REACTION - Maryland 66, Minnesota 45

It's always nice when a team shows they can win multiple ways. That's what Maryland did on Thursday.

The Terps played Big Ten style and out-grinded the Gophers for a solid 20 point victory in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. They won with defense, holding Minnesota to 45 points, 27.1% shooting and just 30% from three point range. They outfought and outmuscled the Gophers all evening long in a very physical game. No one player on Minnesota shot better than 4/10 from the field so that was well done defensively by the Terps. The most impressive part perhaps could be that the Terps only committed 13 fouls in the game and no one fouled out. To play that good of defense without conceding many fouls is extremely impressive. Minnesota only got to the line 14 times all game.

In an interesting twist, Kim Rodgers got the start and did well with the opportunity, scoring a career-high 14 points while also grabbing 8 rebounds. Brenda continues to start three guards, which is a luxury she can afford with Lynetta Kizer being such a beast down low and Diandra Tchatchouang also being able to be a force in the paint. And when you have this many good guards, why not start as many as you can? Dara Taylor had a nice rebound game, at least offensively, scoring 9 points on 4/8 shooting, but she didn't have a single assist and turned it over four times. She's been inconsistent to say the least this year, but the potential is most certainly there.

The shocker for me was that Tianna Hawkins only saw 8 minutes of action. But I suppose it sometimes works out that way from game to game and with a rotation that's far from set yet, sometimes players get more minutes and sometimes they'll get less. It's a testament to Maryland's depth, which is always an advantage.

The most impressive stat from Thursday, however? Maryland going 19/22 from the free throw line. When you do that, you're going to set yourself up to win a lot of basketball games. But this game was all about the defense and shutting down Minnesota's offensive attack. The Terps get Loyola tomorrow afternoon at 2 PM and I'll be on the broadcast of that one. I'll have a preview beforehand though so stay tuned for that.