After getting back in the win column exactly two weeks after the season-opening win, Maryland returns to action on Saturday night looking to build positive momentum en route to the third home win of the season.
Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs as South Alabama takes a 4-3 record into gameday. Led by Richie Riley in his sixth season, South Alabama was projected to finish sixth in the preseason SBC poll but reloaded in the portal to add Maxwell Land (St. Francis) and Thomas Howell (ULM) alongside freshman guard Marcus Millender and forward Julian Margrave in the starting lineup. Former Auburn guard Tyrell Jones started the first two games for the Jaguars and is one of five players averaging double-figures, though was the lone player selected to the All-Sun Belt team after being named a preseason second-team selection.
Maryland, meanwhile, was able to get back on track against UMBC as Jahmir Young finished with a game-high 20 points and four steals on Tuesday.
“I was really excited, I think the guys were really excited about just coming and playing at home. We played the least amount of Power Five home games of anybody in the country. I thought it was important looking at this stretch, and this is what I talked to the team after Nova was like, hey, we got, we have a 12-day stretch where we’re home. We got to take advantage of that going into Big Ten play,” head coach Kevin Willard said following the win. “The way they came and practiced the last two days, it just gave me a lot of confidence.”
It wasn’t all pretty as Maryland shot 28.6% from deep, including 1-of-9 in the second half, in the win as the Terps’ offense tries to find its groove.
“I give these guys a lot of credit because they came in obviously after a really tough outing at Nova, and they gave me two great days of practice. I mean, really intense. We practiced yesterday for almost three hours, which I never do before a game, but we just talked a lot about just flowing into offense a little bit better. We also talked about just, we need to press a little bit more aggressive to create some easy buckets. And I thought when you get a couple easy buckets early, it just gives you a little bit more confidence and you’re able to kind of wear them down a little bit. And I thought we did a good job in the first half kind of really just getting them on their heels. So it was good to see the ball go in early to be honest with you.”
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