A few Alabama players caught the end of the Maryland-West Virginia game that opened Thursday’s slate of the NCAA Tournament in Birmingham. As they watched the Terrapins ice its ticket into the second round with late free throws, Crimson Tide freshman Brandon Miller noticed “a lot of tendencies” in his short viewing period. He’ll have a chance to learn more over the next 36 hours.

For the second time in three years, Alabama will play Maryland for a berth in the Sweet 16.

“We have a whole new group but I’m gonna be sure the guys understand that’s a good team, they play in a really good conference,” Jahvon Quinerly said. “Some of those guys that we played two years ago are still over there and kind of beat them pretty bad. So I’m pretty sure they got a chip on their shoulder coming into this one.”

About midway through the first half in that game, played in 2021 at Indianapolis’ Bainbridge Fieldhouse, Alabama built a 10-point lead and didn’t look back, eventually winning 96-77. Quinerly scored 14 points and totaled 11 assists in 29 minutes. Aside from Darius Miles and a few walk-ons, no current rotational player from that team is still with Alabama.

For the Terrapins, two starters from Thursday’s roster were with the program when the team’s last met, forward Donta Scott and guard Hakim Heart. The pair combined for 26 points and 11 across 30 minutes against the Mountaineers.

Maryland (22-12) is ranked 20th in KenPom’s team rankings and 31st in the NCAA’s overall seeding. The Terrapins were 8th in scoring offense (70.3 points per game) in the Big 10 and fourth in defense (63.2 points allowed). It shot 51.1% from the field against West Virginia, its best field-goal rate since smashing Northwestern on Feb. 26.

“Hard playing team,” Miller said of Maryland. “Just have to come out and give the most energy that we need to get a win over a good team. We started watching down here. Picked up a lot of tendencies from them. I think we are going to be prepared for them on Saturday.”

The tipoff time will be announced later Thursday night.

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Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].