Maryland at Michigan Discussion Thread

Ridiculously short turnaround (at least for this blogger trying to write a preview and recap another game) with a 6:30 p.m. Monday tip.

Maryland has been a disaster on defense, but has some offensive abilities.

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Worried about this game with the short turnaround. But looking at the bare-bones it seems like we should have a pretty big advantage in the frontcourt? They look to have a bunch of traditional bigs at the 4 and 5 who don’t seem to be very good. If they can’t punish us in the post, and they can’t guard our frontcourt on the perimeter…then easy win?

The key matchups would seem to be Matthews covering Huerter and Simpson on Cowan. Fernando is a physical specimen, but he can’t create much for himself.

Cowan is really quick with the ball. I hope Z is still getting annoyed at hearing about how everybody else’s sophomore PG is such a great player - it certainly served him well against Iowa and MSU; he could have done better against Purdue, though I’m not sure C. Edwards was his primary responsibility. I suspect he won’t be tasked with stopping Tony Carr, though it would be interesting to watch.

In conference play, the Terps are last in the league in 3 point defense - both shooting percentage and number of shots allowed. O/U on Michigan made threes might be 13.5…

Second road trip in five days for Terrapins. I like playing back again quickly when we’re rolling.

Maryland has no D either. Should be ripe for picking.

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Maryland has played 3 big ten road games. They gave up 91 points in all 3 of them.

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Can anyone comment on Heurter’s defense? Would love to see CM boss him around; and CM’s defensive effort on Bridges (who got his, but with 4 TOs and a ton of bad shots) shows that CM can really clamp down, when he’s focused, so I’m looking forward to him guarding Heurter.

Jackson was really their mismatch creator, they lost sooo much when he went down.

Huerter, offensively, is the only guy they have that really concerns me that much - he’s skilled, he can shoot, he can pass, and he’s tall enough at guard to have good vision. Cowan puts points on the board, but he’s not particularly efficient unless he’s getting to the line (he’s shooting close to 90% from the stripe on 7 attempts a game). If we can avoid fouling him, he’ll get some buckets nut not effectively.

Fernando seems pretty good, but we’ve seen scarier bigs in each of our past two games.

Does this years team have team captains?

Yes. MAAR, Robinson and Wagner.

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Terrifying potential let down game against a team that still seems to have quite a few weapons.

I literally have not watched a single second of MD basketball this year, but the preview rang a number of bells.

This would be such a huge win and, the alternative, well, I don’t even want to say it.

Sure, that team can be very bad, but they could also bomb someone out of their gym, it sounds like. And we’re on no rest from the most emotional game of the year. What could go wrong? :no_mouth:

Just 9 replies to the preview speaks to what a let down game this could be, too, I fear…

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There is definitely the setting for huge letdown after an emotional victory just two days earlier, but it is not that much different than playing in a tournament. The upper classman have experienced quick turnaround games before and I trust the coaching staff will have them prepared. And even if we come out flat, we have shown an ability to climb back into ballgames by sticking to the game plan and never quitting.

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Hmmm. LOL. I’m gonna venture a guess that this isn’t how it works.

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My hope is the light bulb came on for Wagner against MSU.
Coach Beilein was very frank and critical of Wagner during MSU presser. Let’s see more drives and good (well better at least) D going forward.
25-30 minutes of Wagner and 10-15 minutes of Teske is a nice combination.

I think this should be a decent match up for him. Fernando not that experienced guarding a guy like Moe.

Illinois game wasn’t pretty either. I don’t want to see that first half again tonight. You can count on uninspired performances you just don’t know when they will happen.

I hope tonight goes well. I am more confident with the addition of Livers to the starting 5. Really in the last couple weeks Simpson and Livers inserted in the starting lineup have completely changed the dynamics for this team.

I am hoping that depth can help us combat uninspired performances (unless it is affecting the entire team).

Let’s just hope at some point tonight we’re not in the position again of watching Heurter bomb away and play heady and we wistfully dream of what could have been with him in JB’s offense.

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Uh, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t suggesting causation.

But 9 replies did speak to the short turnaround time and the difficulty of turning the page from such an emotional victory and focusing on what’s next. Obviously, we are not them - and I hope and expect their focus turned more quickly than ours did.

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Haha just poking fun at comparing how prepared the team will or won’t be to online conversation volume is all :slight_smile:

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