The list of the Terrapins men’s basketball team’s achievements at home the past two seasons is extensive. They range from a 24-game winning streak at Xfinity Center to a 14.1 point margin of victory to 12 sellouts.
So what challenges does that pose for opposing players? Iowa standout forward Jarrod Uthoff told reporters, “There are none.”
“I mean, it’s a tough place to play,” Terps forward Jake Layman said when asked about Uthoff’s comments. “They have never played here, so I wouldn’t expect them to know how it is here.”
In what may have looked like a favorable game for the Terps during the preseason has turned into the first-ever top-10 men’s basketball game played at Xfinity Center. And the No. 8 Terps will lean on the crowd tonight against No. 3 Iowa in hopes of avoiding their first home loss since Dec. 3, 2014.
Returning to College Park is a welcome reprieve for the Terps (17-3, 6-2 Big Ten), who had to play in a hostile environment in East Lansing, Michigan, on Saturday night. Before an announced 14,797, many of whom were rowdy students clad in lime-green T-shirts, the Terps led for about two minutes in a 74-65 loss to Michigan State.
“It’s so hard to win in college basketball. You play so many games,” coach Mark Turgeon said. “So when you can have a home game and it’s going to be packed … it can make a huge impact on the game.”
While the Terps played five home games during winter break when students were away from campus, they didn’t experience a noticeable dip in attendance. They sold out all but one contest, continuing their string of games this season with at least 17,000 fans in the building.
Their average of 17,816 fans per game ranks first in the Big Ten, and only Wisconsin joins the Terps as a Big Ten school averaging more than 17,000.
Despite the Terps’ attendance numbers, Iowa coach Fran McCaffery seemed to shrug off the idea of College Park being a tougher place to play than other venues they’ve experienced.
“It happened the other day at Rutgers,” McCaffery told reporters this week. “We’re used to those kinds of facilities on the road — big crowds, loud. Nothing different there.”
Rutgers ranks last in the Big Ten in attendance (4,482) and has gone winless in seven conference games.
And it’s the number of people that pile into Xfinity Center, Layman said, that has made it such a distinct home-court advantage the past two seasons.
“It’s a big building,” said Layman, glancing at the 17,950 empty seats in Xfinity Center before practice Wednesday. “A lot of people can fit in here. It gets loud.”
After Turgeon’s squad knocked off then-No. 5 Wisconsin last season and fans stormed onto the court to celebrate the Terps’ 59-53 win, Turgeon said, “It started with our student section. They were great tonight.”
Though Iowa (16-3, 7-0) doesn’t boast the prestige of former Terps rivals Duke or North Carolina, the Hawkeyes have claimed one of the top spots in college basketball. And students are clamoring for tickets, hoping to see the Terps knock off a top-five team for the fourth straight season.
“Our students are back for the first time,” Turgeon said. “It’s our fifth league home game and it’s our first time our students will be here, so we are looking forward to that.”
