After largely blowing through the non-conference portion of their schedule, Maryland men’s basketball passed the eye test, but the resume still needed work as national analysts remained in wait-and-see mode about Kevin Willard’s team in year three. Consecutive road losses against Oregon and Washington to begin the new calendar year raised eyebrows after falling dropping to 0-3 in true road games, but they’ve found a groove since the West Coast swing.
Since the pair of early January road losses, Maryland is 8-2 and 5-1 in Quad One games including Thursday’s win at Nebraska. The starting five combined for all 83 points on the road while Derik Queen put together his ninth 20-point game of the season, finishing with 24 points and 11 rebounds on 9-of-11 shooting. And how they won a “swing game” in Lincoln, like analyst Jon Rothstein called it, caught the attention of more national analysts.
“I just love how they play. They apply that pressure, as we would say. Offensively, they’re super gifted and defensively they get after you,” former UNC forward John Henson said on the Field of 68 show.
“[Julian] Reese was chirping. The big fella, the freshman [Derik Queen] was chirping. So you’ve got to be a little feisty on the road. They got a [technical foul] but I think now for Maryland, the doubt of winning on the road has subsided. Now it’s how can you handle prosperity? Last time we sang their praises, they kind of took a little slump. You’ve got a home game vs. Iowa, USC then you’ve got a big-time game against Michigan State. I’m interested to see how they respond now that they’ve won a fairly big game, Quad One game. I saw they were predicted a seven-seed, that’s probably the best seven-seed in the country if they’re going to be a seven-seed in the NCAA Tournament. I love what I saw [Thursday], man. Just an overall hard-fought, gutsy, one of those road wins you get back on the plane and you sit back and you really enjoy it and it’s a team-building win. I think they’re going to improve from here and they’re hitting their stride.”
Maryland saw their January success lead to their first AP ranking in nearly two years, debuting at 18th before dropping seven spots after splitting the home-away games against Ohio State and Rutgers. Following Thursday’s win, the Terps are one of eight teams nationally to rank inside the top-25 in both KenPom’s adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency ratings.
“This team is 11th in the country in total offense and 32nd in total defense. That’s a recipe for a lot of wins,” former head coach Matt McCall added. “And as a coach, you were always trying to say in terms of offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency, can we be in the top-30? Well they’re trending right there in terms of [defense], one of the best defensive teams in the country and they’re already there on offense. And last year, their offense was atrocious and they completely flipped the script on that. This team is for real. And when you get to this point in time in the season, it’s all about – especially when you’re playing on the road – find a way to win the game. That’s all that matters. Find a way to win the game. And they did that [Thursday].”
Now with a pair of consecutive wins, Maryland will head back to College Park to prepare for a three-game homestand to end the month with ninth-ranked Michigan State set to head to College Park on Feb. 26. With a chance to move to 17-1 at home this season within the next two weeks, head coach Kevin Willard and his team find themselves clicking at the right time.
“This is a team, the way they’re built, the way they’re playing on both ends of the floor and how battle-tested they’re going to be because they’re [in] the Big Ten, this is a team that could make a second weekend appearance in the NCAA Tournament but I would not be shocked if this team can get to the Final Four,” McCall added. “They’ve got an outstanding coach in coach Willard. He’s kind of righted the ship here at Maryland especially coming off of last season when they were so bad on the offensive end of the floor. This team is for real. This is a really, really good basketball team and the numbers show that.”
Maryland will host Iowa on Sunday, Feb. 16 for a 5 PM tipoff.
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