(A Very Brief) First Look at Maryland-Longwood

Ah, Longwood. The game that's on the schedule because...well, I don't really know why it's on the schedule. Regardless, Maryland will be taking a short one-game hiatus from ACC play to go up against the Longwood Lancers, one of the remaining six independent teams in the country.

As you'd expect, this won't be much of a game.

Longwood is almost, though not quite, as bad as Winston-Salem State. They're 4-14, and their best win was against Campbell. Maryland should have another easy win.

Their leaders appear to be Antwan Carter, who's averaging 14 points and 8 rebounds a game, and Dana Smith, who puts up 16 a game. Carter's actually pretty good at rebounding, and Smith is the #1 option for the Lancers. Other than that? Meh.

The only thing they're actually above-average at, nationally, is not turning the ball over: they check in at 127. Everything else? They're not very good.

For what it's worth, they play a very high-tempo brand of basketball and usually play man defense, different than most mid-majors, so Maryland has a bonus there. They like to get out and run, partially because they have no real post presence to speak of and no major 3 point threats. Hold on to the ball, and that takes away their biggest offensive strategy.

Other than that, I'm not going to spend too much time on a beautiful day dissecting a game that Maryland should win in a whitewash. If you want a more detailed preview, I'd suggest you check out Yanda's post at Terps Insider. Otherwise, happy MLKJ day.