Maryland Hosts Iowa Tonight In The First Ever Game Between Top 10 Teams At Xfinity Center
It’s rather stunning that a substantially prestigious program hasn’t hosted a top 10 matchup in 13 years, but that’s the case. Xfinity Comcast Center opened the year after the 2002 National Championship team, and the program went in the tank for a decade afterwards. We can talk about the programs’ failures until we’re blue in the face, but none of that matters because Iowa is coming to town and they’re obviously no joke. They’ve bullied the Big Ten so far in jumping out to a 7-0 start, and their schedule has been anything but cushy (unlike a certain Tom Crean team). They’ve beaten BOTH Michigan State and Purdue TWICE and Michigan too, and by an average of 12 points no less. There’s no denying that this Iowa team is very legit.
Which is why this game is so important for Maryland. They squandered their chance to get a great road win in East Lansing on Saturday, and they’re running out of chances to put a marquee win on their resume. Wins against UConn and Georgetown are nice, but they’re certainly not wowing the tournament committee. Any Maryland fan knows after last year’s seeding debacle, we need all the help we can get in that regard. The only games left on the schedule against top 25 teams are a home-and-home against #21 Purdue and the season finale at #19 Indiana. Good teams but hardly anything to write home about. If Maryland falls to 6-3 in conference play tonight, you could probably count them out of the regular season conference title race with Iowa at 8-0 and the tiebreaker in hand. And with that, the odds of getting a 1 or 2 seed become nearly impossible. So yeah, they need this one.
There’s really 3 keys to this game in my eyes. They gotta find a way to stop Jarrod Uthoff. Guy’s put himself into the NPOY picture by averaging 19 and 6, and he’s a matchup nightmare on the wing for most teams at 6’9″. Good news there is Jake Layman has really progressed on the defensive end, and is long and athletic in his own right. He might get beaten by Uthoff’s quickness a few times, but I’m sure the Terps will have plenty of help defense behind him. The 2nd thing they have to improve, and not just tonight, is rebounding, especially on the defensive end. They’ve been getting murdered on 2nd chance opportunities by the opposition lately. Something’s gotta change there. That Northwestern game last week doesn’t even sniff OT if the Terps just hit the glass on their own end, and they might’ve had a shot against Sparty too. This team is too talented to be sunk by something as fundamental as defensive rebounding. And the 3rd is to keep Melo Trimble’s eyeballs in his sockets. Come on man, we know what Adam Woodbury is all about…
Maty Mauk loves coke, Kanye likes fingers in his assholes, and Adam Woodbury loves poking people in the eye. It’s just who he is. Which is fine, it just can’t happen on our watch. I don’t think he’s had any incidents recently, but all it takes is a huge nationally televised game to fall right back into old habits. As long as Melo’s eyeballs are where they should be, the Terps have a fighting chance in this game. Can’t have your best player trying to shoot free throws like this.
Cards are on the table. We came in with high expectations for this Terps team, and they haven’t quite met them. These are the kind of games that change that. Still plenty of time to figure things out, but a win tonight will go a long way come Selection Sunday. Sgo Terps.