I think we are going to be the perimeter team that we were last year. We didn’t use the flex offense very much because we had Landon and Dave on the low posts. The flex is design to give players good inside scoring opportunities. Dave would sometimes put up a jump hook and Landon usually would take a step back and shoot that 10-12 ft jumper. Neither could score often enough to build an inside game off the flex. We only ran the flex when Eric and occasionally Adrian were on point, but the offense was usually anemic.

When Grevis was on point, we ran a very different offense, one I haven’t seen a Gary William’s team run before Grevis came. Grevis just tried to penetrate, usually going to his right. If he beat his man, his first choice was to put up a shot. If another defender picked him up, Grevis would dump the ball to the open man. When Dave’s man picked up Grevis, Dave would move outside and take a three. When Dave was making those threes, it was fun to watch, like the UNC game. The downside with this offense was that we sometimes depended too much on Grevis and players would tend to stand around. I think that is going to be an area for improvement for Grevis this year, keeping others more involved in the offense. (By the way, I think he will get it done, He is one of the most unusal and special players I have had the pleasure of watching. I think a lot of Maryland fans don’t appreciate who is as a basketball player.)

I think many people are counting on Jordan and James to give us an inside game this year. It may be the reason Andy Katz picked Maryland to do well in the Maui because he has Jordan Williams as the starting center. I think it is possible by the end of the year but not early on. I certainly don’t think Gary will be depending on the flex and scoring from Jordan and James to carry Maryland into January. Grevis will be on point most of the time. When Jordan or James get a pass in a position to score, they will certainly be expected to finish. However, I think their roles will be to provide a defensive presence, rebound, and get hustle points. In fact, I think Jordan will be sucking air for while as he gets use to the pace of play at that level. James appears to run better but he still goes up and down the floor a lot without really being involed in the action. He is still learning the game. I think 6-8 minutes a half will be a lot for either one. I hope Jerome can play because I think he will be needed along with Landon and Dino.

Our guards are going to carry us for a while but others have to contribute besides Grevis. They haven’t proven that they can. Sean needs to improve his shooting accuracy. I think he shoots too many jumpers while he is still in moving forwards or laterally which reduces accuracy. I hope Cliff Tucker is ready to contribute. He is too talented to not be playing. I think he and Sean with any of our point guards would be effective both offensively and defensively. How fast the guards come together to provide that offense is uncertain.

Under the circumstances, any pundit might not pick Maryland to do well early on, especially against the bigger teams. Memphis was a blowout. I just think Vitale is underestimating Gary. Gary sounds like he can’t wait to start working with this team. He knows what he as to get done to compete with those teams. I do think this team will be far better in March than they will be in November, but they will be competitive in November too.

I do expect Dino and Landon to start games at the Maui unless Jerome can go. (Is he going to play at all this season?) I also expect to see a lot of four guard offenses. Gary is going to try to win those games and go with what he knows. The team will only get one or two games in before the Maui and that won’t be enough for him to see what Jordan and James can and cannot do. Gary just doesn’t use freshman that much anyway. Grevis was a real exception. Even when they do get some playing time, he will pull them if they turn the ball over or make some other type of costly error. We are so thin on the front line that he may have to play them more than he wants, but it will be under conditions where he thinks they won’t do too much harm.

If Jordan and James meet your expectations ( and I certainly hope they do) you can count on seeing more of the flex later in the season. It is Gary’s personal version of team ball. It is all about picks and passes. He believes in it, his ability to teach it, and he knows he can win with it with low post scorers. He claims that it is an inside and outside offense…the idea being that when low post players get double teamed they pass to an open player on the perimeter. Over the years I have the seen the inside game but seldom the outside one. When that low post player gets the ball inside, Gary wants him to go up with it. Remember Lonnie Baxter and those shots he threw up. Gary never took him out. If Jordan or James show they can score inside, the flex will be our offense.

We really had only one proven way of scoring last year. If the ball was pushed up the floor fast enough to find an open man before the defense could get set we could score. Occasionally, Adrian or Grevis could take it to the basket, but that wasn’t very often. Whenever a team got us into a half-court game, especially against a zone, we didn’t score well. As I said, we did better with Grevis on point but even that offense wasn’t that effective. By the way, that is why the really good transition teams like Duke put it to us. I hope Eric pushes the ball up the floor faster this year too.

So, that gets me to Dave and I know my friends will laugh at the idea of me defending Dave Neal. I never thought he was ACC caliber when we recruited him, but I have to admit he found a way to make important contributions. We all know that he could move his man away from the basket and he could set an effective pick. However, your comments made me go back and look at his scoring. Before I get into that, I want to emphasize that Dave didn’t get his points in transition. He got them in our half-court offenses and he was one of the few that did well. He scored in double figures in 12 games and we won ten of them including our big early wins agaisnt Mich St. and Michigan. Then during our run in February and March he was scoring at a 10 point a game clip. And, I do agree with you that Jordan and James will make eventually more than make that up but I don’t think it will start to happen until we get in the easier part of the non-conference schedule.

So, I guess we will have to agree to disagree about the wisdom of Vitale’s pick. However, if you have some more thoughts you want to share, I would like to read them. It’s been a good give and take. Thanks.