Maryland 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.