Florida State, for the season

Having already lost to Florida State once this month, Maryland experiences the joys of the unbalanced schedule by making the return trip to Tallahassee just three weeks later.  The Terps, of course, find themselves in precarious position with a still somewhat gaudy 15-5 record overall but a decidedly less ostentatious 3-4 ACC record.  Given the lack of non conference heft this year, if you believe as I do that the Terps will need 11 ACC wins to feel assured of dancing come March, the calculus becomes clear for this game.  A loss against a middle of the road Florida State team would leave the Terps heading into February needing to reel off eight out of ten to make the tournament and with only one road win in almost three months to their credit.  Even against the softer half of the schedule, that's not entirely encouraging.

The good news for Maryland - all standard disclaimers about not wishing injury on anyone - is that Terrance Shannon will be out for the game, as well as the foreseeable future.  He's not their best player - that would be Michael Snaer - nor is he the player that dominated the Terps in College Park - that would be Okaro White, but he did have eight rebounds in the first encounter and is the Noles' best rebounder.  They'll still have plenty of depth with White and a trio of (raw) seven footers', making them the only team on Maryland's schedule bigger than them, but there's no doubt that the offense will run more through the guards.

As a matter of fact, ol' Bunny Colvin's use of his depth makes Coach Turge's ten man hockey-line change gameplan look positively Thad Mattan.  In Sunday's blowout loss at Miami, Hamilton used 11 guys for double digit minutes, a few days after using 9 in double digits and two more for between five and ten minutes against Clemson.

This is far from a gimme, but this could certainly be a confidence booster for the Terps as Florida State already has five home losses, including Ls against powerhouses Mercer (of tournament tree fame) and South Alabama (of John Pelfrey fame) so the Donald L. Tucker Center hasn't really been a house of horrors.  kenpom has us favored by the slimmest of margins, and that's alright for me - Terps 67, Florida State 64.