Maryland basketball will look to find its spark back at home against Penn State, but they may do so shorthanded as head coach Kevin Willard said that point guard Jahmir Young is questionable heading into Wednesday night.
“We just can’t get rid of the injury bug. Mady [Traore] has been out again. Jahmir hasn’t a practice all week. He sprained his ankle in the first half of the Indiana game, so we’ve been down some pretty big numbers,” Willard said on Tuesday. “It’s one of my issues with us offensively that we just haven’t been able to spend as much time as we’ve wanted to practice. If we can get healthy after this game, I think we only have two games in two weeks, I think that’s where I’m really looking forward [to] this team taking a jump.”
Young’s potential absence could loom large for a Maryland team looking for its first win against a high-major opponent. Maryland already enters Wednesday night with the lowest points per game in the conference, while only Dartmouth and Houston Christian shoot worse than Maryland from three among the 351 teams in the country. Young accounts for nearly a quarter of Maryland’s offensive production, and against a Penn State team also looking to get back over .500 overall, Maryland head coach Kevin Willard may look elsewhere to find any spark offensively.
“I think they’re starting to realize it could start 8-0 run really quick on the road. That’s been a little eye-opening to them and that’s put a little stress on them,” Willard said of his two freshmen in the rotation. “Do I shoot it? Do I not shoot it? Am I going to start an 8-0 run? Am I going to air ball and be embarrassed for the first time? Like there’s a lot of stress that’s going in to shoot the basketball right now. And as they figure it out, they’ll get more relaxed and the ball will start going in more.”
There’s one more thing Willard is looking for with Maryland back at home on Wednesday.
“I mean if we have 17,000 [Wednesday] night, it’ll be a big help. I mean, that’s kinda what it was last year, to be honest with you. We had a great new home court advantage. I mean, you look at, I think Iowa is a pretty darn good basketball team. They went to Purdue and scored, they were down 20, 22 at halftime. Playing on the road in this conference, and I think now where every year you have a new team, I just think you have to be a little bit patient with that and let them kind of experience it and understand it because Big Ten basketball on the road is extremely difficult.”
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