The NCAA Tournament brackets have been revealed and the Terps are set to take on UConn Saturday in the opening round. We take an early look at the Huskies below.
UConn: (15-7, 11-6 Big East), Finished 3rd in the Big East regular-season standings
KenPom: 16
NET: 30
Best Win: USC (61-58), Dec. 3 at Mohegan Sun Arena
Worst Loss: at Providence (70-59), Feb. 10
A quick look at UConn's KenPom page and several things immediately stick out. First, this team is extremely efficient. The Huskies rank in the top-25 nationally in both offensive and defensive adjusted efficiency. When you break it down even further and look at Big East-only stats, you see that the Huskies were No. 1 in the league in defensive adjusted efficiency and No. 3 in offensive adjusted efficiency. This is extremely impressive for a team that finished third in the No. 4-ranked conference in the country.
One area where the Huskies are likely to present a problem for Maryland is along the offensive glass. UConn enters Saturday's game sixth nationally in offensive rebound percentage. Adama Sanogo and Isaiah Whaley are each a wide load inside, both standing at 6-foot-9, while 6-foot-6 Tyrese Martin is among the nation's leaders, averaging 2.8 offensive boards per game.
Another area where the Huskies will likely present a major problem is in the defensive paint. UConn enters the NCAA tournament No. 10 nationally in block percentage. This is in large part thanks to Isaiah Whaley, who enters the Big Dance 12th nationally with 2.6 blocks per game. The freshman Sanogo also averages a block per game to make them one of the most formidable rim-protecting duos in the country. But even when UConn's bigs aren't blocking shots, they are able to use their size to alter shots. Beyond Whaley and Sanogo, UConn head coach Dan Hurley has a plethora of bigs at his disposal to clog the paint, including 6-foot-11 senior center Josh Carlton and 6-foot-9 forward Tyler Polley. With so much size in the paint, it should come as no surprise that the Huskies were No. 1 in opponent 2-point field-goal percentage in Big East play and 32nd nationally.
Finally, as good as the Huskies are defensively in the paint, they also do a good job defending the three-point line as well. UConn only allowed opponents to hit 32 percent of their three-point attempts during Big East play, good for fourth in the league. But they were also excellent in not allowing opponents to shoot as many threes. Entering the tournament, only 34 percent of opponents' total field goal attempts were from beyond the arc. This could present a problem for Maryland as 44 percent of the Terps' total field goal attempts were from beyond the arc in Big Ten play, the most of any team in the league by quite a bit.
Given the defensive prowess of both teams, this game certainly seems to have the makings of a low-scoring affair. Stay tuned for more on this matchup throughout the week.
