Maryland Falls Again in Maui, This Time to Wisconsin
by Ben Broman on Nov 25, 2009 6:41 PM EST
in Basketball
Email
PrintComing into Maui, Maryland fans said they were eager to finally find out what they can do against good competition. They haven't liked what they've seen.
After losing to Cincinnati yesterday, Maryland lost its second game in two days, falling to Wisconsin, 78-69. After a 7-0 start, they hit a rough stretch and never caught up to a good, fundamental Badger squad.
Greivis Vasquez looked better than he had previously, but not by much - his issues are still hurting this team. They simply aren't good enough to overcome Vasquez performing poorly. He did have 18 points (most of which came after the game had already been decided), offset by 4 turnovers and a terrible performance before the 5:00 mark in the second half. Nothing he does is working consistently right now - passes are wild, defense is consistent, shots are ill-advised, and, when they aren't, they don't fall. Him getting his stuff together is objective #1 right now.
Sean Mosley had a nice bounceback game, with 10 points on 4-5 shooting despite fouling out. Landon Milbourne was the star of the game offensively, second on the team in scoring with 15. His rebounding trouble sstill continued, though - throughout all of Maui, he has just 3 rebounds. Eric Hayes was arguably the best all-around performer on the day: 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals in the loss. In Vasquez' inconsistency, he's been one of the only guys to bring it day-in and day-out.
The freshmen bigs, who always get a paragraph of their own, were again inconsistent. Both show flashes, offensively and defensively, of greatness - a putback, or a nice post move, for example. Then they'll get beaten defensively or miss an easy layup (*cough*JWill*cough*). Jordan Williams especially needs to get tougher - he still refuses to dunk and just seems all-around soft.
There are still a ton of problems to deal with as a team. Another poor shooting performance today from the line; just 53%. Leaving points on the line has been mostly a product of Jordan Williams and James Padgett, but it hurts just as much. Bigger problems were defense and rebounding. Wisconsin's stats dropped at the end of the game in those areas, but Maryland was killed from outside most of the game. Leaving guys open on the perimeter needlessly, bad double teams, falling for shot fakes, bad fouls - nothing much went right.
The same happened for rebounding; Wisconsin was +7 on the boards at half, and +8 at the end of the game. Maryland improved their effort in the second half, but a team scarcely taller than Maryland killed them in every aspect of rebounding - effort, technique, and desire - especially in the first half.
It's official: unless Maryland wants an incredible uphill climb once they reach ACC play, Villanova is a must-win. Similar to how the Michigan State game got Maryland in last year, Villanova will need to be Maryland's banner this year. Otherwise, their best out of conference win will be...Indiana? That's not what the committee's looking for.
10 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
same old ..... same old
unless Greivis scores we have nothing else…and
every team we play shoots %80 for their 3’s….
first it’s very very early in the season. that said. these views. hayes needs to run the offense in the half court offense. vasquez isn’t getting the job done at p.g. in the half court. plus he’s good at moving without the ball particulary when he runs the curl in the paint. goins needs to see some time. he’s too big to sit on the bench. milbourne needs to play the small forward position more than power forward. the terps need to start playing padge and williams together and make a real attempt to work the ball inside more. bowie shows no feel for being a point guard. rather have tucker play the point when needed. the tewma ctually looked best when vas was on the bench in the 2nd half. he’s great in transition but not in the half court. and they need to move the ball more make the extra pass. and move more without the ball.
Milbourne @ the 3
I just don’t see the advantage, at least now. The only bonus is rebounding, but Milbourne is out of place at the 3, and then who doesn’t start? Plus, our big man depth goes out the window completely with that.
I’m definitely all for it for ~5-7 minutes a game, but only after Maryland returns Dino and Goins gets to 100%. It would be more to keep him fresh than it would be for the good of the team.
fkterp, great comments
Landon has a tough time of it inside. He can’t hold position and is intimidated by players that he can’t shoot over . Last year someone could just partially block a shot and he would disappear for a while. He is more aggressive this year but still has to force it inside. He is athletic and needs space to move. He will still have to go inside with the flex but he should be guarded by someone more of his size and stature. I think Dino should move into the PF position with either Jordan or James. I would also like to see Gary give Goins a few minutes from time to time with either James or Jordan.
assuming they beat Indiana....
which i have doubts right now
Let's not get carried away...
Cincinnati and Wisconsin are both very good teams, and we played even with both of them after slow starts in both games. Indiana is the worst major conference team in the country. They went 1-17 in the Big Ten last year.
by jellisjenius on Nov 26, 2009 11:23 AM EST up reply actions
we can never underestimate teams
thats a lesson we learned the hard way
by Bboydragon25 on Nov 27, 2009 10:18 PM EST up reply actions
I believe Maryland is improving quickly
The team that played Wisconsin was better than the one that played Cincy. I acknowledge that Wisc doesn’t have the talent that Cincy has. However, the half-court offense actually looked effective for some periods. It didn’t against Cincy.
I think we really need to keep in mind that James and Jordan are freshmen playing their first games at this level. Remember how raw Grevis was his freshman year. Grevis experimented almost every game that year trying to figure out what he could and couldn’t do that level. I am impressed with the things James and Jordan are already doing. Neither one puts the ball on the floor. They keep it at their chest when they make moves to go up. They can take contact and seem to have good hands. James is surprisingly quick at times. Jordan has a nice touch and the potential to develop into a good scorer.
I agree with Ben that the most immediate concerns for the team now are defense and rebounding. A team that had 19 points in the first half against Cincy can’t afford to give up 78 points to anyone. Individual position and team defense are terrible. They took a guy, Bohannon, that can’t create his own shot and made him look All Big 10. The guy lives off picks and opportunities on the perimeter created by just waiting for a pass. We never adjusted to him nor the way Wisc used picks to get him open. Then there was our man-to-man. Slower players drove by us at will. We just didn’t play position defense. Cliff was the worst but he had lots of teammates that were alomst as bad. It put pressure on James and Jordan who had to pick these guys up and created situations where they could pick up unnecessary fouls. James and Jordan can’t afford to get those fouls.
Rebounding is more difficult to correct. One thing in our favor is that both defense and rebounding will improve with effort. However, Wisc and Cincy players got inside James and Jordan regularly to either get offensive rebounds or keep the ball in play. Experience will help. I think having Dino in there will also help.
Very insightful analysis...
I agree with everything you said. In my opinion the single biggest problem for us in terms of defense/rebounding is that Milbourne is playing big minutes at the 4 and hurting us in both of those categories. Gary needs to light a fire under him and/or play Dino more at the 4 when he returns. Milbourne playing 35 minutes right now = guaranteed rebounding disadvantage against anyone with size.
I’m pretty sure of one thing – our D will be much better when Dino returns.
Free throw shooting is a concern, but not much can be done about that. Freshmen often struggle with FT shooting, and we’ll probably have to accept that we won’t have the advantage in that area that we did last year. Trading Neal for Padgett and JWill is not going to benefit us at the charity stripe.
by jellisjenius on Nov 26, 2009 11:20 AM EST up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
