With the Maryland football team seemingly losing an ACL every week, it’s about time to turn the attention to the men’s basketball team, which opens its season on Nov. 9.
After a tumultuous offseason that included signing recruits, losing recruits and appealing eligibility, it is fitting the team will take on No. 3 Kentucky in its opening game. Maryland lost the famed Harrison twins to the Wildcats about a month ago, and will be put to the test against the defending national champs. While the Terps won’t be expected to win, the game should prove to be an excellent early season barometer on what kind of offseason coach Mark Turgeon put the current players through.
After the game against Kentucky, Maryland will face 12 straight inferior opponents from nonmajor conferences, such as Lafayette, Georgia Southern and South CarolinaState, before opening ACC play on Jan. 5. Judgment on those games may be tough to analyze effectively, given the level of competition.
Turgeon and his team may not come out and say it, but there will certainly be tension between the Maryland and Kentucky coaching staffs, and the Terps would love to play early season spoiler to a team that “stole” their recruits.
As for the season as a whole, Turgeon will have to rely on several freshman to provide a bulk of the scoring if the Terps want to compete in an ACC filled with talented teams. As the rankings are now, Maryland is scheduled to play a ranked ACC opponent seven times, with four games against No. 8 Duke and No. 11 UNC. But perhaps the biggest early season splash is NC State’s No. 6 preseason ranking, ahead of its in-state rivals for the first time in 37 years. The Terps will face the Wolfpack only once in the regular season, at home on Jan. 16.
The starting lineup for the Terps is difficult to project, given the number of freshmen, and whether Turgeon wants to open with an experienced five, or a talented five.
If Turgeon opts for the former approach, expect junior Pe’Shon Howard, sophomore Nick Faust and senior Logan Aronhault in the back court, with sophomore Alex Len and senior James Padgett in the front court.
However, if Turgeon throws out experience as a factor for his starters, then we may see Howard, Faust and freshman Seth Allen alongside fellow freshman Shaquille Cleare and Len. This lineup certainly has more potential for explosive basketball, as Allen is more of a playmaker than Aronhault, but as such is also more turnover prone.
Whatever the approach, this team is without a doubt a much deeper, and thus more talented team than last year’s, and will get to show off that added talent against the college superpower that is Kentucky, before facing one of the strongest conferences in years. Then again, why would it even be easy for the Terps?
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