Maryland basketball preview

Maryland 2011-2012 season: (24-13, 9-7 ACC)

Head coach: Mark Turgeon

Turgeon struggled last year in his first season at Maryland with just nine scholarship players. The team lacked not only talent but also experience, often relying on freshmen to play critical minutes for an energetic but turnover-prone squad.

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Help is on the way for the Terrapins, though, as talented transfer Dezmine Wells was recently granted permission to play this season after having been expelled from Xavier due to a sexual assault charge which was later thrown out by a grand jury. Wells and a pair of incoming freshmen—center Shaquille Cleare and sharpshooter Jake Layman—will bolster a Maryland roster that lost star point guard Terrell Stoglin and swingman Mychal Parker to season-long suspensions. If the Terrapins were to reach their potential, though, they will need their returning players to step up in a big way. Look for junior guard Pe’Shon Howard, who averaged 6.5 points, 3.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists last season, to play a major role. The athletic guard was a major force on the defensive end for Maryland last season, though his season was cut short due to an ACL tear in his right knee.

In addition to the play of Howard, Maryland’s success will rest heavily on last year’s ACC All-Freshman team selection Nick Faust, and 7-foot-1 sophomore center Alex Len, who last year posted the ninth-highest block total in the ACC despite playing just 22 games due to NCAA infractions.

One thing that needs to go right: Howard returns to his pre-injury form and several other players step into larger roles to replace Terrell Stoglin’s 20 points per game from last year.

One thing that could go wrong: Maryland ranked 317th in the nation in assists last year with just 10.6 per game, and the Terrapins were also poor at taking care of the ball. The loss of point guard Stoglin only worsens these issues.