Jeff Ermann Likes Maryland's Chances In BIG 10 Tournament I BMitch & Finlay

JP and BMitch preview Maryland's path to a BIG 10 Tournament title with InsideMDSports founder Jeff Ermann.

Transcript

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