Maryland Basketball: An Early Season Final Exam

Maryland Terrapins (3-0) vs.
#2/2 UCLA Bruins (3-0)
Spirit Center - Kansas City, MO
CBE Classic Semifinals

Well, you can say one thing about the Maryland Terrapins so far. They’re 3-0. Other than that, they’ve been a complete disappointment three games into the season. I really thought this team could finish 2nd in the ACC. It appears that I may have way off in that prediction.

For those of you who missed it, or for those of you not aware that college basketball season had begun, the Terps opened their season with a comfortable 29-point win against North Florida. Some of you haven’t heard of North Florida. That’s ok. They aren’t the Gators or Bulls or even the Golden Knights. They are the Fightin’ Ospreys.

That’s kind of what everyone expected, even without two starters because of some bogus NCAA rule that basically says you can’t play pickup games in the offseason. But the Terps followed up their opening win with a six-point win against Hampton (which Hampton led by one with two minutes to go) and a two-point miraculous escape – IN OVERTIME – against Northeastern. I could understand the struggles against Hampton. The Terps are a young team, they were bound to have games like that. They dominated the first 30 minutes, had a real bad six to seven minute span, then woke up in time to win the game. Plus, Hampton is going win their conference. The difference between the small conference champions and teams that get at large bids from larger conferences is getting smaller and smaller every single season.

The near loss to Northeastern was a rude wake up call. The Huskies (I think that’s what they’re called) are a middle of the pack CAA team that has no history of upsets whatsoever. They had one proven scorer, an unproven coach and a height disadvantage at every position. And considering that the game was only three days after the Terps were nearly upset by Hampton, it was shocking that the Terps didn’t come out and blow Northeastern back to Boston. The Huskies dominated the second half, and if it wasn’t for the huge foul discrepancy that you usually see in these early season “automatic win” games, the Terps would have lost by a couple of baskets.

So what was the problem? James Gist and Boom Osby looked good. Eric Hayes looked good. The multitude of freshmen looked good considering it was their first action of their careers. I can only point the finger of blame at Greivis Vasquez.

Oh no, not again…didn’t you do that all last season? I thought you were done blaming General Greivis.

Yeah, I thought I was too. And please stop with this General Greivis crap. That's such a stupid nickname. Up until early February, I was complete miffed as to why Gary Williams continued to give serious minutes to Vasquez as the half-starting/half-backup point guard. Every time he got in the game, he’d throw the ball away. It was so bad in an early ACC game against Georgia Tech, I wrote this the next week:

“Hopefully, over the past seven days, Gary has taken a look at the film and realized that Greivis Vasquez should not be starting over or getting more minutes than Eric Hayes. After attending the Georgia Tech game in person, I am even more convinced of that than ever. Here’s the more impressive thing. The student body shared the same general consensus. I would have bet before the game that the student body, as stupid as they’ve become over past couple of years since my graduation, would have loved the flashier Vasquez over the calm and collected Hayes. But they don’t. When Vasquez was announced in the starting lineups, several fans started a “We want Hayes” chant. At the beginning of the second half, Vasquez made two terrible plays that resulted in turnovers. Again, all the fans around me wanted to see him benched and started asking for Hayes again. When Vasquez turned it over for a third time, Gary immediately (even before Georgia Tech completed their fast break layup) yanked Hayes off the bench and Vasquez out of the game. The crowd roared.”

After that game, Gary used Vasquez as the sixth man off the bench for awhile, before using him as the backup to Mike Jones and D.J. Strawberry at both the two and three position. It was there that Vasquez tore up teams in February and March. No longer was he taking the ball down court, he was getting himself open for his own shots. And he carried the team in a couple of games. On top of all that, Eric Hayes was playing brilliantly at point, and it appeared that every thing was falling into place for the upcoming season. The Vasquez experiment at point guard, for all intents and purposes, was over. Or so we thought.

For whatever reason, Gary has decided to let Greivis Vasquez run point while Hayes is the starting two guard. I have no idea why. Against Hampton, the six minute stretch when Hampton staged a comeback was fueled by three Vasquez turnovers. All three were on horrible passes. Three days later, when Northeastern started the second half on a solid run, it was because of a couple of more bad passes from Vasquez. I don’t get it. Hayes is a natural point guard and Vasquez is someone who should fit well at shooting guard. It shouldn’t even be up for debate. It is so obvious that Vasquez and Hayes need to be switched. That’s how I, and I’m sure every Terps fan, thought it would be coming into the season. Again, I have no idea why that has changed.

In any rate, Maryland better shake the cobwebs out tonight. The Terps face UCLA in the semifinals of whatever corporate pre-season tournament they are in. UCLA comes into the game ranked 2nd in the nation, but in my opinion, the Bruins are the best team in the country and are my favorites to win it all. The Terps get a break tonight since Bruins All-American guard Darren Collison is out. He’s still bothered by a preseason ankle injury, and will probably come back in a couple of weeks.

The Bruins don’t seem to have missed him much. Josh Shipp, the other stellar UCLA guard, has stepped up his game. Shipp and Collison will form the best backcourt in the country when Collison returns. Luc-Richard Mbah-a-Moute is only a junior, even though it seems like he’s been at UCLA for the past 5 years. He’s a solid inside player who doesn’t get pushed around. And, as if the Bruins needed more help, they added Kevin Love at power forward. He is one of the top five freshmen in the country. Love is averaging a double-double so far this season (although UCLA really hasn’t played anyone yet).

The Bruins are deep, talented and best of all, they love playing defense. Ben Howland has taken the defensive principles from his days at Pittsburgh and successfully implemented them in a conference that generally isn’t interested in playing 40 minutes of suffocating D. This is a very, very good Bruins team, with or without Collison.

The Terps cannot afford to have their fourth straight 20-plus turnover game. That has to stop, and it has to stop right now. Maryland will only win this game if they keep their turnovers down (somewhere in the 10-14 range) and keep Love and Mbah-a-Moute from getting second chance points. James Gist will have to step up with another 27-point effort. And Vasquez will have to hit more than free throws. Hopefully we’ll see more of Hayes at point, but I doubt it. Gary is too stubborn. It will be a good early season test for Maryland. A loss won’t hurt them at all, it will actually help their RPI. I don’t see the Terps as being ready to play a team of UCLA’s caliber quite yet.

UCLA 79
Maryland 67