#803/804 ASA TOP PLAY ON 10* Under 130.5 Points – Northwestern vs Maryland, Sunday at 12 PM ET - Two very good defensive teams facing off here and both are slow paced so we do not expect many possessions in this game. Maryland is 325th nationally in possessions per game and Northwestern is 294th. Both defensive units rank in the top 30 in efficiency and PPG allowed. The Cats have allowed 65 points or fewer in 11 of their 17 Big 10 games this season. They’ve held their last 6 opponents to 66 points or less. In 4 of their last 5 games NW faced teams ranked in the top 25 nationally in offensive efficiency (Purdue, Iowa, Ohio State, and Indiana) and they held each of those teams to 63 points or less. Maryland is coming off a poor defensive performance vs a bad Minnesota team allowing 70 points on 1.11 PPP. You can bet they’ll be focused on that end of the court today. Prior to that, in their previous 9 games the Terps did not allow a team to top 68 points and held 7 of those 9 opponents to less than 60 points. They should be able to stifle a Northwestern offense that ranks outside the top 275 in eFG%, 2 point FG%, and 3 point FG%. As shaky as the Cats are at shooting the 3, Maryland is worst ranking 317th making just 31% from deep. We don’t expect many points from beyond the arc here which will help keep this game lower soring. NW has gone Under the total in 7 straight games and Maryland has gone Under the total 11 of their last 13 games after a SU win. These 2 have combined to play 56 games and 36 have gone Under the total. Big Ten grinder on Sunday.