerous.
Here are some accolades courtesy of umterps.com Melo Trimble has received and top plays from this season:
• Big Ten All-Freshman Team.
• Sporting News Second Team All-American and USBWA Freshman All-American.
• Bleacher Report All-Big Ten First Team and also earned USBWA All-District Team honors.
• Tagged Wayman Tisdale Award finalist (3/2).
• Named Bob Cousy Award Watch List Finalist (2/20).
• Averaged 19.5 points in two games in the Big Ten Tournament, going .480 from the field and .500 from beyond the arc.
• 43 points shy of Joe Smith’s season scoring record for freshmen (539), three treys shy of freshmen record for single-season three-pointers (56).
• Fourth in the nation in free throws made (190).
• Ranked fifth in the Big Ten in points per game, averaging 16.3 points per game.
• First in the Big Ten in free throw percentage (.865).
• Leads the team in assists (102) and steals (41).• Recorded team-high 21 points and added four assists at Nebraska (3/8).
• Scored a game-high 19 points against Michigan (2/28).
• Leads team in double-figure scoring games (30) and 20-point games (10).