Insider Steven Dilsizian’s podcast previews Maryland’s season opener against American.
Ethan Cadeaux takes a look at Maryland’s newcomers as the season opens.
After a long offseason, Maryland basketball is finally back. The no. 25 ranked Terps host American University at 7 p.m. on Friday night to kick off the 2016-17 season.
The Terps are sporting a new look this year, and it’s not because of their uniforms: four starters from a year ago – Jake Layman, Diamond Stone, Robert Carter Jr., and Rasheed Sulaimon – are all gone.
It’s officially Melo Trimble’s team. The junior point guard is one of the best players in the country, and is ready to lead a team that will not be caught up in the preseason hype the team a year ago had when they started the season ranked no. 3 in the country.
But Trimble won’t be able to carry the team by himself. Head coach Mark Turgeon hauled in a solid recruiting class, with three freshman – Anthony Cowan, Kevin Huerter, and Justin Jackson – that are expected to contribute early and often.
The team also added transfer forward L.G. Gill from Duquesne University. With several new faces, Turgeon has the ability to experiment with several different lineups.
The Terps will have to deal with a couple injuries to start the year, as centers Michal Cekovsky and Ivan Bender are both “day-to-day,” according to Turgeon. Both are questionable for the opener against Maryland.
“I think we’ll have a lot of different starting lineups as we move forward, as we get healthy,” said Turgeon. “Different things, who were playing. We’re going to have a different starting lineup [against American] than we did in our exhibition game.”
The public has lower expectations for the team this year, but that’s fine with the Terps. Turgeon compared this year’s team to the team of two years ago, where Dez Wells and Trimble were at the forefront and the team was more guard-oriented.
That year, the team leaned on Trimble to take a large role as a freshman. He did just that. Now, Trimble is asking his freshman teammates to help shoulder the load.
“The young guys are ready,” Turgeon said. “I think Cowan is definitely ready, he played well in the exhibition game. I think Huerter is ready to play, I think Justin Jackson is ready to play. Other new guys, L.G. Gill, he has great experience. So, I think all four of those guys are going to be a big part of our rotation, especially early in the year. Those guys are ready to help us.”
Of the new faces, Cowan has perhaps played the biggest role thus far. He started alongside Trimble in the exhibition game, and when Melo went down with an ankle injury, the freshman took over as the man in charge, and did a solid job.
“Last game when Melo went down, I felt like I had to take a bigger role,” said Cowan. The freshman said he gained more confidence by playing more minutes with the starters, and his teammates became more confident in him.
The Terps are just anxious to hit the floor and start the season. The wait is almost over.
“Extremely excited,” Huerter said on playing his first game in a Terps uniform. “Ever since committing over a year ago and coming to my first game last year against Purdue, I’ve definitely looked forward to getting a chance to play here in front of this crowd. It should be a fun time.”
