The Maryland Terrapins received a #4 seed tonight and will face the #13 seeded Houston Cougars on Friday in Spokane, Washington.
First of all, the players, fans, alumni, etc., should all be extremely proud of the #4 seed that Maryland received. After starting off the year so horribly out in Maui and losing at home to William and Mary in December, the fact that this team in one of the top 16 in the country is a very good accomplishment.
Now, on to Houston.
The Cougars won the Conference USA tournament after defeating UTEP in the championship game. UTEP was ranked #25 at the time. Houston was a .500 team before the conference tournament, and after winning four straight games in four days now sit at 19-15. They were a middle of the road team in C-USA and were not at all expected to make the tournament. The fact that they got a #13 seed is somewhat surprising.
This is a team that Maryland matches up very well with. Houston does not rebound well at all. They are horrible at the defensive end and give up a lot of easy buckets. They are also a very good offensive team. They simply do not turn the ball over and are very efficient. They boast the nation's leading scorer in Aubrey Coleman, the 6-4 guard averages over 25 ppg. He also is famous for curb stomping Arizona's Chase Budinger, see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stsKIWb1bAM.
Expect this game to be very fast paced and in the high 80s.
As long as Maryland can play good defense and not let Coleman go off for 35 points, I do not see the Terps having much trouble in this first round match up.
Prediction: Maryland 88- Houston 70.