If you show up extra early to Comcast Center tomorrow to get your extra loyalty points and wait more than an hour to see the Terrapin men’s basketball team take on Indiana (Pa.) in the team’s exhibition game, you’ll probably want to know who exactly it is your watching.
Well, on paper, the Crimson Hawks are a pretty legit Division-II outfit. They’ve got past success after making it to the second round of the D-II tourney last year in a 22-8 campaign. They’ve got expectations with a No. 6 national preseason ranking courtesy of The Sporting News and preseason favorite status in the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference). It’s also interesting that they have scheduled trips to Wake Forest and Georgia Tech for exhibition contests coming later this week.
Today, coach Gary Williams said he’s been talking to fourth-year Indiana (Pa.) coach Joe Lombardi for a few years about bringing his Crimson Hawks to College Park. He decided that this would be a good year, especially because Lombardi’s team should be pretty good.
Williams’ concern with giving his team a realistic simulation of a game means you might see a decently close game tomorrow. Remember, in 2006, the last time a PSAC squad came to College Park, the Terps escaped with a one-point win over California (Pa.).
“You really don’t gain much if you win by 40 in any game, so hopefully this will be competitive,” Williams said.
The Crimson Hawks return three starters from last year’s team. They also placed three players on the PSAC’s preseason all-conference team. Throw in former Boston College forward Akida McLain (he actually played in Comcast Center in 2005), James Madison-transfer Scooter Renkin and a couple junior college transfers and the squad from western Pennsylvania could be decent.
Today, guard Greivis Vasquez said the team hadn’t done much specific game-planning for the Crimson Hawks, but Williams came into the media workroom at Comcast with a thick folder full of material on the team. Vasquez assured the assembled media that they’d be ready for what Indiana (Pa.) brings to the table. “I think coach Williams is a monster in [preparation],” Vasquez said.
In other words, don’t expect the Crimson Hawks to come into Comcast Center and beat what two national polls have dubbed the No. 26 team in the country. They have just two players over 6-feet-6 inches tall and none bigger than 6-feet-9. I just thought I’d give some background on who you might be watching tomorrow and guess that a 30+ point blow out probably isn’t in the cards.
“We’re not afraid,” Vasquez said. “We’re going to play our game.”
With a preseason schedule that includes a trip to the Maui Invitational, a road date at the Big Ten version of Indiana, plus a neutral court game against No. 6 Villanova all in the next month or so, that’s probably a really good thing.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.