We’re about 20 minutes from tip-off between the Terps and Spartans in East Lansing.

Maryland looking to win 5th straight while Sparty looking to snap a two-game losing streak.

Saw a couple of Crystal Ball projections for Derik Queen a 2024 5* center. Any info.

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Here's the original Saban comments BTW which are apparently a couple of years old:

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I mean, it isn't much of a discussion of Locksley vs. Riley when it comes to who is the better coach.

Though I love the notion that Saban was begging Locksley to stay on at Alabama for the CFP rather than come here and start the job right away. After all, it was the pursuit of the National Championship that was really supposed to make the Master Recruiter and even bigger master of recruiting.

Maryland (16-7) vs. Michigan State (14-9)

When: Tuesday, Feb. 7 | 9:00 p.m. ET
Where: Breslin Center (East Lansing, Mich.)
Television: ESPN2 (Streaming on WatchESPN) - Watch Live
Broadcasters: Brian Custer (play-by-play), Robbie Hummel (color), Myron Medcalf (sideline)
Radio: Maryland Sports Radio Network | Listen Online

Line: Terps +3.5
Over/Under: 131.5

Series history: Michigan State leads the all-time series 13-8, with the Spartans winning the most recent meeting 77-67 on March 10, 2022 in East Lansing.

Projected Starting Lineups

Michigan State
AJ Hoggard (6-foot-4, Jr., G) - Averaging 12.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and a team-high 5.7 assists per game.
Tyson Walker (6-foot-1, Sr., G) - Averaging a team-high 13.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
Jaden Akins (6-foot-4, Soph., G) - Averaging 9.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
Joey Hauser (6-foot-9, Sr., F) - Averaging 13.0 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds per game.
Mady Sissoko (6-foot-9, Jr., C) - Averaging 5.7 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.

Maryland
Jahmir Young (6-foot-1, Senior, PG) - Averaging a team-high 16.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and a team-high 3.1 assists per game.
Don Carey (6-foot-5, Senior, SG) - Averaging 7.1 points and 2.1 rebounds per game.
Hakim Hart (6-foot-8, Senior, G/F) - Averaging 11.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.
Donta Scott (6-foot-8, Senior, F) - Averaging 12.3 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.
Julian Reese (6-foot-9, Soph., F/C) - Averaging 10.6 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game.

The red-hot Terps enter Tuesday night's game riding a four-game win streak after dismantling Minnesota by a score of 81-46 on the road, the program's largest road margin of victory since joining the Big Ten. The 46 points allowed by the Terps in their last outing was also the lowest total allowed this season in conference play.

The Terps' defense has been key over the the past six games, as they have held five of their opponents under 60 points during that stretch. The one loss came against top-ranked Purdue on the road, but the defensive effort was there in a narrow defeat.

"I thought the turning point was how much we battled at Purdue," Maryland head coach Kevin Willard said about his team's current play after their win over Minnesota. "Defensively, I thought our guys really started to figure out who we are again. We came out, we had a couple of deflections, a couple of steals and started the game with a 30-second shot clock violation, which I thought was a great possession."

Going up against a Tom Izzo led team on the road, the Terps will likely need to rely on their defense once again Tuesday night if they want to run their win streak to five games. Both teams enter the game ranked inside the top 35 in defensive efficiency, with each team excelling at defending the three, allowing opponents to shoot an identical 30.1% from beyond the arc.

"We got to watch the Michigan State-Rutgers game which was a great game, great atmosphere at Madison Square Garden," said Willard after the Minnesota game. "So obviously you have a really, really tough Michigan State team on the road. Probably One of the best atmospheres in college basketball. So we’ve got a couple days, really got to buckle down, I think we’ve got to work a little bit on a couple of defensive schemes that I think we are having breakdowns, but overall really proud of the way the guys came out, especially in that second half, they came out, didn’t let up, played team basketball and played really well."

Michigan State big man Mady Sissoko had some impressive performances to start the season versus Gonzaga and Kentucky, but has been extremely inconsistent for most of the season.

For Maryland, starting big man Julian Reese is coming off of another impressive outing in which he finished with 16 points on 8 of 10 shooting with five rebounds, three assists and a steal. He's scored in double figures in four of Maryland's last five games and his aggressive, yet also efficient play has been a big reason for the Terps' success.

"I think Julian has become a dominant inside player, he is a guy we feel very comfortable running an offense through," said Willard. "I think he is playing unselfish, physical and some really good basketball."

With the game likely to be a defensive battle, whoever wins the matchup down low could be key in determining who wins the game.

The Terps and Spartans are set to tipoff at 9:00 pm ET with the game set to be broadcast on ESPN2.

Maryland would be a slight favorite on a neutral court.

Here's what you get if you click on the link in the A-Z guide for the Quickbus map which was just e-mailed out to fans and on the UMTerps website.

Add this to the obvious errors in the two-deep earlier this week and once again I'm reminded of the line from Bull Durham, "If you think classy, you'll be classy."

However at Maryland, thinking classy isn't even on the radar let alone being classy. These kinds of simple, stupid mistakes were all over the place in 2018 after the McNair incident. In addition to LaMont Jordan's bio on the radio page in the game program abruptly steering into form radio analyst Tim Strachan's, we were printing the wrong words to our Victory Song in there. And the Head Trainer who was fired about a week after Durkin was, had his picture in the program for the remainder of the season where Durkin's picture and bio was removed immediately.

But then again, we gave a guy with a 15-49 career record and extension and think he's leading us somewhere...

We're heading back down the road to a major disaster kids. The writing is literally on the wall. Just have to wonder who will be the victim and what the fallout will be this time.

Moved up one line to a 7 seed, playing New Mexico in Des Moines with Kansas in the wings.

Let’s hope this doesn’t affect the Terps.

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women's basketball team. 36 point win over $10 Ohio State.

So it appears Jim Harbaugh has rehired Chris Partridge at Michigan after he was let go by Kiffin at Ole Miss. Why is this relevant to Maryland? From what I'm hearing, our old friend George Helow is now likely the odd man out at Michigan. Now some of you are probably saying, 'but Scott, he was a linebackers coach." This is correct, but Helow spent two years as the safeties coach at Colorado State before taking the job at Maryland.

It is also worth mentioning that Helow has been recruiting the DMV for Michigan and has apparently formed a very strong relationship with Good Counsel Rivals100 four-star LB Aaron Chiles, who is one of the top prospects on Maryland's board for 2024.

To be clear, I don't have any inside info that he's coming back or even in the mix. And I'm not even sure he'd want to come back. But with him very possibly looking for a job here in the near future, it might make a lot of sense for both parties to have a discussion. FWIW, I never quite understood why he was brought in as a LB coach here and he was originally supposed to be the safeties coach at Michigan but Jim hired Ron Bellamy who had a safety committed as the new safeties coach and his son took over last year as safeties coach. Helow played safety in college, worked with the safeties at Georgia and made his name as the safeties coach at Colorado State.

From Adam Friedman, several DMV guys listed among the top prospects for 2026.

LINK

COLLEGE PARK, MD -- Behind another monster performance from Diamond Miller, which resulted in her fourth double-double of the season, the No. 8 Terps cruised past the No. 10 Buckeyes, 90-54, in a Pinkout game in front of a crowd of 11,167 that they led for all but 57 seconds.

This was the Terps' fifth win over a ranked team and third over a Top-10 team this season (No. 6 UConn, No. 7 Notre Dame). The last time Maryland (19-5, 10-3 Big Ten) had three wins over Top 10 teams in a regular-season was in 2007-08.

In winning by 36 points it was Maryland's largest margin of victory against a Top-10 team in program history, surpassing the previous mark of a 27-point win over No. 7 Penn State, 85-58, on Dec. 5, 1991.

The 90 points were the most Maryland has scored against a Top-10 team in a regulation game since beating No. 5 North Carolina, 92-77 on Jan. 5, 2005.

Miller was dominant all afternoon, finishing with 29 points on 11-of-16 shooting. She was also a force on the glass, picking up 10 rebounds, including her 500th career board.

Shyanne Sellers put together another terrific all-around performance, scoring 19 and dishing out a game-high nine assists. Abby Meyers was hot out of the gate, scoring 11 of her 22 points in the first quarter to give the Terps the momentum early. She finished with a trio of made threes.

The Terps pounced on the Buckeyes out of the gates and never let Ohio State recover from a 12-point first-quarter deficit that saw the Buckeyes muster just seven points in the stanza. It was Ohio State's lowest first quarter scoring output of the season.

Ohio State's 54 points were its lowest of the season, with the previous low being 65.

With the win, Maryland is now 19-5 overall and 10-3 in the Big Ten. The Terps moved to 33-1 at home in February games since 2014.

The Buckeyes dropped to 20-4 on the season and 9-4 in conference play. After starting the season 19-0, Ohio State has now lost four of their last five.
With the win, Maryland is alone in third place in the Big Ten, behind Indiana (12-1) and Iowa (11-1).

Brenda's Takes

"This game is always about playing for something bigger and today was no different. Can't say enough about the crowd, it was huge, with the energy they brought. Second largest crowd since our UCONN game today. I could really tell that the loss the other night left a bad taste in our mouth and I was really impressed with the response. A lot of them walked through the door at 4 am and re-watched the game. That tells you all you need to know about our team. Loved our start, loved our intensity, we knew both teams were going to come out strong. I thought we were the better team when we held them scoreless for about three minutes. It was their lowest point total in a quarter this season. Held them to a season-low with 54 points. I thought we were able to make a statement win, our largest win over a top-ten team in program history."

"With our All-American Diamond, I'm so glad that so many people were able to witness how special of a player she is. We just had a 40 minute game as a team, we've been waiting for that, and just to see it on display was awesome to watch."

From The Girls

"Our crowd is amazing," Sellers said. "When we have a lot of fans, you can feel the energy vibrating through the whole gym. We always say they're our best sixth man, so it was really important to have them today."

"I was extremely frustrated after the Iowa game because I felt like we did not perform like we needed to perform," Miller said. "We know we are capable of beating teams like Iowa, so coming out today, it was extremely crucial for us to show that we can play 40 minutes. We are one of the top teams in the Big Ten and we needed to play like it."

"I absolutely think that we made a statement tonight," Sellers said. "If people don't believe it, they're gonna have to find out when they play us."

Maryland is finalizing a deal to hire former Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele as the Terps' new defensive coordinator TSR has confirmed. Steele had a very successful run at Auburn that included him being named a Broyles Award finalist in 2017 after the Auburn defense ranked in the top 15 nationally in both total defense and scoring defense. Steele has served as DC under Saban, Dabo, Les Miles and Gus Malzahn.

As for what this means for other staff members, Brian Stewart will now have the title of assistant head coach for defense and will still work with the safeties. Steele is expected to work with the ILB, which is the group Brawley Evans worked with. I'm still unsure of what exactly this means for Brian Williams, if he will retain the co-DC title.

But this is a really, really strong hire. Perhaps the best hire Locks has made since he's been head coach. And still expect Gunter Brewer to be named WR coach fairly soon, as well.

STORY

(that's all)

The Terps are once again receiving votes in the AP poll after knocking off Indiana at home and destroying Minnesota on the road. Maryland received 12 points, good for 34th unofficially. The Terps currently have a pair of top 20 wins over Indiana (18) and Miami (19). Beat Sparty on the road and PSU at home on Saturday, and the Terps would almost certainly be back in the top 25. Full rankings can be found at the link below.

LINK

From the national team on some of the top 2024 prospects. Maryland gets a mention with the first two, and you will notice two names I just made a post about mentioned in the second mention....

LINK

Having now won four in a row, including a big home win over Indiana and the first conference road win of the season in blowout fashion last night at Minnesota, Maryland has now climbed back into the top 25 on KenPom (No. 23) and are now back up to No. 28 in the NCAA NET rankings. At this point, things would have to completely unravel down the stretch for them to miss the tournament and most prognosticators have them as an 8 or a 9 seed if the season ended today.

We could learn a lot about just where this team currently stands Tuesday night when they face Sparty in East Lansing. That's a tough place to play but MSU has had a rough few weeks, having lost 5 of 7. This would be a real statement win for Willard and the Terps. That could also be a win that possibly gets them back into the AP top 25 a week from now.

You all are probably clicking on this expecting some football news, but I've got some hoops chatter for you....

There is a lot of chatter this week that Bowie native and former Rivals five-star Benny Williams will be in the portal before long and that his preference is to return home for his final couple of years of school.

For those unaware, he was absent from the arena for the Orange's most recent loss to UVA on Monday. Boeheim got pissed off at a student reporter who asked about it after the game and they played it off as him taking a 'personal' day. This was just a couple of days after he was taken out of the starting lineup for the first time all season the game before versus Virginia Tech and replaced by freshman Maliq Brown, who is from Virginia. That likely didn't sit well with some locals, especially considering Benny is a Team Takeover product, while Brown played for Team Loaded.

Williams has definitely struggled in his first couple of seasons at Cuse, but make no mistake about it, his ceiling is still about as high as possible. He's shown flashes, like his 16 point, 11 rebound, 3 block performance earlier this season versus Boston College, but the consistency just hasn't been there.

I'll add this, I know a lot of people probably wondered why I kept saying he was Cuse bound throughout while other Maryland publishers kept reporting on him like Maryland was in it until the end. FWIW, and this is the first time I've said this on record, one of Williams' advisors early on flat out told me to my face that Benny would not be choosing Maryland because they were unhappy with Turgeon. With the new staff in place it's a whole new ballgame and they would not only be ok with him at Maryland, but likely push him to College Park.

But given the gaping holes in Maryland's front court and the high ceiling he brings to the table, should he enter the portal, don't be surprised to see the Terps heavily involved with a good chance at landing him. There will likely be some other locals looking to return home just like Jahmir did this offseason, but I thought it was worth mentioning Benny specifically as I've gotten quite a few texts about it in the last couple days.

Here are the highlights from that BC game

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We’re about 20 minutes from tip-off between the Terps and Gophers.

Dawson Garcia is NOT in the starting lineup for Minny this evening. That’s a big loss for the Goohers as he’s their leading scorer and rebounder.

Usual starters for the Terps tonight:

Jahmir Young
Don Carey
Hakim Hart
Donta Scott
JuJu Reese

4-5, miss from 52
Good from 32, 37, 41, miss from 52 wide left, and then good from 42 (in order by try)

COLLEGE PARK – No. 1 Maryland began its 2023 season with a 15-4 victory over No. 19 Richmond on a sunny 28-degree day at SECU Stadium. Ten different Terps scored goals and 13 Terps had points.

Owen Murphy recorded four goals, tying his career-high in goals. Daniel Maltz posted five points on two goals and a career-high tying three assists.

Freshman Braden Erksa had three points on two goals and an assist in his college debut.

The Terps defense was stellar in keeping Richmond scoreless for 43:31 spanning the first through fourth quarter. That was the longest scoreless streak for Maryland’s defense since keeping Drexel scoreless for 56:17 on Feb. 28, 2015.

In goal, Logan McNaney made 12 saves for Maryland before giving way to Teddy Dolan for the final 10 minutes.

Close defensmen Brett Makar (four) and Ajax Zappitello (three) combined for seven caused turnovers as the Terps had 12 as a team. Makar had five groundballs.

Face-off man Luke Wierman won 10-of-17 face-offs, grabbing nine groundballs.

The Terps have now won 30 consecutive season openers dating back to the 1994 season.


Breaking Down The Action

• Geppert opened the scoring for the season with a pole goal coming 1:25 into the action. The Terps took a 3-0 lead in the game’s first four minutes as Murphy and Erska scored. Murphy added his second of the game with 56 seconds left for a 4-1 Terps edge after one.
• The Terps scored all four goals in the second quarter to lead 8-1 at halftime. Maltz, Erksa, Murphy and Eric Spanos tallied goals for the seven-goal margin.
• Maryland continued its scoring barrage with five more goals in the third quarter to lead 13-1 after 45 minutes. Kelly, Murphy, Kyle Long, Ryan Siracusa and Jack McDonald scored for the Terps.
• Richmond ended its scoring drought of 43:31 as Dalton Young scored two goals in a span of 2:07. Cayden Onagi added his first goal with the Terps to make it 15-3 with 8:05 left in the game.

Season Opener Success

• Maryland is now 94-3-1 all-time in season openers and has won 30 straight dating back to the 1994 season.

Home Cooking

• Maryland extended its home win streak to 19 games SECU Stadium on Saturday.
• The Terps are 74-14 overall in home games under John Tillman since 2011, and Maryland has won 16 straight non-conference matchups at home since 2018.
• Maryland will play six regular season home games in 2023.

Hat Trick Terps

• Maryland now has had a hat trick in 58 straight games dating back to February 2, 2019.
• Murphy, who had the last hat trick at home against Vermont in the NCAA Tournament, had the first of the 2023 season for Maryland.

Notes and Nuggets

• Kyle Long extended his point-scoring streak to 20 games dating back to the 2021 season.
• The Terps had two pole-goals, with Gepprt and Jack McDonald scoring them. Last season Maryland had 10 goals from long-poles, led by Geppert’s five.
• Brennan tied his career-high with two assists. He also had two against Vermont in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
• McDonald had his career point, on his first career goal.
• Spanos had his first two college points on a goal and an assist.
• Zach Whittier also had his first point on an assist.

Up Next

• The Terps renew their in-state rivalry with Loyola (MD) Greyhounds on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. at the Ridley Athletic Complex in Baltimore.
• The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.

Up to an 8 seed at both CBS and ESPN. Keep it going.

the lacrosse game will be played inside tomorrow because of the cold.