It hasn't been a good day for Maryland basketball. Actually, it's the worst in recent memory.
First Terrence Ross, arguably the best recruit Maryland has had in the past 7 years, decommits, very possibly for Duke.
On the same day, William and Mary invaded College Park and beat Maryland in a game Maryland should've won and wasn't nearly as close to winning as the score indicates. Once the second half hit, it was painfully obvious who the better team was, and William & Mary rode their shooting and effort to a big win, 83-77.
Before you call this game Morgan State 2.0, William and Mary is a good team, one of the best mid-majors in the nation. They beat Wake Forest by ten at Wake, and gave UConn their money's worth in Storrs. They're probably the best team in the CAA, and a likely tourney team. As long as they make the NCAAT, which is probable, this won't be a particularly bad loss.
Also, W&M is the type of team that has always given Maryland trouble: they simply drain 3s. Don't get me wrong, defense plays a part, but the Tribe will hit almost every shot given to them. Not too many other teams can do that.
Other than that, Maryland won much of the game, but not by nearly enough to make up for the 3pt deficit they found themselves in.
Everything and everyone lagged on defense. The 3 pointers hurt by extending the defense, and William and Mary took advantage by utilizing a number of backdoor cuts and driving to the middle of the weak D. Sag off, though, and they'd hit a 3. Again, I'm not really trying to defend Maryland here, because these are the types of games they're supposed to win, simply saying that this was a tough matchup. Keep in mind that these guys have literally the most efficient offense in the country - they're not some random mid-major.
Effort was surprisingly lacking tonight. Passion seemed to be lacking the entire night, and effort with it. W&M got way too many effort points and won too many loose balls. When a team is that efficient on the offensive end, you can't give them points. Maryland did.
This team was beatable. Out hustle them, turn the game into a track meet, and grab significantly more rebounds, and this game is won. They did none of them. William and Mary got the easy win.
As far as individual performances, Greivis Vasquez was solid but not great. He ended up with 16 points and 5 assists, a good performance but not up to his recent level.
Landon Milbourne was impressive offensively, but this was a possible 12 rebound game for him, and he ended up with 8. Defensively, he was beaten more than once, and he missed two ultra-important free throws at the end of the game.
Sean Mosley looked good on both ends, but, like Vasquez, not great on either. Jordan Williams would've received his second double-double had he played 25 minutes - very impressive game for him. Dino Gregory is still extremely rusty - he looks worse than Jordan on the floor, and is utterly worse in terms of production. Yet it was he in in the final stretch, not Jordan. More on this later.
This was a wake up call, folks. Maryland got two walkthroughs in a row, and W&M was a real challenge. Maryland came up short. There's still plenty of work to be done before ACC season, which is a problem consideing it starts in less than two weeks.