At times during the past few seasons, I've been accused of being too negative regarding the Maryland men's basketball program. Some complaints have come from the program's Kool-Aid-drinkers -- the type of supporters who would be defensive even if the team was 2-8 and coming off a home loss to Presbyterian. Others have come from more level-headed supporters of the program who think I should speak more about the progress it's made than the heights it's failed to reach.
I haven't always been negative. In fact, Maryland's wins against Iowa State and Wisconsin and its pair of wins versus Michigan State during the 2014-15 season elicited true emotion from this childhood-Maryland-fan-turned-mediocre-columnist.
Context has been a necessary part of my Maryland criticism during the last couple of seasons. I believe the school originally hired head coach Mark Turgeon (and re-upped him in 2016) with the goal of being a competitor on the national level annually. And through his first 5.5 seasons, Turgeon's teams have only sporadically flirted with that level of competition.
