Women’s Team Stronger than the Men?
The University of Maryland has a chance to dominate in both men’s and women’s basketball. The men’s team made it to the NCAA tournament last year for the first time in a number of years and surprised a lot of people. The women’s team were national champions last year. They have lost some good players, but they still have a strong nucleus and it is possible they could repeat. They won back to back championships several times in the 1970s and 1980s. They have been national champions 3 times over the last 6 years, so the women actually have a much better record than the men.
Maryland Men to the Final Four or the Championship?
The men’s team has been selected to be anywhere from number 3 to number 1 this year. That depends on the poll and what day of the week because even the same polling source changes things a bit from week to week as to how they rank teams. And the Terps have a young team, so if the pollsters are right and most of the team doesn’t depart early to the NBA, they look to be good next year too.
It will be interesting to see how things play out. Rankings will change after the season starts and the games start to count. It would be nice if the forecasts are right because the coaches, Mark Turgeon and Bino Ranson seem like good guys.
Stone Has Moves
One player everyone is very excited about is Diamond Stone. He is 6′ 11″ and is vying to be their starting center. Everyone assumes he will be there very shortly although, having just come out of high school, he has a lot to learn, especially on defense. However, according to everyone his natural skills are amazing.
Last night the Terrapins played their first game of the season. It was really more of a warm up because no one expected Southern New Hampshire to have much of a chance against them. The final score was 91-55.
Big Men Got Bigger, Better
Whereas last year Maryland was a bit thin under the basket, they are very strong there this year. Last year there was a lot of perimeter scoring. This year they have the luxury of passing it inside and looking for a shot there. If there isn’t a shot inside, it can be kicked back outside. The great thing is that the big men can shoot and also are good passers so they can get it back out to the shooters. This should take a lot of pressure off the outside shooters and open up the opportunities for everyone because everyone is dangerous this year.
Damonte Dodd is the other center and by all accounts he has improved quite a bit from last year and is in better shape. Then there is Robert Sharp who had to sit out a year after transferring from Georgia Tech. He’s got skills. Then there is Rasheed Sulaimon who transferred from Duke. He is a really good player but hopefully doesn’t get any trouble. He is the first person expelled from the basketball program in Coach K’s 35 years at the school. There were charges of sexual assault against two women although no legal action was ever taken against him.
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