The Terps completed the first half of their schedule and are 10-3 and ride a 7 game winning streak into conference play. Maryland has looked shaky the first two months of the season to say the least as they seem to struggle against lesser competition like Cornell or Radford or Florida Gulf Coast. They have also gotten some beat downs at the hands of Alabama and Iona who are legitimate NCAA teams. For all the lackluster play following the Illinois loss in early December, they were able to win each game and get the seven straight wins with the best win being Notre Dame.
However, the Terps are trying to still get acclimated to one another as Alex Len comes back from suspension and Pe’Shon Howard works his way back into the rotation following a broken foot. These are both two key cogs to the Terps rotation this year. Mark Turgeon has done an excellent job guiding the ship towards conference play. The Terps open conference play on Sunday at North Carolina State at 6 PM. The Wolfpack is 10-4 with a good win at Texas and losses to #1 Syracuse, Indiana, Vanderbilt and Stanford.
At the beginning of the year, I forecasted the Terps for 15 wins and was hopeful they would get to 18. They are right on pace for that win total. As a young team, they will continue to grow with one another and get better. As always, conference play will be the crucible to determine the fortunes of the team. The Terps have struggled as outlined above but I am cautiously optimistic about the team in conference play as it is a weakened ACC season.
