Maryland Draws UConn In First Round Of NCAAT

After losing three of their last four games, the Terps had to sweat out Selection Sunday a little bit more than some may have anticipated a few weeks ago. But a key win over Michigan State in their first game of the Big Ten Tournament all but sealed the deal for Maryland, which received a 10-seed in the East Region in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Mark Turgeon’s squad will match up against Dan Hurley’s No. 7-seeded UConn (15-7, 11-6 Big East) in the First Round of this year’s installment of March Madness.

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Unlike Maryland, the Huskies have been a hot team of late. UConn has won five of its last six games with its only loss in that span coming in its last time out to Crieghton (59-56) in the Big East Tournament.

Not only have the Huskies been winning games, they’ve done so in very decisive fashion recently. UConn’s average margin of victory in its five wins since Feb. 23 is 18.4 points. The Huskies’ resurgence this season after falling to 5-5 in the Big East and 8-5 overall coincided with the return of sophomore shooting guard Jame Bouknight.

The 6-foot-5 potential NBA Lottery pick missed eight games in the middle of the regular season because of an elbow injury suffered in early January. UConn would lose four of its next eight games with Bouknight out of the lineup, but the Huskies have been 6-2 since his return.

Bouknight leads UConn in scoring with 19.0 points per game, but he also uses his status as a big guard to his advantage by ripping down 5.7 rebounds per game. I would imagine we’ll see Maryland’s Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Darryl Morsell, draped on Bouknight for the majority of the game.

But Bouknight’s absence helped other Huskies develop their games and build chemistry together. Junior guards RJ Cole and Tyrese Martin also average double figures in scoring — 12.3 ppg and 10.7 ppg, respectively — and can ignite UConn’s offense at any moment.

Running the point in UConn’s methodical, half-court offense, Cole — a Howard transfer — likes to stuff the stats. He’s not only the Huskies’ second-leading scorer, he also leads the team with 4.4 assists per game and chips in 2.9 rebounds per game as well. However, Cole is currently in concussion protocol and will have to be cleared before Saturday’s game in order to have an impact on this first-round matchup.

Playing the three in most sets, Martin is UConn’s most aggressive player when it comes to crashing the boards. He averages 7.3 rebounds per game while making the most of his 6-foot-6, 215-pound frame.

In large part because of the injury to its best player, UConn has had an up-and-down season that resulted in a third-place finish in the Big East regular season. Although they were bounced in the semifinals of their conference tournament (by a pretty talented Creighton team nonetheless), the Huskies are arguably one of the hottest teams entering the NCAA Tournament.

UConn has made March Madness magic happen before thanks to talented guards like Kemba Walker and Shabazz Napier. Even dating back to Rip Hamilton and Ray Allen, the Huskies have often made noise in the tournament because of their strong guard play.

They are fitting their M.O. this year with Bouknight back in the lineup and are going to give Maryland’s guards all they can handle. Luckily for Maryland, while its frontcourt has gone cold down the stretch, guards Eric Ayala, Aaron Wiggins, and Darryl Morsell have played some of their best ball recently.

Morsell, as mentioned above, will be an X-factor in this game for the Terps. Not only will Maryland need him to provide some offense, but he will also be tasked with slowing down Bouknight, an NBA talent.

While the guards for UConn are an issue to deal with, as is the Huskies’ frontcourt, which isn’t large, but it’s deep and effective.

UConn has four players 6-foot-9 or taller that coach Hurley likes to rotate and keep fresh. The group is led by senior Isaiah Whaley (8.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 2.6 bpg) freshman Adama Sanogo (7.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg). The Huskies’ 6-foot-11 senior, Josh Carlton, can also give some quality minutes down low.

The frontcourt is where Maryland will be at its biggest disadvantage. Starting forward Donta Scott has gone cold lately for the Terps, and Galin Smith and Jairus Hamilton have been streaky — at best — all season long. The Chol Marial project never panned out and now he’s not even part of the rotation, and beyond that Maryland has nobody that can bang down low.

UConn ranks sixth nationally in offensive rebounding rate and 10th in block rate. The Huskies’ guards get all of the love, but the bigs — and Tyrese Martin — do the dirty work for Hurley & Co.

Very seldom has Maryland had three or four of its best players all play well in the same game. The few times it has happened, the Terps have had blowout wins — i.e. Minnesota (twice), Nebraska (Feb. 16), Michigan State (Feb. 28).

That’s what it will take to beat a team as balanced and complete as UConn — even if Cole misses the game for the Huskies.

Ayala, Wiggins, Morsell, and Scott all need to bring their A-game and score in double figures for Maryland to advance. The bench scoring just hasn’t been there for Maryland all season long and I don’t think we can count on a 32-point outburst from Hakim Hart like he had earlier in the season against St. Peter’s.

Hamilton and Smith transferred to Maryland last offseason to be the Terps’ frontcourt in a year where the options for Turgeon down low were thin. So far, they haven’t had a huge impact in many games this season. But, better late than never. Their contributions, especially defensively and crashing the boards will be huge in this 10-7 matchup.

After winning the Big Ten regular season title last year, Maryland never got to see its postseason fate unfold because of the pandemic. The last time Turgeon brought his team to the dance was the year prior when it went 1-1 in Jacksonville, Florida, with a win over Belmont and a loss to LSU.

UConn will be dancing for the first time since 2016 when the Huskies went 1-1 as a 9-seed with an opening-round win over Colorado and a loss to Kansas.