The Maryland men’s basketball team has been ranked as high as No.8 in preseason polls and regularly in the top 20.
The only problem? That could leave the Terrapins sixth in the ACC. Tobacco Road will have more speed bumps than a Wal-Mart parking lot this year.
“North Carolina returns everybody. Wake Forest doesn’t lose anybody. Georgia Tech lost one from a Final Four team. Duke will always be good. N.C. State has [Julius] Hodge,” Terps coach Gary Williams said as Maryland held its media day yesterday. “[Our] expectations are high, but they’re high for five or six teams.”
Still, the Terps enter Midnight Madness tomorrow at Comcast Center ready to defend their unexpected ACC championship with a more mature and experienced roster from a year ago.
Four starters and 11 lettermen return from last season’s late run, which ended just a 3-point basket away from the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16. The Terps added a solid junior-college guard and a high-profile freshman forward. With a roster that can sport both big and small lineups led by preseason All-American guard John Gilchrist, Maryland appears capable of reaching its third Final Four in five years.
“If you can be one of the top 25 teams, then anything can happen,” Williams said. “I’d like to think we have a shot to win [the ACC title].”
Maryland spent the last two years fielding a roster filled with young prospects. The Terps looked like they might miss the NCAA tournament for the first time in 11 years before the ACC tournament, where they upset the top three seeds and won the title. Maryland then beat Texas-El Paso in the NCAAs before losing to Syracuse 72-70.
The Terps still have no senior starters. However, they can go eight-deep and shoot from anywhere on the court. The only concern is whether players can forget last year’s success and step up their game to compete in a improved conference.
“You want the experience of being successful in the ACC tournament to carry over in a positive way — not to think you’ve arrived but that that level of play is possible from these players,” Williams said. “You’re not going to win unless you show up ready to go, and by the end of the year we were doing that. We’ll have to do that from the first day this year because the league might be better than last year given there’s five teams in the top 11 in every poll I’ve seen so far.”
Gilchrist again should head a diverse offense. The junior point guard was the ACC tournament’s MVP after becoming the first player since Walt Williams in 1990-91 to lead Maryland in scoring (15.4 points) and assists (5.0).
“John was as good an individual performance as there was in the ACC,” Williams said. “Now he has to do that over a 32-game situation.”
The Terps won three of five games during an Italian tour in August, with a pair of two-point losses to professional teams. The Roman Coliseum was a big hit among players — something about lions and gladiators making Cameron Indoor Stadium seem tame.
“When you’re over in Italy, it’s just you as a team, and you have to stick tough together if you expect to compete,” Williams said. “Hopefully, we learned a little something about each other.”
Comcast SportsNet will televise Midnight Madness starting at 11:30p.m.
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