Sizing Up The Terrapins’ Chances
Filed under: NCAA Tournament, college basketball, sports
First of all: GO TERPS! (and having got that out of the way)-here is my opinion of how the Terrapins will fare in the NCAA Tournament.
It appears that the selection committee has put Maryland into the most dangerous region in the entire tournament. With the likes of overall #1 seed Kansas, Big Ten champion Ohio State, a Georgetown team that has the capability and the talent to make a deep run, and Tom Izzo’s don’t count-them-out Spartans at the #5 seed, the top half of the bracket is not lacking for talent or quality teams. Some intriguing teams also lurking in the Midwest region: a Northern Iowa squad that many pundits are picking as a sleeper, the two teams that have beaten Kansas this year (Tennessee and Oklahoma State), and a Georgia Tech team that just beat the Terps in the ACC Tournament. The Terps will begin the tournament late on Friday night with an opening round game against the #13 seeded Houston Cougars, the winners of the Conference USA tournament. Tom Penders, the Cougars’ coach, is a veteran of the NCAA wars, having taken four different schools to the tournament and has a veteran backcourt at his disposal in Aubrey Coleman and Kelvin Lewis. Coleman is the nation’s leading scorer and Lewis is the team’s best 3-point threat. You can bet that Gary Williams will have his charges focused on those two players in particular. Maryland can and should win this game, but it will need to play good defense and rebound well. Both offenses should score points in bunches, but I think the Maryland D should be the difference.
With an opening round win, the Terps will look to take on either the Spartans or the Aggies of New Mexico State. A date with the Aggies would be more of the same for the Terps, with another team that likes to get out and run and score points, but not so great defensively. On the other hand, Michigan State presents a formidable foe. Though not as consistent as some of Izzo’s better Spartan teams, this team is not devoid of talent. Kalin Lucas was last season’s Big Ten Player of the Year, and Raymar Morgan and Delvon Roe are big bodies who can bang down low. A trademark of Izzo teams are defensive intensity and rebounding. If Maryland wants to beat the Spartans, it will have to match the intensity and make shots in a grind it out type of game. Should the Terps survive the second round, I’m pretty certain Kansas will await them in the regional semifinals in St. Louis. The Jayhawks appear to be the most balanced, the deepest and most well-rounded team in the entire tournament. Their season has been nothing short of dominant, save for two losses to Tennessee and Oklahoma State (both of whom are in this regional). I believe, should the Terps get this far, it would take the perfect game to derail Kansas.
So I believe the Terrapins have what it takes to get to the Sweet Sixteen, but not further. But it will take two good to great efforts, with great shooting, determined defense and the experience that a senior-led backcourt can bring to get them there. After that, who knows…an upset over Kansas is the type of thing that makes March great. I just wouldn’t bet the house on it.
Polls, Meaningless Polls
Filed under: ACC, NCAA, NCAA Tournament, college basketball, sports
If you read the Toy Department, the Baltimore Sun’s fine sports blog, you would have seen a post from Kevin Cowherd about the lack of respect the men’s basketball team at the University of Maryland is getting in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. Cowherd bemoans the fact that the Terps, despite winning three games in six days last week, still couldn’t crack the Top 25. I got news for Cowherd: the polls in college basketball are meaningless.
That’s right, meaningless.
Now if this were college football, where only the top two teams in something called the BCS standings (a combination of polls and computer models that determine who plays for Division I’s college football championship) would play for the title, then this would be something of an outrage, but not even that much. I don’t think anyone in their right mind thinks that Maryland is one of the two best basketball teams in the nation; if so, it may be time to get that person’s head examined. However, the point being made is that the polls in college basketball serve as a snapshot of a particular moment in time during the regular season. It makes no determination in who plays for a championship, which is a good thing. For as we all know, in college basketball, the champion is determined on the court. Sure it’s nice to be ranked at this time of the year, but so what? Being ranked doesn’t win games; playing smart, tough, efficient basketball is what wins games. Do that enough times, win enough games, and it would be hard for the AP voters not to notice, and guess what? You become a ranked team.
So hearing that Gary Williams has railed for years that the nation doesn’t give Maryland the respect it deserves…well it doesn’t surprise me. This year, though Maryland is a victim of the perception of the ACC conference. Pundits everywhere are claiming that the ACC this year is weaker, and more watered-down than in years past. This perception is based on the thinking that has existed for years: as Duke and the North Carolina go, so goes the ACC. So this year, with Duke the only ranked team in the conference and North Carolina struggling mightily, the conference is perceived as weak. Because of that perception, Maryland (and Virginia Tech as well) fail to be ranked, yet both are among the teams receiving votes.
The way for the Terps to get respect is to keep winning games. The closing stretch of games (Clemson and Duke at home, Virginia Tech and Virginia on the road) does them no favors. But if the Terps do take three out of four of those, they finish the regular season with a 22-8 record, with 12 wins in conference-which should be good enough for the NCAA tournament no matter where the Terps are ranked.
How Things Have Changed
Filed under: ACC, NCAA, college basketball, following the locals, sports
Last year at this time, Gary Williams was feeling the heat from the media and fans alike regarding the state of the Maryland Terrapins basketball team. The team had gone through a terrible stretch where they had lost five of seven games, including a loss to Morgan State at home. The Washington Post had written a series that focused on the Terrapins failure to land recruits from within the state (Part 1/Part 2/Part 3). To top things off, there was a war of words between the assistant athletic director and Williams about how one recruit ended up not going to Maryland. While some fans stuck by the coach, others mused out loud that it was time for Williams to go; that he had done all he could and since he wasn’t getting the top recruits anymore, Maryland basketball would never ascend the heights it had back in 2001-2002, when the Terps made the Final Four in consecutive years, winning the title in 2002.
Fast forward to one year later, and you can find hardly any dissent about the job Williams is doing as coach of the Terrapins. His team currently resides in second place in the conference with a 6-2 record at the halfway point of the conference season. The team is not mired in a funk; in fact in the last game the Terrapins routed North Carolina by 21 points. This week sets up to be a big one for the Terrapins with three games in five days. Saturday they take on the first-place Duke Blue Devils in Durham, then Monday play the make-up game with Virginia at home (which was postponed by the blizzard) and two days later face a trip to Raleigh to play North Carolina State’s Wolfpack. While no game is a gimme in the ACC, given how the Terrapins have played so far each of these games are winnable, though the game at Duke certainly will be tough. With the Blue Devils undefeated at home, it will take a team effort for the Terrapins to get a victory there. If they don’t win that game, there wouldn’t be any shame in losing to the conference’s first-place team on its home floor; but it makes the next two games more important.
All in all, the Terps are looking pretty good for a team picked to finish fifth in the conference. It’s nice to see that the status of Gary Williams is not topic A in any discussion of his basketball team. In fact, I can’t say that I have heard any dissent with Williams, the team’s performance or his recruiting ability. What a difference a year makes. But I wonder if this team somehow falters down the stretch, or the season ends in a fashion that fans find unacceptable, will the barking and sniping return.
Maryland Terrapins: Time To Pay Attention
Filed under: ACC, NCAA, basketball, college basketball, following the locals, sports
With football about to go on hiatus (the games, not the business), the time has come for me to begin paying attention to college and pro hoops. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been kinda keeping an eye on both of them (the NBA due to the Arenas mess and the fantasy basketball league I’m in), but this post will be about ACC hoops in general and the Maryland Terrapins in particular.
Almost every year without fail, the ACC is generally acknowledged as one of, if not the best, college hoops conference. Football in the ACC is a secondary thought-the joke is that the ACC is a basketball conference that dabbles in football. That perception is primarily borne on the success of the two unquestioned powerhouses in conference-Duke and North Carolina. Year after year, these two programs are the marquee features in the league, with successful season after successful season. Their success is often a given in the league-almost every year one or the other is expected to win the league and claim its automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. This year was expected to be no different. However, this year the conference race is wide open. Duke, while still good, is still beatable with the same flaws that have shown up in recent years. North Carolina is suffering a hangover no one really expected, as their young players haven’t quite gotten up to speed with life in the ACC. Everyone else is up and down depending on the opponent.
As it stands right now, Duke is in front, with a one game lead over a surprising Maryland Terrapins squad that is tied with Duke in the loss column. If the Terps can beat North Carolina today, they will finish the first half of their conference schedule with a 6-2 record, which actually wouldn’t be too shabby. The two conference games the Terps lost could hardly be considered shocking: a 2-point overtime loss to an athletic Wake Forest team and a loss to Clemson, both on the road. The Clemson loss may represent the worst game the Terps have played in conference so far. The second half of their conference schedule features two games with Duke and Virginia, the conference’s other surprise team, as well as dates with Clemson, Virginia Tech, NC State and Georgia Tech. A 5-4 finish would get the Terps to 20 wins with 10 losses, and a 10-6 conference record. Granted, as a fan of the Terps you would want them to do better than that down the stretch, but that finish coupled with one win in the ACC tournament should be enough to get the Terps into the NCAA tournament for a second consecutive season. This time last year, Gary Williams was coming under fire for losing games and clashing with the administration, and yet this year, I’ve heard nothing about coaching, or problems.
So from this point forward, I’ll be giving college hoops greater attention between now and the NCAA championship game.
Good Greivis, Bad Greivis
Filed under: ACC, NCAA, basketball, college basketball, following the locals, sports
At his best, he is his team’s most versatile player. He is able to score, rebound and pass with skill and make the players around him better.
At his worst, he is a ball hog and an erratic shooter. A turnover-prone player who can come up small in the biggest moments.
Terrapins fans know that this is what you get with Greivis Vasquez. At times throughout his career at Maryland he has been capable of greatness (for example, the upset of #1 North Carolina last season). At times, he has been guilty of wretchedness (too many examples to name). When the Terps play on the road, it is Vasquez who is the focus of ire from the stands. Admittedly, he plays to the crowd and he loves to shut up opposing fanbases with good play. Yet when he messes up, he draws the scorn of those same fans, who love nothing more than to see him flop.
Even Terp fans are split on Greivis’s appeal. Some realize that he is willing to step up in the game’s biggest moments and have seen him make plays when it mattered. Others hate his style, say he tries to do too much and often plays out of control. He has also been one of Gary Williams’ biggest backers. When Coach Williams was getting repeatedly peppered with questions about his coaching and whether or not the team would make the NCAA tournament last season, it was Vasquez who was in the coach’s corner and rallied the team to the NCAA tournament, getting as far as the second round in a loss to Memphis.
This season has been the typical Vasquez rollercoaster. Early in the season, he was shooting poorly though he contributed with assists and rebounds. Now that he is scoring a bit better his confidence is high, even if his shooting percentage isn’t. A case in point is the Wake Forest game last Tuesday. Vasquez led the team in scoring with 30 points (on 9-27 shooting from the field) as the Terps fought from behind in the second half to get to overtime. But when Maryland needed a quality shot to try to extend or win the game, there was Vasquez with a crazy shot from the corner that hit the side of the backboard and a contested 3-pointer that was not close. There certainly was time in both instances to find a better shot.
On the other hand, yesterday’s win over Boston College showed how good Vasquez can be if he plays under control. While he scored only 17 points, those points were scored on better than 50% shooting (7 makes out of 13 attempts). He also added 9 assists, 5 rebounds and two steals, with only two turnovers for the game.
This Dr. Jeckyll-Mr. Hyde act is about to come to a close, with this being Vasquez’s senior season. So what are your feelings about Vasquez? Potentially great player if he knows his role and plays under control? Or a player with erratic skills who thinks he is a better player than he really is?
A Wish List For My Teams
Filed under: MLB, NBA, NCAA Football, NFL, baseball, basketball, college basketball, college football, following the locals, sports
Since it is Christmas Eve, I thought I’d take the time to write out a few wishes that I have for my favorite teams Most of these can’t be completed for Christmas, but are more long-term wishes that I will hopefully see come to fruition over the coming months.
For the Baltimore Orioles:
- A plan that makes the O’s competitive in 2010. I think I’ve given up hope on making the playoffs next season, but something other than a last place finish would be great.
- An effort to pry Adrian Gonzalez out of San Diego. If you’re looking for a power-hitting corner infielder, he fits the bill.
- Failing at #2, please find the following: some players with pop in their bats to play first and third base, a healthy complete season out of Adam Jones, and at least one frontline starter. Regarding the frontline starting pitcher, he may already be in the fold, but finding one, anywhere would be terrific.
- Hope. All we want is some hope that things will get better (a very common wish).
For the Baltimore Ravens:
- Playoffs! Of course, it may not be a long run when or if you get there, but still, I’d like to see you there-preferably while the hated Steelers stay home!
- Ozzie Newsome, please, please please find some playmakers…on both sides of the ball. While you’re at it, find some depth on the defense, the old stalwarts aren’t getting any younger. If Demetrius Williams is the playmaking wide receiver we all wanted around draft time, his grade is an incomplete. Dominique Foxworth has only recently been the cornerback we thought we were getting.
- Not much else, so there really isn’t a third wish.
For the Washington Wizards:
- It may be time to admit that this plan of Ernie Grunfeld’s isn’t working. To be fair, Flip Saunders needs at least one season to see what he can do with the parts he’s got, and it would be nice if those parts could stay healthy. Grunfeld fired Eddie Jordan because he didn’t win enough games at the start of last season, even though he didn’t have Gilbert Arenas healthy. Now Arenas is healthy and still the Wizards aren’t winning.
- Can someone on the Wizards brain trust teach these players how to play defense? The song still remains the same, this club doesn’t play defense worth a damn. Unfortunately, I don’t think any changes are going to be made to increase the importance of defense, so the Wizards are going to have to rely on outscoring foes yet again.
- Ted Leonsis, you are poised to take control of the Wizards. Please follow the hallowed footsteps of Abe Pollin and yet build upon the great foundation he laid. While Mr. Pollin was only able to witness one NBA title for his franchise, here’s hoping you can do what is needed to really build the team up for contention in the seasons to come.
- See Wish #4 for the Baltimore Orioles.
For the Maryland Terrapins (football and basketball):
- Ralph Friedgen, the ball is in your court. There has to be improvement in the football program immediately. 2-10 seasons are not going to cut it. Somehow, someway, you and your staff (those of whom are still around) have to find the players that will bring Maryland football back, if not to Orange Bowl or BCS levels, then at least to respectability. Goodness knows, Terp fans would like a diversion in the fall other than waiting for…
- Gary Williams and the basketball squad. Thank you for showing the fan base that indeed, you can coach. If you can take a team that had as minimal talent and no real inside presence to the second round of the NCAA tournament, imagine what you can do with this year’s team. I would advise you not to get close to the NCAA tournament bubble or suffer any losses “supposedly” beneath your level, though, or the squawking about whether or not you’ve lost it will begin anew.
- For both of you: recruit, recruit, recruit! You don’t necessarily have to get the best one and done players, but you do have to get some players in order to compete with the powerhouses. Maybe even a few victories against them wouldn’t hurt (that’s for the football team).
- See Wish #4 for the Orioles and Wizards.
Do you agree with the wishes? Do you have some you would like to add? Put them in the comments. Hope everyone out there has a very Merry Christmas!
Another Local Sports Team Meltdown
Filed under: basketball, college basketball, following the locals
I’m sure the few (or the proud) Orioles fans who peep at this blog remember the Mother’s Day Massacre between the O’s and the Boston Red Sox last season. Well, it appears that the University of Maryland men’s basketball team has attempted to trump the Orioles in the late-game meltdown department.
Sunday night, while I watched the penultimate episode of The Wire, the Terps coughed up a 20-point, second-half lead at home to the Clemson Tigers, who ended up winning the game 73-70. Thoughts and reaction about the loss can be found in the columns of Mike Wise of The Washington Post and David Steele of The Baltimore Sun. Again, another team from the Baltimore-Washington axis finds a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. For the Orioles, it was the bottom of the 9th. For the Terps, it was the final 10 minutes of the second half. And let’s not forget how the Baltimore Ravens let a victory get away from the New England Patriots with less than three minutes left to play just a few months ago.
With March Madness rapidly approaching, a team with Maryland’s resume can ill afford to lose a game such as this. Given that they already have two “bad” losses from earlier in the season (to Ohio and American University, those noted basketball powerhouses), Maryland could not take too many chances-they had to win the games they were expected to win. Not to denigrate Clemson, which is the third-place team in a mostly mediocre ACC Conference, but when you get a team down like Maryland had Clemson, you have to finish the job. Fans are in shock, and are increasingly worried about a bid to the NCAA Tournament that just a few weeks ago looked like a sure thing. Now Maryland has some work to do. Beating Virginia on Sunday is a must, and I would think they would have to win at least one, or maybe two games, in the ACC Tournament next week. Anything less than that, and it could be a berth in the NIT, that “other” tournament.
Gary Williams, the head coach of the Terps, has been quoted as saying “it’s not over yet.” Technically, he’s right. Maryland still has some basketball to play. It will be interesting to see how the Terps come out in Charlottesville on Sunday. They better bring their best effort from now on if they want to hear their name called on on March 16th.
College Hoops: Bo Ryan Does The Soulja Boy
If there is video of Maryland basketball coach Gary Willams doing the soulja boy, I wouldn’t be surprised.
“Soulja Boy:” the dance that never dies! Bo Ryan (Wisconsin basketball coach) breaks out with the dance right here:
And I was hoping the dance was on its way out when Jerry Rice did it at Georgetown’s midnight madness. This thing may last throughout the season to the Final Four at this rate. Heaven help us all.
Twitter: @mindpinball
- @steelergurl then u better win then LOL
- @steelergurl there ya'll go...bettin' on stuff.
- @MDSteelerGal Hey...thanks for my Y&R update! Don't know whether it's good or bad that you can go away for awhile and catch up in minutes.
- @ay52 FW is a nice guy or so I am told, but I won't miss the laundry in the secondary whenver he's around.
- @BigDubz damn, you living right. Fish one night, steak the next...
- Sizing Up The Terrapins’ Chances: First of all: GO TERPS! (and having got that out of the way)-here is my opinion ... http://bit.ly/b5SZWa
- Some Thoughts About The Bracket: Well, all the talking of strength of schedule, Top 25 wins, Top 50 wins, RPI, roa... http://bit.ly/dr2xJU
- @DemetriusHall from one of those u smashed, sorry for your luck. I thought u would run the table.
- @ms_sugakane same here. But it just feels even worse today for some reason LOL
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