ROSEMONT, Ill. — Returning 80 percent of its scoring from last season, the Maryland men’s basketball team is ranked in the top-10 of nearly every national preseason poll and expectations for the Terps are about as high as they get.

But newfound numbers in front of the team’s name are being welcomed by Mark Turgeon’s squad, as the Terps embrace expectations and prepare to fulfill them.

“We love it. We're excited,” Turgeon said at Big Ten media day Oct. 2. “Our guys only know one way, and that's to work hard. Our culture is terrific right now. Our guys are in the gym early, in the gym late, in the gym with me during the day. They're embracing it. We're all embracing it. We want more, and we want to be great. We're excited. We know we have a good team...We'll see what happens and you've got to play the games. But we think we have a talented team that's embracing the situation and looking forward to everything that comes with it.”

The Terps are returning seven players that were involved in the team’s rotation last year, including point guard and two-time All-Big Ten honoree, Anthony Cowan Jr., who is back for his senior season, as well as, power forward and All-Big Ten Freshman Team member and Baltimore native, Jalen “Stix” Smith.

Cowan and Smith were recently named to this year’s preseason All-Big Ten team, with the former being one of three unanimous selections this season. Their inclusion on the preseason team made Maryland one of two Big Ten programs with multiple selections, joining Michigan State.

Cowan’s decision to come back for his final season to lead the Terps as their floor general is perhaps the biggest factor driving Maryland’s preseason hype, and everything he has shown this offseason leads Turgeon to believe that the high expectations are warranted.

“Anthony had a terrific summer,” Turgeon said. “Going into his senior year, he made the decision he wanted to come back to Maryland and make an impact and have a legacy, so he has a chance to do a lot of things. He's scored a lot of points, he has a lot of assists, he has a lot of steals, but he wants to win at a high level. So I think that's really his biggest thing going into the season.”

As the lone senior and leader of this year’s Terps team, Cowan knows much of the responsibility of keeping his teammates grounded falls on his shoulders. But he’s not overly concerned with Maryland’s focus and doesn’t believe the Terps are buying into their own hype after seeing how hungry they are this offseason.

“I really don’t think we understand our potential yet,” Cowan said. “I just think we’re really focused on working as hard as we can. This is one of the hardest-working teams I’ve ever been around in terms of players just getting extra work and players wanting to be the best player they can be. And I think that’s the recipe for success.”

And while Cowan will be the straw that stirs the drink for the Terps this season, Smith has the potential to be Maryland’s biggest mismatch on the court. At 6-foot-10 with an outside game to supplement his size, Smith has bulked up this offseason and the stretch-four looks more prepared to bang down low. He should continue to be one of the conference’s best rebounders with more ways to score at his disposal now.

“Jalen, obviously, we're glad he's back, wonderful kid,” Turgeon said. “We don't call him “Stix” anymore; we call him “Logs” because he's gotten so much bigger. He never has his shirt on anymore, he's always trying to show his upper body off. But “Stix” — “Logs” — has really worked hard to expand his game. He's become a much better perimeter defender. We've worked on everything, worked on his low post. And so he had a terrific freshman year. I think with Jalen, we just want more consistency, and that's what he wants, too, and he should be able to do that for us this year.”

A third key cog to Maryland’s success this season is junior guard Darryl Morsell, who served as a Swiss Army knife for the Terps last season, playing every position on the floor besides center at one point or another.

Morsell made huge strides as a sophomore last season and really came on at the end of the year as Maryland was competing in the NCAA Tournament.

He’s a tenacious defender and one of the most competitive individuals on the team, and he has seen those traits start to spill over onto the rest of his teammates entering this season.

“Competitive, super competitive,” Morsell said to describe this year’s Terps squad. “This year’s team is deep, really deep. I feel like just the deepness of our team has made each other better throughout the summer. You have to compete every single play because there are talented guys, super talented guys at every spot on the floor.”

Cowan has seen the same competitiveness and drive in his teammates this offseason, and believes the Terps are too focused on winning with the collection of talent they have this year to be worrying about preseason rankings.

“Nothing has really changed; we still have the same goals, just to come out there and win and compete,” Cowan said. “I think our team really understands how to compete. And in our league, that’s important. Our focus is just on getting better every day. If you look too much into [preseason rankings], I think that hurts you a little bit because it makes you not work as hard or not compete as hard. At the end of the day, everybody is 0-0 right now, everybody has the same record, so all we have to do is go out and play as hard as we can.”

After playing an exhibition against Fayetteville State on Nov. 1, Maryland will open up its season in College Park against Holy Cross Nov. 5.