Takeaways from Maryland's Blowout Exhibition Win Over Florida Southern
by Ben Broman on Nov 1, 2010 10:23 PM EDT
in Basketball
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PrintI'm sure you've heard by now that Maryland took on Florida Southern in their opening exhibition tonight. Frankly, I'm not going to spend my time writing any kind of in-depth recap of a game I didn't see that was a massive blowout. If you really want one, I'm sure Maryland's official site will have one soon enough. In the meantime, know this: it was a massive blowout. The Terps won 106-58, were up 60-28 at halftime, and had a 29-1 run mid-way through the first half.
So yeah, I'm not really sure if recapping this baby blow-by-blow is gonna do a lot of good here.
Instead, a few take-aways from the box score - check it after the jump - and Twitterers across the Twitterverse:
- First off, everything here comes with a huge grain of salt. Remember: it's a scrimmage against a terrible team. Don't read too much into it.
- Jordan Williams is who we thought he was. 18 points, 7 boards, and 2 blocks. The only hole in his game was his free-throw shooting, which was 2-6 (he missed his first four). He struggled with that early last year but found his stroke later in the season, and if it's still there (or comes back) he should be fine.
- Cliff Tucker is better than who we thought he was. In the first three minutes, Tucker had six points, two assists, and a steal. He finished with 15 points on 7/10 shooting, 10 assists, 6 boards, and 4 steals. I challenge you to find a better all-around day.
- Everyone else is just kind of the same. 16 for Sean Mosley, 15 for Bowie, 9 and 7 for Dino. What did you expect?
- There's a spot for Haukur Palsson. He scored eight points, grabbed five boards, and pitched in a block and a steal. Most importantly, he also hit both of his shots from beyond the arc. Tucker shot four times from deep; he missed three times. Adrian Bowie tried twice and made one. It's still to be determined if there's a legitimate deep threat on the team, but if Palsson can be one, then he will play.
- Mychal Parker has to wait. Maybe for a long time. Parker was hyped coming into Maryland and was the Terps' highest-ranked recruit. His talent is undeniable, but he struggled during the scrimmage on Saturday and was hardly on the floor at all tonight. His six minutes were less than any Terp except Ersin Levent, and that's a walkon. At least initially, this has Mike Jones part deux written all over it.
- The guard battle is well under way, but still to be determined. Pe'Shon Howard and Terrell Stoglin have a very well-known (well, here at least) battle to be first off the bench. Both are freshmen point guards, and a starting spot may await the winner (which will almost certainly be endeared to Gary throughout the rest of his career. See: Bowie, Adrian and Tucker, Cliff). Howard was first off the bench; Stoglin played more minutes. Howard didn't score; Stoglin had nine points, including three trips to the line. Howard had five assists and just one turnover; Stoglin had five turnovers and just one assist. Stoglin was supposedly a scoring guard in the first place, so that fits in well, but you'd think Howard would have the edge right now as far as backup point guards go.
- The Terps are athletic. Everybody tweeting about the game mentioned it at least once. Parker, Pankey, Howard, Stoglin, Tucker, Padgett, and even Mosley, Weijs, and Williams add some measure of athleticism that was absent last year from a team dominated by Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes. The most notable tweet came from Patrick Stevens: "Maryland might have its most athletic team since the Francis/Profit bunch in 1998-99. That shines through regardless of opponent. Probably not wise to read further into things than that. But Terps are going to be able to run this season."
- Berend Weijs and Ashton Pankey might be fighting it out for the last spot, but Weijs leads. Weijs got off the bench early and did what he was supposed to: rebound (5 boards) and block shots (4 blocks). Pankey scored more and grabbed two offensive boards, but right now is looking outclassed (at least on the statsheet and in minutes played) by The Flying Dutchman.
- With that in mind, we can form a rotation. The starters were Bowie, Tucker, Sean Mosley, Dino Gregory, and Williams. It's safe to say that the next three off the bench seem to James Padgett, Howard, and Stoglin. Then it looks like Palsson will beat out Parker and Weijs will beat out Pankey for the ninth and tenth spots.
Anybody on campus go? Any thoughts?
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Great job, Ben. Especially for someone who didn't go to the game.
My takeaways:
James Padgett is no good. He looks like he hasn’t gotten better than last year. Very disappointing.
Cliff Tucker was the best player on the court, easily. He had a Greivis Vasquez type of night statistically, and he did it with ZERO turnovers. Loved what I saw.
Sean Mosley was great in transition, but struggled in the half court. He didn’t hit his open shots, which is unfortunate, because his jump shot seemed to be much improved in the scrimmages.
Hawk Palsson is better than advertised. Out of the 6 newcomers, he was easily the second best (next to Terrell Stoglin). He seemed to do everything right. Seems like a taller, more athletic version of Dave Neal…I expect him to be a GREAT sixth man for us in the coming years.
Jordan Williams is a solid center, but he has not really developed a reliable set of post moves yet. He will definitely not be the go-to guy in our offense. I see Cliff developing into our number 1 option.
The first 10 minutes of the game, we were playing a very up-tempo style of offense. We ran the court and finished in transition. It was exciting to watch. In the half-court offense, however, we seemed to struggle quite a bit. Hopefully that will work itself out as the season moves forward.
Our defense gave up way too many open shots, particularly 3s. That didn’t hurt against Florida Southern, but against an ACC opponent (or even Seattle), that might come back to haunt us.
ONE WEEK TILL SEATTLE…GET EXCITED.
just think its way too early to write off parker
Obviously he’s struggling with the transition to the college game, but I think that he has too much skill and talent to not be on the floor. He’s long, athletic, fast, and can shoot the ball. I think once he can get a grasp on the offense that his god given ability will push him ahead of some others for some minutes.
by Janosek21 on Nov 1, 2010 10:38 PM EDT via mobile reply actions
Its Way Too Early To Write Off Anyone
Last year, in the non-conference everyone was saying how Padgett was going to get a ton of minutes and Dino would be on the bench a lot. Well, once Dino got healthy, he was the one on the floor and Padgett hardly got any significant minutes.
Theres not really a similar situation this year since no one is injured, but my point is that we won’t really know anything until significant games, and a significant amount of games are played. By January we will most likely have a set rotation, until then, its probably going to change night to night.
I agree
Parker is where I thought he would be. I don’t expect significant contributions from him intil the last half of the ACC season on into next year. I don’t see a Mike jones situation as I believe the kid is willing to really work on his weaknesses.
Stoglin had 5 turnovers but
he played much better than that, and most of those came in the second half trying to make some flashy in transition passes. he out-played Pe’shon, even though Pe’shon had more assists. I was very impressed with Stogs, he had some absolutely sick passes and he just looks very comfortable out there. kid’s also got a killer crossover. Hawk looked good too, 8 points in semi-limited minutes, again he looked comfortable out there too. JWill looked great, more athletic, did have some nice post moves, stronger with the ball than he did last year. Everyone else was pretty much what i expected. but I cant emphasize enough how good I think Stogs played, his stats might not represent it but he will be the starting PG at some point this year, book it!
i wasnt at the game, but i dont think we can say “book it” to either of the freshman starting YET. i think that both of them might be better than bowie, but if you go back and read what was written after MM, we all thought peshon was FORSURE the next big thing. now we think stog is. Not saying they arent, but we ahve to see how the season plays out. honestly this such a great argument to have! i love that we have a wealth of talent finally
Too early for the negativity
At this stage I think we should all take note/appreciate the good performances (Tucker, JWill, Hawk, most all starters) but not read too much into shall we say the less than good ones. I followed on GameTracker while watching the WS game so could not see the speed at which we played but I think that we need to consider that while attempting to grade the younger players. Not only are they adjusting to a much higher level of play but at such a fast pace I think some will struggle initially – let’s just not count anyone out yet. We need to be deep to play at that pace and I think/hope some will come around in time. Then again next Monday is less than a week away, but I think we have a strong core and enough other contributors to make for a very interesting season. I very much am looking forward to see how it pans out.
There's no way...
Hawk is the 9/10th guy. The kid is a shooter, probably best on the team. He’s going to be the 6th or 7th by mid-season. He even dove on the floor tonight after a couple loose balls. He’s still learning the defense (he left a couple guys open in the corner tonight) but we’re going to need him offensively come ACC time.
There’s no doubt Mosley is going to be a leader on this team and I like his hustle but I see him struggling this year because no one can get him the ball at the top of the key like last year and he can’t dribble to get his own shot.
I love Weijs’ energy off the bench. Skying up for rebounds and blocking shots.
Stoglin played well. He’s electric in the fast breaks and he can get his own shots towards the end of the shot clock. Pe’Shon looked like a deer in headlights on offense. He hesitated on a couple passes and thus turned it over.
I disagree with whoever said Padgett is terrible or worse than last year. He had a couple nice post moves tonight and was aggressive on the offensive boards. However I do think he’ll get stuck behind Dino and Weijs. On that note, Dino was noticeable on the court tonight unlike last year. He had some great post moves.
I have no clue how Parker is going to turn out. I was hoping Gary would just run him the whole 2nd half just to see what he can do.
Finally, I guarantee next practice will have a whole lot of running and free throw shooting. That first half was too sloppy!
clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!
smoke'em if ya got'em!
by Daniel Hamilton on Nov 1, 2010 11:21 PM EDT reply actions
Good observations…I agree in particular with the comment about Mosley. He just isn’t quick enough with the ball to create a lot of shots in ACC play. I think that’s ok as long as JWill can get the ball in the paint and Tucker, Bowie, and at least one of Pe’Shon and Stoglin can pick up that slack. I just don’t see Mosley as a superstar, I see him as a glue player who does a lot of things well but nothing well enough to carry a team. I see an incremental improvement for him this year, maybe something like 12 pts, 6 rebs, 3-4 asts per game. I wouldn’t be disappointed with that.
Disagree
First off how can you say there is no way Hawk is the 9th or 10th guy right now. He still hasn’t even played a real college game yet. Yea he looked good today but to say hes probably the best shooter on the team is absurd. I love his hustle and size and the ability to knock down an open jumper but lets not get too excited just yet. I think he has good things ahead of him right now but it will all come in good time. In terms of Padgett, he really did not look that good. He is extremely athletic and a good rebounder but I dont think he finished one strong post move and put up some terrible looking shots. You said Pe’shon hesitated and turned the ball over a couple times? He had one turn over and it was off a dropped pass, it was kinda Bowies fault anyway. And to say Mosley isnt a superstar and cant get his own shot. I saw Mosley play 4 years in high school and dominate the best (toss up with the WCAC) league in the area, one of the best high school leagues in the country for 4 years. We forget he is the 2nd all time leading scorer in the state of Maryland history. Think about all the guys that played prep hoops in this state. Only one of them has more points than Sean. I’ll admit his offensive game has been kind of slow to develop in college, but I think that this may be the year he can break through and really become a leader, both off of the court, and on the court scoring some buckets. the thing that really makes him great is like you said, he does a lot of small things to help the team.
by Janosek21 on Nov 2, 2010 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Rec'd.
I agree with everything you said.
Sean has the potential. It’s really gonna come down to whether or not he can knock down the open jumpers. If he plays like he did at the beginning of last year (against Villanova, for example), this team is going to be special.
I appreciate all of the work that goes into this site but anyone who reads anything into this is ridiculous. It is like the talking heads proclaiming teams the best one week and the worst the next in the NFL. It is a necessary evil to following a team but no one should be discouraged by any of our players.
don't read too far into our analysis then.
we’re just doing it for the sake of being able to talk about basketball.
I’m just saying, you don’t have to say “Padgett is no good”. I remember the same people loving Palsson now were hating on him when we signed him. Let’s let our players play some meaningful games.
Just my opinion of how he played.
Could have expressed it more nicely, your right,
My bad.
Actually this is more akin to pre-season talk
However he did put a disclaimer in this post
To an extent, I agree
That’s why there’s the disclaimer there. But anyone that sees Parker getting 6 minutes should see the same thing they saw when DOB came into replace Jamarr against Navy – the coaching staff sees something there. It doesn’t reflect on Parker himself, but the staff clearly thinks he’s not ready, or he wouldn’t have been the 12th man. Parker still has the potential to be a star, of course, but an instant impact early in the season like some people wanted is probably too much, considering the staff’s unwillingness to give him run against FSC. The only hope is that it was a punishment of some sort by Gary for lazy practice and Parker got the message.
And that’s really the only one that “discouraged” me. It’s early to make any conclusions of any sort, but observations can definitely be made, and that’s mostly what’s happening.
A bit of overanalysis from a box score, IMO...
All the cliches about “you won’t see THAT play in a box score”, “this kid has intangibles”, etc., etc., exist for a reason, that being you can’t get the full picture from conventional stats.
Ben, you’re right about the obvious things — JWill and Tucker were dominant, Palsson was impressive, and the team is more athletic this year. But some of the more subtle things I would disagree with. Are you really going to compare Parker to Mike Jones after one exhibition game? For fun, take a look at our exhibition box score from two years ago, when Jin Soo Kim/Choi scored 20, Braxton Dupree started, and Dave Neal played only 11 minutes. We don’t know Parker’s story here, he may just be taking some time to learn the offense…but in his brief PT he was solid, and he’s very smooth in transition.
I would also disagree that Florida Southern is “terrible”. They are DII, and a very good (top 10) DII team, which is different than being terrible. They just played Butler and were very competitive for a half, ended up losing by 20. They are a skilled team that runs a pretty good offense predicated on getting open 3-point shots, which they were able to do early. Our athleticism, size, and depth was just too much for them to keep up.
Your assessment of the freshman guard battle is also questionable. If you watched the game you would know that Pe’Shon, while solid defensively and an instinctive passer, generally looked lost in the half court and played off the ball most if not all the time he was in. Stoglin looked clearly more “ready”, at least in terms of running and understanding the offense, until the last couple minutes of garbage time when he seemed to lose focus and had lesser personnel on the floor around him.
I’m not sure I see Pankey and Weijs as competing for PT. To me, there is no question that Weijs is going to play, as he’s our only backup center and only legit shot blocker other than Dino. Also, he’s a JUCO which means he has some experience…I think his build will be an issue in ACC play, but he doesn’t seem weak, just lanky, and he really has a motor and goes after the ball.
Pankey is already more athletic than Padgett even at less than 100%, but he is very unskilled offensively and appears to be an even worse FT shooter than Padge. So to me, Pankey is a guy they can protect (let him recover more fully from injury) and go to later in the season if they have any injuries in the frontcourt. I do think he has a higher ceiling than Padgett.
Bottom line, as you say – we shouldn’t try to take too much from this. Let’s see how everything lines up at the end of November…we’ll certainly know more then.
Fair enough
I wasn’t trying to draw any conclusions, but instead a few observations, admittedly from a box score of a game I didn’t see. Hitting the obvious stuff is good enough for me.
I didn’t compare Parker to Jones, but instead their situations (notice “this”, not “he”). Everyone had the same problem when I talked about DOB coming into the Navy game. I just don’t think Gary would play Parker only 6 minutes if he thought he was going to factor into the rotation early. He has a high ceiling and is crazy athletic, but Gary’s not giving Palsson twice his playing time just because. Gary has had issues with guys like Parker in the past (Cliff and MJ) so Parker get frozen out of some PT in a blowout exhibition should set off a red flag.
“Terribleness” is relative. Compared to the ACC, which is my baseline considering it’s the conference MD plays in, FSC is pretty terrible. They’re a D-II team missing their leading scorer and starting PG. They stuck with Butler, but BU is missing Hayward and they probably lost the magic they had last year in the tournament.
Saying Pankey/Weijs were competing for PT was a mechanism to mention both of their games, considering they’re the only two big men left that low on the roster. Weijs will definitely get more PT, though I suppose if Pankey develops he could steal some.
Won’t debate the Stogs/Pe’ thing. Didn’t see the game, so I’ll defer.
rotation
I think the best thing you can take from this is the idea of the rotation. clearly with 6 new players the rotation will change around and certain players develop or regress but seems to me you get an idea that Hauk isn’t going to ride the pine and Parker isn’t going to push any upper classmen to the bench.
The Hawk + Faust >>> T.Ross
If T Ross doesnt decommitt, the Terps dont get Hawk, and the chances Nick Faust committs are slim.
by Asnis71 on Nov 2, 2010 12:28 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Weijs will get more minutes than Padgett this season. He looked much better than him in this game, in my opinion. He should be the first big off the bench.
Also, I think that Stoglin looked better than Howard.
Stoglin did look better than Howard.
But its too soon to say Weijs will get more minutes than Padge. We could use Padge’s bigger body in there.
Only time will tell.
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