Bob Haynie: Terps Look To Sweep Spartans
On December 30th, it took two overtimes for the Maryland Terrapins to defeat the Michigan State Spartans at the Breslin Center. Maryland's 68-66 victory was hard fought, if not sometimes ugly to watch. I guess that's life in the Big Ten.
The Terps will go for the regular season sweep of the Spartans at the XFINITY Center on Saturday afternoon. Maryland has only lost once in College Park--to Virginia--and will be looking maintain a nice home court advantage.
Since their first meeting, Maryland has won three of four games with the only loss being at Illinois. The Terps are 16-2 overall and, at 4-1, are tied with Wisconsin for first place in the conference.
Michigan State has won three-straight since the loss to Maryland and are 12-5 on the season with a 3-1 Big Ten record.
Maryland has struggled on offense over the past few games and only shot 34 percent from the field in their win over Rutgers on Wednesday night. Coach Mark Turgeon is hoping his team can find that offensive crispness that was evident earlier in the season.
The Spartans are enjoying the resurgence of senior forward Branden Dawson who been averaging over 13 points and 12 boards per game during their winning streak. Guard Travis Trice, who dropped 26 on Maryland in the first meeting, averages 14.3 points and 6.1 assists per contest.
Turgeon has inserted freshman Jared Nickens into the starting lineup and he hit four three-pointers in the 73-65 over Rutgers.
The Terps had a 52-36 rebounding advantage over Michigan State in the December game and got to the line an incredible 32 times after halftime. They made 26 free throws.
I think Maryland will be hard pressed to repeat those numbers against Tom Izzo's rapidly improving squad.
Much like the first meeting, I expect the rematch to close. Hopefully, it will be much better on the eyes. Remember 17-14 at the half?
The games may not be pretty, but Maryland is finding ways to win them. A positive sign for a team headed to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years.
Follow @1057TheFan
