Looking to bounce back from its first loss of the season, Maryland (4-1) took five days to recoup and is set to host No. 21 Rutgers (4-0) in its Big Ten opener Dec. 14. The Terps are 5-1 in conference openers since joining the Big Ten in 2014-15, and 11-4 against the Scarlet Knights all-time.
In their last outing, the Terps struggled to score and did not protect the ball well against Clemson. But head coach Mark Turgeon is pleased with how his squad responded to a 16-point loss and believes a loss like that can even help his team be more ready to start Big Ten play on Monday night.
“[The Clemson loss] was a very humbling experience for all of us,” Turgeon said. “I just look at it and say I have to do a much better job coaching than I did in that game, getting our guys ready, getting us prepared. We’ve had a great week since. Sometimes I think it’s good early in the year to get punched in the mouth and really figure out where you are. That did it. We’ll see. We have a long way to go in a lot of areas, but the guys responded the right way and we know we have a really good Rutgers team coming in here tomorrow. All you can do is try to learn from it and get better and I think we’ve done that.”
Because of his presence in the post, Terps senior transfer forward Gailin Smith will be relied upon to play a big role against a physical Rutgers team that has two talented bigs that it likes to rotate.
Smith has arguably been Maryland’s most reliable player down low so far this year, but he has also gotten into foul trouble at times, which has limited his production. But Smith’s grittiness and leadership are things the Terps will need in their matchup with the Scarlet Knights, and the senior’s message to the team entering Monday night’s game is to come ready and strike first.
“Really just us staying locked in on the game, going into the game making sure we have a good mindset going into it, making sure we want to punch first instead of getting hit and trying to come back,” Smith said.
Smith and the rest of Maryland’s frontcourt will be tasked with stopping Rutgers’ freshman center Clifford Omoruyi and 6-foot-11 junior Myles Johnson, who are averaging 14.3 rebounds and 4.3 blocks per game collectively.
“They’re very physical and athletic bigs down there, so just going through the scouting report and watching how to go at them as well as ways they like to go at other five men that they’ve played and just really taking from that and being prepared,” Smith said.
But it’s the Scarlet Knights’ guards that make them one of the most dangerous teams in the Big Ten this season. Led at the point by senior Jacob Young, Rutgers typically plays a four-guard lineup and all of those guards besides the senior are 6-foot-4 or taller.
Young’s 6.8 assists per game helps get the ball in the hands of Rutgers’ leading scorers, Ron Harper Jr. and Montez Mathis, who are averaging 22.3 and 16.3 points, respectively. Young can also score, netting 16.0 points per game himself.
Senior guard Geo Baker, who averaged 10.9 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game last year, hasn’t played since getting hurt early in the first game of the season, but he began practicing again last week and is questionable to return against the Terps, which would add to the Scarlet Knights’ backcourt firepower.
“They play really well and they play with a lot of confidence,” Turgeon said. “Harper is playing at an all-league level and the Jacob Young kid has been terrific running the show, and the two big kids in the middle are terrific. They have a lot of good players. Obviously Geo [Baker] is an all-league player. I heard he practiced a little bit [Saturday] — he was in a boot. I don’t know. Will he try to play? He’s a tough kid, he might. We’ll see. But it won’t be the Geo Baker you see two months from now when he’s really, really healthy. I’m sure he’ll still be really good. But I don’t know what they’re going to do with him tomorrow. We’re preparing like he’s going to play some. They’re really good without him and they’re going to be even better with him down the road. So we’re just worrying about us right now. We have enough problems. We have to figure ourselves out.”
While the Terps are preparing as if Baker will play, Turgeon knows that neutralizing the combination of Harper and Mathis is the key to success — particularly Mathis, who is a Baltimore native that always seems to bring his A-game against Maryland, a school that also recruited him.
In three career games against the Terps, Mathis has scored 10 or more points in all of them.
“Those kids play with no fear,” Turgeon said of Harper and Mathis. “Montez always plays well here too because he’s from Baltimore so he’s excited. And he has really turned himself into a great player.”
But Turgeon also realizes that playing against players of that caliber is a common theme of Big Ten play. He and the Terps are not backing down from the challenge and believe if they can get their offense right they’ll be ready to compete against the league.
“Everybody we’re going to play in the league is going to have good players just like we do. So we have to guard,” Turgeon said. “Considering we had 16 turnovers and took probably 15 or 16 bad shots the other night and we held Clemson to 67, there’s something we’re doing right defensively. But we’re going to have to lock in and guard those kids. Our guys will be fired up. We know Montez always plays well in this building and Harper is a terrific player and Jacob Young has played great. So yeah it’s a challenge for us and we’ll have a game plan and if it doesn’t work we’ll do something different.”
The Terps and Scarlet Knights are scheduled to tip off at 6 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network and broadcast on the Maryland Sports Radio Network.
