Balanced Maryland Destroys Turnover Prone Miami for ACC Lead, 81-59
by Ben Broman on Jan 26, 2010 9:00 PM EST
in Basketball
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PrintMaryland hasn't been on top of the ACC standings by themselves in well over a year. The actual date is far longer than I can remember. But the Terps grabbed the sole lead with an utterly dominant performance over the Miami Hurricanes in College Park tonight, winning 81-59. They forced 17 turnovers, many in the first half, had 5 times as many points off turnovers, and nearly three times as many points in the paint as their opponents. For all intents and purposes, this game was over just minutes after tip-off.
First off, a disclaimer: Miami was terrible. This team didn't play to their potential, and even their potential isn't that good. They were turning it over left and right right from the opening tip - a lot of that was Maryland's pressing defense, but the Hurricanes snowballed it and the game was effectively over just a few minutes into it. Don't get me wrong, Maryland deserves a ton of credit for this, but keep in mind that this Miami team is young and played poorly, even by their standards.
No one for the Terps, on the other hand, played poorly tonight. Entirely balanced performance. Seven players had 8 points, none had more than 16 points. Landon Milbourne was the MVP to me, though - he was incredibly efficient, was solid defensively, and poured out another consistent, solid ACC performance. If he plays like this the rest of the year, he's a legitimate 2nd or 3rd team all ACC candidate.
Greivis Vasquez was his usual self. He pushed a little bit early, but before long he was dominating Miami's young guards. Sean Mosley, continued his ridiculous stretch of games with 10 points on 3-5 shooting, 6 rebounds, and probably a half-dozen loose balls. Eric Hayes did exactly what you would expect Eric Hayes to do: hit open 3s and be consistent.
Jordan Williams was extremely impressive to me tonight for some reason. He wasn't ultra-productive on the boards, but he won quite a few of his one-on-ones with Dwayne Collins, offensively and defensively. Definitely impressive in another 8 and 6 performance. James Padgett got more PT than I would've thought, too - he got about 4 minutes of PT even before this game was out of hand. Just saying, I called that, though not the way I expected it. Dino Gregory is still climbing up the ranks, looking better and better, especially that short jumper.
For what it's worth, Boston College beat Maryland's next opponent, Clemson, in Chestnut Hill tonight. That'll be an interesting dynamic, because Maryland could really use a win in one of the next two games.
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second about Landon
7-10 tonight, 7-11 vs NCST. Let’s hope this continues into the tough stretch of ACC play. We will need him!
were there three...
Sean Mosley’s on the floor for most of the game, or was that my imagination? Seems like he was involved in every play. I’m kind of surprised he only had 10 pts and 6 boards.
Hitting open shots
Granted Miami played poorly on defense, but it was nice to see everyone hitting open jumpers, particularly threes. Vazquez, Hayes, Bowie, Milbourne, Bowie, Mosley pretty much everyone made their open threes count. If we can just hit open shots, we’ll be a tough team to beat.
Bowie's shot took a step back I think.
He lost his arc completely on a couple threes, most noticeably the one at the end of the first half. The arc also seemed to be missing on his free throws. Hopefully he’ll get it straightened out though…
Bowie definitely airballed a three at the very end of the game and was 0-3 at the line which is bad. He did make a three earlier in the game and had a few layups, but missing 3 straight FTs is worrisome for a guy that drives the basket well.
by kreitmaster on Jan 26, 2010 10:23 PM EST up reply actions
Agreed
Next year I think that is going to be the biggest difference between this year’s team and next year’s team. Guards like Hayes and Vasquez are great from the FT, but guys like Bowie are terrible. Hopefully that is something he works on in the offseason.
When this team makes shots...
…they look awfully good.
Miami was horrible, though. Well find out a lot in the next five games.
http://newyorksportsjerk.blogspot.com/
by New York Sports Jerk on Jan 26, 2010 9:58 PM EST reply actions
Haha did anyone just watch SportsCenter?
Scott Van Pelt was giving the Terps some serious love!
God I love Scotty
He was my favorite anchor before I ever went to md and the fact that he’s a terp only makes it better. I hope he ends up like dan Patrick and strikes out on his own so he isn’t controlled by the mothership anymore.
Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.
-Ambrose Bierce
by CorkyRasmit on Jan 27, 2010 1:00 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
One guy that made his FT's was James...it was just two but he has been having trouble
I offer this posting as an apology to James. I said his FT shooting is the reason we can’t afford to have him on the floor when the game is in doubt. I am wrong and glad to be so. I won’t be surprised if we need him for our upcoming road games and these two road games are a big test of how far we have come. If we win one, we deserve to move up to the top 25-30 in the polls. If we both, its time for Terp fans to get serious about this season. Will we win both? I know we have the offensive weapons but scoring on the road won’t be as easy as it is at Comcast. It takes great defense and rebounding to get road wins against good teams and we are doing both well right now. I’m pumped.
ESPN - Scott Van Pelt
can someone post the segment on UMD on youtube or find out where it is? I am dying to see it.
The depth and balance this team is showing
Is absolutely impressive. I am very excited for this upcoming stretch of ACC games. We should really learn a lot about this team.
"When my time on earth is gone, and my activities here are passed, I want they bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my a**!"
-Bobby Knight
Props to Drew Barry...
IMO one of the most annoying players in ACC history (Reddick and Julius Hodge are the only two that immediately come to mind ahead of him).
But he was giving the Terps — especially Greivis and Landon — a lot of love in the broadcast of this game. He had some humorous debates with Jon Barry, including one where Drew said unequivocally that Greivis is the ACCPOY right now. Jon brought up Scheyer, and Drew immediately shot that down by pointing out that Scheyer has “hit a bit of a wall in ACC play”. Jon was a bit of an ass and didn’t seem to want to give the Terps any credit, and it definitely seemed like both were unaware of how impressive the Terps have been in pretty much every ACC game so far…but still, overall a pretty good broadcast I thought. The Barrys definitely know the game.
Definitely liked the Barrys
Drew was complimentary and the banter with Jon was hilarious. That’s something you don’t get much, and it makes it much easier to listen to.
The only thing I couldn’t stand was “vahz-kez”. Is Vas-kez that hard to pronounce?
One more thing...
Hayes has been SO good at keeping our offense running smoothly, even when he’s not scoring a lot. In ACC play (5 games), he has 16 assists and 3 TOs. By contrast, the vaunted floor game master Jon Scheyer (in 6 games) has 27 assists but 13 TOs. And frankly, I think Hayes loses out on a lot of assists because his passes are not generally as flashy as Greivis’ passes. So in many cases, Hayes finds someone with a solid pass down in the post, and they get fouled. That usually means 1-2 points for us, but no assist for Hayes.
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