Passed over by many prognosticators, Maryland was picked to finish 10th in the Big Ten Conference this season. Instead of sitting out, however, the Terrapins are dancing, reaching the NCAA Tournament in coach Kevin Willard’s first season.
The remarkable turnaround from one year ago lands the Terrapins (21-12) as an eight-seed in the South Region. When they kick off the first full day of March Madness at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, a familiar name — but not necessarily in basketball — awaits: West Virginia.
“Growing up wanting to be out here, just watching March Madness, just knowing how many people are going to be watching. The excitement that builds up just to play in it. I just feel like we are going to be excited to get out there and compete,” Maryland point guard Jahmir Young said.
The matchup in Birmingham, Alabama, is the first between the neighboring state schools since a 10-point Mountaineer win in the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
But for Terrapin fans unfamiliar, this isn’t the “Press Virginia” WVU teams of that era that rode a suffocating defense to success. The ninth-seeded Mountaineers (19-14) rather have ground out wins with physicality and Jekyll-and-Hyde streaky scoring, winning four of their last six games to make the tournament, only losing twice to West Region one-seed Kansas in that span.
“He hasn’t stuck with the same style year in and year out. He’s adapted to his team extremely really well,” Willard said of WVU coach Bob Huggins’ style this season. “They are always physical, they always rebound well, they always defend well.”
He’s 1-1 against Huggins, now the winningest active coach in Division I men’s basketball, playing each other in Willard’s first two seasons at Seton Hall and WVU’s final two seasons in the Big East.
“This is a basketball team that’s playing so much quicker than what he did back when I played against him eight, nine years ago when I was at Seton Hall,” Willard said. “I have always admired coach Huggins in the way he adapts offensively and defensively with his team.”
Though some may ding their sub-.500 Big 12 Conference record, none of Maryland’s opponents have been through the gauntlet of college basketball more so than the Mountaineers.
“I think this has been a testament over the last four or five years for me in college seeing the Big 12 grow and become the best conference in college basketball. Night in and night out playing great teams, and them making one or two more plays than us that can change the game,” WVU forward Emmett Mathews Jr. said. “That’s what decides the basketball games at this level.”
Case in point: WVU played 19 Quad 1 games this season (6-13), tied for sixth-most nationally, as part of the fifth-toughest schedule in the nation. The six teams with more Quad 1 games? All from the Big 12.
The Terrapins’ record in those games? Three wins, 10 losses. Of those losses, all but one (UCLA) were away from Xfinity Center.
Maryland’s defense has been the equalizer all season, though. East Region No. 1 seed Purdue was held to a season-low 54 points against the Terrapins Feb. 16, part of a stretch where they’ve only allowed 60.7 points-per-game over the last 16 games.
“Defensively, I think from what I saw early and what you watch now, they are much much improved, and certainly Kevin deserves the credit for that,” Huggins said “They seem to be extremely coachable. They are rebounding the ball very well. They are just doing a lot of things right.”
That’s bad news for a West Virginia offense that frequently goes cold. WVU was the Big 12’s third-best scoring team (76.3 points per game) but also the conference’s worst defensive scoring team (71.0 allowed) and winless (0-7) when scoring less than 70.
“They are — from everything I’ve watched, they do a great job of spreading and make shots. We have to make shots,” Huggins said. “If we make shots obviously we will be fine.”
Maryland’s engine will once again run through Young at the top of the floor. The Terrapins’ leading scorer (16.1 points per game) struggled in last week’s Big Ten Tournament (6-for-28 in two games) but has notched at least 15 points in seven of his last 10 outings. Their time in Chicago moved the Terrapins to 3-2 in neutral site games and 5-11 overall in matchups away from home.
“We had a lot of games on the road where we lost by less than five points, or it came down to a few possessions,” Young said, “so I would just say just tightening up on those things and just being able to finish our possessions and just being mentally tougher on the road.”
West Virginia lacks a true point guard, but its offense runs though multiple conduits, including leading scorer Erik Stevenson (15.5 points per game), who’s known as much for his shooting, finishing the regular season with five-straight 23-plus point performances, as his antics and propensity to lose his composure.
“He’s never played in an NCAA Tournament, which is really hard to believe,” Huggins said of Stevenson, who’s played a combined five seasons at Wichita State, Washington, South Carolina and now West Virginia. “It’s hard to believe that he’s played for the coaches that he’s played for and the programs he’s played in and he hasn’t played in an NCAA Tournament. So hopefully he’s kind of settled down and plays this like he would play any other game.”
Turnovers and fouls also frequently plague the Mountaineers. WVU’s committed 81 and 85 more than Maryland, respectively, in each of those categories this season. Expect Willard to at times utilize the aforementioned Huggins tactic of old — the press — to goad the Mountaineers into more of those mistakes.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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