Maryland Basketball: When Did The ACC Expand Into The NBA?

#5/5 North Carolina Tar Heels (24-4, 10-3 ACC) at
Maryland Terrapins (21-7, 7-6 ACC)
Comcast Center - College Park, MD

The question now asked is how long can Maryland keep this up? That’s what a couple of years of bad basketball will do to you. It makes you doubt success. You’re more willing to find flaws, even when Maryland is ripping apart Duke, winning consecutive road games and then pounding an FSU team that beat them badly a month before. There used to be a time, not too long ago (like three years ago), when we expected the Terps to win these games and it was a shock if they didn’t win and didn’t do it convincingly. Now it’s the other way around.

Of course, this is a pleasant question to answer. It’s not terrible debating when the hammer is going to come down again because it means your team is winning. It certainly beats asking “Why is 160-pound Jason Cain dominating us inside?” or “Do you think that home loss to Miami is going to send us to the NIT?”

All I know is that some time during that 29-4 run against Duke, the Maryland players, especially the Maryland seniors, looked at themselves and asked “Why can’t we do this every night?” There was no reason they couldn’t do that last season. Or the year before. Something clicked. This Maryland team is not overachieving. The previous two Maryland teams severely underachieved. Those two wins against Duke two years ago proved it. It wasn’t like Maryland went down to Durham and needed a clock malfunction to leave with a win. They convincingly beat a decent Dook team on the road in a place very few teams are able to accomplish that. But then there have been the losses to Clemson and the losses to Miami. There have been other games the past two seasons that leave you scratching your head and saying “How can they look so good one night and so bad the next?”

There is no easy answer to that question. It’s as if, all of sudden, the Terps “got it”. Whatever “it” is, Maryland found it. They’ve won five of the last six. In those six games, the starters are all averaging in double figures. The bench is contributing in key spots. Open three point looks that didn’t go down a month ago are now barely touching the net on the way through. The free throw shooting is back to a respectable number. Maryland now is back to having more fast breaks and fewer turnovers than their opponents. This is what Maryland basketball looked like three years ago.

Every time you look up, someone else in the Maryland rotation is stepping up. For the first nine ACC games, it was James Gist, the occasional Mike Jones appearance and no one else. Now Greivis Vasquez is (gladly) making me eat my words. D.J. Strawberry for the first time since two seasons ago looks completely healthy. And it’s showing. In the past six games, five different Terps led the team in scoring. At least one Terp has had five assists in each of the six games (that includes Vasquez’s 11 assist game against Clemson and Hayes going over five assists four times). The rebounding is spread around. The steals are being spread around. Everyone is contributing in every category.

Take the win over FSU for example. The entire Maryland starting five was in foul trouble from the midway point of the first half. By early in the second, all five had three fouls. So what happens? Boom Osby steps up for the first time in two months and gets 15 points. Eric Hayes lays down eight dimes and four boards. Ibekwe, despite playing only 17 minutes because of fouls, still gets seven rebounds and five blocked shots. Mike Jones, who is still considered by many (not me) to be a defensive liability, comes up with a pair of key steals and finishes two other fast breaks. James Gist only managed 13 points and six rebounds. A month ago, if he did that, Maryland would have had no chance. Now, they’re winning by 18.

Feeling the love? That’s good. Remember this feeling. It may be gone by Sunday night. This isn’t slumping Florida State paying a visit to College Park this weekend. This will be the first look for Maryland at the big, bad North Carolina Tar Heels.

This version of UNC, much like the 2005 national championship team, is pretty much an NBA team masquerading as amateurs. Several players on this squad, if it weren’t for the newly coined and named “Durant Rule”, would be playing or at least sitting on the bench in one of Association’s asylums. Instead, these sophomore and freshman get a free “education” (which of course assumes that any of them are attending class anymore) and a much smaller bank account for all their troubles.

Last season, when it was necessary to talk about UNC, the discussion began and ended with Tyler Hansbrough. Hansbrough is still putting up All-ACC numbers with 18.7 ppg and 7.7 rpg. However, Hansbrough numbers have remained stagnant from last year because of all the new weapons around him. Combine the numbers that haven’t improved, and all the new freshman that will be in the draft this season (Durant, Oden, half of UNC, etc…), and Hansbrough made a huge mistake going into the NBA draft following last season. Still, his mistake is Maryland’s problem. When UNC is going good, they’ll feed it in constantly to Hansbrough for easy baskets. When UNC is going bad, Hansbrough still is focus for the offense, but occasionally his teammates will forget to get it to him inside and fall in love with the three.

Freshman forward Brendan Wright and freshmen guards Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson join Hansbrough in Chapel Hill this season. Wright, who right now appears to be the third best player in the up coming draft, is 6’9” with freakishly long arms and an amazing vertical. His 15 ppg have given UNC a legitimate second big man and has made it nearly impossible for any team to guard the interior if the Heels make a conscious effort to get the ball inside. Wright also grabs 6.4 rpg and blocks at least two shots a game. The only glaring weakness in Wright’s game right now is his love for putting the ball on the floor when he’s posting up in the half court game. He gives the ball away too much under the hoop for someone so physical that he should be going up strong almost every time he gets it.

Lawson gives the Heels a solid point guard, something Carolina didn’t have at times last year after Raymond Felton went to the NBA a year early (the fact that Hansbrough still put up the numbers he did last season without a point guard getting him the ball makes those figures all the more impressive and his numbers this year seem pedestrian by comparison). Lawson’s 5.2 apg isn’t eye-popping, but his 2.2/1 assist/turnover ration is. For a freshman to come into the ACC and have that kind of a/t is striking. He also shoots 53% from the floor, which is incredible for a guard.

Even with three proven scorers, Roy Williams added Ellington to have a fourth scoring option just in case. Ellington puts in 12 a game as a pure two guard. He looks for his shot and will take if every time. He doesn’t come up with a lot of assists (only 2.1 a game, which is almost the same number as Hansbrough), but he shoots well from everywhere on the floor. I don’t think Williams minds that he doesn’t pass all that much.

These four underclassmen, who would probably all be taken in the first round of the upcoming draft, are good enough to lead any team to the top of the ACC. But, combined with solid role players like 10th year senior Reyshawn Terry, forwards Danny Green and Marcus Ginyard and guards Wes Miller (requisite white guard who can get hot and kill you with threes) and Bobby Frasor, it’s a shock that UNC has lost to any team this season. It really is. There is no obvious flaw watching the Heels play.

Carolina has lost twice to Virginia Tech, which may be the only team that can match up athletically with the Heels at every position. The Terps don’t have players like that at all five positions, so going man-to-man and trying to run with UNC probably won’t work. The Heels also lost to NC State. The Pack slowed the pace of the game down considerably, shot 60.5% from the field and still only managed to beat Carolina by four at home. Maryland doesn’t do very well trying to slow the game down, so that theory doesn’t play to the Terps strengths.

If you are looking for a coherent strategy for beating North Carolina, you aren’t going to find one. There is a reason this team has spent all season in the Top 5 of the rankings. Carolina, at least early in the game, will look inside. In the first half, it is essential that Maryland keeps Hansbrough from receiving the ball. Once he gets it inside, he’s nearly impossible to stop. Plus, the refs protect him and he gets almost every call. Force Carolina to become a jump shooting team. Lawson and Ellington are great shooters, but you are at least making UNC slightly one-dimensional and easier to defend. The longer you keep the ball away from Hansbrough, the more UNC forgets about him. Duke did a good job of this for most of the game before their two big men got in foul trouble. They stopped Hansbrough from getting the ball, they forced UNC into a half court game, and Lawson made some bad decisions in the half court set. This led to easy Duke points and a decent lead. The Devils are very thin, so they couldn’t hang with UNC’s deep bench later in the game when Williams was bringing in waves of players at every time out. But their first half blueprint should be followed by the Terps. Maryland at least has the depth to keep up with UNC assuming that Gist and Ibekwe manage to stay out of foul trouble. And keep the turnovers to a minimum. If the Terps allow the Heels get out and run, forget this one.

Like I mentioned before, I’m surprised every time UNC plays a close game, much less loses one. This team is just super talented everywhere on the floor. They are so athletic, fast and tall, that they could probably compete for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. I just don’t know how Maryland can compete with these guys for 40 minutes.

North Carolina 86
Maryland 80

Elsewhere in the ACC…

Another 4-2 set of games puts me at 45-23.

SATURDAY
Miami at Virginia Tech
On paper, this is an easy 20 point win for the Hokies. But this is the same team that sweeps UNC and is swept by NC State. Miami’s style of play won’t allow the Hokies to turn this game into a dunk contest like their blowout victory against BC. Tech struggles at times in half court games. Zabian Dowdell has to step up and be a leader like he was earlier in the season.
Pick: Virginia Tech 73, Miami 66

NC State at Florida State
It would be a lot easier for me and everyone else if FSU just lost this game and officially knocked themselves from postseason play. Probably won’t happen.
Pick: Florida State 74, NC State 59

Clemson at Boston College
As for Clemson, see the above post on FSU. Can we stop this charade and make it easy on me to predict who is coming out of the ACC? A win here probably puts Clemson in the NCAA’s. A loss puts them in the NIT baring an unlikely run in the conference tournament. As for Boston College, it appears it took them three weeks to feel the loss of Sean Williams, but his absence is starting to affect the Eagles. Their interior defense has been burned for so many dunks and layups the last few games. Clemson has the inside talent to give them trouble. I just can’t see BC losing three in a row at home.
Pick: Boston College 81, Clemson 71

Georgia Tech at Virginia
Well, that weak two headed monster of Cain & Baltic Trash on the inside is starting to catch up to the Wahoos. Or did all you UVA fans expect that listless performance at Coral Gables? This team will not do anything in the NCAA’s with those two stiffs inside unless they play Maryland.
Pick: Virginia 84, Georgia Tech 79