Saturday's 10-8 upset of then-No. 2 North Carolina at the Pacific Coast Shootout in Santa Ana, Calif., was a morale-raising outcome for Maryland, but coaches coaches are wont to immediately turn their attention to the next opponent.
For the Terps, who improved to 6-1 and from No. 5 to No. 3 in the latest Cascade/Maverik media poll, that means focusing on Tuesday afternoon's game at Robert Morris (1-6). But with team getting just two days between Saturday's victory and Tuesday's game, coach John Tillman conceded he was worried about the players' physical health and mental preparation.
"You play Saturday night and you only have Sunday and Monday," he said Monday before boarding a plane from California to Pittsburgh International Airport, which is an 11-minute drive to Robert Morris in Moon Township, Pa. "So, it's a real quick turnaround. So physically, you want to get prepared, but you also realize that it was a physical game, guys expended a lot of energy, there is some fatigue. So you don't want to beat them down too much. And then the other side is you do need to get the reps and you want to make sure that they have an idea of who they're playing and what their strengths are. So you're trying to hit that sweet spot, which is always hard."
After staying in California to participate in a youth clinic on Sunday, Maryland went through a brief walkthrough on Sunday and will take part in another one on Tuesday morning. The coaches cobbled together a scouting report, and the players have already reviewed film on the Colonials.
The Terps are also relying on film from their 19-6 rout of Robert Morris on April 2, 2014.
"We started some of the prep work, but with [Monday] being a travel day, we really needed to put the game plan in – or as much as we could and then try to get to know Robert Morris as quickly as possible," Tillman said. "Most of the upsets in the country happen mid-week. So having to travel, having to deal with all that, we really need to lean on our seniors to make sure that we're focused tomorrow to try to play well."