Maryland
What to Expect: IU basketball travels to Maryland
Indiana is back on the road for a matchup with Maryland on Wednesday night at the Xfinity Center. The Hoosiers, winners of three straight, are in search of their first road win this season.
The Terrapins are 7-7 and 0-3 under first-year coach Buzz Williams. Wednesday’s game is set for a 6:30 p.m. ET tipoff on BTN:
After a Sweet Sixteen appearance last season, Maryland was forced to completely flip its roster in the offseason when Kevin Willard left College Park for Villanova.
Injuries and inconsistent play have the Terps off to a slow start in the first season of the Buzz Williams era. Maryland is currently projected to finish 12-19 and 5-15 in the Big Ten, per KenPom.com.
Indiana, meanwhile, has been excellent at home and poor away from Bloomington. The Hoosiers beat a bad Marquette team in Chicago by 23 early in the season, but have lost their other three games away from Assembly Hall. IU fell by 9 to Minnesota, by 9 to Louisville in Indianapolis and by 12 to Kentucky in Lexington.
Winning on the road in the Big Ten is difficult, but the Hoosiers have solid opportunities for success away from Bloomington this month with trips to Maryland and Rutgers.
MEET THE TERRAPINS
Maryland’s leading scorer, big man Pharrel Payne, has missed three straight games after suffering a knee injury in a loss to Michigan in College Park on Dec. 13. Payne also missed a game on Nov. 19 against Mount St. Mary’s with a hip injury. Williams has not provided a definitive update on Payne’s status.
If he’s able to play, he’s a game-changer for the Terps with his 17.5 points and 7.2 rebounds in 26.7 minutes per game.
Without Payne, Maryland is playing an undersized, guard-heavy lineup. Its two leading backcourt scorers are Kansas transfer David Coit, a senior, and freshman Darius Adams, who originally signed with UConn but reopened his recruitment and signed with the Terps last spring.
Coit (13.3 ppg) is a 5-foot-11 lead guard who has connected on a team-leading 37 3-pointers while shooting 42.5 percent from distance. He made eight 3-pointers in a 101-83 loss to No. 2 Michigan on Dec. 13. He’s also an excellent free-throw shooter (92.5 percent) and is the guy to circle on the scouting report for the Hoosiers. Strong closeouts and running Coit off the 3-point line are key for Indiana’s defense. Coit has started eight of Maryland’s 14 games but has come off the bench in the last two contests.
Adams, a 6-foot-5 native of New Jersey who finished his high school career at La Lumiere, has been a high-volume, low-efficiency player through the first 14 games of his career. Adams is third on the roster in scoring at 12.5 points per game but is shooting 36.8 percent on 2s and 25.4 percent on 3s.
(Shot charts via UMHoops.com)
The rotation also features Washington State transfer Isaiah Watts, freshman Andre Mills and Indiana transfer Myles Rice.
The 6-foot-4 Mills is the leading scorer of that trio and has started 11 of 14 games. The No. 119 player in the 247Sports Composite in the 2024 class, Mills redshirted the 2024-25 season at Texas A&M and followed Williams to Maryland.
He has taken roughly half of his field goal attempts from distance and is shooting 26.3 percent on 3-pointers. Mills, who averages 8.9 points, has scored in double figures seven times and had a season-high 16 points against Alcorn State on November 11.
Watts spent the last two seasons at Washington State, where he was a teammate of Rice back in the 2023-24 campaign. He’s scored 28 points over the team’s last two games, which are two of his three double-figure scoring games this season. Watts averages 6.2 points and shoots 32.7 percent from distance.
Rice missed time early in the season with an ankle injury and has made three starts across 10 games. He’s 8-for-21 from distance (38.1 percent), 16-for-40 on 2s (40 percent) and has missed one of his 24 free throw attempts.
Up front, the Terps go with 6-foot-7 senior Solomon Washington, a Texas A&M transfer, and 6-foot-8 senior Elijah Saunders, a Virginia transfer.
Washington missed the first eight games of the season with an ankle injury but made his season debut against Wagner on December 2. He’s scored in double figures three times in six games and had a season-high 17 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots in a 64-54 home loss to Oregon on January 2. Washington has 23 offensive rebounds in six games and has to be accounted for when shots go up. Washington is averaging 10 points and nine rebounds in 28.5 minutes per game.
Saunders began his career at San Diego State, where he was a part of NCAA tournament teams in 2023 and 2024. He’s capable of stretching the floor – 15-for-39 on 3s – but isn’t a great finisher in the paint. Saunders is shooting just 46.2 percent on 2s.
Freshman George Turkson, a 6-foot-7 forward, has started two games and had eight points in 32 minutes in the Michigan loss. And 6-foot-9 senior Collin Metcalf, a transfer from Northeastern, plays spot minutes in the frontcourt but has scored just 10 points total across 13 games.
TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW
(All national rankings in parentheses through Monday’s games.)
The Maryland offensive profile shows a high-volume 3-point shooting team that is below average in its percentage. Maryland is taking 44.9 percent of its field goal attempts from distance, ranking 81st nationally, and shooting 32.8 percent from deep, ranking 211th nationally.
Pounding the offensive glass and getting to the free-throw line are keys for Maryland. The Terps rank 103rd in offensive rebounding percentage and 28th in free-throw rate (FTA/FGA).
Maryland is generating 26.3 percent of its points from the line, which is eighth-best in the country. Defending without fouling will be pivotal for IU’s success, which has been a problem away from home. Minnesota got to the line 27 times against IU, Louisville 28 times, and Kentucky had 38 free throw attempts.
Defensively, Maryland does a solid job forcing turnovers, ranking 83rd nationally in opponent turnover percentage. Opponents are shooting 36.9 percent on 3s (315th nationally) and 52.9 percent (221st nationally), which means the Hoosiers will have opportunities for quality looks. In IU’s three losses, it is shooting 23-for-85 (27.1 percent) from 3.
WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO
The KenPom projection has Indiana by seven with a 73 percent chance of victory and Bart Torvik has the Hoosiers by 10 with an 82 percent chance of victory.
If Payne returns, the Terps will be a different team in the frontcourt and will present significant problems on the offensive glass. Even if he remains sidelined, Indiana’s play away from Bloomington this season suggests this game will be more difficult than the analytics project.
Simply put, the Hoosiers have not yet proven they can win on the road and haven’t been able to shoot the ball well or keep opponents off the free-throw line in their losses. Life on the road in the Big Ten is difficult but if the Hoosiers aspire to be an NCAA tournament team, this is a game they need to win.
(Photo credit: Maryland Athletics)
See More: Commentary, Maryland Terrapins
Maryland
Afternoon Summertime Storms Across Maryland Today
We’ll see a few afternoon and early evening scattered storms today followed by a drier end to the weekend. Highs today will reach the mid 80s with overnight lows in the upper 60s to lower 70s.
Mainly sunny and drier for the end of the weekend
Sunday is trending drier with lower humidity and a high near 85. Our temperaturs stay warm but comfortable on Monday with afternoon temperatures peaking the mid-80s. The chance of rain remains slim through much of next week.
Hot weather returns to Maryland by midweek
Temperatures start an upward trend beginning Tuesday. By midweek temperatures soar into the mid and upper 90s both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. Humidity won’t be as bad as the July 4th week but heat indices could still reach near or above 100° during the afternoon hours for a few days. Heat will gradually ease heading into next weekend.
Maryland
Maryland crab prices climb as catches fall
MARYLAND (WBFF) — Art D’Amico remembers when a bushel of crabs cost about $35 in the mid-1970s. Today, the president of the Annapolis Anglers Club pays nearly $400 a bushel — a price he says has climbed by at least $150 in the past five years.
“Everything’s more expensive,” said D’Amico, who has been involved in Chesapeake Bay fishing and crabbing since 1973, adding that he’s never seen crab prices like this before.
The soaring cost reflects more than inflation. Watermen, seafood dealers and economists say higher operating costs, shifting markets and concern about Maryland’s blue crab population are pushing prices higher, making one of the state’s signature summer traditions more expensive. But many Marylanders are still buying crabs, even at record prices.
“It’s definitely not what we’re accustomed to this time of year as far as quantity and price,” said John Ecker, a managing partner of Conrad’s Crabs, which has four locations in Maryland. “I’ve been here for 19 years doing this and, yeah, they’re getting higher.”
Read the full story on The Baltimore Sun.
Maryland
MD woman sentenced to 2 years, $6.8M restitution in multi-million-dollar laundering scheme
MARYLAND (WBFF) — A Maryland woman was sentenced to two years in prison for her involvement in a multi-million-dollar money laundering scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Maryland announced on Friday.
Fatoumata Boiro, 32, of Largo, will serve two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, and has also been ordered to pay $6,838,558.31 in restitution.
Boiro was found guilty of conspiring to engage in a large, multi-member money-laundering operation. She pled guilty to being involved in the conspiracy and acknowledged that at least $3 million was laundered through her direct participation.
From 2021 through February 2024, she and several other individuals laundered proceeds from a significant wire fraud scheme, according to court documents.
Court documents revealed that the conspirators engaged in various financial transactions to conceal the source, ownership, and control of the wire fraud proceeds, as well as their location.
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The victims of this scheme included government agencies, organizations, and companies, such as an environmental trust, an urban redevelopment program, a medical center, a transportation company, a logistics company, a school district, a college, and a county government, officials reported.
Boiro and her co-conspirators created limited liability companies to act as shell entities, opened bank accounts in the names of these entities, and received and laundered funds from fraudulent activities.
Fourteen defendants have been charged in connection with the money-laundering conspiracy, with 13 already pleading guilty.
Officials reported that Faizou Gnora, 28, formerly of Alexandria, Virginia, remains at large.
The following includes the individuals previously sentenced:
- Yahya Sowe, 42, of College Park, to 114 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, restitution of $13,050,827.03, and forfeiture of $1 million
- Bright Boateng, 45, of Bladensburg, Maryland, to 108 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, restitution of $1,247,950, and a forfeiture of $431,750
- Victor Killen, 33, of Hyattsville, Maryland, to 63 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, restitution of $7,070,656.46, and a $3-million forfeiture order
- Gedeon Agbeyome, 31, of Montgomery County, Maryland, to 72 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, along with restitution of $2,938,424.65, and a $2.8 million preliminary order of forfeiture
- Lawrence Ogunsanwo, 33, to 40 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of $5,648,816.23
- Lakeisha Parker, 33, of Baltimore, to 36 months in federal prison, followed by three years supervised release, and restitution of $8,306,930.95
- Martin Ogisi, 37, of Severn, Maryland, to 33 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, restitution of $11,077,044.17; and a $500,000 forfeiture order
- Kevin Colon, 34, of Curtis Bay, Maryland, to 27 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release, restitution of $2,515,159.63, and a $214,518.42 forfeiture order
- Areal Harris, 27, of Hanover, Maryland, to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of $3,159,482.83
- Emily Gil Arias, 29, of Silver Spring, Maryland to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of 2,102,919.27
- Lorena Perez Herrera, 29, of Washington, DC, to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and restitution of $1,473,125.58
- Blondel Ndjouandjouaka, 31, of Silver Spring, Maryland, to 24 months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, restitution of $733,941.48, and a $757,562.63 forfeiture order.
Now, Boiro will spend the next two years in prison.
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