rasheed sulaimon

Whether Maryland's hard-fought 74-68 victory at Xfinity Center actually proved anything, of course, remains to be seen, considering that the No. 8 Terps have delivered seeming statement performances before and failed to follow up on them ¿ at least in a manner befitting a potential Final Four team.

Led by senior guard Rasheed Sulaimon, Maryland stopped the Big Ten Conference¿s hottest team before a sellout crowd at Xfinity Center, beating Iowa, 74-68, to tighten up the top of the league and finally get the Terps a signature victory.

As premature as it seems to compare a backcourt that has played together for three months to one that was in tandem for three years, Maryland guards Melo Trimble and Rasheed Sulaimon have been mentioned as the best tandem to play for the Terps since Steve Blake and Juan Dixon.

By now, Varun Ram should have been in his first — or maybe second — year of medical school.

Robert Carter Jr., who had been one of the country¿s most promising big men during his two seasons at Georgia Tech, showed that he is starting to develop fully as a Terp. In a dominant 100-65 win for No. 3 Maryland, the 6-foot-9, 235-pound power forward was the most dominant player on the Xfinity Center court.

College basketball teams, particularly those ranked as high as No. 3 Maryland, are usually motivated by losses. Going into Saturday¿s home game against Ohio State (12-6, 4-1 Big Ten), the Terps will be thinking about two defeats ¿ the 70-67 loss at Michigan on Tuesday and an 80-56 loss to the Buckeyes last season in Columbus, Ohio.

Jon Givoney, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based college and professional basketball connoisseur whose DraftExpress.com mock draft board is well-respected by NBA scouts and general managers, explained his reasons for putting Maryland's Diamond Stone, Melo Trimble and Jake Layman where he did Thursday, and why Terps Rasheed Sulaimon and Robert Carter Jr. have not yet been mentioned.

NBA scouts and general managers must be paying attention to the midseason surge of Maryland freshman Diamond Stone.

Even Melo Trimble got a little caught up in the postgame buzz of his long, last-second 3-pointer to beat Wisconsin on Saturday.

Mark Turgeon: "For us to become a complete team, they need to become complete players."

"I'm just really excited to come back home, to play in front of my family and friends," Stone said.

According to Diamond Stone¿s father, Bob, the family has yet to discuss whether his son will enter the NBA draft after his freshman year.

They certainly weren't in a position to prove much against a struggling, outmanned team from Rutgers that came unraveled so fast that Mark Turgeon was deep into his bench in the first half. The Terps looked like an NBA team in comparison, but their 88-63 blowout win isn't going to count for much on their resume. Apparently, it will take more than that — or their convincing road victory against a solid Northwestern team on Saturday — to live down their strange performance against Penn

With seniors Jake Layman and Rasheed Sulaimon, junior Robert Carter Jr. and freshman Diamond Stone all scoring in double figures, the Terps led by 28 points at halftime, after allowing season-low 18 points in the first half, and by as many as 42 before playing out an 88-63 victory.

¿Been in a lot of battles with him. I know how good he is, how talented he is," the Northwestern coach said.

After falling behind by eight at halftime ¿ Maryland's largest halftime deficit of the season ¿ and later by 13 with a little over 6½ minutes left, Stone led the Terps to a wild victory.

In Maryland's last three games, the Terps are a combined 35-for-73 (48 percent) on 3-point attempts.

Head up, eyes searching, Maryland point guard Melo Trimble dribbled a few feet past midcourt Sunday when he found freshman center Diamond Stone motoring down the lane, running full speed toward the basket. Trimble kept moving. As two Marshall defenders came toward him, Trimble snapped a perfect one-hand bounce pass through a maze of arms to Stone for a two-handed dunk. The evolution of one of college basketball's best point guards continued.

Sophomore point guard Jaylen Brantley will try to replicate his season-best performance from last Saturday when now-No. 4 Maryland (10-1) plays Marshall (4-8) on Sunday afternoon at Xfinity Center. Marshall is one of three stops the now-22-year-old Brantley made between high school in and near Springfield, Mass. and his eventual arrival at Maryland.

What the 6-foot-4 senior shooting guard did in Saturday¿s 77-56 victory over Maryland-Eastern Shore further enhanced his growing reputation as an unselfish player.

Melo Trimble's 25-point performance helped No. 6 Maryland beat Connecticut, 76-66.

Maryland basketball forward Jake Layman has already suffered through a five-game slump. He knows he has to keep shooting through his occasional struggles.

With the Terps comfortably ahead in the first half en route to a 96-55 victory Friday over Saint Francis (Pa.) at Xfinity Center, Jaylen Brantley got his chance and finally lived up to his reputation. After scoring just one point in a total of 59 minutes, Brantley finished with seven points in 14 minutes.

The Big Ten was not supposed to keep its winning streak going over the ACC this season in their annual early December matchup. What could bode well for the league¿s overall power ranking -- and perhaps not so well for those Maryland fans who thought the No. 2 Terps were going to have it easy this winter -- is that the Big Ten improved to 5-0-2 against the ACC over the past seven years.

Maryland senior guard Rasheed Sulaimon kept the No. 2 Maryland Terps in the game against No. 9 North Carolina and has become a mentor for sophomore point guard Melo Trimble.

Marcus Paige scored 20 points for the No. 9 Tar Heels in their win over the No. 2 Terps in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

No. 2 Maryland faces No. 9 North Carolina in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in a game between two longtime foes with two members of the same coaching tree.

Building a 22-point lead during the first half of Wednesday night's Cancun Challenge championship game against Rhode Island at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, the second-ranked Terps led by 16 at halftime and cruised to an 86-63 victory. Maryland (5-0) will return home for Thanksgiving unbeaten and suddenly meshing.

Trailing by five points and hearing the Redbirds fans drowning out their own on the Hard Rock Resort court, the Terps stormed back behind guards Rasheed Sulaimon and Melo Trimble to beat Illinois State, 77-66.

The Maryland basketball team is a work in progress, coach Mark Turgeon says, and Tuesday night's 75-71 win over Georgetown proved it.

Trailing for much of the second half, No. 3 Maryland came from seven points down in the last six minutes to win, 75-71, before a sellout crowd of 17,950 at Xfinity Center.

The No. 3 Maryland men¿s basketball team featured three new starters for Friday¿s season opener against Mount St. Mary¿s: transfers Rasheed Sulaimon and Robert Carter Jr., as well as freshman center Diamond Stone joined Melo Trimble and Jake Layman for the opening game lineup.

How the No. 3 Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team matches up against the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils.

"We just want to play games," Terps coach Mark Turgeon said Thursday.

Now that Maryland is considered one of the top teams in the country with a legitimate chance of making the 2016 Final Four, it¿s going to be interesting to compare the Terps to the other teams in the top five. As the Terps get ready to start the season Friday against Mount St. Mary¿s, we will take a look at how Mark Turgeon¿s team stacks up.

Maryland forward Jake Layman is the only member of this year's team to have spent his first three seasons with the Terps. He's bigger, more confident and being counted on to be a leader.

By the time the Maryland Terps might play the Kentucky Wildcats, they'll be much better than they are now.

Maryland men's basketball coaches, players and athletic department support staff visited patients Tuesday at MedStar Harbor Hospital.

Maryland Terps basketball coach Mark Turgeon will have to decide how to rotate shooting guard Rasheed Sulaimon, swingman Jared Nickens and point guard Jaylen Brantley.

Now that Maryland is considered one of the top teams in the country with a legitimate chance of making the 2016 Final Four, it's going to be interesting to compare the Terps to the other teams in the top five in the country.

Maryland shooting guard Dion Wiley will be out indefinitely with a torn meniscus in his right knee, an athletic department spokesman said Saturday. Wiley will have surgery in Baltimore next week. No timetable has been set for his return.

One of the common threads that ties together the 17 seasons Mark Turgeon has been a Division I college basketball coach are the transfers who have helped transform his respective teams, particularly those at Wichita State and Maryland.

Nearly 20 months after playing his last game for the Yellow Jackets as a sophomore in the 2014 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Robert Carter Jr. will play his first game as a Terp Friday night when No. 3 Maryland hosts Division II Southern New Hampshire in a preseason contest at Xfinity Center.

As of Sunday, college basketball analytics guru Ken Pomeroy has the Terps 24th in the country in his preseason rankings, and sixth among Big Ten Conference teams

Why won't The Sun say why Rasheed Sulaimon left Duke?

"Rasheed just won't break the code," Angela Sulaimon said in an interview Monday with The Baltimore Sun. "Certain things he won't say because he's afraid of what might happen." Angela Sulaimon was referring to the power she believes Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski wields.

Rasheed Sulaimon is pretty candid talking about the transition from Duke to Maryland, the circumstances that led to him becoming a Terp after being the first player ever dismissed from the Blue Devils by coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Terps basketball teams holding Magical Maryland Madness on Saturday.

On Wednesday, Melo Trimble was named the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year. On Thursday, the Terps were voted the nation's No. 3 team the USA Today Coaches Poll.