#21 Maryland vs. George Washington
When: Thursday, Nov. 11 || 6:30 pm ET
Where: XFINITY Center || College Park, MD
Watch: B1G Network - Jason Horowitz (Play-by-Play), Christy Winters-Scott (Analyst)
Listen: 105.7 FM (Balt) / 980AM (DC) - Johnny Holliday, Chris Knoche, Walt Williams
Two days after notching their season-opening win against Quinnipiac, Maryland is back on the hardwood on Thursday as they welcome George Washington inside the Xfinity Center for a 6:30 PM tipoff.
Though Maryland holds the 36-31 all-time series edge against the D.C. school, it was George Washington who managed a two-point win over the Terps during their last matchup in 2013, but Thursday’s matchup will feature a familiar face with forward and former Terp Ricky Lindo Jr. back inside the Xfinity Center. The senior stuffed the stat sheet in Tuesday night’s win with 17 points, nine rebounds, six blocks, and three steals over Saint Francis, good enough to sit third nationally in blocks behind Chet Holmgren (Gonzaga) and Osun Osunniyi (St. Bonaventure). While Lindo returns to a familiar arena, George Washington brings a local flavor to Thursday’s matchup and will test the Terps’ backcourt. Guards Joe Bamisile and Brendan Adams combined for 42 of the Colonials’ 75 points on 14-of-27 shooting, including 4-for-6 from deep out of Adams, so Thursday will commend a strong defensive performance for Maryland to pull out another convincing win.
Just two days removed from scoring his 1,000-career point, veteran guard Eric Ayala will need to put together another strong defensive performance as Turgeon noted his improvements coming out of Tuesday’s win. “He got beat on one backdoor cut, they're really a good cutting team, you couldn’t see that, and they got us a couple of times late, they're a really good cutting team and we took that away and Eric would have given up two or three of those last year or the year before, so he kind of matured defensively,” Turgeon added. While Maryland is still working on their half-court offense, the addition of Fatts Russell has made the trips an explosive team in transition.
“Sometimes I think he's surprised himself he's so fast, all of a sudden he’s at the rim,” Turgeon added. “He's really good and he's really been shooting the ball well…he's a good player. I know everybody's going to fall in love with him.”
Qudus Wahab will find himself favorably matched up against Virginia native and sophomore center Noel Brown on Thursday night as the Terps’ center will look to make an instant impact. Wahab split his four first-half attempts from the field before finishing with a game-high 17 points, but his presence and the return to a more traditional lineup gives Maryland a chance to reestablish an inside-out presence. With freshman Julian Reese proving he can provide quality depth behind Wahab, Maryland can control Thursday’s game from beginning to end.
“[Qudus] just the back to the basket good guy, Julian's really good at…he's in traffic and all sudden he's by the rim, it’s pretty unique what he's able to do. He's got great hands, great length.”
Where Turgeon wants to see his team, grow is with their attitude and mindset during the game.
“Body language is a big thing for me. You know, just enjoying it, having fun, don't hang your head when you make a mistake. Next play mentality so we had a lot of, I thought we had a lot of some bad carriages we call it, bad body language tonight. So, we got to work on you know, so maybe their expectations of themselves are too high or whatever, but that's something we're starting to talk about more, positive energy and we'll get better at that.”