The Maryland Terrapins are set to take on the UConn Huskies on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in the Jimmy V Classic. Maryland comes into the game at 7-1 and ranked sixth in the nation while UConn comes in at 5-2 and unranked.
Maryland's lone loss this season came at the hands of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, in Marcus Paige's first game back. The Terrapins bounced back in their last game against St. Francis as they cruised to a 41 point victory. Now they will face another tough test in UConn at a neutral site.
Melo Trimble is the first name to be brought up when you talk about Maryland as he is an extremely talented player who leads them in points (14.4 ppg) and assists (5.8 apg.) Trimble has struggled a bit with turnovers so far this season but he is making 51 percent of his field goals and the Terps go as he goes.
Another player to watch for Maryland is junior forward Robert Carter who is coming off a season-high 20 point effort against St. Frances. Carter is second on the team with 13.6 points per game and he also leads the team with 6.6 rebounds per game. Jake Layman also busted out of his slump against St. Francis as he made 5-7 from the field including 4-6 from three en route to scoring 16 points.
UConn suffered two losses at the Battle 4 Atlantis earlier this year to two really good teams in Syracuse and Gonzaga. The total deficit they lost by in the two games was six points and they were able to bounce back against Sacred Heart last Wednesday when they won by 33. The Huskies were in the top 25 when they went down to the Bahamas but when they came back they were out of the top 25. They have a chance to re-enter with a win over Maryland on Tuesday night.
Junior guard Rodney Purvis leads UConn in scoring at 14.1 points per game and his shot has really been falling for him this season as he is at 48 percent from the field and 41 percent from three.
The guy that has been doing the most damage for the Huskies this season though is sophomore guard Daniel Hamilton as he leads the team in rebounding (9.4 rpg) and assists (6.3 apg) and is second with 12.6 points per game. Hamilton is coming off a 14 point and 13 rebound effort against Sacred Heart and has really picked up his play in the last four games.
These two schools have split the last two meetings against one another and interestingly enough the winner of the past two matchups has gone on to win the national championship that year. Maryland beat UConn in the 2001-02 season and UConn returned the favor in the 2013-14 season.
The game is scheduled to tip off at 9:30 P.M. Eastern time and to watch the live broadcast go here. For the Maryland radio broadcast go here and for the UConn radio broadcast go here.
