Saturday, December 8, 2018, 3:00 p.m.
Royal Farms Arena, Baltimore, Maryland
Before the season began, Loyola’s game against Maryland in Baltimore was one of those rare games when Loyola fans could realistically dream of an upset over a top-tier Power 5 program. But after sustaining some injuries to key players—the top defender and the top guard off the bench—the Ramblers are down to only eight scholarship players, and only four scholarship players who played Division 1 ball last season.
Meanwhile, Maryland has impressed a lot of observers with their three top 100 freshmen playing big minutes because of limited depth. The Terrapins started the season 6-0 and earned a #24 ranking before losing by only five points to #4 Virginia. After a win over last year’s NIT Champs Penn State last Saturday, the Terps rose to #23. On Thursday night they nearly knocked off Purdue in West Lafayette, losing 62-60.
Coach Mark Turgeson, formerly of Texas A&M and Wichita State, starts five players who were top 100 recruits and his first player off the bench was top a top 100 recruit as well. Junior guard Anthony Cowan leads the attack for Maryland, averaging 16.6 ppg. The 6’1” playmaker weighs in at only 170, but does a lot of everything on the court—dishing out an average of 4.7 assists, leading the team in minutes and steals, and even pulling down 4.2 rebounds. Cowan has had trouble so far this year connecting from distance, shooting only 27% on three pointers, but every other area of his game remains strong.
Sophomore forward Bruno Fernando has really blossomed at the beginning of his second year in D1. The 6’10”, 240-pound big man from IMG Academy has upped his shooting percentage and averages a double-double with 14.7 points and 10.3 rebounds per game in the early going. Six-four sophomore shooting guard Darryl Morsell averages 10.3 points per game; he finishes well at the basket but has been struggling early this year with long-range shots.
Five highly-regarded freshmen—two starters, one player off the bench logging starters’ minutes, and two more reserves—fill out the rest of Maryland’s depth chart. The two starting freshmen are 6’10" forward Jalen Smith and 6’6” guard Eric Avala. Smith is averaging 12 points and 7.4 rebounds in the early going. The Charm City native was ranked as a consensus top 20 recruit last year, and has really excelled on the offensive glass. Avala averages 8.2 points per game and shoots over 40% from three point territory.
The other freshmen include 6’6” guard Aaron Wiggins, who shoots 40.8% behind the arc and averages 10.2 ppg. Wiggins averages more than five three-point attempts per game (Cowan averages even more), so expect to see a lot of threes launched. Serrel Smith Jr. (a 6’4” guard) and Ricky Lindo (a 6’8” forward) fill out the rotation.
Loyola doesn’t have any top 100 players. The Ramblers rely on experience, teamwork, and strategy to compete with the star recruits from power programs. Unfortunately, the playing time of two key players with a combined three years of Division I experience is being absorbed by four players with only 140 combined minutes of Division I experience prior to this season. The Loyola freshmen (Cooper Kaifes, Isiah Bujdoso, and Frank Agunanne) have played as well or slightly better than they were expected to play. Sophomore transfer Aher Uguak was expected by a lot of boosters to shoulder a large chunk of Donte Ingram and Aundre Jackson’s role, but that was an unfair expectation.
Saturday's meeting is the first ever meeting between Maryland and Loyola.
Loyola Game Notes: https://loyolaramblers.com/documents/20 ... df?id=8247Maryland Game Notes: https://umterps.com/documents/2018/12/7 ... df?id=8010TV/Streaming Video: Big 10 Network /
https://www.btn2go.com/game/loyola-chi- ... n-12082018Live Stats: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=242824Vegas Odds: Maryland by 9.5
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