I'm late to the party here, but I just got home and figured it was post-worthy regardless: as I'm sure you've heard, Terrell Stoglin was named the ACC Rookie of the Week for the second straight week, coming off the heels of a career-high 28 points at North Carolina. He's been on fire the past two weeks, firmly entrenching himself as an ACC All-Rookie first teamer.
I mentioned in the GameThread that Terrell Stoglin was the silver lining to the loss. A few people corrected me: he's really the silver lining to the entire season. He's been one of Maryland's top two players, if not their best player, over the past two weeks or so. Over the past six games, he's averaged nearly 21 points on 58% shooting with 5.5 assists with just 2.6 turnovers. The past five of those games have come against ACC competition, and the averages are even higher there. That's All-ACC caliber right there if he did it over the course of a season.
He's playing the most important position in the game and he's doing it at a very high level, enough to make you think he'll be fighting for First Team All-ACC next year. Maryland's biggest weak spot earlier in the year was the lack of a point guard, so his late emergence has to make you feel good about the future of the team, particularly with Martin Breunig and Nick Faust to the rescue on the wings. What's more, Jordan Williams' recent swoon makes it possible (likely?) that'll he'll return next season, too.
For the record, some people in the game recap seemed perplexed that I questioned Stoglin's shot selection at times. I don't mean it as a gripe - he's a scorer on a team with none, so it's not like I have a problem with him jacking the occasional bad shot. What's more, he's a freshman being asked to carry a team, so it's almost impossible to expect him to not take a bad shot here and there; in fact, it might be a good thing at this point, because I'd rather him be taking those shots than, say, Sean Mosley.
But going forward, I'm not expecting the lack of scorers to be a problem. With Faust and Breunig on the way, plus potentially Jordan Williams and Mychal Parker, Maryland should have some offensive firepower again. Even if they don't, some of his shots have simply been poor, even for a scorer such as himself. Like stopping a two-on-one fast break to take an 18-footer. Or holding the ball for five seconds, drifting right, and jacking a three. Scorer or no, those are shots you can always get (or are simply inadvisable), and he'll learn that.
It's not meant as a criticism. In fact, I see it as a positive thing. He'll go through a natural progression, like many players do, and he'll figure out when he should and shouldn't take those questionable shots. He'll still take them even when he's a senior, but they'll be more likely to go in and they'll make more sense then. It's not a product of him as a player; it's a product of his mentality and of his inexperience, and it's a good thing more than anything else. This isn't a deficiency of his talent or makeup, just of his experience. And that means that in the future, he'll be even better. Just wanted to make that clear.
Luckily, we'll likely have three more years of him. Good thing, too, because he looks better than Jordan Williams already. The core of this team is pretty well defined, and next year (and the year after, for that matter), should be fun.