If there was one final question about Maryland basketball’s non-conference schedule for the 2023-24 season, that was answered on Wednesday night.
Maryland was already among the four teams included in the Asheville Championship this season following the announcement of the non-conference schedule last month, featuring road games at Villanova and UCLA. According to Jon Rothstein, Maryland will open the tournament against Davidson on Nov. 10 while Clemson and Davidson square off in round one.
Maryland is 6-1 all-time against Davidson with Maryland coming out on top in the last matchup in the first round 2007 NCAA Tournament, despite 30 points from then-Davidson star Steph Curry.
Final thoughts from Italia🇮🇹🐢 pic.twitter.com/cBDUQfy9VZ
— Maryland Men’s Basketball (@TerrapinHoops) August 9, 2023
Meanwhile, Maryland returns from Italy on Thursday where they coasted in all three of their exhibition games while enjoying the beauty of Rome, Venice, Florence and Lake Como. The results were no surprise with head coach Kevin Willard hinting at the results not being the focus heading into the ten-day trip. Maryland, instead, utilized the trip to work on new rotations while continuing to build the on-court chemistry across the new-look roster. Willard also gave his assistants more control on the trip as each assistant took the reign on head coaching duties for one game, first David Cox, then Greg Manning followed by Mike Jones.
While Maryland returns from Italy still tasked with finalizing its starting five, freshman Jamie Kaiser was one who turned heads after closing out the trip with a double-double.
“Always take stats from foreign tours with a grain of salt, but encouraged with Maryland’s Jamie Kaiser tallying averages of 15.7 PPG and 6.3 RPG in Italy. Was terrific in practice two weeks ago in College Park. Will be an impact freshman in the Big Ten,” Rothstein tweeted.
Rick Jaklitsch, who watched the Terps cruise through Italy, noticed someone flash in the frontcourt. “The most improved player I think by far has been Caelum [Swanton-Rodger]. 7-footer inside, he’s so much more confident, so much smoother than he was last year. That’s going to be a big help.”
Cal’s development was among the factors that Willard noted could make the international trip a success.
“I think the biggest thing I’m hoping is that we can take steps with the four freshmen, that Cal can take another step, that Noah will take another step. That way, by the time we come back and start practicing in October, we’re working on stuff that we usually work on in December. And that gives us an advantage that we can build off of those things. And then maybe I don’t have to work Jahmir [Young] so hard in December and in January.”
One player that surprised Jaklitsch? Jordan Geronimo.
“Amazing leaper…he’s the most exciting player on the court.”
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