The Terps do have a truckload of talent coming back this season including a stellar trio of front court players.  Juniors Len Elmore and Tom McMillen will team with sophomore Buck Williams to man the pivot positions. Elmore and Williams are similar style players who love to bang and board inside.  Elmore will start the season as the five which he is a bit small for center at 6’9 220 as it showed last season in that epic game.  Fellow Power Memorial High alumnus Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dominated him in that game but he is giving up five inches to the legend.  Elmore scores mainly on boards but is a solid defender against most guys and is a good presence underneath with screens and can block a shot.  Williams will be starting at the four and is the prototypical power forward.  He does not score much except for on tips and putbacks but man can he board.  His defense is dynamic and at 6’8 220 has the kind of chiseled physique to match up with anyone in the hole.  He will keep coming all night long and his toughness underneath is legendary.  Oh and he can block a shot as well.  You see the problem here as these two are clones down low and playing them together does not mean many set plays down low and there is not much pressure taken off the perimeter players.  McMillen is a solid option off the bench and is better offensively than Elmore or Williams but has kind of got a mid-range game.  He is not your go to guy on the block and his defense is nowhere near his compadres.  Smart as a whip McMillen was the biggest recruit ever for Driesell and this program that actually ended up playing here (Moses Malone actually committed here as his Mom loved Lefty but his dream was to be the first player to go straight from high school to the pros and he did indeed achieve that).  Boy would this program love to have Moses in the middle right about now as this team needs a go to guy in the paint who can eat up buckets and keep the defenses honest on the outside.  Depth here is not a plus either as Senior Al Bunge srtuggles with anemia which limited his playing time last year after he was a starter back in the day.  Another banger and good defender Bunge will hopefully be able to get on the court more often than not this season.  Juniors Steve Sheppard, Larry Gibson and Lawrence Boston are next in line for minutes.  Sheppard got a shot last season and played well but is also undersized for a four at 6’6 225.  ‘Bear’ as he is called loves the dirty work inside but has the size of a wing.  He can play and will push for minutes down low but that height thing is a huge issue in this elite conference.  Gibson and Boston have good size for the four but are not exactly huge either when they get pushed to the five.  Gibson should play more this year as the 6’10 230 pound Dunbar High graduate might be the best suited player on the roster for the wars underneath.  He can score a bit but is better defending and boarding which seems all too familiar here.  Boston might be more of the same and like many of his teammates does have pedigree.  This 6’8 225 Cleveland product was a High School All-American who has the perfect size for the four and can score some but has been stuck behind similar players for two years now.  Can he step up and break into the rotation or did Williams bring in a stud who can actually score in the paint on offensive sets with his limited recruiting time.  If he did then they were not exactly on the national radar but you never know who got overlooked and what prize you might find at the bottom of a cracker jack box? 

As for the perimeters players there is a similar bag of different styled players who bring a variance of skills to the table.  Foremost of these is junior point guard John Lucas who Driesell somehow managed to rip off of hated rival Duke’s doorstep.  Yes, Lucas is from Durham North Carolina and it was a bit of a coupe when he signed to come here.  But boy what a get!  Lucas is a superb point guard who at six three sees the whole court and has the quicks to get anywhere in a hurry.  This smooth lefty can score with nice range on his jumper but is best getting inside and drawing attention before he drops a dime to one of the big boys or wings.  Lucas has world class dexterity in his hands and agility in his feet as he is a nationally ranked tennis player as well.   There is no doubt who is the General on this team but Driesell loves completion and has got a slew of fine point guards on the bench and coming up in this program.  They will learn much from Lucas (on and off the court) and be better for it. He is the one player on this roster who is in no danger of losing his starting job unless of course there is a tennis match he can’t miss!  And can’t wait for those Blue Devil matchups!  The two guard is in safe hands as well as Lucas’s back court sidekick will no doubt be senior Gene Shue.  Shue was a walk on here under Bud Millkan who had come from Oklahoma State to try and build a program here.  He was mentored by the great Hank Iba who actually gave him his nickname and his coaching style.  Millikan preached defense without much success until Shue arrived.  The 6’2 170 pound tough kid from up the road in Towson was soon hitting runners and jumpers for the Terps and gave the fans a player to root for.  Shue, is not the most athletic guy and in today’s basketball is a bit undersized guarding two guards especially in this league, but man does he know how to play the game.  There is a quintet of second year wing players who will be battling for time as the two-three spots and all are bigger and more athletic than Shue.  Foremost of these is New York street ball legend Albert King who can flat strum it from mid-range.  King was one of the top recruits in the nation and chose the Terps over many suitors including his big brothers school the Tennessee Volunteers.  The schedule makers love that kind of stuff and Yes the Terps and Volunteers will be playing this year in the 2nd game of the year at Cole Fieldhouse.  King had a good freshman year playing the three most of the time but might be better suited at the two especially since arguably the best athlete on the team is about as true of a small forward as there is in the ACC.  Fellow sophomore Len Bias is a 6’8 210 jumping jack from DC who got the fans out of their seats on many occasions with his highlight reel dunks.  Bias is nowhere near a polished player but his upside is about as high as he can jump and once he figures out some of the subtleties of this game the world is his oyster.  On this team he will have to earn playing time and that will not be given to him with the likes of Adrian Branch, Earnest Graham and Greg Manning waiting in the wings.  Branch is the most complete of the three and has pedigree coming from prep powerhouse DeMatha located just up the road in Hyattsville.  Branch has size at 6’8 185 to play both positions and is the kind of slasher to the hoop teams covet and is a solid defender.  He is not a great long-range bomber that has become the rage so who knows if that will keep him out of the rotation.  Manning is just the opposite of Branch in that he can flat launch from anywhere.  Manning goes only 6’2 175 from Harrisburg PA and does not do much else but shoot but in today’s game that might be enough to get him some minutes especially on this roster that does not have a plethora of marksmen.  Graham probably has the best chance as he has the size (6’7 215) and the offensive game to excel.  Graham is a fan favorite here coming from Baltimore and when he gets hot is unstoppable with a terrific mid-range game.  He can also go long-range but is a bit inconsistent from behind the arc but seems perfect for a guy to come off the bench and heat things up.  Williams also has a trio of upperclassmen he can go to or should I say go back to as they got passed up on the depth chart last year.  Don’t get me wrong these guys are not exactly the Three Stooges even though one of them is named Mo Howard as they do have some skills and we are not talking the ’hand jive.’  Speaking of Howard this junior is a long-range specialist who will battle Manning for that designated role.  A 6’2 170 pounder from Philly Howard has struggled to stay in the lineup last year after a big first year but looks to bounce back.  Davis, a senior, has the longest roe to hoe as he really dropped down the totem pole after once starting here.  The strange situation is senior Will Hetzel who at 6’6 has the game to help this team.  The DC native is the brother of Davidson star Fred Hetzel and his family was a huge part of Driesell coming this way.  Will is a bit of a free spirit who has long hair, admits smoking pot and speaks his mind.  He said some things that were a little too liberal in nature and this did not set well with Driesell who tried to break his prize stallion.  After all Hetzel had led the team in scoring his sophomore year but barely played last year supposedly due to some injuries diving after loose balls and then a lack of defense.  With Driesell now gone will Hetzel get out of the doghouse as this springy sweet shooter can definitely help the team.  There is talent here on the wings and you never know who is coming by way of recruits as with the changes up above this team has done more late recruiting than any team in this conference.  HOW Much will Hetzel play?  Let’s Go A lot and he has to beat Duke!  This whole Driesell thing is maddening!

The Maryland Terrapins were for many years an after-thought in terms of basketball even though they were one of the original ACC members.  Coach Bud Millikan basically built this program from the ground up but only rarely were they in competition with the powers from the Carolinas.  Coach Lefty Driesell came on the scene and change the way the fans and the boosters thought of their beloved Turtles.  The grandiose big man who played at Duke of all places promoted his program as an elite and backed it up with supreme recruiting.  Still, the Terrapins have not been able to get over the hump even though their regular seasons were as dynamic as anyone’s.  Though they got close the Terps always seemed to be left out in the cold in March while one of the North Carolina schools got the glory in the Big Dance.  Some even went so far to say that Driesell got outcoached but this was mainly the media from the ACC who definitely have an agenda that points in the direction of the Carolina schools.  The wind has changed recently and it would take a miracle for this program to come back and compete in the mighty ACC after all of the upheaval at College Park.  New Coach Gary Williams, once a point guard here, took the job late as a favor to his alma mater as he was the head assistant and next in line for Fred Taylor at Ohio State who was supposedly retiring after this season.  This is home though and there are rumors that Williams has brought in some big time recruits that got overlooked due to a variance of reasons and this program might not be in as bad of shape as many predicted.  We know one thing;  this team will fight til the end and they love to put pressure on those big time schools that have so often looked down upon them.  Fear the Turtle as they might be wounded but they have more than enough talent to hang with just about anybody in this conference and beyond!