And now it's time to pick up the pieces.
Just 48 hours (actually a little more) after the stinker in Starkville, the Maryland Terrapins return home to the friendly confines of the Comcast Center to take on a not-that-bad Samford (not Stanford; they're better than "not-that-bad") squadron.
Above all else, the first key to tonight's game for the Terps is to put the Mississippi State game behind them. There's nothing you can do about it now; it was a horrible, horrible performance that can't be undone so just forget about it, move on, and focus on the task at hand tonight. And that's the Bulldogs.
No, Samford isn't Stanford (like I said already) but they're not bad for a mid major. They return 4 starters and 8 of 12 letterwinners from a team went 22-7 last year, setting a program record with 16 conference wins in their first season in the Southern Conference. They earned a 2 seed in the SoCon tournament (Chattanooga was the regular season conference champion) and went out in the semifinals to 3 seed and eventual tournament champion Western Carolina. They fought # 9 Baylor pretty hard in the second half, cutting a 23 point lead down to 5 before losing 63-51 in Waco during the regular season last year, so you know they won't be scared of an unranked major conference team like the Terps and they won't be afraid of an atmosphere like the Comcast Center. This year, the Bulldogs have claimed wins over Jacksonville State and at Evansville and McNeese State. No, those teams aren't the Terps but all wins count the same and they all matter. Plus, the fact that they've already won twice on the road this season should provide a boon to their confidence.
The Bulldogs are led by their two stars, Savannah Hill and Emily London. Both were All Conference last season and both were preseason All Conference this season. So far this season, it's Hill who's been the offensive superstar, averaging 19 points a game to lead the team. She was the SoCon Player of the Week two weeks ago for her efforts in their first two games. As for London, she's not doing too badly herself, averaging 12.7 points per contest as well as leading the team in rebounds with 6.3 per game and assists with 11 total. While those two have racked up the accolades, not to be overlooked also is third banana Monica Maxwell, averaging 13.7 points and 5 boards per game, both second on the team. All three can give Maryland headaches if the Terps aren't careful. Hill in particular should be defended closely in order to prevent a redux of the Alexis Rack Experience.
Maryland has one big advantage tonight though and, well, it's their size. No one taller than 6'2 plays significant minutes for the Bulldogs and they don't start nor do they really play a traditional center at all. Lynetta Kizer could have a feast down low. She really needs to bounce back from Sunday's 3/8 shooting performance and this is just the team to do it against. She should have a field day on the boards as well.
This could also be a bounce-back game for Diandra Tchatchouang. At 6'3, she too shouldn't have too many problems scoring inside while hopefully being able to continue her hot stroke from three point range. Despite shooting 2/9 from the field on Sunday, she was 2/5 from behind the arc and she's provided an unexpected boost from long distance all season. If that can continue tonight, it should only mean good things for the Terps.
All in all, I think Maryland will get tested a little bit, especially early when they could still be feeling the aftereffects of getting blown out in Mississippi two days ago. But once the Terps get it rolling, they'll really start to dominate on the boards and assert their size for a fairly comfortable win.
Listen to the game LIVE in like 10 minutes at www.wmucsports.com. My good friend Brian Kapur will be on the call while I'm sitting in class. Back with a recap perhaps tonight, definitely tomorrow at the latest.
PREDICTION - Maryland 76, Samford 63
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment