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If you assumed Hunter Dickinson’s beef with Mark Turgeon was over because Turgeon’s no longer coaching at Maryland, you assumed wrong. The Michigan star, who has long felt disrespected because he believes Turgeon didn’t recruit him hard enough, spoke about it again during a lengthy segment about Maryland on the Barstool Roundball Podcast.
The hosts, former Iowa star Jordan Bohannon among them, were discussing Turgeon’s era and how they thought he was underrated.
“I have no sympathy for Mark Turgeon,” Dickinson said. “I think he gave me the short end of the stick.”
Dickinson, a 7-1 junior from Alexandria who starred a few minutes from College Park at national powerhouse DeMatha, hasn’t been shy about expressing his distaste for Turgeon.
āI did feel a little disrespected when I wasn’t recruited by them. (But) Iām really glad with where I am right now. Iām 100 percent saying this is the spot for me, Iām happy to be here at Michigan,” he said in 2020.
A few days later, he dominated in a Michigan win in College Park. There were no fans there to spar with him because of Covid, but he repeatedly stared down Turgeon and Maryland’s bench during the game. Turgeon, to his credit, didn’t engage with him during the game and took the high road afterward, complimenting his play and avoiding the drama.Ā Others close to the program privately insisted they had recruited Dickinson hard, but he hadn’t been interested. Several sources close to the DeMatha program have said they believe he was under-recruited, but has handled it poorly. (Related: One final look at Hunter Dickinson’s Maryland recruitment)
After the game, though, sources inside the Maryland program expressed disappointment with Michigan coach Juwan Howard for allowing Dickinson to jaw at Turgeon.
It was a bit of foreshadowing; in March 2021, Turgeon and Howard got into a verbal altercation during a Big Ten Tournament game, with the 6-10 former NBA player trying to charge the 5-9 Turgeon andĀ program sources saying he yelled, “I’ll kill you.” Howard, who later said he felt physically threatened by Turgeon, got into another altercationĀ last February, slapping a Wisconsin assistant while trying to getĀ his hands onĀ Badgers coach Greg Gard.
Maryland Basketball Recruiting: With decision approaching, where does top local stand following Terps visit?
Back to Dickinson.
āHopefully I showed that the guys down the road at Madison Street are pretty good, and they should go down there sometime [to recruit],ā Dickinson said after that game, referring to DeMatha, where Maryland has struggled to recruit for decades. āI wish we had fans [at the game] … I could have got a real welcome home from the Maryland fans,” he said after that game, also Tweeting repeatedly about how good Maryland could be if it could keep more local stars at home.
During the podcast on Sunday, he said he doesn’t have any ill will toward Maryland.
“See it’s kind of harder now, though, because I like [Kevin] Willard and I got, I mean, like, I never had any beef with anybody on the team. So like that was kind of made up. Like, I never had any beef with anybody else but their head coach,” he said.
Michigan hosts Maryland on Jan. 1 and travels to College Park on Jan. 19, which will be the first time Dickinson’s played at Xfinity Center with Terps fans in the stands. That should produce a lively environment. Understandably, they’re not big fans of his.
The conversation then turned toward Maryland’s sparse attendance so far this season.
“Did you guys see that no one was even going to their games?” said Bohannon, who left Iowa last year as the NCAA’s fourth-leading all-time 3-point shooter.
“Yeah, bro, they used to have the best student section. I used to love going to their games,” Dickinson said. “Used to be rocking. Like, I remember actually I came to the game where they played Iowa with[Luka] Garza. And Fran McCaffrey got ejected. That game was insane. Their student sections used to be insane. Now they’re having trouble putting people in the seats.”
Bohannon: “I’m gonna say something. I think it was it freshman year when we played them, and they had Melo Trimble and that insane team at home … And we beat the s**t out of them. Ever since then, I don’t know, Maryland hasn’t been a factor. I guess, no, yeah — they won the Big Ten [in 2019]. I’m actually out of it. They won the Big Ten.”
Dickinson then pointed out that it was a three-way tie for the championship in 2019-2020. Surprisingly, though, he gave Turgeon the benefit of the doubt when discussing that 2019-2020 team. Led by stars Jalen Smith and Anthony Cowan, Maryland went 24-7 and tied for the Big Ten title, but didn’t have a chance to try for a deep postseason run because the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments were canceled as the Covid-19 pandemic began to erupt.
“I think Covid, honestly, the biggest thing for Mark Turgeon, if he had that team [play in the NCAA Tournament], he had a really good shot at going far. But Covid, they didn’t have that team,” Dickinson said.
Bohannon tried to prod Dickinson into more Turgeon talk.
“He was a good coach. I know you don’t agree, Hunter, but he was a good coach,” he said, as Dickinson rolled his eyes, looking flustered.
“Ehhhh, I mean, look at his success, his recruiting …,” he said, before the hosts shifted the discussion to that missed travel call in the final seconds of LSU’s buzzer-beatinh NCAA Tournament win over Maryland the previous year.
They also touched on this year’s Maryland team.
“I think, Hunter, Maryland is going to be really f*****g good. They kicked the s**t out of St. Louis. They kicked the s**t out of Miami. Donta Scott looks like a totally different player,” Bohannon said. “[Jahmir] Young coming in, he’s playing really well.”
Dickinson gave props to Young, his former DeMatha teammate, who transferred from Charlotte last summer and became the first DeMatha alum to join the program in 20 years.
“Jahmir Young, he’s gonna be fighting for first-team all-Big Ten,” he said.
Bohannon: “They just got so many athletes. They got rim protectors, they rebound the ball, they’re playing defense this year. I think they’re gonna be an underdog in the running for a Big Ten title.”
Dickinson said he thinks Maryland’s depth is an issue.
“Only problem I see with Maryland [is] you got a guy playing 33 minutes, 28, 34, 30, 27. There’s only five guys really on that team,” he said.
Bohannon corrected his numbers.
“That’s not true. What stats are you looking up? I’m looking at the minutes. Donta Scott [is averaging] 28 minutes, Julian Reese, 25 minutes. Hakim Hart, 26 minutes. Jahmir Young, 25,” he said.
Dickinson continued, “But you gotta imagine in Big Ten play, those numbers are gonna be even higher because the bench is [shortened].”
Bohannon still wasn’t buying it.
“So they got [six players] averaging 29 minutes. And then they got two guys that are at mid-teens … Teams don’t play over nine guys.”
Dickinson: “I think they have five good guys and after that, it’s kind of sketchy. And I’m not the only one saying that. I got a lot of sources in Maryland. I got a lot of people in Maryland … They got five really good starters, and after that, it gets a little sketchy.”
Dickinson’s having a strong junior year, averaging 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds. But he made a mistake earlier this month when he predicted a blowout win over Arizona State, thinking the podcast would be published after the game. Instead, it came out beforehand, giving the Sun Devils bulletin board material. as 7.5-point underdogs, they hammered the Wolverines by 25.
“My first mistake was thinking the podcast was gonna come out the day after the game, not knowing that it came out before the game,” he said. “And then my second mistake was just being stupid enough to actually guess the score and how much we were gonna win by. That was just a trap question. I will put it out there, I will not be predicting any more scores this year for Michigan.”
