What to watch for in Maryland basketball’s exhibition vs. Randolph-Macon

The Maryland men’s basketball season officially unofficially gets underway Thursday night as the Terps will take on Randolph-Macon in an exhibition matchup at 7 p.m. at the Xfinity Center.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Maryland in action, and now without Melo Trimble and Damonte Dodd, a new era of Terps basketball is about to begin. This isn’t expected to be a close contest, given that Randolph-Macon is a Division III opponent, so if you’re not making the trip to College Park, here’s how to watch:

Thursday, Nov. 2, 7:00 (ET), XFINITY Center, College Park, Maryland

Stream: BTN Plus (Alex Flum, play-by-play; Sean Montiel, analyst)

Radio: 105.7FM (Baltimore)/980AM (DC), TuneIn Radio App (Johnny Holliday, Chris Knoche, Walt Williams), WMUC Sports (Liam Fulling/Max Marcilla)

Being that this is an exhibition against a Division III opponent, and highly touted freshman Bruno Fernando will be out with an ankle injury, there won’t be much substance to this game. That said, there are some things that are worth watching.

1. How Maryland’s sophomores lead the team. The trio of Anthony Cowan, Kevin Huerter and Justin Jackson should be the unequivocal leaders for this season. Again, they likely won’t be going all out in an exhibition game, but the first half should resemble a real game. Between the three of them, they should lead the team in several statistical categories.

2. Maryland’s second unit. The backups should get a lot of burn in this one. It’ll be a good chance to see just how much depth the Terps have. At media day on Tuesday, Mark Turgeon said there are about nine guys who he sees playing significant minutes, but just about everybody on the roster should play in this game, even walk-ons.

3. Andrew Terrell’s towel-waving. The hope is that the offseason gave Terrell enough time to continue to hone his outstanding towel-waving ability. The junior, to nobody’s surprise, leads the NCAA in towel rotations per minute, and is the frontrunner for the Bench Mob Player of the Year Award. There are some new members of the Terps’ bench squad this season, and it’ll be interesting to see if any of the new guys can rival his towel skills.

In other news

The Terps received seven votes in the preseason AP Poll, which would put them at No. 36 if the rankings extended past No. 25.

It was a small recruiting class, but Maryland’s two freshmen could play huge roles this season.

Justin Jackson was one of the best players on the team as a freshman last season, and will have to be an even bigger star as a sophomore for the Terps to improve on last season’s result.

The Testudo Times podcast is back with a look back at Maryland football’s win against Indiana and a peek ahead to the final third of the season.