Michigan State basketball: Getting to know Maryland

Michigan State basketball is getting set to face Maryland on Sunday afternoon and here’s what you need to know about the Terps.

Michigan State basketball will take on Maryland in its first of two straight road games. The Spartans are riding a two-game winning streak after beating Rutgers and Minnesota, but they have failed to win a road game this season. The Spartans need to change that fast, and they hope to do so against Maryland on Sunday.

Before the game gets here, let’s take a look at Maryland and how it has been doing this season.

Maryland season in review

Maryland’s season has seen a complete 180 shift from the beginning of the year to now. The Terps are 11-7 overall and 3-4 in Big Ten play and have been playing some solid basketball recently.

The Terps have won two of their last three games, including a 76-67 win at Illinois. Maryland has also beaten Penn State and Michigan during conference play as well. Maryland’s best non-conference win this season came at UCLA, but the Bruins are bad this year so that win doesn’t tell us much.

Even though Maryland is playing well now, it had a brutal start to their season. The Terps had back-to-back losses to Davidson and UAB in early November. Those games were over two months ago, but they show that this team can be really good and really bad on any given night.

Maryland’s last game was at Northwestern where they lost 72-69. Considering MSU got blown out when they played the Wildcats in Evanston, this is not a bad loss for Maryland.

Key players to watch

Maryland is led by senior guard Jahmir Young. He is averaging 20.8 points per game, making him one of four Big Ten players averaging at least 20 points this year. Young is coming off two monster games, scoring 28 and 36 points. He is also the team leader in assists, averaging 4.1 per game.

Another player to keep an eye on is forward Julian Reese. He is nearly averaging a double-double this season with 13.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Reese has had a double-double in two of his last four games. In the two games he failed to reach a double-double, he missed by only one rebound, so the bigs are going to have to be ready to battle him.

Thankfully for MSU, this Maryland team is not a good 3-point shooting team. The Terps only have three players above 30 percent on the season, led by Donta Scott who is at 38.5% from beyond the arc which is good, but that’s not a great percentage for the team leader. Maryland as a team is No. 338 in the country from 3-point range, so MSU should be able to scheme around that defensively to focus more on defending down low.

The Spartans have a chance to get to .500 in conference play and get their first road win this season. This would be a massive win that could help propel them back in the race for the Big Ten.