In Big Ten play, Maryland men’s basketball has yet to live up to its preseason billing

(Photo Courtesy of Maryland Athletics.)

The possibilities seemed endless when the season began. Now in Jan, Maryland men'south basketball has reached a point where any avoidance of complete disaster this season is imperative.

This was a team with legitimate championship ambitions and an equally legitimate roster on newspaper to proceed with information technology, yet the Terps (9-9, i-half dozen B1G) take spent this season salvaging some semblance of hope for the postseason — just as information technology did last year.

And in its most recent game in Ann Arbor, a game between 2 teams looking to right the ship and avert a downwards spiral, the disparity between Maryland and Michigan was palpable.

Confronting Michigan, and for a skilful portion of the flavor so far, the in one case touted lineup of guards was reduced to forage to a more disciplined opponent. Even subsequently coming off the bench to spur comeback, interim head jitney Danny Manning failed to become much out of Hakim Hart or Fatts Russell, who were benched in favor of Xavier Green and Ian Martinez and posted a combined total of five points. Both played for over 20 minutes.

"We demand more than from them," Manning said of his determination to bench Russell and Hart. "And this is merely a way to challenge them and we're at a point now where we're gonna button some buttons, do some things a little bit different and go from there."

Outside of the typical consistency of Hart and the occasional Eric Ayala scoring outburst, the guard play has been a far weep from the versatile group that headlined the preseason. Russell is far from the consequent atomic number 82 baby-sit that Maryland lacked terminal season, averaging four assists to go along with two turnovers per game and suboptimal shooting splits that include a 28% mark from three.

Martinez has not fit well plenty into his backup point guard function to spell the pace of the starting lineup. The athletic Utah transfer scored simply one field goal in his get-go at Michigan — a operation on par with his 2 points per game average in 13 minutes of play.

Julian Reese and Qudus Wahab, a large man pair who were acquired to handle the latitude of frontcourt talent in the Big X, saw their struggles come up to a head at Michigan. Reese did post an impressive 10 points off the bench — most of which came in garbage time — but their collective presence failed to deter Hunter Dickinson from having a comfortable xx-point outing and the Wolverines from 44 pigment points. The two, who struggle on both ends of the floor, have recently alternated on the starting lineup.

Overall, the lack of depth was on true display. As Michigan, a squad enduring a similarly underwhelming season, played thorough basketball and finished with four double digit scorers and a 58% mark from the floor, Maryland sputtered throughout an inefficient night with Donta Scott and Ayala taking 33 of its 52 shots.

From top to lesser, Maryland has underperformed as a unit and sits in a deeper hole than information technology did at a similar betoken last season (Maryland was 2-5 in its commencement six conference games in 2022 — both wins were against ranked opponents on the route.)

Guards aren't clicking, the bigs have yet to forge consequent roles and the depth has suffered tremendously as a result. Michigan was one nightmare consequence of the Terps' shortcomings. But as more established teams meet Maryland and its season continues to tendency in the electric current management, that ugly night at Michigan volition likely end up being the standard in 2022.

"We practice too hard and do too many skilful things for outcomes like this," Manning said. "Just nosotros gotta stick together, nosotros gotta grind through information technology and we gotta somehow find a way."

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Source: http://wmucsports.net/in-big-ten-play-maryland-mens-basketball-has-yet-to-live-up-to-its-preseason-billing/

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