No. 10 MARYLAND vs. No. 7 UCONN
NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND GAME
When: Saturday, 7:10 p.m.
Where: Mackey Arena, West Lafayette, Ind.
Records: Maryland 16-13, UConn 15-7
TV: CBS
Radio: UConn Sports Network (97.9 FM-ESPN Hartford, WAVZ 1300 AM, WICC 600 AM, WINE 940 AM, WGCH 1490 AM, WILI 1400 AM)
KEEP AN EYE ON
Bouknight v. Morsell: Maryland features the Big 10’s Defensive Player of the Year in Darryl Morsell, a 6-foot-5 senior guard who typically matches up against the opponent’s best player. That means UConn leading scorer James Bouknight on Saturday.
“That’ll be his primary matchup,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon reported. “(Bouknight) is good. We like to switch screens, but if Bouknight’s getting really hot and doing some things, we might lock Darryl into him.”
Turgeon added that Morsell relishes such assignments. “He’s excited about it. They’ve got a lot of really good players ... Bouknight’s the best offensive player for them. Looks like an NBA player, to me, when I watch him play. So, Darryl looks forward to that.”
Talk is cheap: Bouknight has taken note of Morsell’s tendencies on film — and not just how he plays physically.
“He likes to talk a lot,” the sophomore guard noted, “so I’ve got to keep my head and just execute the game plan, let the game come to me, not try to force it, not try to take the matchup personally. Coach keeps stressing me to play off my jump shot, that will open up the floor for me, and being able to make plays for my teammates.”
“It’s mostly gonna be keeping my head in it,” Bouknight added. “It’s gonna be a tough battle, it’s not gonna be anything easy, and not let him get in my head or let a couple of possessions take me out of my game.”
Familiar foes: UConn hasn’t played Maryland since 2015, but the Huskies have played similar opponents in the Big East this season in Villanova and Creighton — teams that typically go with small lineups and often play five men out on the perimeter. The Terrapins do that frequently, except when backup center Galen Smith, a 6-foot-9 senior, is in the game. With that in mind, coach Dan Hurley feels the Huskies may not be able to get out and run as much as they’d like, since Maryland often has its guards drop back on shots to prevent transition offense. But he also believes UConn needs to get back to an area it’s been strong on for much of the season.
“The backboard is gonna be huge in this game,” Hurley said. “It’s the reason why we didn’t play for a championship in New York this week.”
The Huskies were outrebounded 50-33 in a Big East tournament semifinal loss to Creighton on March 12.
History lesson: UConn owns a 4-3 all-time advantage over the Terrapins. The most famous meeting came in the 2002 NCAA East Regionals, when Maryland nabbed a 90-82 victory behind 29 points from Lonny Baxter, 27 from Juan Dixon and a dagger 3-pointer by Steve Blake with 25 seconds left, en route to a national championship under coach Gary Williams. UConn’s most recent win over Maryland came in the Huskies’ 2013-14 season-opener at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., a 78-77 victory. UConn, of course, would eventually win its fourth national title that season.