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.

Maryland (15-7) vs. Minnesota (7-14)

When: Saturday, Feb. 4 | 9:00 p.m. ET
Where: Williams Arena (Minneapolis, Minn.)
Television: BTN (Streaming on FoxSports) - Watch Live
Broadcasters: Mike Hall (play-by-play), Shon Morris (color)
Radio: Maryland Sports Radio Network | Listen Online

Line: Terps -9.5
Over/Under: 128.5

Series history: Maryland leads the all-time series 13-2, with the Terps winning the most recent meeting 84-73 on March 3, 2022 in College Park.

Projected Starting Lineups

Minnesota
Ta'Lon Cooper (6-foot-4, Jr., G) - Moorehead St. transfer averaging 10.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and a team-high 5.7 assists per game.
Taurus Samuels (6-foot-1, Sr., G) - Dartmouth transfer averaging 3.0 points, 2.0 rebounds per game.
Jamison Battle (6-foot-7, Jr., F) - Averaging 13.1 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
Joshua Ola-Joseph (6-foot-7, Fr., F) - Averaging 7.3 points and 3.1 rebounds per game.
Dawson Garcia (6-foot-11, Soph., F/C) - North Carolina transfer averaging a team-high 14.9 points and a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game.

Maryland
Jahmir Young (6-foot-1, Senior, PG) - Averaging a team-high 16.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and a team-high 3.2 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 11.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.
Donta Scott (6-foot-8, Senior, F) - Averaging 12.2 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.
Julian Reese (6-foot-9, Soph., F/C) - Averaging 10.3 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds per game.

The Terps enter Saturday night's game riding a three-game win streak, while the Gophers are looking to avoid their first seven-game skid since the final seven regular-season games of the Richard Pitino Era in 2021.

The biggest question mark coming into this one is the status of Gophers leading scorer Dawson Garcia, who has missed the past three games with an ankle injury/bone bruise but is listed as a game-time decision for Saturday night's game versus the Terps. Garcia has been replaced by 6-foot-9 freshman Pharrel Payne the past two games. In those two starts, Payne has scored 9 points while also pulling down 7 rebounds and turning the ball over 7 times in a couple of blowout losses.

For Maryland, the Terps have struggled to pick up a road win this season, with their only true road win coming at Louisville. The Cardinals are just 3-19 coming into Saturday's games. Minnesota hasn't fared a whole lot better, having lost all five conference games at home this season, including three by double digits. On the flip side, the Terps are 0-5 on the road in league play and it is something they need to just figure out, according to head coach Kevin Willard.

"We gotta figure out how to win on the road. Like, we gotta do it," said Willard. "I don't know how many road games we have left, but we have got to figure it out. We've played good spurts. We played a really good spurt at Wisconsin. I thought we played a heck of a game at Purdue. Iowa, I thought we had really good spurts at Iowa. We have to be able to put 40 minutes together on the road. We gotta bring our defensive intensity, it has to travel with us and I don't think it has. So that's the thing we've got to build on."

The 58 points the Terps allowed Purdue to score in their last road game were the second-fewest they have allowed on the road all season, with the 54 points they held Louisville to in a win being the season low. Facing a Minnesota team that is one of the worst in the country shooting the three and dead last nationally in free-throw percentage, the Terps seem to be trending towards getting that elusive first road win when they take on the Gophers Saturday night.

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Just thought I'd share some thoughts on a few things now that the 2023 recruiting class is in the rear view.

First, on Harbor (I'll try to keep this short), I know folks keep insisting he went to the highest bidder, it was a money grab, etc. I just want to be clear, that from what I heard, I believe Oregon offered the biggest NIL deal. So it wasn't just a money thing. Did everything change once he signed with an agent/marketing group? Yes, absolutely. But in the end, what I believe truly happened was that it was between Maryland and Oregon (his father actually said this on record to the WaPo), with Oregon likely to win out and Maryland being where his mom wanted him. But essentially with Harbor seeming to waiver a bit, an agent did what a good agent does, which is used Oregon as leverage to get South Carolina to up the ante. Now did they beat Oregon's offer? Based on what I heard, no. But they were able to put together a number close enough that it made the agent happy, made his parents happy that he was closer to home and most importantly, made the kid happy. If you are a Maryland fan it sucks, and this could and likely will have ripple effects in the next cycle, but I just want to be clear while NIL absolutely played a factor, it wasn't the sole reason he's at South Carolina. At the end of the day, he isn't a refined product. He's going to need time to develop and who knows, he might never reach his full potential down in SC and could look to transfer back in a few years. So always best to just wish them well.

As for what's next? I expect Maryland to now wait until after the spring game to make any additional moves with the 2 or 3 remaining scholarships. The priority being an immediate impact corner. Beyond that, I think there's some flexibility, but corner remains a need.

With regards to the coaching search, things should start to ramp up here in the coming days/week. I can say that one name I mentioned, former Texans offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton, appears to be a non-starter. He's turned down multiple interview opportunities and seems to not want to uproot his family at the moment with his son one of the top QBs in the 2025 class. Another name I've heard mentioned is former Houston, Texas A&M and Arizona head coach Kevin Sumlin. He's spent some time in College Park and around the program recently, but I'm not sure he's a viable candidate at the moment either. He's currently got a job as the head of the Houston Gamblers in the USFL. I've also heard that he could possibly be a backup option for a couple of schools down south if they had to move further down their lists.

So now it is on to the spring ball and the 2024 recruiting class.

Should be an interesting game, whether we win or not.

DB Ricardo Cooper Jr. from Calvert Hall
(transferred there from Perry Hall I believe)
-5-9, 165
-Top 10 nationally ranked sprinter; one of fastest players in MD
4.43 40 and also runs 10.7 100. Faster than fellow Terp commit Mykel Morman in 55m indoor this season
-7 int (was leading MIAA when he had 6 leading into Turkey Bowl game so I think he led MIAA in picks)
-10 pbu
-22 tackles
-1 fg block
-1 punt block
-2nd team All-Met Baltimore Sun
-All Conference
-speaking of Turkey Bowl, he ran 23 yards for 1st down on fake punt deep in his own territory for an improbable 1st down that kept drive alive and ultimately set up game-winning field goal for CH with 1:34 left, won 17-14.

Ok, so here's the latest I've gathered on Nyck Harbor and the Harris twins leading up to this afternoon's announcements.

On Harbor, Oregon seems to have clearly taken the lead in the hours leading up to the announcement. The real question at this point simply seems to be who is currently in the No. 2 position. Depending on who you talk to, it is either Maryland or South Carolina. Terps still believe they are in there fighting and it is going to come down to distance and how important the track aspect is versus just football. Locksley spoke with Harbor last night. The South Carolina staff seems to feel equally confident that it is between them and Oregon. Unfortunately, right now, the common denominator is that Oregon seems to be the team to beat. As track and marketing seemed to take on a bigger and bigger role in the final weeks of this recruitment, it just feels to me like Oregon is going to be tough to beat.

As for the twins, I feel quite a bit more confident, although I don't think I can say it is a done deal at this point. As I've been telling you guys for months, the issue here has been that everyone in their camp has been on a different page almost from the outset. And while UCF was the initial call, when the DC left for Arkansas, they opened things back up as he played a big part in getting BOTH twins to agree on the Knights. From everything I understand, it is Michael who is fully on board with Maryland and Andrew who still needed some convincing. It is really strange to me that this is the case as Michael has seemed the more pro UCF twin at times on social media, but I am 100% confident he is all-in on Maryland based on what I've heard from multiple sources. As for mom, she also appears to be on board with Maryland and really does not want them at UCF.

In talking to some Maryland sources, they continue to believe they are going to land the twins when they announce later this afternoon at 1:45 pm. One interesting nugget here? UCF had initially planned a 2 pm presser for Gus Malzahn which would allow some time for the twins to announce and then give him the ability to speak on their commitment. But that presser has since been moved up to 1 pm, BEFORE the twins announce. You would think this move might mean they don't feel confident about their chances heading into the final hours. One final possibility that has been mentioned with the twins is that they shock everybody and compromise by picking Arkansas, but there just doesn't seem to be ANY buzz from the Arkansas side of things that this is a real possibility.

So now we wait and see if Locks can pull off that signing day magic he's so known for with Harbor, while I feel fairly confident that the Terps will ultimately land the twins. Obviously you'd like to go 3-0, but even landing just the twins, especially after their performances in the all-star games, would be huge.

7:00

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A breakdown of Michael Harris' commitment at the link below. Honestly, this might be the best possible outcome for all parties involved. It was clear from the get go based on what I was told, both brothers were never on the same page. Let them go their separate ways and make their own name for themselves at their respective schools. Better than forcing one to go someplace he doesn't want to be and then transferring out months later.

STORY

48th overall and 56th in avg recruit ranking

10th in B1G and 12th in average recruit ranking in the league.

Thank goodness UCLA and USC don't count yet or it would be worse.

His 5th recruiting class is worst since year 1

36th in 2022
20th in 2021
32nd in 2020
61st in 2019

The portal helps, maybe, as over the past few years we have lost a lot of players as well as added some.

Master Recruiter? NYET

BTW, kinda weird that the higher ranked twin that went to UCF is listed at 6'2, ours at 6'0...

UCF comes to Maryland August 30, 2025.