Maryland’s quest for the National Championship kicks off Friday at 4:30 p.m. against Grand Canyon, whose head coach, Bryce Drew, is a tourney legend himself from his Valpo days.
Terps color analyst Chris Knoche joined The Junkies Monday for some tourney talk, and this was his quick synopsis on that first-round matchup:
Maryland is in the West Region as the No. 4 seed, where their path could include AAC champ Memphis in the second round, either top-seeded Florida (who won the SEC Tournament to lead 14 teams into the dance) or No. 8 UConn, the defending two-time champs, in the Sweet 16, and Big East champs St. John’s or a tough Texas Tech team in the Elite 8 – and, yeah, Knoche acknowledges that’s a tough road for a Terps team that is talented but not deep.
“When the drawing pairings came out…I was talking to Jim Nantz once about the way the field was put together, and I mentioned the fact that CBS has to have a hand in some of this, because there's some TV matchups that you just cannot believe - Bill Self against John Calipari in the first round?” Knoche laughed. “I love the way St. John’s is playing, and I think Florida is the best team in the country right now – if chalk holds, that's who Maryland would be seeing in San Francisco in the Sweet 16. I think it’s the best region, with really good top four teams, and I'd love to see it go chalk in the first two rounds, so all four of those top seeds get to San Francisco.”
Listen to Knoche’s entire segment above!