Maryland Dominates N.C. State for Gary Williams' 1000th Game, Wins 88-64
by Ben Broman on Jan 23, 2010 8:12 PM EST
in Basketball
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PrintMaryland didn't know which N.C. State team would show up. Would it be the one that was one of the worst in the ACC earlier in the year? Or the one that beat Duke?
As it so happened, it wasn't the second one. And it might've not even been the second one. Or, as one N.C. State fan put it, whichever team it was, it wasn't the one that plays defense.
The Terps ended up atop the ACC standings by the end of the night, riding absolutely dominating execution to a win in Gary Williams' 1000th game. Despite a relatively close game at half, Maryland shot better than 70% from the field in the second and broke open the lead, eventually winning 88-64 (and it wasn't even that close). Any time Ersin Levent gets playing time in an ACC game, you know it was a good day.
Maryland had an extremely balanced scoring night for the third time in four games, relying on major contributions from both their bigger scorers - Greivis Vasquez had 19, Landon Milbourne had 16, Sean Mosley had 13- and their role players - Cliff Tucker had 11 in 16 minutes, Jordan Williams had 9, Dino Gregory had 8. Indeed, despite occasional dry spurts early, Maryland was very efficient offensively for the majority of the night. They shot above 50%, hit 46% from deep, and had a A/TO ratio of nearly 2/1. When you consider that they played ugly for minutes at a time, it's impossible to complain about that.
The offensive efficiency wasn't all, though; everything was clicking for Maryland tonight, much the same way everything was clicking for N.C. State against Duke. Maryland won the turnover battle, held N.C. State to 36% from the field, had a rebounding advantage, and shot twice as many free throws (and made three times as many) as the Wuffies. This was a complete performance, and it's a great sign for the future of the ACC. There's no transitive property in college hoops (or any sport), but the N.C. State's Duke win does help for the resume, and it might make some people take two looks at this game.
As for individual performances, Vasquez was the obvious star, but it was Mosley that I was most impressed with. In addition to his 13 points, he had 7 boards and had his traditional tough defense and hustle. He's becoming more and more consistent offensively, and that bodes well both for the rest of the year and next season, when he'll have to take over for good.
Jordan Williams saw way more playing time than I expected, and he looked good. He seemed to wear down and become invisible as the game wore on, but he was just one point and one rebound away from a double-double against the second-best post player in the ACC. James Padgett, despite high hopes, ending up pulling a duplicate of the Boston College game, not seeing playing time until late even though it was a massive blowout. Looks like I was wrong on that count.
This was an important game for Maryland, almost a complete necessity to compete. Unlike some past years, they actually won it, and won it oustandingly. Now they move on to Miami on Tuesday, and that'll be at the Comcastle as well. Win that one, and they have a nice base in the ACC....oh, and they'll still be #1 in the conference. So there's that.
More stuff coming later tonight.
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Great day at the office
All the way around. Jordan is settling in nicely.. How good does Cliff Tucker look? He needs more minutes, unfortunately it’s jammed up in front of him. Good problem to have, I am looking forward to see if he breaks out next year as a starter.
Everything is good...
…except for the fact that James Padgett disappeared again. I feel like he’s falling into the role that Cliff Tucker used to have; every couple of games he plays well and sees decent minutes, then he disappears again. I, and I’m sure everyone will agree, would love to see Padgett steal more minutes from Dino.
Also, another thing i would live to see is Mosely and Tucker on the floor at the same time. I think if you had them both on the wings, with Greivis at the point and Landon on the floor they would be incredibly athletic out there and could really run teams out of the gym.
wha???
Worried about what happened to Padge (me too)? What about what happened to Tracy Smith? Well, we shut him down (actually JW, DG and GW). Just goes to show the man in charge may actually know something we don’t – and that is not that Padge cannot play, he certainly can – it is that JW is a becoming a beast and DG had a helluva game. Work hard PAdge and join the fun.
I think Dino played QUITE admirably
He’s locked in the rotation now for good, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Padge just isn’t ready yet. When he is, he’ll be a force, but just not yet.
maryland wins by 22. the game was NEVER close. nc state got to within 5 late in the first half only to see md get up by 8. to even bring up thatf md had a few min. of a dry spell on offense is absurd. when was the last time you saw a team play a decent opponent and play 40 min of perfect basketball. by the way you make a point of mosley and his scoring. yes he got 13 points but shot 2-8 from the field and 8-13 from the line. that’s not real good. however his overall floor game was excellent. i’m not sure what game you were watching by your comments. and to whomever thinks smith had a good game because he had 18 and 10. forget about it. he was never a factor in the game. he got most of points when the game was over. and the game was over early last hight. the terps played great and had their 3rd blowout in a row. pretty pretty good my friend!
Note that the poor percentage from the field is directly related to the trips to the line. on many of those “misses” he was fouled pretty hard.
when i responded “good point” i’m wrong and you are wrong. if a player gets fouled when shooting and misses the shot that shot is not recorded as a miss or an attempt. so mosley shot poorly from the field and the line yesterday but still played a very good lloor game.
Great day indeed...the decibel level at Comcast didn't reach the pain threshhold last night but its getting better
Given all of the talent at the 3-guard, GW did a good job last night of getting the right players into the game at the right times. Impressive stuff especially since Cliff et al came in and contributed as they did within the offense. By the way, I think the Adrian-at-point experiment may be over. He can handle the ball well enough but he is just too much of a wing player.
Kudos to Greivis too. Every time I think I know his game he shows some new dimension to it. Running an offense while scoring is very difficult to do. Teammates stop moving if they think the point is just working to set up his own shots. Last night Grievis got everyone involved in the offense in the first half. I think that is when he got most of his assists. Most of his scoring came in the second half including a couple of key drives when he caught State slow getting back in transition (that left-handed layup was sweet…good to see him going to his left). Then, on defense, he was covering his man but also dropping down low to front Smith. It hurt State’s offense and kept Jordan out of foul trouble.
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