Maryland vs UCLA

On Monday night, Maryland will face off against #2 UCLA in the semifinals of the College Basketball Experience Classic. The Terps will rightfully enter the game as the underdog, especially after their questionable performances last week in wins over Hampton and Northeastern. Add that to the fact that UCLA (along with North Carolina and Memphis) is on the early short list for best team in the nation and things look bleak.

But there is some hope. This UCLA team will have some questions in the backcourt. Losing Aaron Afflalo off of last year's team hurts, but what hurts more will be the absence of PG Darren Collison, perhaps the team's best player (with apologies to Kevin Love), as well as swingman Michael Roll. Both players will be out for at least another ten days which will lead to some depth problems in the backcourt in the championship rounds of the CBE Classic.

To compensate for the losses of Roll and Collison, the Bruins have gone big in their first three games. The backcourt will be composed of Russell Westbrook and Josh Shipp while three players 6-8 or better man the frontcourt - Alfred Aboya, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and the headliner, Kevin Love. That won't be the end of the Bruins size advantage. The top three players coming off the bench so far have been Chace Stanback, Lorenzo Mata-Real and Nikola Dragovic. All of those players are also 6-8 or taller.

What should win this game for the Bruins is the defense. The Bruins were ranked second in the nation in defense last season by adjusted defensive efficiency (behind only Kansas) and so far have played the same stifling defense, albeit against less than stellar opponents. The Bruins height advantage should lead to plenty of rebounds tomorrow night. They have been particularly adept at grabbing defensive rebounds on the year so far, snaring 81% of their opponents misses.

The uncertainty in the backcourt is what the Terps must hope to exploit. Without Collison's excellent shooting and passing, it's hard to imagine that this version of the Bruins is deserving of their lofty ranking. If the Terps can get some easy baskets in transition, this game will be interesting. Maryland's defense is probably good enough to hold UCLA in check offensively. On the flip side, UCLA's defense is most certainly good enough to stifle Maryland's offense and that should prove to be the difference in the game.

Prediction: UCLA 74, Terps 61