Maryland Rides Vasquez and Milbourne to 83-72 Win Over Eastern Kentucky
by Ben Broman on Dec 12, 2009 6:36 PM EST
in Basketball
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PrintWhen Maryland needed him, Greivis Vasquez delivered.
He didn't start the game after showing up late to a shootaround and had some rough times, as he had all this year, but as the Eastern Kentucky Colonels sat down two, on a run, with Maryland unable to make a shot, Vasquez did what he had to do: make big shots. He ended up with two threes in as many possessions, and sparked Maryland's offense that, at the time, was completely out of sync.
Maryland rode the momentum and ended up with an 83-72 win over EKU, putting them at 6-3 on the year.
Despite a fast start for Maryland with Vasquez on the bench (13-5 when he entered the game, up 17 shortly after), Eastern Kentucky steadily fought back and eventually tied the game in the second half on the strength of ridiculously good three point shooting and solid defense. Shortly after, Maryland's offense caught fire, spurred on by two big threes by Vasquez, who had struggled somewhat up to that point.
Sean Mosley was quiet after a breakout week that included solid games against Villanova and Indiana. Part of that might have been due to Vasquez's offensive reemergence; he led all scorers with 20 and paired that with 5 assists.
Props go out to Eric Hayes for a great performance today; he's been extremely consistent all year and had an important 14 points with 4 made threes. Landon Milbourne also quietly went about his business, returning to form with 19 points and 9 rebounds. He made big plays and didn't have too many lapses. This is the Milbourne you remember from last year.
As for Dino Gregory in his first game: he was okay, but definitely rusty. Some of his passes were iffy and his defense was inconsistent, but his jumper was absolutely money and he showed some very encouraging flashes. He probably got the start thanks to the need for perimeter defense.
EKU's shooting ability and lack of size meant that Jordan Williams wasn't very well fitted for this game: he isn't great guarding 6-6 people on the perimeter. Still, in limited time, he had 4 points and 5 rebounds, which was pretty good. He had some problems and looked very much like a freshman, but I'm still encouraged.
The strange thing was James Padgett's lack of playing time. He didn't see the floor, despite Jin Soo Choi inexplicably getting PT in a close game. I'm sure the lack of size for EKU and their perimeter shooting had plenty to do with it, but I've never been all that impressed with Choi's defense at any level. Puzzling indeed.
I'll try to go for some more analysis tomorrow, but for now, I'm okay with this result. It was closer than it should've been, that's for sure, but Vasquez looked like he was getting out of his funk and EKU is a tough team to beat when they're hot, as they were. Maryland has plenty to work on - defense especially among them - but it could've been worse.
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Nice Win
It got ugly at times, but “just win baby!” Glad Vaz is showing some life. Dino looked good in his return. Great free throw shooing, sans Mosley. Eric Hayes = beast. Didn’t see much outta J. Will tonight.
Let’s keep on moving uphill.
The Hell that Tomlin & the Steelers have unleashed on me this December is indescribable.
Johnny,
Grevis is starting to piss us off here. When he is making shots, he looks at us in the student section and tell us to be quiet cause we give him a hard time after he makes those dumb, Grevis-like, mistakes. I heard many “you are an asshole” and even one guy scream “have fun playing in Turkey!”
Getting outta hand here.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
Frankly, I think it is pathetic that the students are giving him a hard time. If I were a recruit, I certainly wouldn’t want to go to a school where the fans rooted against me. I am a huge MD fan, but you all need to grow up (or at least realize you are hurting the program)!
We are hurting the program?
Are you serious? How can you not disagree with some of the Grevis’ decision when he has the ball? He is taking bad shots at times, and we are letting him know it. He still loves us, but he needs to grow up. If you don’t want to be ridiculed, then don’t stink it up when you talk such a big game.
Grevis is way too cocky for someone who is struggling to score in double digits each game this year.
Actually, if not for the fans, what would this program be?
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
wow. seriously? he, like you, is a kid. he makes mistakes. he is on YOUR team. when someone on the team you root for makes a mistake you yell at him? deride him? make fun of his dreams? or do you support him? seriously? if he wasn’t on the team they lose tonight. period. they probably lose to Indiana as well.
of course he takes bad shots at time. of course. what do you expect? he is a kid! that doesn’t mean he isn’t deserving of your support.
he is cocky. i bet you love it when he rubs it in opponents’ faces though.
well said, nm.
you can’t have it both ways, Mr MaLoR. if you love him when he “rubs it in opponents faces,” you better sure as hell love it when he rubs it in our obnoxious fans’ faces.
thats just greivis being greivis. and i love him for it.
I agree with NM
I have turned around multiple times this year at fans giving players a hard time and told them to “shut the fu** up,” because quite frankly, that is my biggest pet peeve.
Sure, Greivis makes mistakes, just like any other player. And he probably makes more mistakes than any other player on Maryland, because he is in the spotlight and has the ball more often. But we’ve gotta continue to support him anyway.
Where would the program be without him? Even when he is struggling, he attracts so much attention that he gives other players more opportunities.
People have to stop doing that sh** and grow up already, or else TRoss is really gonna leave us. Who is gonna wanna come to a school where players are taunted by their own fans?
We are die hard
And when we see something we do not like, we let people know it. What is wrong with that? It’s not like we are trying to ship Grevis out of town as soon as possible (which it seems you are making it out to be) but we are keeping him level. Him telling us the shut up, like he did last year to, is just as immature. If he wants to go to the NBA, he needs to stop taking things so personal and start showing up. We could have 7 or 8 wins right now if Grevis would have taken over a game like he talks about how he can do. Shut us up then Grevis.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
nothing wrong with disagreeing with Greivis' decision-making.
sometimes i disagree with his decision-making too. we all do. but some students are manifesting their distaste in completely the wrong way. telling him he’s gonna play in turkey? telling him he’s an asshole? are YOU serious? thats not supportive at all. sounds more like duke fans posing as maryland fans.
some supposed terp “die hard” fans just need to grow up.
Jordan and Dino
Landon, Grevis, Sean, and Eric seem to be established as starters. The difference is whether they are on the floor with Jordan or Dino. There is a big difference between those teams. Right now both Dino and Jordan need playing time.
Yea, I wouldn't mind seeing Dino and J-Will in there at the same time.
When Milbourne needs a breather. Dino may be the most athletic player on the court. He flies up and down and can jump out the gym.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
Not too happy about this win
Just got back from Comcast not too long ago. We started off great, I really liked the starting lineup today without Grevis in there. We were fast in transition and having Dino in there really makes our offense faster because he can run the court so well. Couple of my notes.
- Adrian Bowie may be the worst shooter on the team. Good handles, good under the basket, can’t hit a jumper to save his life.
- Mosley had an off game scoring wise in the middle parts of the game, but his energy is a great on court presence.
- Did not like some of Gary’s substituting tonight. Brought out Hayes at one point when he hit a big 3 late in the game, then took him out when he was hot after the timeout. Jin Soo should not see the court at all this year. Put him in there over Padgett, really?
- Unsure of who should start at the 5 spot between Dino and J-Williams. Dino is great for transition but is a little too sporadic when he gets the ball in his hands. Needs to learn how to finish. Jordan is our best “big man” by far. I am surprised at how strong he is under the basket this year, but slows our offense down a little. Great intensity. It was funny, when Landon got an And 1 tonight, Jordan got up from the bench and went nuts. Gary went over to him and I could hear from the other side of the floor, "SIT THE F*** DOWN). It was great.
- Unsure how EKU was able to ever stay with us in this game as long as they did. We were winning like 21-8 at one point int he first half. Then from there until about 5 minutes left in the game, they were within 3-5 points the whole time. Not happy with our man defense what so ever. So many back door cuts under the basket in the 2nd half because of that. We need to use the zone more often when we have a close lead. Our man defense just is not strong enough.
You have to hate losing more than you love winning.
Regarding Hayes, wasn’t that after he was beaten badly about 3 times in a row on backdoors/picks and roll? Seems like standard offense/defense substituting to me.
Love the Gary quote.
I agree with most of what you write
I couldn’t figure out what EKU was running. They spread the defense all the way out to half court at times. Then they ran pick and rolls and back door cuts like the Princeton offense. Then at other times they posted Sommes or Taylor at the foul line and ran cuts off of them. It was actually interesting to watch. What was disappointing was that whatever they did we were always a half step or more behind. What was even worse was that Sommes and Taylor had almost all of the 3s for EKU and we couldn’t find a way to shut them down. With the exception of the first five minutes, we looked like we were playing EKU’s game. We were not making then play our’s.
That said, we got a win. I’ll take it.
MD Football coach...Jim Harbaugh??
basically fridge is gone unless they do amazing next year and they don’t like franklin completely, so why don’t we go after harbaugh?? would he be interested in coming to MD to be close to his bro of the ravens? its intiguing because he is a really good coach and Maryland is easier to recruit than o
EKU
I think it was great we played EKU. I kinda think Gary schedules cupcakes with offenses similiar to other ACC teams. They are like Duke, with less “douche”.
Good win...
…even though our defense was exposed a little (again) as struggling to stop the 3 when we get spread out. Truthfully though, the only ACC team with an offense as efficient as EKU’S is probably Duke. But it’s odd to see our zone look more effective than our man-to-man, as it has for the last few games.
Am I the only one who thought Dino looked pretty bad on defense? He was caught out of position or in-between so many times (esp. in the first half) that I started to feel embarrassed for him. He also had only 3 rebounds in 33 minutes. But he does look much more comfortable overall on the offensive end, and I’ll chalk up his inconsistencies to the time missed. Once we get into ACC play, we can’t have him missing defensive assignments.
The seniors carried us in this game (as opposed to the Nova game where Mosley and JWill shined). Hayes and Milbourne played great, and GV returned to form after getting off to a slow start. I do not understand why Padgett didn’t even see the floor, especially after Dino looked bad on defense early. To me, giving Padge at least 10 of Dino’s 33 minutes would have made sense. I can’t argue much with JWill’s lack of PT, this just wasn’t a good matchup for him. It will take time for him to learn how to guard the perimeter.
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