Maryland Basketball: From Me To U

Miami Hurricanes (8-8, 1-1 ACC) at
NR/#25 Maryland Terrapins (14-2, 0-1)
Comcast Center - College Park, MD

When we last saw Maryland, they were failing to rebound in a close loss in the ACC hinterlands of Chestnut Hill. Now supposedly, the Terps have won five games since then. Looking at the list of opponents, I see no reason to mention any of those teams, except maybe Siena. And even that’s a stretch to mention as a quality opponent. It’s one of those MAAC teams that pretend to be mid-majors when they are really just a small time conference. Until further notice, the MAAC is Manhattan and then everybody else. Can we stop playing two or three teams from this conference every year, please? If we are going to make an attempt to play mid-major teams, can we at least play teams from mid-major conferences? We have the A-10, CAA, Conference USA and MAC teams all around us. Let’s play some of those teams. And it wouldn’t kill us to set up home and homes with West Virginia, Villanova or Pitt.

Anyway, Maryland deserved their chance to beat up on some patsies. Every team does it. The Terps had already faced St. John’s, Michigan State, Illinois (a win that doesn’t look so good anymore), Notre Dame (a loss that doesn’t look so bad) and Winthrop (depends if they win their conference). That slate of quality opponents, plus the ACC, is good enough. I just would have liked those quality opponents to be spaced out over a two month stretch, instead of a three week period.

What have we learned about Maryland so far? Quite a lot actually. We know that this is clearly Gary’s favorite team since the 2002 version, and so far, maybe his best coached team since the mid-90’s. We learned that Gary hasn’t lost his touch to recruit big men who can actually play facing the basket with the terrific addition of Bamble Osby. We know that Mike Jones has gone from defensive liability to one of the team’s best defenders. It’s clear that D.J. Strawberry is perfectly situated to play the three, which is something that would have been nice to know several seasons ago. Most importantly, the team’s greatest strength and weakness are at the point guard position. With the Hayes/Vasquez/Brown combination at point, Maryland finally has a couple of pass first point guards that are perfectly suited to run Gary’s offense. But, as I’ve been mentioning, Hayes and Vasquez are freshman and are both prone to freshmen mistakes.

There will be no more small schools coming into Comcast Center (unless you consider tiny Wake Forest to be a small school) as the Terps dive back into conference play for the rest of the season. I still think it will take an 8-8 conference record for Maryland to keep playing well into March. And these next four games are as important as any.

It will start tonight with Miami coming to town, followed by a home game against (undefeated???) Clemson before two straight games in the Commonwealth. With one conference loss already dealt to Maryland, the Terps must take both home games and hopefully earn a split in their Virginia double-dip. The good news for the Terps is the conference loss came on the road, which is much better than say, losing at home to Virginia Tech. Just an example, don’t want to mention any team by name. While I’m eager to talk about this interesting matchup with Clemson, I’ll save it until later this week. First I have to deal with Miami.

Coming into the season, most believed that the Hurricanes were going to be bad. They lost Guillermo Diaz and Robert Hite who were pretty much their entire offense. So far through 16 games, the Canes are…well, bad. Their 8-8 record is the worst in the conference. While Miami does have a decent win against Georgia Tech, they also have losses to Binghamton, Northwestern, Buffalo and Cleveland State. They also lost at home to Wake Forest, which may be one of two ACC teams that are worse than Miami. The problem for Miami is scoring. And with the above mentioned “graduations” (the likelihood of Diaz and Hite getting their diplomas is probably low) the lack of scoring comes as no surprise.

I do feel bad for the Hurricanes. I came very very close, on two different occasions, to accepting my scholarship to Miami. I’ve taken summer classes down there. I’ve always considered myself an extension of their university. I root for their teams whenever possible. It’s hard at times to like their football team. But I have nothing against their basketball program. I also feel bad for Frank Haith, who is a good coach. He had a good team and suffered some tough luck losses last season. Now, he has a bad team with two recruiting classes that never really amounted to much. He’s in trouble. He’ll probably make it through this season, but I doubt he makes it past next year.

Miami has only three players that even hardcore fans would remember. The first is leading scorer Jack McClinton. He averages 18 ppg and shoots 48% for three. Other than that, he really doesn’t do anything well. The Anthony’s are still there (Harris and King) but both have seen their numbers and minutes go down the last couple of years. King killed the Terps two years ago and Harris was one of the reasons that the U won at home last year against Maryland. Other than that, there is nothing good about this team. They only have two players that average double digits. Only one that has more than 6 rpg. The team shoots 37% from beyond the arc. This is a team Maryland should and has to beat easily. And I think they will

Maryland 85
Miami 71

Elsewhere around the ACC…

It’s that time again. Finally we get the ACC schedule going. I missed the Tuesday Clemson over NC State game. That does mean that Clemson will come to Comcast Center this Saturday as the only undefeated team in the country. More about that later in the week. As for now, I try and improve my terrible 6-4 record so far.

WEDNESDAY
Duke at Georgia Tech
I wasn’t surprised in the least that Duke lost to Virginia Tech. I was just surprised that Duke managed to get the game into overtime. Look, the Blue Devils are playing great defense, but they can’t score with 8 or 9 of the conference teams. That defensive hedge foolishness of theirs doesn’t work in the ACC where teams are used to seeing it. Duke is simply average this season. Any other team in the country with their resume wouldn’t be ranked. An 0-2 start for the Dookies in conference play? I don’t see why not.
Pick: Georgia Tech 75, Duke 69

Virginia at North Carolina
While Virginia continues to do this bizarre Jekyll and Hyde thing (Beat Arizona, lose to Appalachian State; crush Gonzaga, lose at home to Stanford), I’m going to steer clear of the Hoos on the road and take the best team in the conference and the nation.
Pick: UNC 84, Virginia 66