Maryland basketball has gone blemish free 6-0 leading up to the Big Ten/ACC Challenge matchup with Virginia on Wednesday. Here is a game-by-game look at how they dominated their non-conference schedule up to this point.
There was a lot of excitement brewing for Maryland Basketball with their young and very talented roster coming into this season. With Anthony Cowan Jr as the floor general and the frontcourt in the capable hands of Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith, the Terps were poised to have really good production on both ends of the court.
Maryland Basketball is now ranked. They are the 24th ranked team in the AP Top 25. Their next game will be an opportunity for them to prove they deserve to be there and with a win, they could move up before Big Ten play gets underway.
One thing that is apparent right away about this year’s Terps squad is their ball movement. In each game, they move the ball very well and have been very unselfish. They have led every game in assists they have played thus far and recorded two 20+ assist games in that span.
They have rebounded the ball very well also, putting up 40 or more rebounds per game which speaks to their length and aggressiveness on the boards. Fernando and Smith are the teams leading rebounders with 56 and 45 respectively. Right now, this team is playing like a well-oiled machine. Emphasis on the term “right now.” They still have to play Virginia and they have a long road stretch in January when conference play gets into full swing.
Maryland Basketball has been able to show how deep their team as well. At every position up to this point in the season, the reserves have come in contributed quality minutes on the floor and that will be very important as the season goes on and the games get tougher.Here are some early insights into the Terrapins this season.
Frontcourt showing promise
The frontcourt play of Terps has been stellar to this point in the season. Fernando and Smith have shown they can play well together with each of them bringing different things to the Terps offense.
Fernando choosing to stay for his sophomore season has paid dividends for the Terps through the first six games. While he brought an intensity to the team that was apparent from the opening game last year, he has continued that and it has led to him being in the NCAA’s top 10 in field goal percentage (.774).
More from Maryland Terrapins
- Maryland Basketball: Forward Pavlo Dziuba latest to enter transfer portal
- Maryland Basketball: Arnaud Revaz enters transfer portal
- Maryland Basketball: Impact of Donta Scott returning for next season
- Maryland Basketball: Terps land transfer Chance Stephens from LMU
- Maryland Basketball: Impact of Jahmir Young returning next season
For Jalen Smith, he has come along quite well. his ability to rebound the ball and he has asserted himself as a rim protector. I’ll be interested to see who his matchup will be for the ACC/Big Ten challenge against Virginia. That will be his first real test.
Ivan Bender, Joshua Tomaic and Ricky Lindo Jr. have all put in quality minutes as well.
Good ball movement for the Terrapins
The ball movement for Maryland Basketball has been impressive because of their ability to make the extra pass for the right shot.
Getting the ball to the big men down low has been priority number one with Fernando and Smith playing as well as they have been but when you look at them in their half-court set, the ball never stands still for too long.
Running the offense is easier when you’re at home so the question will be can they have fluid ball movement on the road in loud environments?
They struggled mightily on the road last season and ball movement is going to need to be a solid part of the offense if they want to have a better record on the road and win the tough games.
Defense leading to fastbreak points
The last takeaway for Maryland basketball through these first six games is their defense setting them up to push the ball down the court on the fast break. Whether it’d be a block, rebound or steal, once they get the ball, the Terps move it up the floor in a hurry.
Even if they have to back out into their half-court set on the fast break, they don’t lose a step because their ball movement is already so good.
Maryland Basketball has the talent for all of these takeaways to propel them to higher places this season. As I said before, their road play is going to be interesting to watch as the season goes on.