Palsson leaving Terps to pursue professional career

According to The Sun's Jeff Barker, Haukur Palsson is leaving Maryland to play basketball professionally in Europe. Palsson's decision is yet another tough pill for Maryland's basketball program to swallow after Jordan Williams left school for the NBA and some coach named Gary Williams retired.

Here's more from Barker:

Palsson, who is from Iceland, “wants to be closer to home and to be able to start providing for his family,” head coach Mark Turgeon said in a prepared statement Monday night.

Palsson, 6-foot-6 and 190 pounds, averaged 2.8 points per game and 2.1 rebounds per game in his freshman season. But he possessed inside toughness and could step back and hit the 3.

The Terps were already going to have a small lineup, and Palsson would likely have started at either small or power forward. His absence will hurt the Terps' rotation even more, and it'll be difficult for Maryland to face bigger teams -- which will be nearly every team -- without having to consider playing a lot of zone.

Without Palsson, Nick Faust is almost guaranteed a starting spot as a freshman. He was already going to see plenty of minutes on the court -- maybe now he'll see even more. Others who should see more of the court: Ashton Pankey and Mychal Parker, along with James Padgett (a probable starter) and Berend Weijs.

The upcoming season is going to be a long one for Mark Turgeon and the Terps, but at least their guard-heavy offense and up-tempo game should be fun to watch.