On ACC media day, the Maryland players strutted into their interview locations and immediately switched their nametags in an apparent joke. Maryland has lost four starters from last year's national championship team, but its swagger is still present.
Most analysts have Maryland dropping from a great team to a good team this year, but the ever-confident Terps have much higher ambitions.
"In college basketball today, I think there are maybe 10 to 15 teams that have the real makeup and chemistry to possibly put together an NCAA Championship run, and I feel that we're one of those teams again," senior guard Drew Nicholas said.
For Maryland to repeat its performance, it must start with four-year starter Steve Blake. Much like Duke's Chris Duhon, Blake has played on national championship teams with a pass-first mentality. With the loss of the stars of last year, Blake needs to score more. This does not appear to be a problem for the 6-foot 3-inch senior, as although he took very few shots, he was very successful in scoring in pressure situations.
"Steve is funny," said head coach Gary Williams. "He would shoot more in pressure situations than he would when there was no pressure, and he's always made big shots for us. So now, we just want him at the start of the game to be looking. When it's there, we want him to take it and not pass off like a point guard."
Also returning is Tahj Holden, who played important minutes off the bench last season. Holden, 6-foot-10 and 270 pounds, is something of an oddity with his affinity for the three-point shot. Holden expects to play more in the post this year with the loss of now-NBA players Chris Wilcox and Lonny Baxter.
"I worked on my post moves, I still shoot the ball pretty well," Holden said. "I'm just going to have to focus more on being a low-post presence because Lonny and Chris are gone."
Maryland has a stellar recruiting class adding size, speed and depth. Freshmen Nik Carner-Medley and Chris McCray look to fight for playing time, while consensus top 25 high school recruits John Gilchrist and Travis Garrison will compete for starting positions from the outset.
Garrison leaves Morgan Wooten's hallowed DeMatha program to try to replace the huge gap left from Lonny Baxter's shoulders. At 6-foot-8, 234 pounds, Garrison can play any of the frontcourt positions.
Gilchrist will have a tougher time getting in the starting line-up because of returners Blake and Nicholas, but the Virginia Beach native's impact is expected to be immediate.
"He gives you a very strong guard," Williams said. "He's got almost a 200-pound body at a point guard position, and the quickness to play against a very good point guard. Hopefully he can really come in and help us because we need another guard to get into a combination like we had last year."
With the addition of Gilchrist's speed, Williams expects this Maryland team's style to look more like the teams of the mid-90s, pressing full-court rather than pounding the ball inside.
"We can press," he said. "We'll have to see how good of a pressing team we are. [The press] changes the tempo of the game. It opens up the court..all those things that help your offense."
The Terrapins are hoping to use the press to confuse the inexperienced ACC, and with the combination of new talent and the confidence the national championship brings, Maryland expects to have another great season.
"Starting off, the league is going to be wide-open," Nicholas said. "Why necessarily does there have to be a drop-off [in our team]? Yeah we lost four guys, yeah we lost Juan Dixon. But what team didn't lose a lot? What team didn't lose key starters? And we brought in a lot of guys."
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