Maryland Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Terrapins

Without its two best players, what will be the season outlook for Maryland Basketball in 2020-21?

Maryland basketball had one of their best seasons to date last year as they won a share of the Big Ten along with the Michigan State Spartans and Wisconsin Badgers. They finished the 2019-20 season with a 24-7 (14-6 Big Ten) record and ranked 12th in the final AP Poll.

Their rise to the top of the conference last year spoke to the strength of the Big Ten as a whole. Maryland, Michigan State, and Wisconsin were strong, but we can’t forget about the Michigan Wolverines, Illinois Fighting Illini, Iowa Hawkeyes, and Rutgers Scarlet Knights. The Scarlet Knights surprised a lot of people last season with the performance they put together and Iowa was led by Big Ten Player of the Year Luka Garza who is back this season.

The Big Ten was strong last year with a conference-leading 10 teams that could’ve determined NCAA Tournament bids. It will be interesting to see how the conference shakes up this year with Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn coming back for Illinois, Garza is back for Iowa as stated earlier and both Michigan and Wisconsin are teams to continue to watch.

Maryland basketball lost Anthony Cowan Jr. and Jalen Smith to graduation and the NBA Draft which leaves room for Eric Ayala to shine as the point guard. Darryl Morsell and Aaron Wiggins will join him this season as leaders on the team.

The Terps did struggle to land high profile transfers in the offseason but did secure frontcourt help in Jairus Hamilton (Boston College) Galin Smith (Alabama), and Arnaud Revaz (JL Bourg). Chol Marial and Donta Scott could be huge for the Terps if they show major improvement as sophomores.