I'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?