Published Feb 15, 2019
Preview: Maryland looks to keep momentum going at No. 6 Michigan
Pat Donohue
Staff Writer

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Coming off of its highest quality win of the season against No. 12 Purdue, No. 24 Maryland (19-6, 10-4 Big Ten) finds itself in another top-25 matchup Feb. 15, except this time around it will be on the road against an opponent with an even better resume than the Boilermakers.

The Terps are 4-2 against ranked opponents this season and hope to build upon that record with another win Saturday afternoon as they travel to Ann Arbor to face No. 6 Michigan (22-3, 11-3). A win for Maryland would secure a fourth 20-win season in the past five years for head coach Mark Turgeon’s squad.

As the fifth youngest team in college basketball, Maryland has already won Big Ten road games this season against Rutgers, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Nebraska, but it was actually a narrow defeat in conference play away from College Park that Turgeon believes gave his team the confidence to win 20 games and compete with a team as talented as the Wolverines in their building.

“It all started at Purdue,” Turgeon said. “Our guys really dug in there and I think that gave them a lot of confidence because that building is electric. So terrific building, a really good team. I think that game gave us confidence moving forward.

“We have such a new team, but we’re comfortable on the road, and you should be this time of year. We’re young and my young kids have grown up, but we know how good [Michigan is], especially in that building. We’ve played well there and I expect to play well [Saturday] and I expect Michigan to play well, so it should be a great college basketball game.”

The confidence they’ll have from riding high off of a victory over a top-15 team will surely help the Terps in Ann Arbor, but Turgeon knows the real key to Maryland’s success on Saturday will be offensive execution and taking care of the ball against the nation’s No. 2-most efficient defense according to KenPom.

“I think what makes them good is they’re really long and they’re athletic,” Turgeon said. “They’re 6-foot-7, 6-foot-6, 6-foot-8, at the two, three, and four, and then their center is 7-foot-1, and then their point guard is as tough as my point guard, Anthony [Cowan]. So tough little kid who can really guard. So they have a lot of toughness to them. They hired a guy (John Beilein) and he’s a good coach and they’re really good defensively. So it’s just getting used to how they’re going to guard us. Are they going to switch every screen? Are they just going to switch handoffs? Ball-screens? We’ll find out. They’re going to switch something, so it’s just about getting used to it and taking advantage of what’s given to us. But they’re good defensively and they really improved as the year went on last year. They’ve hung their hat on their defense quite a bit this year.”

Although Michigan’s calling card is stingy team defense, the Wolverines certainly have players who can score such as freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis (14.6 points per game), senior wing Charles Matthews (13.2), and sophomore two guard Jordan Poole (13.0).

The Wolverines’ key to success on offense is crisp ball movement that limits turnovers. No team has had the ball stolen from them less than Michigan this season and the Wolverines also have the fourth-best offensive turnover percentage in the country.

But the teams who have beaten Michigan so far this season--albeit all away from Ann Arbor--forced the Wolverines into more turnovers than they’re accustomed to. Wisconsin, Iowa, and most recently Penn State have all solved Michigan’s puzzle, and now it will be the Terps’ turn to see if they can replicate the success those teams had against the Wolverines.

“Well, every game is different, but we’re all copycats,” Turgeon said. “We all try to steal. We watch a lot of film, so you see what works. But then again, Michigan is probably working on what Penn State did to them, so they’re trying to get better. So we’ll do what we do. It has been pretty successful. But we’re always trying to watch teams that have success against teams (we’re about to play) to see if there’s something we might steal that helps us.”

Tip-off in Ann Arbor between No. 6 Michigan and No. 24 Maryland is scheduled for 12pm EST. The game will be broadcast on FOX.