COLLEGE PARK, Md. — No. 9 Maryland (18-4, 8-3) and No. 20 Illinois (16-6, 8-3) are currently tied atop the Big Ten standings, but that will change Feb. 7, as either the Terps or the Fighting Illini will claim sole possession of first place once they square off in Champaign, Illinois.
With high stakes on the line, Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon knows the Illinois crowd is going to bring its A-game to the State Farm Center, but these are the types of matchups that he knows will prepare his squad for what’s down the road.
“We know it’s going to be wild Friday night in Champaign,” Turgeon said at practice Thursday. “It’s going to be an incredible building. We’re playing for first place. But that’s a step that helps you and prepares you for what lies ahead.”
The Terps enter the road game riding a five-game winning streak — their second longest of the season. Illinois is equally as hot, winning seven of their last eight games.
Maryland narrowly defeated Illinois 59-58 in College Park on Dec. 7 and will look to complete the season sweep on Friday night.
“We’re going in there hoping to come out with a W,” Terps’ sophomore wing Aaron Wiggins said. “We’re locked in. We went over the game plan and if we just execute according to the game plan we’ll come out the way we want.”
Maryland overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to beat Illinois the first time around. Senior point guard Anthony Cowan Jr.'s game-tying three-pointer with 19 seconds left set up his game-winning free throw on Maryland’s next possession with just 2.1 ticks on the clock.
Despite escaping with the win, the Terps were pushed to the brink by the Illini at home, a place they have yet to lose this year. Maryland has won five of its last six against Illinois, including its last two in Champaign. But Turgeon knows both teams are different beasts at the moment, with each playing perhaps their best ball of the season so far.
“They were terrific,” Turgeon said. “They were dialed in. They were ready for us and we weren’t quite as ready for them. We’re a totally different team now and so are they. They’re much more confident than they were in this building. They might have won that game if it was this time of year. But we always have good games with them. I expect another great game with them. You never know how it’s going to start. You never know how it’s going to go. You just prepare your guys and hope they play well.”
Part of preparing his team includes coming up with a game plan to neutralize Illinois’ inside-out combination of sophomore guard Ayo Dosunmu and 7-foot-, 290-pound freshman center Kofi Cockburn.
Dosunmu is leading the Illini in scoring with 15.8 points per game. And while the Terps were able to hold him to nine points on 3-for-9 shooting the first time these two teams played, the talented Chicago native is on a tear as of late, scoring 11 or more points in his last seven outings.
“[Dosunmu] is on a tear,” Turgeon said. “They’re running a lot more stuff for him. When we were here, they weren’t running quite as much stuff. Like we’ve changed dramatically from that game, they’ve changed dramatically since that game. The ball is almost always in his hands now. It’s tough because they have so many good players and the big kid (Cockburn) is hard, and [Dosunmu] is coming off of those ball screens. It’s really about transition defense against him and it’s really about ball-screen defense against him. If we can do those two things well, I don’t think you can stop him, but hopefully you can make him earn everything and make him take a lot of shots to get his points.”
Wiggins echoed his coach’s sentiment Thursday and said the key to holding Dosunmu to a sub-par game again is all about awareness on the court.
“[Dosunmu] is a really good player in transition, so making sure that we all know where he’s at on a missed shot or on a turnover,” Wiggins said. “Knowing where he’s at so he can’t get downhill, he can’t create plays for his teammates because knowing what he can do with the ball — his ability to score, his ability to pass — you have to lock in on those key players. So he’s really good in transition and last time I think we did a good job of making sure we knew where he was at.”
But Wiggins and his teammates know that guarding Dosunmu is only part of the equation to earn a victory on Friday night. On top of having to deal with a load in the paint in Cockburn, the Terps will also have to be cognizant of Illinois guards Andres Feliz and Trent Frazier, who led the Illini in scoring in the first game with 11 and 13 points, respectively.
“They have really good guards that can shoot the ball. We saw that here when we played them,” Wiggins said. “Their guards are really good, and with Kofi Cockburn inside in the paint, he’s a big threat down there. So we have to play smart, we have to know our personnel, and we have to execute our game plan.”
Much of the responsibility of stopping Cockburn will fall on the shoulders of Terps’ sophomore forward Jalen ‘Stix’ Smith, who will be giving up over 60 pounds in the post matchup. However, Smith is playing the best ball of his college career, compiling five straight double-doubles and swatting 11 blocked shots combined over Maryland’s last two games.
“My confidence is at an all-time high,” Smith said. “Coach has been helping me with that. My therapist has been helping me with that. And just making sure I keep the right mindset going into every game.”
One of Smith’s 13 double-doubles this season came in the first meeting with Illinois in which he scored 14 points and ripped down 13 rebounds. He got the better of Cockburn in that game, holding him to just nine points and eight rebounds while forcing him into four fouls.
Smith now has an idea of how to handle the monstrous freshman, and while he knows his play on Friday night will be critical to the Terps’ success, he also knows it won’t be an easy task.
“Just pretty much making sure I try to stay in between [Cockburn] and the basket and making sure I make every touch he tries to get in the post hard and just make sure that I battle,” Smith said. “I know that my matchup against him is going to be one of the big [keys to the game].”
Maryland’s first win against Illinois this season capped off a 10-0 start to the season for the Terps. All of those wins were at home or on a neutral floor. Maryland then went on to lose its first four true road games — three within conference play. But the Terps have righted the ship in that regard and have won their last two Big Ten road games and Turgeon is seeing a different level of play and confidence in his team.
“Really the difference is — it’s really simple — we’re turning the ball over less and we’re making like two more shots a game,” Turgeon said. “We’re not shooting as well as I hope we will. It’s a long season. Hopefully we’ll get really hot at the right time. And we just rely on our defense. I must have said it 50 times in the game against Rutgers, ‘Just keep guarding and rebounding, just keep guarding and rebounding.’ And they did it. So we rely on that and hopefully we can take it on the road and be a good defensive team [Friday] night.
“We’re getting better on the road. We’ve won our last two and we were really close to winning our last three on the road and a six-game winning streak, but we don’t and we are where we are. But we’re more confident. We know who we are now. We were really trying to find ourselves. And we’re not playing as well as I think we can play. We’re close. We’re playing hard. We’re trying to do all the right things. But we’re much more confident and believe.”
Maryland and Illinois are scheduled to tip-off at State Farm Center at 8 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on the Maryland Sports Radio Network and televised on FS1.
