Maryland At Purdue: TV, Time, Odds, Streaming, How To Watch

It is not often that Purdue faces an opponent for the first time in conference play, but here we are. In fact, even though they are now in the same conference, Purdue and Maryland have only met once in both football and men's basketball combined, and that was the 2006 Champs Sports Bowl. We have, however, seen Mark Turgeon before. We last saw him during the 2010 NCAA Tournament when Chris Kramer's buzzer beater knocked off Texas A&M, coached then by Turgeon.

Ironically, that was the last time Maryland made the NCAA Tournament, and they lost on a last second shot in the same arena to Michigan State just before the Purdue game. Turgeon and Purdue have followed winding paths since then, but they converge again tomorrow at Mackey Arena.

First off, there is a very interesting addition for this game. The Terrapins were able to add 6'9" power forward Ivan Bender from Bosnia to their roster this week. He is eligible to play immediately, so the Purdue game could be his first collegiate action. In Europe he a averaged 10.3 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists for a team in Split, Croatia. Those are good numbers, but the announcement was made yesterday that he was coming to College Park. Who knows how acclimated he can get in two days because this makes it look like we had months to prepare for Jon Octeus.

Bender probably could play quite a bit because Maryland is not a team with a lot of size. Former Michigan player Evan Smotrycz is their most regular big at 6'9" 235 pounds and he only averages 4.9 points per game. Michal Cekovsky is a 7' center, but he plays just 15.8 minutes per game and only averages 3.4 points and 3.3 rebounds per game. Because of A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas the Terrapins might need a contribution from Bender immediately.

Maryland is led by one of the best freshmen in the big Ten, if not the country. Melo Trimble has been excellent so far at 16.3 points and 3.1 assists as one of the top guards in the league. He gets to the line a lot and is hitting 88% of his attempts once there (109 of 124). He is a decent three point shooter (25 of 70), but he does most of his work trying to get to the basket.

Jake Layman (14.4 ppg, 6.2 rpg) and Dez Wells (13.9 ppg, 3 apg) are both excellent guards with size that can play on the perimeter. Layman is shooting 40% from long range, while Wells is a 50% shooter from outside (9 of 18). Wells missed seven games due to injury, including their ACC/B1G Challenge loss to Virginia. He has struggled a little bit since returning. Illinois held him to only six points the other night.

As usual, we're facing a team that shoots well from outside. Dion Wiley and Jared Nickens are both 37% shooters from long range to open things up for Wells, Layman, and Trimble. If anything, Purdue might struggle because Maryland can go smaller and quicker than the Boilers. Because of that, the ability of Hammons and Haas to defend the rim will be critical. The defensive matchups of athleticism vs. athleticism will be decided on the perimeter with Rapheal Davis and Octeus needing to have good games as hounding defenders. We might also need to bring Bryson Scott out of the doghouse as a defender.

Even then, Maryland is not a high scoring team at 73 points per game. If we can drag them down into an old fashioned Big Ten slugfest like we did with Wisconsin on Wednesday it will benefit us. Illinois harassed them into 36.5% shooting, kept Wells in check, and held them to only 57 points total. Also like Wednesday, Maryland is a team that wants to get to the free throw line. They get there over 25 times per game, so staying out of foul trouble (or at least hoping the game is not called like Wednesday) is a key factor.

It should be an interesting game. Maryland uses a 10-man rotation while coach Painter has trimmed things back quite a bit. Will Maryland be a fresher team with that or will Purdue's more solid rotation allow the Boilers to get in a rhythm? It seems like the biggest keys are to keep them off the free throw line and try to limit one of their big three (Trimble, Layman, and Wells). This is still a balanced team where everyone can do a little bit of everything. Think of them as Purdue, only better and without a 7-footer dominating the middle. Because of that, we need to keep pounding it to the Hammons/Haas duo and make them stop those guys.