The Terps have one of the more well-respected coaches in the nation - one of the few who can call herself a recent champion. And according to that coach and many others within the program, they may have a player who is the "fourth to see."
Reigning ACC Player of the Year Alyssa Thomas spoke last Friday about her mindset coming off of last year's success, Tianna Hawkins' breakout season and where her team stands with the second half of ACC play coming up.
Alyssa Thomas missed the Virginia Tech game last year and her team suffered its most embarrassing loss of the season as a result. This year, she made sure she was the one propelling Maryland to victory over the Hokies.
After playing three straight ranked ACC teams, Maryland will take on three straight unranked conference opponents, starting with Virginia Tech, the one team who beat them last year and really shouldn't have.
Not a single player in Maryland's locker room knew what it felt like to beat Miami. Now they do, thanks to a career-high 20 points from Chloe Pavlech and 29 combined second half points from Tianna Hawkins and Alyssa Thomas that left no doubt.
Maryland will be hosting Miami on Thursday, as they try to get revenge on the only opponent other than Notre Dame that they failed to beat at least once last year with Alyssa Thomas healthy.
There probably aren't many people worrying about Alyssa Thomas' scoring average being down after this one. She has a double-double in every conference game thus far, after 20 points and 15 boards in dominant fashion Sunday.
Florida State is ranked in a similar spot to North Carolina, the team the Terps just fell to. The Seminoles hope to pick up a great resume win like the Tar Heels did, but that will be a tall order in Maryland's house.
Last year when these two teams met in Chapel Hill, Alyssa Thomas stole the show with a reverse layup at the buzzer that sent the game to overtime where the Terps would win, 78-72. This year, Maryland had no such luck forcing overtime and fell, 60-57.
The Terps cruised through most of their non-conference schedule, with one major slip up. They have two great stars, but also injury-induced depth issues. All things considered, they are going to be one of the teams to beat in the ACC this year.
