Maryland To Play Clemson In The Big Ten / ACC Challenge

While Maryland basketball’s non-conference schedule has been mostly hidden behind closed doors while logistics get worked out amid a pandemic, we found out at least one of the Terps’ cross-league opponents Oct. 30, when it was announced that Maryland’s Big Ten/ACC Challenge opponent this season will be Clemson.

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The Terps will travel to South Carolina to take on the Tigers Dec. 9, and hope for better luck than they’ve had in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in recent history. Maryland is 1-5 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge since joining the Big Ten in 2015. The Terps’ lone win in the challenge since being on the Big Ten side of the ledger came last season when Maryland defeated Notre Dame 75-51 in College Park. However, the Terps were 10-5 in the event when they were members of the ACC. Date and broadcast information for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge are expected to be announced in the upcoming weeks.

The last time the Terps and Tigers met was when both were members of the ACC back in March 2014. Clemson ended up defeating Maryland that day, 77-73 in double overtime. Overall, the matchup will be the 141st meeting on the hardwood between Clemson and Maryland. The Terps have dominated the series, winning 90 of the past 140 meetings, including 13 straight from 1998 to 2004.

The Tigers finished 16-15 last season and 9-11 in the ACC. Clemson lost by 18 to Minnesota in last year’s Big Ten/ACC challenge. The Tigers are projected to finish anywhere from the middle of the pack to the bottom of the ACC this season. Similarly, Maryland has been projected to finish around the same spot in the Big Ten.

With less than a month until the season is supposed to start, Maryland has kept its non-conference schedule very hush-hush. There have been reports of an early season game against George Mason, and another against Monmouth, as well as some rumblings of an event that would include Duquesne, San Jose St. and Cal-Baptist. There is also a rumored game against St. Joseph’s. But the Clemson matchup is the first and still only game to be finalized outside of Big Ten play.

A lack of transparency with the schedule hasn’t tempered any preseason buzz around the program. The defending Big Ten regular season champions are returning to action soon and Terps fans are excited to see what their team can do in the post-Anthony Cowan, “Stix” Smith era.

In what is being pegged by many as a possible rebuilding year for head coach Mark Turgeon and the Terps program, Maryland’s scheduling might even be more cautious than it normally is (which is typically pretty conservative to begin with).

That could give returning leaders Aaron Wiggins, Darryl Morsell, and Eric Ayala some time to gel with this young team and build confidence ahead of a competitive Big Ten schedule. Wiggins is the reigning Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year and Morsell was an honorable mention All-Big Ten performer last season.

Wiggins, Morsell, and Ayala will lead a group of mostly inexperienced or new Terps. But that group got some reinforcement where it needed it most — in the frontcourt — Oct. 27 when it was announced that Boston College transfer forward Jairus Hamilton had his waiver approved by the NCAA, making him immediately eligible to play for the Terps this season.

Perhaps it was the pandemic that delayed Hamilton’s waiver a bit, but the Terps won’t care now as they officially have him in their lineup and ready to step into a big role.

Hamilton is the most ready to play right away out of all of the frontcourt newcomers Maryland has entering the program this season — Alabama transfer Galin Smith and freshman Arnaud Revaz being the other two. The Terps are returning sophomores Donta Scott and Chol Marial, but Marial has yet to prove he can stay healthy long enough to provide any more than just a few minutes off the bench, and Scott has more of the skill set of a point forward rather than a true big.

Hamilton doesn’t all of a sudden make Maryland’s frontcourt one of the elite in the Big Ten, but adding a player that averaged 9.5 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 0.5 steals per game last year in a very competitive ACC should be considered a huge plus.

While Maryland’s 2020 recruiting class didn’t necessarily yield any players that appear to be difference-makers right away, things could be different in 2021 with three four-star recruits already on board.

Julian Reese, Ike Cornish, and James Graham III is already a nice trio Turgeon has put together for next season, but the Terps are looking to make that a quartet with one of its more recent offers.

Maryland was the first to make a move with European forward Mustapha Amzil, who is a Finland native turned Washington (Pa.) First Love Academy 2021 small forward prospect. Amzil’s recruitment has blown up since he arrived in the states, but it all started with a call from the Terps.

After picking up an offer from Maryland, the 6-foot-10, 215-pounder quickly added offers from Dayton, Oklahoma State, Pittsburgh, and St.John’s. He is now up to more than a dozen Division I offers, adding Boston College, Georgia Tech, Illinois, Kansas State, NC State, and more to his list. Duke, UNC, Indiana, and Kentucky are amongst the other schools that have reached out and shown interest.

Landing Amzil certainly isn’t going to be easy, but there’s something to be said about being first in a recruitment, especially in hoops. If Turgeon can add Amzil to an already impressive 2021 class that currently ranks 24th in the country according to Rivals.com, then Maryland might be back in business for a Big Ten title a season from now.

But, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. The Terps still have a 2020-2021 season to take care of and we should get to see how this year’s team looks soon.