In a game of men against boys, Maryland came out looking to continue their surprising season only to see themselves quickly dismissed. They came out looking to run and gun in typical Maryland fashion, but they found out that they were under-sized and over matched. The Terps ended in their season in a 89 – 70 loss that wasn’t even that close.
It really looked like JV against varsity out there. Memphis has bigger players and more athletic players that made Maryland looked like they didn’t belong in the tournament. Freshman guard, Tyreke Evans, and Senior Antonio Anderson set up their Tiger teammates time and time again down the floor in totaling 16 assists. Anderson actually had more assists than Maryland had as team, 11 – 9. The Tigers were hot shooting in shooting close to 60% for the game, 52% from beyond the arc. During certain stretches of the game, it looked as if Memphis was dunking on every possession. It was unclear whether the Tigers were sure they weren’t going to make the same mistake as they did against Cal-state Northern or were they motivated by Greivis’ comments. Either way, Memphis was hitting on all cylinders.
Maryland’s final numbers don’t show all that bad in the end, but it was their defense that didn’t stand the test of time. They didn’t defend the three at all. Their zone was ineffective against the bigger Memphis players. They didn’t match up well to grab more rebounds finishing -10 in that category. Their offense wasn’t completely awful, but it was very hard for them to get any open looks and Memphis would collapse well on them when they drove the lane. The only poor offensive stat I see is in their free throws, they shot a dismal 58%. Again, as I said before, Maryland is a team of guards. That’s not going to get you far in the tournament especially against teams like Memphis, Kansas, Oklahoma. They played well against Cal, but they are team of guards as well and so Maryland was able to match up well.
Well, as fast as this season came in, it seemed faster in going out. Maryland had their backs against the wall all year and they played well for the players they had. They weren’t even sure they were going to make the tournament, but somehow made it on a prayer and represented well. Well considering Florida State and Wake were beat up on Friday night not even making it to another game. Till next season, we can only hope players coming in get excited enough to help make another run at the tournament.
