Maryland Falls to Hot-Shooting Villanova in BB&T Classic, 95-86
by Ben Broman on Dec 6, 2009 9:57 PM EST
in Basketball
37 comments
Maryland won't have a signature out-of-conference win this year. Villanova got one of their first convincing wins of the year over the Terps, doing it with a lights-out first half performance.
Villanova made their killing in the first half, shooting an ungodly 50% from 3 and taking 22 of them - for those bad at math, that's 11 made threes in just one half. They paired that with a 10 board rebounding advantage - 26 to 16 - with 13 offensive rebounds.
Give Maryland credit, though: they fought back hard, and cut the 11-point halftime-deficit down to 3 eventually. They couldn't get over the hump, but both defense and rebounding improved in the second half.
Make no mistake, they actually played pretty well. They were, for the most part, effective and relatively efficient. They shot exactly 50% for the game, and many of Villanova's threes were difficult to cover, as they were from NBA range. I'm not saying Maryland looked great, but they weren't as bad as the score might've indicated, and that didn't even look all that bad. Too bad no one on the selection committee will know that.
Of course, there were major problems to look at. Villanova had more than 20 offensive rebounds and took an extra 24 shots - 24! That's pretty terrible even for zone defense, which is naturally conducive to offensive rebounds. It needs to be worked on.
Greivis Vasquez is still troublesome with his inconsistent performance. Gone, at least for the moment, is the Vasquez from last year. He's been replaced by someone whose shooting - and, actually, entire game - is decidedly average. He is much more reminiscent of sophomore and even freshman Vaz than junior Vaz. Maryland needs him to be sensational as he was last year, and he just hasn't brought it. He fouled out today, and you could see how much it hurt him. He needs to turn it around some time soon.
Luckily for Maryland, they have found a replacement, and his name is Sean Mosley. He had 24 points to lead all players in scoring and showcased a complete game - his jumper was good, he hit his layups, played outstanding defense, and was heady and smart. He should challenge for postseason ACC accolades if he plays like this the rest of the year, which is pretty similar to how's he played all of this year so far. Sugar Sean was simply amazing tonight.
Jordan Williams was just as encouraging. He needs to work on plenty - conditioning, some tighter technique, more aggression (that is, dunking) - but he looked surprisingly good against a solid big man in Antonio Pena. He put up his first double double in the best competition he's seen all year, and had a surprising 19 points and 12 rebounds. He's officially earned a starting spot - Dino's status should be irrelevant. I'm relatively confident that he wouldn't put up a double-double against the #3 team in the nation (though I could be wrong). Regardless, you can't take Williams out now.
It was a loss, but a promising one. Maryland never gave up, kept pressing, and almost pulled off a win over one of the best teams in the country. They won't get all the advantages from it, but they can rest easy knowing they played well against a very good team. You always want a win, but this was a loss I can swallow.
The negative, of course, is that there's no more big time OOC win for Maryland. First off, they can't have any more bad OOC losses - no Morgan State this year. They'll also have to have a better ACC year than last year. They're capable of both, but there's not a lot of room for error.
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Defense
Can somebody please answer this question for me: why did Gary stick with zone defense all game? I know that’s generally their defense, but Nova shot 19-39 from three point range. they put up almost 40 threes, yet Maryland played zone defense the entire game. three point shooters eat up zone. the fact that Gary did not change to man defense in the game is, in my opinion, a terrible coaching decision. I love Gary, but he definitely should have gone to man defense once Nova started raining 3s,
he was in man i believe in the beginning of the game, when Nova hit 3 of 3 from 3…he stayed in man i think until he put GV back in the game w/ 2 fouls when there was like 3 minutes left…he tried to have an extended zone so that nova would be forced to beat us inside, but they were still able to hit from 3…but we were in man for 16-17 minutes and were getting killed by their 3’s
This should brighten our mood a little.
Truely an awesome sight.
by ccrun1800 on Dec 6, 2009 10:58 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
GV isn't the only one
Bowie and Tucker have not been anywhere close to the players they were last year. The look on Bowie’s face almost makes it seem like he doesn’t care…or he’s pissed that Mosley has taken his spot
Unsurprisingly...
…a Dookie still found a way to be the most hated player on the court tonight, even in a game between Villanova and Maryland.
I absolutely hated anytime that King made a shot. He can’t make a two-pointer to save his life, but he is absolutely lights-out from 25 feet and out.
The zone was a tradeoff between stopping three and rebounding.
Gary chose to stop the three, and the zone pretty much did the job in that aspect in the second half. But we did give up a sh**load of offensive rebounds at the end of the first half and much of the second.
Exactly...
You could boil this loss down to one thing, and it wasn’t shooting. Our second-half shooting negated their first-half shooting. It was LOOSE BALLS. Not just rebounds, but loose balls in general – Nova must have come up with 75% plus of those situations where the ball was on the floor. The good news is this is something we can work on in practice.
Terrence Ross and Mychal Parker?
I’m 90% sure I sat a few rows behind them at the game. Terrence anyway. looked like they were having a good time. Anybody else see them? Section 106 about 15 rows back.
Dino
I’m friends with Ersin Levent and he told me Dino is looking VERY good in practice and that he would be extremely surprised if he doesn’t start when he comes back.
No way Dino starts
Not after being out until now, not after Jordan Williams played his best game to date against the best competition we’ve faced thus far, with 19 pts and 12 boards. Dino will play, but will likely take time away from Padgett and Jin Soo, not start ahead of Williams.
A LOT of positives to take out of tonight
Prior to the game I was fearful that Maryland would get steam-rolled. Instead they fought hard and were in contention nearly the majority of the second half. It will always be difficult to beat a team that shoots like that from 3 (anyone remember barely beating UNC-Asheville in the NCAA tourney cause of how they were shooting from the 3?).
Anyway, does it seem like to anyone else that EVERY player did serious work in the off-season to step up their game? It is clearly showing in players like Mosley, Hayes (Milbourne at times) and company. With all of the flirting Vaz did with the NBA, I wonder if he failed to put in the same effort and that is why we are seeing the tremendous drop off from his Junior year. That may or may not be true, but it is interesting to ponder. It seems like all the other players are thirsty to improve on last year except for him (just my opinion).
- Sorry, got distracted. Positives to take away Mosley is a force this year. Shot 11-14 from the field (3-4 from 3). Are you kidding me?!?! Get that man the rock more!
- Hayes was 5-9 from 3 and 6-13 from the field. What really impresses me is his ball handling this year. He seems twice as confident with the rock in his hands, it shows with his 2:1 assist to TO ratio. Also, he is taking shots he passed up last year. Confidence is key for a shooter.
- J Will lit up the boards with 12 rebounds and 19 points. To be a better team than last year it will start in the paint. We need those “easy” points and big offensive rebounds. With Dino set to return, I can only expect our rebounding to get better.
Wall of Shame
-"I’m glad we play Pitt twice, and not Tenn this year." - Brownie's Year
-"BB is ok (slightly overated)…but he is NO Kyle Orton! I’ll take Kyle over Ben any day" - Bronco_Fan_Tom
-PIT 24 KC 27
-Mike Tomlin's idea of "Unleashing Hell"
I think...
Williams and Mosley had huge games, and I’m looking forward to watching them for years to come.
But I have to say, it felt like Landon Millbourne and Greivis Vasquez didn’t even show up. Vasquez did not add anything except for a few assists, and Millbourne was a complete non-factor.
Eric Hayes had a decent shooting day, but he turns the ball over a lot and seems to never be able to create his shot. I think all our seniors could have played better today and they’re going to need to. But in the meantime, give Mosley the rock and enjoy having last year’s best post player, Dino Gregory, back in the lineup until we have a chance to redeem ourselves in the ACC.
???
Those two turnovers Hayes committed in 39 minutes really killed us. [/sarcasm]
Vasquez was brutal
In a game they needed him to step forward, he played like a jackass.
Still not too disappointed in the effort or even the final outcome, they played well and needed ‘Nova to miss a few shots. They didn’t.
by New York Sports Jerk on Dec 7, 2009 10:26 AM EST reply actions
New Line Up
JWill, Dino, SM, EH, GV
I’m debating between LM and EH. What do you all think? I really don’t care about loyalty all that much or seniority. If we had a better PG on the bench I’d bench GV in a minute for how bad he’s playing.
No way
Landon has been one of our most consistent players this year. He was our leading scorer going into last night. And Hayes is by far our best 3 point shooter. You keep the line up as is. They really didn’t play bad last night. It was just their rebounding that really killed them, along with Vaz’s bad play. He’s turning into Terrance Morris 2.0.
But seriously, you don’t change the line up. I don’t know why everyone is so high on starting Dino. He’s good, but he’s no silver bullet and you can argue Jordan Williams has played just as well as Dino would have.
He’s turning into Terrance Morris 2.0.
Haha, that is a terrible thought. 32.3 FG% is bad and he is well under a 2:1 Asst/TO ratio, especially considering how skewed that is with that one 13 asst performance against Charleston Southern. If he keeps playing like this, he might play his way out of being drafted.
Wall of Shame
-"I’m glad we play Pitt twice, and not Tenn this year." - Brownie's Year
-"BB is ok (slightly overated)…but he is NO Kyle Orton! I’ll take Kyle over Ben any day" - Bronco_Fan_Tom
-PIT 24 KC 27
-Mike Tomlin's idea of "Unleashing Hell"
you need inside players with some size starting. put dino in move mosley to guard, milbourne to small forward and bring hayes off the bench as 6th man. this rotation will also take minutes away from bowie who has been lousy. and when you bring padgett in there will be williams or dino helping him out down low.
Would consider benching Vaz for a start...
…if one of our other guards was playing better to send a message. At the end of the day, he still has the most experience and minutes of anyone on the squad and you have to think he will break out of his slump so you have to give him the majority of the minutes at the point. A bit of a wake up call could possibly work. Danger is it having a negative effect.
If he were playing as good as last year we could probably be a 0 to 1 loss team right now.
He’ll get it…
No way
Dino is not going to start over Millbourne. He had one bad game, relax. He has done a good job this year and has a mid range game that neither Williams or Dino have. Williams and Dino will both get lots of time down low, but neither of them can step out an hit a jumper like Millbourne can.
Starting lineup will stay the same.
by TerpsTerpsTerps on Dec 7, 2009 11:19 AM EST reply actions
Pretty much echoed my thoughts exactly.
No reason to hit the panic button on Landon having one bad game. If Bowie was playing well, you could maybe justify putting Bowie in over Vaz, but Bowie hasn’t looked good all season either. And Tucker is the biggest hot-cold player I’ve ever seen, so you can’t put him in for Vaz either. One game he looks like a starter, the next he’s turning the ball over on every possession and looks scared out there.
One bad game?
Apparently no one pays attention to the fact that Milbourne is a huge defense/rebounding liability at the 4 against anyone with talent. Not to mention that throwing him the ball is like throwing it into a black hole. It’s funny, that accidental loose ball pass he made to Mosley last night was the best pass I’ve ever seen him make. But everyone sees that he can make the mid-range jumper (an important skill, I won’t argue) and overlooks his big weaknesses.
Landon came in an absolutely horrid defensive player as a freshman (which is why he didn’t play at all). He has improved, but at the 4 he is a liability with his lack of size and tendency to get out of position. And if he doesn’t score, he’s even more of a liability.
Move Lanodn to the 3 spot
bring in dino to play with williams. bench GV and start hayes and mosley to finish out the backcourt
Yea
but I was going for more rebounding which has been our major problem. what most people dont realize is that great rebounding creates more offense (Cinci and Nova) so that we dont have these one and done buckets. And I agree for the most part on jellisjenius’s last post
Plus I think our offense should start going through Mosley and Hayes (somewhat). Meaning that SM should get first crack on a majority of plays to go for the bucket. Last game wasnt a fluke. Look up his stats and you’ll see his shooting percentage is redonk. There should absolutely be no reason hes not the offensive center of the offense.
Jordan Hayes Mosley Dino Milbourne
GV is benched until he gets his FG % to over 45% and TO to less than 5.
I agree that GV has to get his mojo back...
I’m not sure benching him is the way to do it (though I wouldn’t oppose it). Last year he had a 9-game stretch in Jan-Feb (starting w/Morgan St loss) during which he shot 29.9% from the field and averaged just 13 ppg. We went 3-6 during that time and our postseason hopes were dead in the water. He climbed out of that funk and helped us win four of the next six, including the huge UNC triple-double effort.
So why are people saying that he’s not the GV of last year? He’s a streaky player, he’s had bad stretches each season. He’ll come out of it, hopefully before conf. play starts.
you realize
that if GV just assists to Jwill, SM, and EH the entire game he’ll look amazing..
That along with a few drives to the basket and a couple of shots here and there and he’ll be putting decent performances every night.
but no he plays retarded.
Anyone for Milbourne to the bench?
Just a thought. We can’t start out with such a defensive liability on the floor. And its so true that the midrange jumper is all he’s got.
My vote?
JWill Dino Mosley Vaz Hayes
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