The Virginia men's basketball team is off to its best start in seven seasons and now owns a five-game winning streak. The Cavaliers have won their last four ACC games, including a win over North Carolina, and are coming off of Sunday's 76-67 win at Wake Forest.
But Sunday's game was just the beginning of the team's four-game ACC road trip. Tonight the Cavs (15-5, 5-2 ACC) have a tougher Conference challenge as they take on a strong Maryland team in College Park at 8 p.m.
Virginia holds the No. 2 spot in the Conference behind only Duke, but the No. 25 Terps (14-6, 3-4 ACC) are coming off of an 82-63 win at Florida State Saturday.
"We probably shot the ball and ran our offense as well as we have in a while," Maryland Coach Gary Williams said of the win against FSU.
But the young Cavalier team should not be discouraged by either Maryland's home court advantage or the difficult four-game road trip.
"Young players, I think, aren't as afraid as they used to be," Cav Coach Pete Gillen said. "They think, 'I can beat that guy. I'm better than him.'"
Virginia will depend on third-year point guard Donald Hand, who averages 16 points per game and shared this week's ACC Player of the Week award with Carolina center Brendan Haywood.
Hand scored 28 points against Florida State last Wednesday and is now just 23 points shy of the career 1,000-point mark - a plateau only 32 Cavs have reached.
The main attraction of tonight's game could be the matchup between Virginia forward Chris Williams and Maryland forward Terence Morris. Morris was a first-team All-ACC selection last year and figures to be a strong candidate for All-American honors this season. Chris Williams has not shouldered as much of the offensive load as he did last year, but he is averaging a quiet 14.9 ppg and 5.6 rebounds per game.
"Both those guys are very good players," Gary Williams said. "They both go outside and inside and shoot the ball well. They're great defensively as far as blocking shots. [Chris] Williams really played well against us last year and I think it should be an interesting matchup."
The Cavs also will need first-year Travis Watson in the paint against Terrapin sophomore center Lonny Baxter.
"Halfway through our league play, Travis has done a good job going up against guys that're 260, 270 pounds," Gillen said. "We've tried to give him some help, play some of our bigger guys like Stephane Dondon and Colin" Ducharme.
Watson is usually at a size disadvantage playing at center, but Baxter is roughly his size.
If Watson and the Cavs can extend their Conference win streak with a victory tonight, they also will snap a streak of four consecutive losses to the Terrapins.
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