NCAA Tournament Second Round: (2) Alabama (25-6) vs (10) Maryland (17-13) prediction and college basketball game preview.
Alabama vs Maryland Broadcast
Date: Monday, March 22
Game Time: 8:45 pm ET
Venue: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN
Network: TNT
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Alabama vs Maryland Game Preview
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Why Maryland Will Win
The Terps didn’t have any real drama or issues with UConn, disposing of one of the Big East’s stars in the first half and rolling from there for a 63-54 win.
The threes were falling, the defense was terrific, and making five more free throws than the Huskies helped.
This might be a brutally flaky Terp team, but after losing three of its last four games coming into this, it became the good-flaky in the first round. Maryland has that ability to get hot, maintain the momentum, and keep it going at both ends of the floor with excellent defensive intensity.
For all of the strong things Alabama is able to do, it’s not amazing from three – it shoots threes in bulk, but it doesn’t really make them – and there are problems when the outside shots aren’t dropping.
The Tide foul way too much, they’re not a particularly good-shooting team, and as they showed against Iona in the 68-55 win, turnovers are always going to be an issue.
Maryland has to force mistakes and capitalize on them on the move, but …
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Why Alabama Will Win
If the Alabama threes start falling early, the Terps will panic and there will be a problem.
Yeah, the Tide don’t make a lot of threes, but they take more than anyone in America. Maryland is okay at guarding from the outside, but it’s not amazing at it. This isn’t a particularly powerful offensive team, either.
Maryland is 12-2 this year when teams fail to hit 31% of their threes, and 5-11 when they do. When teams make nine or more, the Terps are a painful 2-10.
Bama might not be automatic from three, but it hit 31% or better in 21 games, is 18-2 when making nine or more threes, and 12-0 when making 12 or more.
What’s Going To Happen
As always, Bama will keep on firing.
Get down the court, shoot a three, repeat. Either you can keep up the pace, or you can’t. The Maryland defense will clamp down enough to not get gouged from the outside, and it’ll make the Tide have to do more than bomb away.
UConn was great from the outside against the Terps and it didn’t matter.
The bigger issue for Maryland will be when Bama misses – the Terps can’t rebound. Alabama leads the nation in total rebounds, Maryland will get blasted on the boards by at least ten, and that’s going to be the difference.
It’ll be a tighter game than Alabama might like, but the ability on the glass and to force defensive mistakes will play a bigger role than what it does from three.
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Alabama vs Maryland Prediction, Line
Alabama 70, Maryland 64
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Line: Alabama -5.5, o/u: 138.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
Must See Rating: 3.5
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