Terps are well aware of task that lies ahead
Seeking signature win, aim to slow Edey, No. 3 Purdue
COLLEGE PARK — The Maryland men’s basketball team has a tall task Thursday — in more ways than one.
The Terps, winners in five of their past six games, are hoping to stay hot and continue strengthening their NCAA Tournament resume against Purdue, the No. 3-ranked team in the nation that defeated Maryland in January. To upset the visiting Boilermakers, the Terps will likely have to achieve something few teams have this season: slow down 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey, who Maryland coach Kevin Willard said Wednesday is the “most dominant player in college basketball.”
“I don’t think you can limit his impact on the game. Even if you do a great job [double-teaming], even if you do a great job limiting everything else, he gets six offensive rebounds a game,” Willard said. “He’s the best player in the country for a reason.”
Edey, a 20-year-old junior, ranks fifth among NCAA Division I players in points per game at 22.2 and second in rebounds at 13.0. He’s averaging 2.3 blocks and shooting 62.8% from the field and 74.4% from the freethrow line — an impressive figure for a big man of his stature.
The matchup Thursday night in College Park will be the Terps’ second against Edey and the Boilermakers this season. Maryland (17-8, 8-6 Big Ten) nearly knocked off Purdue (23-3, 12-3) in West Lafayette, Indiana, on Jan. 22, falling 58-55 as Edey tallied 24 points and 16 rebounds.
“You just game plan the best you can, and you’ve got to go out there and score the basketball,” Willard said, referencing the loss in which the Terps shot just 37.3% from the field and went 3-for-21 from behind the arc. “We’re at home, we’ve got to score. That’s kind of what we didn’t do there against them very well.”
“I mean, he’s just like 7-9. He’s the tallest human I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Terps forward Patrick Emilien, who was injured
and played only six minutes in the loss to Purdue. “And he’s mobile, like he can move, he’s coordinated. … It just completely changes the game. You play him differently as you play a traditional big just because of his size.”
Since that January contest, Edey has logged two monster performances — a 38-point, 13-rebound game against Michigan State and a 33-point, 18-rebound game against Indiana. The latter matchup, though, ended in a Purdue loss. A week later, the Boilermakers lost again, falling to Northwestern for their third defeat this season and second in three games.
During the tough stretch, Purdue has struggled with turnovers — 16 apiece in the losses to both Indiana and Northwestern. The Terps forced 15 turnovers against the Boilermakers in January.
“When we don’t turn the ball over and we’re right around nine or 10, we’re pretty tough to beat,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said during his radio show Monday. “We have some guys that share the basketball and are very unselfish, but people are getting really aggressive with us and really getting into us, and we’ve just got to be stronger.”
Maryland, meanwhile, has been rolling
since the loss to Purdue. The Terps went from 2-5 in Big Ten play to 8-6 and tied for fourth place. Now, they’ll get the Boilermakers at Xfinity Center, where Maryland is 13-1 and winners of 10 straight against conference foes.
A win over the Boilermakers would easily be Maryland’s best win of the season, but Willard said Thursday’s result won’t “make or break” the Terps’ campaign. Guard Jahmir Young also said the Terps are
going to treat the contest “like every game,” but the Upper Marlboro native admitted he knows “what’s at stake.”
“We know how big it could be,” he added. “So we’re just trying to not think about it as much as a team, just trying to go out and play our game and treat them like any other Big Ten team.”