Maryland Basketball: Aloha Means Goodbye

#8/9 Gonzaga Bulldogs (1-0) vs. #23/20 Maryland Terrapins (1-0)
Lahaina Civic Center - Lahaina, Maui, HI
First Round Maui Invitational

Because of Maryland basketball, the normal NFL Week in Review column is shelved until next week. The less said about the Redskins, the better off we all are anyway. Greg Williams has gone from brilliant to brainless in only a month’s time.

Anyway, after all of one game, the Terps leave the mainland for the island of Maui. First of all, I’m disappointed in my WMUC Sports replacements. For whatever reason, most likely financial, WMUC decided not to make the trip to Hawaii to cover the tournament. All I know is, if I was still attending Maryland, my senior class and I would have found a way to broadcast these games. If it meant spending money now so we couldn’t cover the NCAA tournament later, it would have been money well spent. Would you rather go to Maui or the NCAA regionals in Philadelphia? I rest my case.

The Terps enter one of the best Maui Invitational fields in the tournament’s history. Many are calling this the best in season tournament of all time. Six of the eight teams have won a national championship. Three coaches have titles. Five teams are ranked. Michigan State gets the sacrificial lamb and host team Chaminade in the first round. Powerhouses Arizona and Kansas meet in the prime-time game. Arkansas and Connecticut finish the first round off. The second game of the afternoon features Maryland and Gonzaga.

Here is what we know about the 2005-06 Gonzaga Bulldogs. They are going to play their usually tough pre-conference schedule. The Zags do this every year to make sure everyone pays some attention to them before they disappear into conference play in the college basketball hinterlands of the West Coast Conference. The Zags will probably suffer a few losses in non-conference play, go nearly perfect in the WCC, and emerge in March as a 3 or 4 seed, complaining all the while that they don’t get enough respect. While they are complaining, the Bulldogs will forget to show up for their first or second round game, and get bounced early from the NCAA’s. Which proves to everyone why the Bulldogs aren’t to be taken seriously after December and the whole cycle will repeat itself in 2006-07.

For those who don’t know, Gonzaga is a Jesuit school located in Spokane, Washington. As mentioned, they play in the WCC with teams like Santa Clara, St. Mary’s, Pepperdine and San Francisco. They are the premier mid-major in D-1 hoops. They’ve been upsetting power conference teams before it was cool. We first learned of Gonzaga’s existence in 1995 (they’ve been around much longer, but no one paid any attention to them before that). Then head coach Dan Fitzgerald led the Zags to the NCAA’s for the first time. As a 10 seed, they were coincidently eliminated in the first round by some team from College Park, Md. Fitzgerald soon left for greener pastures as do most mid-major coaches who have some success.

After Fitzgerald’s departure, the team was handed over to Dan Monson. Like the typical mid-major school, Monson had trouble sustaining success. With most of the Seattle and surrounding talent going to major Pac-10 or Mountain West schools, Monson’s team didn’t make the tournament again until 1999. The Zags shocked everyone as they upset their way into the Elite Eight before losing a nail-biter to eventual champion UConn.

Like Fitzgerald before him, Monson skipped town for better offers and handed the program to Mark Few (which is short for “Few NCAA tournament wins”…haha). Unlike Monson, Few was able to maintain a NCAA tournament caliber team. They made the Sweet 16 the next two seasons, and established themselves permanently on the college basketball map.

The Zags have not missed the tournament since 1998. Unlike most “Cinderella” stories that come and go, the Zags have actually turned their small program into a Pacific Northwest powerhouse. Instead of being one-hit wonders, like College of Charleston, Valparaiso or Manhattan, Gonzaga is in the tournament year in and year out. Instead of losing talent to teams like Washington, Oregon, Stanford and Utah, the Zags are actually starting to steal talent from those states. But, for all their regular season and recruiting success, they haven’t made it past the second round of the tournament since 2000.

So now Gonzaga gets set for 2005. The program is at a crossroads. The rest of the WCC is starting to catch up. Santa Clara, St. Mary’s and Pepperdine are beginning to challenge Gonzaga for conference supremacy. The 2005 team is very talented, but they have five seniors and a junior that will likely leave for the NBA draft after the season. After initially thinking their last few recruiting classes were pretty good, it turns out for Gonzaga that they were strictly average. If Gonzaga can’t make that next step and get into the Final Four this season, the team could be headed for a downward turn. There is a lot of pressure on the upperclassmen to get it done this season.

The last time Gonzaga faced Maryland was in the 2003 BB&T Classic. And the Terps put on their usual BB&T performance. The Terps handled the ball poorly and shot even worse in an easy 82-68 win for the Bulldogs. Those Bulldogs were a much different team, as Ronnie Turiaf, Blake Stepp and Cory Violette were still there.

This year, the Zags are going to rely on Steve Nash/Jack White look-a-like Adam Morrison. Morrison is a pre-season All-American; a first for Gonzaga. The 6-8 Morrison averaged 19 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists a game last year. Along with J.P Batista, a 6-9 senior from Brazil and point guard Derek Raivio, the Zags have a lot of weapons to choose from amongst their starting five.

After their starters, the talent level drops off for Gonzaga. Despite being a potential powerhouse school, the Zags still suffer from a lack of depth that plagues most mid-majors. In their season-opening 69-60 win over Idaho, only two players off the bench saw more than two minutes of playing time. Gonzaga uses a simple seven-man rotation.

That rotation is going to hurt Gonzaga today. Maryland will use as many as 10 players. If Batista gets in foul trouble, and he is foul prone, the Zags have no replacement for him off the bench. Despite Morrison’s talents, he needs a foul-free Batista in the game to keep the offense moving. When the Terps have the ball, they need to attack Batista early with their five-man front court (Garrison, Ibekwe, Bowers, Gist, Caner-Medley). Get him off the court and Gonzaga becomes a one-dimensional team. The Bulldogs will then be forced to beat Maryland from beyond the arc. They are a good three-point shooting team, but they are much better when they have an inside presence to help alleviate pressure on the perimeter. Translation: if Maryland makes Batista a non-factor with foul trouble, they will have an easier time guarding Morrison and the outside shooters like Raivio.

Morrison is going to get his points. Maryland isn’t going to have a defensive answer for a player with Morrison’s talent, shooting ability and height. Caner-Medley will probably be assigned to him, but Morrison should be able to shake Nik enough to be a major factor in this game. At the other four positions on the court, Maryland matches up pretty well. Add in the better and deeper bench, and the Terps should have the edge. Allow Morrison and Batista to play well with each other, Maryland might as well grab their surfboards and hit the beaches early.

Like most college basketball fans, it is hard for me to root against Gonzaga in March. They are always an underdog, but unlike most mid-majors, they actually stand a chance against some of the major programs. The Zags have their typical brutal schedule (with games scheduled against Washington, Washington State, Oklahoma State, Virginia, Saint Louis, Memphis and St. Joseph’s looming). They will be around in March. Maryland needs to win games like this to prove that they belong in March as well.

Maryland 81
Gonzaga 75