JP and BMitch preview Maryland's path to a BIG 10 Tournament title with InsideMDSports founder Jeff Ermann.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00um how how wild is it I mean I still think of Maryland basketball as this important team and
00:06I know from like a ratings and attention standpoint when Maryland gets good a lot of
00:11people pay attention but it's been so long man do you think this is a team that can sustain it and
00:20get deep into a tournament and make a lot of people care again yeah it definitely is JP like
00:27I see the you know from my perspective you get to see the engagement online and things like that
00:32and there's more excitement right now than there's been since at least that team five years ago that
00:38had its you know chance to make a run in the tournament stripped away because of COVID people
00:43are excited and it feels like a tipping point you know if you were to go out there and lose early
00:49in the tournament I think you'd lose a lot of that momentum but it's a chance to win back a lot of
00:54fans and also win some new fans you know if you can make that deep run that really hasn't happened
01:00since the national championship basically you know they had a sweet 16 the year after that
01:05and the only sweet 16 since then was 2016 when they were beaten pretty soundly by Kansas so
01:12there might be no more you know no program with a more rich history that has
01:19had such a long drought in terms of going deep into the tournament
01:24um specific to tonight how does Maryland win also please tell me this game is just on television
01:29and I don't need an app yeah the game's definitely on tv they they 10 oh I got you uh it is on uh
01:40Fox Sports all right like FS I'm sorry Big Ten Network streaming on Fox Sports I should say
01:47all right you said yeah I mean can I put it on my television by using a remote control
01:52yes Big Ten Network and you're good okay all right uh okay thank you yeah yeah I mean they've
01:58owned Illinois lately I think they've won seven of the past nine several of those were in Illinois
02:04four or five at Illinois including a couple where Illinois was top 10 and were pretty big upset so
02:10they there's no team at least among the top tier teams in the Big Ten who they've performed as well
02:16against uh the past several years but that makes me nervous that makes me nervous dude it does
02:24because it does make you nervous because they're gonna you know you know Illinois is going to come
02:28in motivated you know not obviously overlooking Maryland and looking for some revenge for all
02:34these losses they've taken I think a big thing is to is to bottle as much as you can the point
02:40guard Jackie Jonas who I mentioned uh the lottery pick this year six six kid I feel like he plays a
02:46lot like Grievous Vasquez did uh but they they held him in check pretty well in the first game
02:53this year he had I think seven turnovers struggled from the field so you know if they can do that
02:59again they should be in good shape but again they'll have to contend with the seven footer
03:04uh Ivicich inside so it's a different matchup than it was the first time
03:09do we fear Juju Reese foul trouble going against a big fella always possible but he's really cut
03:17down on that habit this year tremendously his two biggest uh issues over the years as everybody
03:23knows were free throw shooting and foul trouble he's got his free throw shooting up to about
03:2973 percent after being in the mid 50s the past two years and he's really cut down on the foul
03:34trouble so you know it's always a concern but it is something that he's gotten a lot better at