For much of the first half last night, we saw a different team. This was a team that was practically playing without its star player and scorer. Yes, Vasquez was on the court, but he had only contributed 2 points. It didn’t seem to matter though as the Terps played efficient basketball on route to a 88 – 64 win over the Wolfpack, which beat Duke earlier this week. READ MORE >>>
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Maryland came out gunning last night in it’s second road game of ACC play and received a little support from an unlikely source – the fans. The crowd, with 5 minutes left in game, began to chant “Lets Go Maryland” as Maryland rolled 73 – 57. Great guard play from Greivis 17pts/9assts/4brds and Cliff Tucker 14pts fueled the effort before a pro Maryland crowd. The Terps have been shooting the ball very well as of late finishing this game at a 49% clip from the field, including 58% from 3 range. That’s phenomenal for this team and something Gary really hasn’t had in past years. READ MORE >>> For once this early season the Terps started off strong and didn’t look back. Greivis led all Maryland scorers with 24 and Milbourne added 22 to give the Terps a big boost. For the game, the Terps shot over 50 percent. Maryland will begin their conference schedule this Sunday against Florida State. Maryland had all phases working against the Spartans. They were able to rebound, made their shots and distributed the ball very well. Greivis had his normal allotment of assists, but thing I noticed during this game was that he didn’t have any of his erratic passes. Vasquez is always good for one of those what-the-heck-are-you-doing passes. Maryland made their first nine shots of the game and they didn’t stop making them until the final buzzer. Shooting 50 percent or more on any team is pretty good shooting. They probably will not do that against any ACC teams this year, but it shows that they shouldn’t have any trouble scoring this year. READ MORE >>> Maryland looked to improve their skills in preparation for the ACC schedule only to be derailed by a William and Mary team that seemed to want it more. William and Mary stuck around most of the first half and ended up taking control early in the second to top Maryland 83 – 77. Maryland will look to bounce back Sunday against University of North Carolina-Greensboro.
The Terps are struggling a bit now and it seems to be coming from the defense. There really isn’t any problem scoring points for the Terps, but at the same time, they can’t stop others from scoring. Again, the Terps are allowing teams to shoot a ton of threes. William and Mary ended with an 8 -23 shooting stat from beyond the arc, but it was their 6 -13 ratio that held them close in the first half. Their second half percentage was 2 – 10, but it was more from poor shot selection than anything else. Key contributions came from Milbourne (19pts/10brds) and Vasquez (26pts/6assts) as well from Jordan Williams (8pts/8brds). Milbourne has been Maryland most consistent starter all year and poses problems for most opponents at that position. He can step out and hit threes, score under the basket and make his jumpers from 10 -13 feet away from the basket. Jordan is looking more comfortable by the game and is starting to be more reliable under the basket. As the Terps approach their ACCschedule, they are going to need to contain teams on the outside and out rebound. Their rebounding has been good, but it needs to be better if they want to improve on their +2 rebounding advantage. These two areas are guaranteed to be problems the whole year and will sink Maryland come tourney time if they cannot improve. Right now, the Terps are playing teams that they should be beating and padding their record. Look for Maryland to have strong effort in their last game before they hit their ACC schedule. The Terps came out looking good in the first half on Sunday and were able to hold off a late rally by the Owls to come away with a 72 – 59 win. Greivis Vasquez looks to be hitting his stride at the right time scoring 20 or more points for the fourth time in the last five games.
Maryland looked a little unstable for the first 6 – 7 minutes of the game, but then went on a 17 – 5 run and looked to be on their way to an easy win. The Terps were able to fuel their run by good defense and key defensive rebounding. Overall, the Terps were out rebounded for the game, but timely rebounds were huge for this team. Offensively, the Terps assisted on 21 of their 32 made shots and that has been a constant this season. The Terps share the ball well and seem to take care of it as well with 11 turnovers for the game. They also shot 46 % for the game and it doesn’t hurt when you have Vasquez making 60 % of his shots. The Terps had added contributions from Milbourne, 19 pts/5 boards, 11 pts/5 boards from Tucker and 7 pts/9 assts from Eric Hayes. This starting five is looking good for this team. Jordan Williams has become more comfortable in the middle and starting to make himself known. The Owls did attack the basket and Williams was credited for 3 blocks, but there were many other shots he altered on the night. The Terps have William and Mary and UNC Greensboro before getting into their ACC schedule and it would benefit them most if they come out playing high powered defense and executing on all plays. Eastern Kentucky. Yes, the Colonels. Maryland tried to bounce back Saturday against the Colonels and came away with their win, but unimpressive in doing so. The Terps, helped by a few threes by Vasquez won by a slim margin 83 – 72.
This is the Colonels from the Ohio Valley Conference. I’m not in any way trying to bash these lower end teams, nor the Terps themselves, but these guys should be winning these games easily. These games are on the schedule to get the team in sync with each other so they can hit the ground running into the ACC schedule. They looked sluggish and carried the attitude of a guaranteed win. Whatever happened to I’m-Gary-I’m-going-to-full-court-pressure-you for 40 minutes and do it with authority? Since when do the Terps allow an average of close to 20 threes a game and 37% shooting percentage on those threes? The Terps need to start guarding the perimeter soon or they are going to lose a ton more games. The last four teams Maryland has played have averaged 26 threes per game, made 40% and the Terps are 2 – 2 in those games. They have been better with the rebounding and the free throws but there aren’t going to be a lot of rebounds when Duke and Carolina are making their shots beyond the arc. What happened to the rotation? Gary played Jordan Williams for 9 minutes and Dino for 33 and Padgett rode the pine. Just because Dino is a Junior doesn’t mean he makes others sit. Dino needs to earn his playing time especially after a suspension and who cares what it was for, he was suspended. You don’t get suspended for working hard in school. We are talking about the Colonels and playing time against a lower end team, but Dino shouldn’t have gotten 33 minutes. On the brighter side, Milbourne is looking consistent adding 19 points and 9 boards. Hayes and Mosely continue to impress with offensive skills ending with 16 and 13 points respectively. This team is getting good offensive production from unlikely sources and if Greivis can consistently pour in 20+ points, the Terps will be tough on offense. Add in a little defense and the Terps will make a good run towards the ACC/NCAA tourney. Next up is Winston-Salem on Tuesday the 22nd. The Maryland Terrapins visited Bloomington on Tuesday night to face the Hoosiers in their piece of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It looked to be a long night for the Terps as Indiana was up to the challenge, but the Terps took control late in the second half and came away with a 80 – 68 win.
I’m excited for this team, but they have three major areas to improve on during the year, otherwise, they aren’t going to go to far. First, they need to work on making their free throws. They are a paltry 67%. They need those free points and it will help in close games, possibly put them over the top. Second, they need to box out. This is due to playing two freshman at center, but they need to learn a little faster as they have gotten out rebounded in a few games so far. This is more apparent on the defensive end where they are allowing other teams to get double-digit offensive rebounds. Things will change once Dino is back and the young guys have more games under their belt. Lastly, they need to defend the perimeter. Teams see that as a weakness for the Terps and opponents have been gunning from downtown on them. Indiana went 7 – 26 against the Terps and it wasn’t because the Terps were guarding well, Indiana flat out missed shots Some of these things will work themselves out such as the boxing out and the free throws. Guarding the perimeter, I’m not sure of as it was a problem last year for these guys. Things I like so far has been their pressure and zone defense. Their pressure defense has been a little spotty, but when it’s been on, the Terps have been stifling teams on their own end of the basket. The Terps zone has been very good as Gary has gotten these kids to play great zone and its shown during games with Wisconsin, Indiana and Gonzaga. They are 1- 2 in those games, but give it a little more time. All in all, these kids look well improved from a year ago, but it’s still early. Milbourne has been consistent, Hayes has been more aggressive as a scorer and Mosley has come out of no where with offensive skills. Jordan Williams has been impressive under the basket albeit a few missed easy lay-ups, but he’s only going to get better. These guys share the ball more assisting on close to 60% of there shots made. The Terps play host to a Villanova team that is pretty legit at #3 in the nation even though their wins have been to lower end schools. Maryland will be their biggest test of this early season, but the Wildcats have five players averaging double-digit points. This will be a good test for both teams and let’s see if the Terps can come out on top. In perhaps could be Coach Friedgen’s last game as head coach, the Terps gave all they had to break their 6 game losing streak and end the season on a good note. Sad to say that they didn’t have enough and ended up losing 19 – 17 to BC.
Chris Turner made his last appearance for the Terps and it did not look so good for him. He engineered a drive in the first quarter only to score 3 points, but was rushed and menaced continually by BC. Turner was then pulled for Robinson and the offense seemed to gel a little more. Turner ended his career for the Terps with an unimpressive outing. The Terps just couldn’t finish and put points on the board. The defense held BC in check allowing 4 field goals and one touchdown. They still gave up a good amount of yards rushing, but they held Shinskie in check. The defense gave their offense a chance to win, but the Terps couldn’t score. Something that stood out from this game was that there weren’t any turnovers, completely uncharacteristic of the Terps. Where does this team go in 2010? Is Freidgen still coach? If not, who are the candidates? The freidgen may need a clean break from Maryland. It may be time to have new ideas from a fresh face come in and take control of this team. There is some good talent on this team, maybe not Alabama caliber, but good talent that can make this team a contender in the ACC if taught well. Not sure who those candidates are, but check back during the offseason for updates on Terps football. Wow, this team needs to look at some film for the next few days. The Terps were playing their Third place game in the Maui Invitational and they were beat by a better Wisconsin team 78 – 69. The Terps come home to face Indiana on 12/1.
The Terps came out quick and lead 7 – 0 in the first few minutes, but it went downhill from there and Wisconsin took control of the game. The Terps were befuddled by the Badgers tough defense and three point shooting. They held the Terps from scoring early inside and by the time the Terps tried to come back, it was a little late. In the first half, the Badgers were hitting their threes easily and at times, it looked like the Terps weren’t even trying to cover the Badgers. The second half was much of the same, more threes and very little defense from the Terps. When the Terps would step out to cover the Badgers, someone was always open underneath. The Terps handled the ball very well, they didn’t share the ball assisting on 9 of 27 shots made. Their free throw shooting was horrible as well, making only 10 – 17 shots. The Terps come home licking their wounds from the Maui tournament. They have a few glaring holes they need to work on: free throw shooting and perimeter defense. These issues may be hidden with the pre-Acc schedule coming up, but once they start playing teams like Duke, Carolina, Wake Forest and Clemson, the Terps may have a long day on the court. Maryland played their second game of the Maui Invitational and it wasn’t as pretty as the first. The Terps took on Cincy last night and the results weren’t that good. Maryland lost this one by the score of 69 – 57 and the game wasn’t even that close.
The Terps were taken by storm in this game. They were never in sync and rushed shots like they playing their first game of the season. They didn’t seem to share the ball as they did in their previous four games The Terps rarely turned the ball over, but they were out muscled by the Bearcats who ran the floor better than the Terps . The Bearcats collapsed in the lane defensively, they created turnovers and outran the Terps to the other end for easy buckets. Overall, there final stats don’t look that bad, but there was something about this game that we’ve seen before. This game was a little reminiscent of last year’s loss to Memphis where the Terps were manhandled by a larger Tiger team. They looked shy and unconfident with running their plays. Greivis did attempt to take over in the second half, but ended his night on 5 – 17 shooting or a dismal 29%. That’s not the way the Terps want to play this year out. Sharing the ball works better for this team as we’ve seen in their previous four games. Having Greivis is an advantage for the Terps because he can score, but he needs to get others involved. Defensively, the Terps didn’t look that bad. Williams and Padgett again had good nights under the basket with 10 and 5 boards respectively. They didn’t get any help from anyone else though as the Terps were out rebounded 45 – 31. The Terps were also horrid from the foul line shooting 17 – 31, a horrendous 54%. Those are free points and the Terps need to take advantage of that especially in the close games they’ll play in this year. The Terps play for third place today against a Wisconsin team that is always good defensively. Lets hope the Terps can bounce back and gain good experience from this week. The Terps began play in the Maui Invitational last night with a strong performance against Chaminade. Strong defense and clutch shooting by Sean Mosley brought Maryland an easy 79 – 51 win. Tonight, Maryland plays a good Cincinnati team that bulled their way to a win over Vanderbuilt last night.
Maryland is beginning to hit a little bit of a stride here. Last night, the Terps were strong on defense and had a good performance from one of their freshmen, Jordan Williams. Williams was tough inside with 9 points, 10 boards and 3 blocks. Last year, teams had their way with the Terps getting inside for easy baskets, but this year things are definitely different. Williams made his presence known early with a block on Shane Hanson and made the Silverswords think twice about driving into the lane. Chaminade did keep it close in the first half, but Maryland eventually pulled away in the second half. Maryland rebounded the ball well with the help of Williams, Padgett and Mosley, all of which had 8 or more rebounds. The Terps are getting contributions from unusual sources this year offensively. Mosley had another career high in points with 19 and Hayes has been scoring as well. Greivis has been quiet so far this year, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that, he’ll get his scoring rolling soon enough. If Mosley continues with what he is doing, Maryland will have four legitimate scorers to compliment their big men inside. Mosley, Greivis, Milbourne and Hayes to go with Williams and Padgett will give Maryland a toughness we haven’t seen since the Dixon, Baxter and Blake days. Maryland moves on to Cincy tonight in what will be a good test for the Terps. Cincy plays great defense and Maryland may have to grind this one out. They’ll need to attack the basket and get to the line for free points and hopefully they’ll come out on top. In what looks to be a small tune-up before the Maui Invitational, Maryland hosted University of New Hampshire and came away with a strong win. Maryland played well on both sides of the ball and won easily 82 – 55.
Maryland looked more in sync Friday with crisp passing and better shot selection than the two previous games. Jordan Williams and James Padgett didn’t look as slow around the basket and look to be gaining confidence they need to play in the ACC. Greivis did run into a little foul trouble and it looks like he’s being covered a lot closer but he’s still making plays for the Terps. The player of the game though was Mosley and for the first time, we saw an offensive side to him. Mosley has been known for his defense, but he ended with a double-double 13 points, 10 assists helping the Terps distribute the ball and score points. Defensively, this Maryland team looks better than last years and much improved in just the three games they’ve played. Williams and Padgett are learning quick and are starting to keep guys out from under the basket. Something we didn’t have last year as all teams the Terps played knew they could score under the basket. Padgett not only has a quick step to the basket offensively but defensively as well. What will help though is when he’s not playing out of position and he doesn’t have to recover quickly. Maryland moves to Hawaii and the Maui Invitational for hopefully for an extended stay. This exposure will give Maryland some good confidence, especially the young guys, moving closer to the ACC schedule. Yesterday, the Terps put forth and unbelievable effort in attempt to end their current losing streak, but came up short and ended with a 29 – 26 loss to Florida State. The Terps came from 11 points down to pull ahead of the Seminoles, 26 – 22, with 4 minutes left. Ultimately, the Terps couldn’t get a much needed first down and left the game in the hands of FSU’s E. J. Manuel allowing him to drive down field for the win in the games final minute.
Maryland played an unbelievable game yesterday considering what we’ve seen the past 6 games and seemed to click for most of the game. Sure, the defense was not able to stop the rush, but their pass defense was up to task and came up with 3 picks for the day. They were able to get pressure on Manuel and force him to make bad decisions throughout the game. There were a few missed assignments by the Terps that allowed big gaines on rushes, but they gave the offense opportunities. One more stop on defense in the final minute of the game and things could have turned out better for the Terps. Their offense was alive yesterday and you could see the improvement from Robinson in just only a week. He looked more calm as a quarterback and at times almost too calm. There were times he was standing flat-footed as if it were practice, something he’ll need to work on this off season. He made better passes and adjusted to the Seminole defense by making decisions faster. If he didn’t see any of his receivers open, he either threw it away or ran for a small gain. The running game was back with Scott gaining 83 yards to add to a combined running effort of close to 200 yards. Torrey Smith and Adrian Cannon were excellent yesterday accounting for most of the receiving yards. Smith once again gave the Terps decent field position, but his missed touchdown pass in the first quarter which looks like the difference in the game. Maryland needs to add a Tight End to the mix to give Robinson a third option. I haven’t written much about the coaching this season, but we’re in the final two games of the season and it may be my only talking points from here on out. The coaching has been lackluster at best this year with mismanaging the game clock, calling timeouts at the wrong time and play calling that doesn’t work for the personnel on the field. Not adjusting to injuries by ignoring strengths and weaknesses of their healthy players has been obvious this year. Except for Dave Sollazzo, the coaches look as if they are there just to pick up a paycheck. If the Terps are going to continue with Friedgen and James Franklin as his replacement, the Terps are going to struggle in years to come. Its time for new minds and new blood to keep the current talent from fizzling in the coming years. I can understand these guys are probably working hard at what they do, but its hard to see that on the field. This is the time of year where Maryland basketball fans get all excited and wonder how far will the Terps go during the regular season. Putting up points seems easy on lower lever teams while pressuring these teams into a panic, but some fail to wonder whether these players are gaining valuable experience during these games. Fairfield is one of those teams and they came to Comcast center Tuesday night in hopes being competitive, but eventually left with a loss, 71 – 42.
Maryland again got off to a slow start offensively in the first half, turning the ball over and missing shots until two and a half minutes in when Hayes scored on a three-pointer. Vasquez didn’t look sharp, turning the ball over a few times and scoring only two points. Maryland couldn’t pull away from the Stags for most of the first half thanks to some of their own good defense. The Terps did have some good key runs in attempt of pulling away from the Stags. Mosley has been impressive with his defense with four steals and has added a few quality dunks to show his potential. We saw it last year for most of the season until late when he hit a roadblock and couldn’t score for about the last 5 games of the season. Eventually Maryland did pull away a little towards the half and ended up 8 points over Fairfield at halftime. Marylands second half didn’t start off that well either, as they didn’t score for the first three minutes. They did have a few great second half runs though of 14 – 6 and 10 – 0 fueled by their defense that helped them pull away. Greivis, again had a tough time finding any sync and there were a few questionable passes he threw to his teammates that were ill-advised. Maryland likes to run, that’s always been Gary, but I’d like to see these kids play good half court offense. They need to realize when they can’t run and drive the lane because defenders are there, then don’t just spot up and shoot the ball. Slow down and wait for the rest of your team and run good half-court. James Padgett and Jordan Williams look good. They both have a knack for getting to the ball and if they can build some confidence, they will become more forceful under the basket and hence better defenders. I realize we’re only two games in and most of this playing time is Gary finding the right lineup. Some of this looks erratic at times and maybe it will all go away in the next few games. Except for Villanova in a few weeks, Gary has a fairly padded schedule until the first week of January, but if the Terps are not careful, one of these lower end opponents may come up and bite this team. Next up, the Wildcats .. of New Hampshire. Maryland was looking to start off their 2009 – 2010 season on the right foot. Maryland played host to Charleston State University Friday night hoping to start fresh and show off their new look offense and defense. Maryland came away winners of their season opener, 81 – 56 over the Buccaneers.
After advancing to the second round in the NCAA tournament, there is much hype about this team. Maryland has new bodies under the basket, much needed bodies they didn’t have last year. Maryland played small and in some games, it was obvious. It couldn’t have showed more than their second game in the tournament against Memphis. Maryland was over matched and came away losers to a big and talented team. Fast foward to Friday night and Maryland began to show that they are working on securing the front line. Maryland did start slow in the first half. Being that this was their opener, the Terps were erratic with their shots and weren’t focused on setting their offense. Their defense was decent as they didn’t allow penetration down the lane and if any of the Buccaneers players did, Jordan Williams or James Padgett were there to defend shots taken. The Terps were able to break away and build good leads, but they would then stall against Buccaneer’s pressure defense. The second half was much different as Maryland appeared to run their offense and defense effectively. They started the half with an 11 – 0 run and then didn’t look back. Greivis was able to drive the lane, dish efficiently and Hayes seemed to be on fire with his three point shooting. Williams and Padgett secured the front line and forced the Buccaneers to stay outside. Maryland moves to play Fairfield next and they look to improve on Fridays performance. Overall, this team had a lot of positives. They were able to defend well, they were able to share the ball effective and scored points when they had too. This was a lower tiered team though so that should all be expected. Either way, we shall see Tuesday after their next game. |
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