COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Raising its level of competition from game one to game two, No. 7 Maryland (1-0) host Rhode Island (1-0) Nov. 9, as the Terps look to win their second game of the opening week in college hoops.
“It’s a step up in competition for us, which is great,” Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon said Nov. 8. “We should be ready. I think we’ll be better [Saturday] night than we were on Tuesday (against Holy Cross). We’ve gotten better this week. We’ve had good practices. We’ve gotten better in our halfcourt offense, which we haven’t been very good in. We’ve worked on it a lot, so hopefully that’s going to help us.”
The Terps will need to have their halfcourt and transition offense clicking on Saturday night against a Rhode Island team that had five double-digit scorers in its season-opening win over LIU Brooklyn.
Junior guard Fatts Russell led the Rams in scoring with 18 points, while senior forward Cyril Langevine netted 16 and senior guard Jeff Dowtin 13. Sophomore Tyrese Martin and freshman Jacob Toppin also contributed 13 and 11 points, respectively.
“They can play,” Terps sophomore guard Eric Ayala said of the Rams. “I’m familiar with those guys even before [Saturday’s] game. We’ve got to come ready to play. This is not going to be a cakewalk. We know Rhode Island has some offensive firepower and we have to come ready to play.”
Dating back to last season, Rhode Island has won seven of its last eight games and the Rams have returned most of their talent from a year ago.
Adding to Rhode Island’s motivation for Saturday night’s game, several players from the DMV area are on the Rams’ roster, including Dowtin, who played high school ball with Terps senior point guard Anthony Cowan Jr., and Jermaine Harris, who Turgeon spent time recruiting a few years ago. Rams Head coach David Cox is also a Washington, D.C., native.
“Rhode Island is a team that got hot late last year, won seven out of eight, beat VCU twice, six of their top seven scorers are back, they have four local kids so they’re going to be excited to play here,” Turgeon said. “Anthony’s teammate [Dowtin] starts for them and he’s a terrific player. Harris is a local player that we recruited a little bit, and then they have two other local players. So they’ll be excited. Their head coach is from the area, so they’ll be excited.”
But the familiarity between the Terps and Rams doesn’t stop there. Maryland freshman forward Donta Scott also played high school ball with Rhode Island’s leading scorer.
“I know a lot of them and I’ve known Fatts since I was a freshman (in high school), but we’ve been prepping for this game and they’re a good team so we’re looking forward to this game and looking forward to the competition,” Scott said.
No doubt, Maryland will be tested Saturday night harder than it was earlier in the week against Holy Cross. But Turgeon has liked what he has seen from his team since its 24-point season-opening victory and feels confident about where the Terps are at going into their next matchup.
“[Thursday’s] practice was phenomenal,” Turgeon said. “We divided the teams up. Man, they competed. It was really cool, and we got a lot better yesterday. [Friday] was more about preparing for Rhode Island. It’s not as intense. But whenever you can divide your team up and just get after it in practice it kind of helps your comfort level a little bit.”
Much of the preparation for the Rams has revolved around slowing down Russell, who can score in numerous ways despite his 5-foot-10, 165-pound frame.
The Terps are hoping their sub-6-foot point guard, Cowan, can get the better of the matchup with Russell and that their length as a team — the biggest in the Big Ten with an average height for 6-foot-8 — can disrupt him and the rest of Rhode Island’s guards.
“They need to change his name to ‘Fast,’ not ‘Fatts,’” Turgeon said. “He’s fearless, but I have a pretty good little guy too — Anthony — and they’ll probably match up. I think the whole key is in transition and ball-screen defense, just making sure everybody is aware of him. That’s going to be huge. Hopefully our height around the rim will help us, our length. But he’s fearless, and then he makes big shots. When you watch games from last year, whenever the game is on the line he hits big shots. I think Dowtin is the same way.”
In order to slow down Rhode Island’s guards, Turgeon plans to slide his best perimeter defender, junior Darryl Morsell, back into the starting lineup after bringing him off the bench in the Terps’ first game.
“Darryl is starting tomorrow because I have a lot of respect for their guards and I want to be able to hopefully start the game well defensively,” Turgeon said.
But don’t expect Morsell’s insertion into the starting lineup to necessarily stick. Turgeon has shown early this year that he’s not afraid to mix it up and plans to remain fluid with his lineups based on matchups.
“Darryl is starting [Saturday] night because of matchups,” Turgeon said. “I think I have seven or eight different guys that can start, but Darryl is starting [Saturday] and we’ll make the adjustment. But we’ll have probably two different starters in the lineup [Saturday] night in the first half. In the second half, I might start a whole different team. It’s a nice luxury I have.”
The Terps and Rams are scheduled for a late tipoff in College Park, starting at 9 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on the Maryland Sports Radio Network and televised on FS1.
“It’s a long day, but there will be no traffic at 9 o’clock on a Saturday, so hopefully that will help people get here on time,” Turgeon said with a smile when asked about this thoughts on the late start time.
