Nice Piece on Stoglin

He better put up some better shooting numbers then he did vs. Miami.

Might as well let him take a bunch of shots every game

all i know is that this entire team has impressed me so much this year. it’s not just the performance, which has been slightly above expected levels, it’s the attitude. we have good kids on this team. turgeon also seems very straight to the point. i can’t imagine him letting bullshit distract anybody. he coaches basketball, and that is all. he reminds of on older fella by the name of williams….

It always seemed that GV took the first half to try and get his teammates involved in the offense to get them going—especially when his own shot wasn’t falling—then tried to take over himself in the second half. If Stogs could do that and keep improving defensively, I’d definitely say he’s got a shot in the NBA.

Stoglin shot poorly in the 1st half at Miami but so did the rest of the Terps. 2nd half he was on from 3 and elsewhere. Stogs does not get down after a slow start and that is his biggest weapon. That and getting to the free throw line. There is room for improvement but Stogs is making progress towards an all american selection or ACC Player of the year at this pace of progress. Lets appreciate him for what he is, an outstanding player who can score at will.

I get concerned when he misses them badly consistently, thus indicating there is an issue with his shot.

He’s going to be a bit streaky, just like ALL shooters are . When he starts missing, I get worried that he’s off his game. Now on a GOOD team, he’d stop shooting so much (hopefully) and let other people on the team who ARE shooting well step up. But who exactly is that second or third person? I mean sometimes it is Mosely, I guess sometimes it is Pe (really, almost never) and the third option is passing it into the post.

So, I guess what i am saying is that a poor shooting Stoglin is still better than option B and C on most days. So really, we’re stuck with him shooting a lot and he knows it, Turge knows it and every single opponent knows it. That doesn’t excuse every mistake he’s made. He could still do a better job of recognizing when teams over play him and leave other players with really easy opportunities. But he is still going to have to individually force the issue a lot. Maybe if Pe was better at creating those really easy opportunities for others he wouldn’t have to do that as much.

This is what our team is whether we like it or not. If Stoglin doesn’t shoot it as much, we lose. If he’s shooting poorly, we lose. But if he’s shooting lights out…. well, we at least have a chance depending on how other factors are going. He’s not GV, but GV was in a similar situation until his senior year (i.e., he was the only guy who could score). Look at his senior year when Milbourne, Hays, Mosley (remember he was having a good season that year) and Jordan Williams (not great yet, but better than other previous post options) are ALL starting to contribute as well it doesn’t have to be the GV show all the time. JUST when we really needed it in the critical moments.

So will Stoglin be in a similar situation his junior and senior year? I hope so, but probably depends on how other current (Pe, Faust, Parker, Pankey) and future players (Shaq, Layman, etc.) develop just like it did for Vasquez.. I certainly hope he finds himself in a similar situation to what GV had his Junior and especially his senior year. Yes Stogs needs to continue to grow and develop, but so do the pieces around him!

But he needs to learn to turn down the risk meter when we are playing in the lead. There are many times where he launches a ball from deep without running some clock for no reason and the other team comes right back and scores. Those moments are momentum changers. He needs to learn to play from ahead. Those are the times he should drive and draw fouls. Slow the game down and kill any chance at momentum shifts.

I also wonder why we didn’t shift to zone defense with Weijs and Len in at the same time in the last 1/4 of the UNC game. We had the lead. How many buckets did they get inside down the stretch? We were tired. Take out the post, force outside shots that we are likely to rebound. Make them foul us so we slow it down and control the pace.