Ashton Pankey, 2011-12

To say Ashton Pankey is an enigma or frustrating would probably be an understatement. Coming into the season, expectations weren't that high for Pankey. He had sat out almost all of his freshman year (playing just one minute in the season opener) before getting a medical redshirt. That came on the heels of missing the entire prior season while he was in high school due to injuries as well. Despite having been well schooled playing for legendary high school coach Bob Hurley at Saint Anthony's in New Jersey, Pankey had little in the way of a recruiting profile, picking Maryland over runner-up Houston.

The hope was that maybe Pankey could be brought along slowly and develop into a contributor over the next few seasons. Unfortunately, plans sometimes go awry. With Jordan Williams deciding to take his talents to the NBA and Hawk Palsson returning to Europe to play professionally, as well as Alex Len's early season suspension, there was no choice but to throw Pankey into the fire.

He responded shockingly well in his first real game action, putting up a 13 and 6 line in the opener against UNCW and then posting 10 and 11 rebound games during the Terps' trip to Puerto Rico. Things soured pretty rapidly though. In a big early December win over Notre Dame, Mark Turgeon, never shy to make a point, played Pankey just 1 minute because of the player's attitude and demeanor, instead choosing to go small with Sean Mosley and Mike Parker as well as walk-on John Auslander.

In the immediate term, Pankey responded well, putting up 43 points over the team's next three games (the last three of Len's suspension), but questions about Pankey's drive and attitude continued throughout the season, and with Len available, Pankey's minutes and production waxed and waned as Turge was far more free to be judicious with his allocation of playing time across the board.

At the season's end, the raw numbers spoke favorably of Pankey. He was good on the boards (17.1/10.1 DR/OR) and as a shotblocker (2.8 block rate). He was also fairly efficient, if limited offensively, as unlike Padgett, he was not prone to trying to do too much with the ball in his hands.

Still, the questions lingered, and to some extent still do, as to whether Pankey would even be back next season given his hot and cold relationship with his coach and the influx of talent in the frontcourt beginning next year with Charles Mitchell and Shaq Cleare. That aside, it's important to remember that Pankey was still only a freshman this season, and from an on court perspective, showed plenty of potential. The likelihood that both Mitchell and Cleare can provide 15-25 minutes of ACC-caliber basketball in the frontcourt every night is slim next year so Pankey will have a role to play. If he can fulfill the potential he demonstrated this year, he can play a big role in making Maryland's frontcourt one of the deepest in the conference.