Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

To say I am giddy is an understatement.  And I am sure you all know why.  Yet, there is this big green roadblock in front of Maryland today in the form of Michigan State.  The big story in this will be the opportunity to face Northern Iowa instead of Kansas, should they win today.

The immediate issue is some injuries for Michigan St.  First Kalin Lucas will play with an injured ankle.  He practiced yesterday following his 25 point performance in the first round.  Lucas comes in averaging 15 points and 3.8 assist per game.  The other injury is Chris Allen, and he is going to be a game time decision because of an injured arch.  He is averaging 8.8 points per game, but is the Spartans leading three point shooter at 40%.  Both of these injuries are significant, even if they do play, they are not at 100%.

What is a bigger concern for Maryland is going to try and figure out how to keep Michigan State off the boards.  They out rebound their opponents by 9 boards a game.  Mr. Williams, you may need another game like you had the other night!  Dramond Green is the Spartans leading rebounder at 8.1 per game.  At the start of the season I should have saved a clip of text about the importance of rebounding for the Terps on a permanent clipboard to make writing these things easier.  Obviously rebounding is going to be key for the Terps, and it is going to take a team effort.

Offensively, Maryland may have some troubles as well.  Michigan St. is holding their opponents to 38% shooting over the last 8 games.  I read an article earlier where Tom Izzo was trying to figure out who was going to guard Vasquez if Allen was unable to play.  He felt Lucas may be a little small at 6-1″, so look for a little of Raymar Morgan (6’8″ Forward) to match up on Vasquez to try and stop him if he gets into the lane.  This has to be another team effort including the continued strong play of the bench.  The suddenly rejuvenated Landon Milbourne is going to have to be a big part on both ends of the court if the Terps are to advance.  I feel like he is the x-factor today.

One other note of interest, Maryland will be rocking the gold uni’s today.   Not sure if that makes a difference, but they are 8-0 in them this year so far.  They wanted to wear them on Friday, but were not allowed because next to red, a blind person would not be able to differentiate them on TV.  I read that on Patrick Stevens’ Blog,  honestly, that was why they wore white.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 7:41 am and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.