Maryland men’s basketball vs. Washington preview
After earning its highest quality win of the season over Iowa on Feb. 11, Maryland men’s basketball has entered a two-game skid. In its last contest against Northwestern, Andre Mills shined tremendously with 39 points, but his counterparts added on just 35 more in the defeat.
With five games remaining in the season, the Terps are still aiming to salvage some last-minute victories. Washington presents an opportunity for that.
The Huskies have a better record than both of the programs Maryland recently lost to, but they’re still just .500 on the year. In their last match, they picked up a home victory over Minnesota, but they lost by three to Penn State in the previous game.
Saturday’s game will begin at 3 p.m. and stream on Peacock.
Washington Huskies (13-13, 5-10 Big Ten)
Head coach Danny Sprinkle is in his second year at the helm of the Huskies. His first year was underwhelming, as the team finished 13-18. Most of Sprinkle’s commendable work as a head coach came during his time with Utah State — he led the Aggies to a Mountain West regular-season title and NCAA Tournament appearance. All-Big Ten honorable mention forward Great Osobor made the move to Seattle alongside Sprinkle, but the senior ran out of eligibility.
Before his time with the Aggies, Sprinkle spent four years as head coach of Montana State, where he guided the program to two NCAA Tournament berths.
Players to watch
Hannes Steinbach, freshman forward, 6-foot-11, No. 6 — The loss of Osobor hurts a little bit less for Sprinkle and company, and it’s all because of the Germany native that has burst onto the scene. In what has been one of the best freshman classes nationally in recent years, Steinbach is undoubtedly near the top. He’s averaging an 18-point, 11.3-rebound double double — those 18 points per game lead the team.
Steinbach leads the Power Five with 16 double doubles and is fourth in the country in rebounds per game.
Zoom Diallo, sophomore guard, 6-foot-4, No. 5 — As a guard, Diallo sits 12th in the conference with a 48.8 field goal percentage. He’s second on the team in points per game (14.7). Despite what his name might indicate, Diallo’s strengths are his size and physicality, and he’s able to exploit vulnerable matchups consistently and get to the free throw line.
Franck Kepnang, graduate student center, 6-foot-11, No. 11 — Though Kepnang averages just 6.1 points per game, his impact comes on the defensive end. He’s totaled 55 blocks this season — 30 more than the team’s next closest player — and is a dependable asset, starting 24 of 26 games.
Strength
Rebouding. The Huskies pull down an average of 12 offensive rebounds per game, good for fourth-best in the conference and just behind Maryland. But they’re also equally as adept on the defensive glass, ranking fourth in the Big Ten in rebounds per game (37.3).
Weakness
Three-point shooting. This was supposed to be Northwestern’s weakness heading into Wednesday’s game, but they hit 12 treys on over 50% shooting. Washington currently has the fourth-lowest 3-point percentage in the conference (32.1), but the Terps can’t defend the arc complacently.
Three things to watch
1. Andre Mills’ development. Over the past eight games, Mills has posted scoring totals of 16, 18, 24 and 39. His ascension as a player has been an extremely welcome sight for Terps fans in a down year. It will be worth watching whether the freshman guard can build off his supernova performance Wednesday.
2. Collin Metcalf minutes. The senior transfer from Northeastern has seen a serious uptick in playing time recently, starting and playing at least 15 minutes in each of the team’s last six games. His paint presence and rebounding chops will be vital in combating a staunch offensive rebounding team in the Huskies.
3. Diggy Coit bounce-back? In Maryland’s two consecutive losses, Coit posted scoring totals of just 12 and 7, respectively. Coit’s high-scoring displays typically bode well for the Terps — his last three games with more than 15 points all resulted in wins. It will be interesting to see if the guard can get off to a hot start Saturday.
Kompany attacks Mourinho over Vinicius Jr incident: ‘Do you know what Black players had to go through?’
Vincent Kompany has issued strong criticism of Jose Mourinho over his reaction to Vinicius Jr’s accusation of alleged racist abuse in a Champions League play-off between Benfica and Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Kompany, the Bayern Munich manager, used a press conference to give an impassioned speech which drew on his own experiences of racism in football, and said Mourinho had made a “huge mistake” by “attacking the character” of Vinicius in the aftermath.
Vinicius accused Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni, a 20-year-old Argentina international, of calling him a “monkey” in the wake of the Brazilian’s second-half goal for Madrid. The claims were backed up by his teammate Kylian Mbappe, who said he heard the abuse by Prestianni, who could be seen holding his shirt over his mouth during an exchange with Madrid players.
Vinicius reacted furiously to something said by Prestianni and alerted the match officials. The French referee, Francois Letexier, paused the game for 11 minutes after activating Fifa’s anti-racism protocols, although the action later continued with Prestianni on the field.
Fans inside the Estadio Da Luz loudly booed and jeered Vinicius throughout the remainder of the game, as Real Madrid saw out a 1-0 victory.
Prestianni now faces an investigation by Uefa. He has denied racially abusing Vinicius and claimed to have been misheard.
After the match, Benfica manager Mourinho blamed Vinicius for the confrontation and said the Brazilian had incited his players because he did not celebrate in a “respectful way”. Mourinho also claimed Benfica could not be considered guilty of racism because the club’s greatest player, Eusebio, was Black.
“I told him that when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back,” Mourinho said, of his conversation with Vinicius after the game. “And then when he was arguing about racism I told him the biggest person in the history of this club [Eusebio] was Black. This club, the last thing it is is racist, so if in his mind it was something in relation to that, this is Benfica.
“There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium. Every stadium that Vinicius plays, something happens. Always.”
Bayern Munich manager Kompany was asked for his take on the incident ahead of his team’s weekend game in the Bundesliga, and he responded with a long answer in which he defended Vinicius and tore into Mourinho’s response.
“When you watch the action itself and how Vini reacted, that reaction cannot be faked,” Kompany said. “You can see it was an emotional reaction. I don’t see any benefit for him to go to the referee and put all this misery on his shoulders. In that moment he saw that it was the right thing to do.
“Kylian Mbappe normally always stays diplomatic, but he was very clear about what he saw and heard. Then there’s the Benfica player who was hiding what he was saying in his shirt. In the stadium you can see there were people [Benfica fans] doing monkey signs, it’s in the video.
“And for me, what happened after the game is even worse. Jose Mourinho has basically attacked the character of Vini Jr by bringing in the type of Vini’s celebration to discredit what he was doing at that moment. It was a huge mistake in terms of leadership.
“On top of that, Mourinho mentioned the name of Eusebio. He said Benfica cannot be racist because their best ever player was Eusebio. Do you know what Black players had to go through in the 60s? Was he there to travel with Eusebio every away game and see what he went through?”
Kompany said Mourinho has a positive reputation in the game and is “deep down a good person”, but suggested the Benfica manager had made a serious misjudgement with his reaction.
“I met 100 people who worked with Jose Mourinho. I’ve never heard someone say something bad about Jose. All his players love him. I understand the person he is, I understand he fights for his club. I know deep down he’s a good person. I don’t need to judge him on that. But I also know what I’ve heard. I understand what he’s done, but he made a mistake. Hopefully it won’t happen again in the future, and we can move on together.”
Howe delivers ‘nasty’ Newcastle injury update ahead of Man City clash
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe says that Yoane Wissa is likely to miss this weekend’s game against Manchester City after taking a “nasty knock” in training.
The Magpies travel to Eastlands this Saturday just weeks after losing 3-1 at the same venue in the semi-finals of the League Cup.
Howe will be without several key players, however, as he could be missing up to seven first-team members through injury.
‘Nasty’ Newcastle United injury update ahead of Man City clash
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, he provided updates on the condition of Wissa, Bruno Guimarães, Tino Livramento, Sven Botman and Lewis Miley.
Wissa missed the trip to Qarabag in the UEFA Champions League in midweek with a knock, but Howe is optimistic he will be available for selection next week.
“No I don’t think he will be available but I don’t think he will be far off the Qarabag game. It was a nasty knock in training,” he said.
Bruno, meanwhile, is back in his home country of Brazil after suffering a hamstring injury that is expected to sideline him for two months.
“No massive updates, he’s in Brazil. And judging by the pictures I’ve seen, which was great to see, he’s watching the games and his passion for the team is shining through from afar.”
Livramento is still set to return from a hamstring issue of his own in March. “Tino is making progress but I don’t think we’ll shave too much time off the early March timeframe he has.”
Botman has missed the last two games with a back problem, but could be involved this weekend, while Miley will remain out of action for another two weeks with a dead leg.
“Hopefully better news for Sven Botman, hopefully he can be in and around this game. Miley still has got a bit to go.”
Howe added: “Lewis had a dead leg, but it disturbed a bit of the muscle. Nothing more than a week or a couple of weeks, maximum. But we’ve been told we’ve got to be careful with it.”
Read – Elanga backs Howe to turn Newcastle United’s season around
See Also – Every player to score four goals in a Champions League game