Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
The Maryland Terrapins were on the outside looking in for last year’s NCAA tournament. Who knows if they will dance in the 2013-14 college basketball season, but they will have a pretty easy non-conference schedule regardless. With that in mind, they will still be challenged.
Maryland plays two very good opponents in its out-of-conference schedule. Those two opponents are the Connecticut Huskies and the Ohio State Buckeyes.
The Huskies won 20 games last season, but return a bunch of talent and should be ranked all season long. As for Ohio State, it will be the typical Thad Matta coached team. Translation: Ohio State will compete for a Big Ten title and will be ranked near/in the top 10 all season long.
The Terrapins will also play in the Paradise Jam, which will have teams such as La Salle and Providence in it.
The Terrapins lose their center, but at least leading scorer Dez Wells will be back. Wells put up 13.1 points per game on average and will not be alone.
Beating either Connecticut or Ohio State would be huge, but I would not bank on either upset happening. Maryland will have plenty of opportunities in ACC play to get even bigger wins. However, it has to get those big wins or else it will be on the outside looking in once again for the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
The Terrapins have the talent to do some damage in the ACC, but they need to get through their non-conference schedule before they can even think about that.
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