SPOKANE, Wash. – Just one day away from its first round matchup with 12th-seeded South Dakota State, the 5th-seeded Maryland men's basketball team made its final preparations for its 2016 NCAA Tournament in Spokane, Wash.
Among the items on Thursday's list: a closed practice at Gonzaga University to fine tune the game plan, a date with the media in an open locker room and an open practice at Spokane Arena for hundreds of onlookers.
“Our guys are excited and when our guys are locked in, we usually play pretty well,” said head coach Mark Turgeon at Thursday's media availability. “We're really locked in right now which we were last week and they seemed to be this week in practice. We had a great week in practice, and when that happens, we usually play pretty well.”
Maryland players have made an effort to keep things loose heading into this year's tournament, and have used last years' experience as a key building block.
“I think this year we have more experience,” said senior Jake Layman. “Guys know what to expect this year.”
Senior guard Rasheed Sulaimon has played in five career NCAA Tournament games, including being a part of a run to the Elite Eight two seasons ago.
“I'm just going to try to use my experience that I had at Duke and help these guys as much as I can, especially the younger guys,” said Suliamon. “You have to take one game at a time and you can't overlook any opponents and can't look at potential matchups, because they call it March Madness for a reason. Any given game could be an upset, any given game you could lose.”
Maryland's open locker room session was full of laughter, as freshman walk-on Andrew Terrell kept players and staff on their toes with his own interview style amidst the professional reporters.
The team then put on a show for the crowd at Spokane Arena, hoisting half court shots and slamming home dunks after becoming accustomed to the arena during shootaround.
Maryland and South Dakota State are set to tip-off at 4:30 pm EST on TBS.
BONUS: Check out this awesome picture of Coach Turgeon and his kids taking in practice at Spokane Arena!
– Maryland –
