COLLEGE PARK — When the Big Ten first announced its men's basketball schedule, Maryland's inaugural game in its new league seemed more like an initiation into an elite club.
Playing perennial power Michigan State in East Lansing, Mich., appeared to be a tough way for the young Terps to get started.
A few months later, Tuesday's game should still be difficult but no longer looks as daunting for Maryland (12-1).
Now ranked 12th in the Associated Press' writers poll and winners of five straight games, the Terps arrive at the Breslin Center for their Big Ten opener as one of the biggest turnaround teams in the country and, perhaps, among the top two teams in what has so far been an underachieving league.
"I don't think anything changes. We tried to get better today, and we'll try to play well tomorrow," Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said after the team practiced Monday at Xfinity Center. "We are who we are, we're a pretty good team who can get a lot better."
The Terps have been a good road team this season. Not only did Maryland beat Oklahoma State in Stillwater, Okla., on Dec. 21, but the then-unranked Terps also upset Iowa State (then No. 13, now No. 9) in front of a pro-Cyclones crowd in Kansas City, Mo., last month to win the CBE Hall of Fame Classic.
"I think, in those two games, we defended pretty well, and we rebounded pretty well," Turgeon said. "Melo [Trimble] gives us a lot of poise and a lot of presence out there. Both games he's handled it really well. Each road game is a different dynamic, each game is a different dynamic. We're confident going out on the road, we're comfortable out there."
Maryland is healthier and deeper than at any point this season, with senior guard Dez Wells returning for Saturday's 72-56 win over Oakland after missing a month because of a fractured right wrist. Senior forward Evan Smotrycz is also starting to find a rhythm and a role off the bench after breaking and then reinjuring his left foot.
Wells, who likely will return to the starting lineup Tuesday after scoring 10 points in 22 minutes as a reserve Saturday, "gets better every day," Turgeon said. "He's in good shape. His role will increase in this game, obviously, depending on foul trouble. I think his minutes will go up, I think he's ready for it."
Said Wells: "I'm ready for whatever. I'm always ready to play."
Wells understands the historical significance of Tuesday's Big Ten debut. He also knows that it's important for Maryland to keep its momentum building, unlike two years ago when the Terps couldn't take advantage of a 13-1 start and lost their focus once the Atlantic Coast Conference schedule began.
"Every game from here on out we take it as a must win," Wells said. "We take it with that kind of pressure on it because we want to be a great team, so to be a great team you've got to win on the road. That's the challenge I present to my teammates, and I'm pretty sure they'll accept the challenge and be ready to play tomorrow."
Though Wells said he got over any mental hump of using the wrist at his first practice back on Christmas night, which included him beating several teammates up the floor and finishing with a thunderous dunk, the team's emotional and statistical leader looked more like his old self in the last five minutes against Oakland.
Asked if those last few minutes by Wells were important to the 6-foot-5 guard, Turgeon said it was more about how the Terps looked as a group.
"I don't think that game bothered us at all that we let them come back [and seeing a 23-point lead cut to seven]. We didn't do what we had to do, but the thing that was impressive was that we stepped up," Turgeon said. "I know it was a lot him [Wells], but Jake [Layman] made a great defensive play, and I thought we stepped up defensively and really executed offensively."
Conversely, Michigan State (9-4) has looked shaky since opening the season with a five-point win at Navy. After watching their No. 18 preseason ranking drop slowly with losses to No. 4 Duke, No. 11 Kansas and Notre Dame, the Spartans fell out of the rankings after being shocked at home recently by Texas Southern.
Adding to Michigan State's misery was a wrist injury to senior Branden Dawson, the team's leading rebounder (8.5) and most physical interior player. The 6-6, 225-pound forward sustained a nondisplaced fracture of his left (non-shooting) wrist after taking a hard fall Dec. 17 in a win over Eastern Michigan.
Dawson, who also was averaging close to 11 points, has missed the past two games. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun on Monday that Dawson will "probably play" against the Terps, "but I don't know to what level because of the injury."
Izzo said he thinks Maryland will fit in well in its new league. That the Terps are more of a finesse team than one that displays physicality shouldn't be a problem, since Izzo said the Big Ten is no longer the "smashmouth" league it once was under coaches such as Indiana's Bob Knight, Purdue's Gene Keady and Michigan State's Jud Heathcote.
"We run a lot more than a lot of teams did back then," Izzo said. "There's a lot of different kinds of teams. With [Minnesota coach Richard] Pitino coming in and pressing. Thad [Matta at Ohio State] has gone to almost all-zone. That was un-American in the years I was assistant and the early years I was a head coach.
"I think Maryland brings some size, they bring some athleticism, they're well-coached. I think they're going to love the league, I think they're going to love the competition, and they're more than adequate. This is a program that did pretty well in the ACC over the years. I think they're going to love it, and we're going to love them."
Turgeon is looking forward to getting started.
"Here we go," he said Monday. "We've been talking about it for 2 1/2 years it feels like, and now we finally get to play a Big Ten game."
One that doesn't seem as daunting as it might have a few months ago.
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