Maryland Basketball: The Benchwarmers

Virginia Cavaliers (11-7, 1-4) at
Maryland Terrapins (12-8, 2-3)
Comcast Center - College Park, MD

Let’s make this simple. I don’t like losing to Dook. There are no moral victories in losing to that pathetic program. I remember a time not to long ago (when I was matriculating) that losing to anyone, including Ratface and company, was enough to send the campus up in storm. Now it’s “nice that we can be competitive”. Ugh, gag me. How things change in three years.

That said, the Terps did manage to take another top-5 team and outplayed them for about 30 minutes. And even though Maryland didn’t win, they exposed the Dookies for what they really are: a team with a lot of problems despite their otherwise gaudy record. This Dook squad possesses absolutely no inside game of any kind. On top of that, their defense is suspect at best. Despite Maryland handing them more than 20 turnovers, the Nerds still surrendered 84 points. These are issues that would really concern me if I were a Dook fan (which, if you haven’t been able to tell, I am not). All any team has to do is look at the first 30 minutes of this game on tape and they’ll have their blueprint for a win.

Maryland and most of the ACC probably can’t hang with this team, but there will be about 20-30 teams in the NCAA tournament which will present all kinds of trouble for Dook when the time comes. If Dook has a night when the jump shots aren’t going down, they’re not going to win in two months because they have no other means of scoring, and they can’t stop a team with a decent inside game from putting the ball in the hoop. Unfortunately, after exposing this weakness for the first 30 minutes of the game, Maryland suddenly stopped going inside and fell in love the three-pointer, and it cost the Terps the game.

We’ll make the Virginia preview quick because of other commitments. I expected the Cavs to take a step back this year, but I didn’t think that it would a step back into the ACC cellar as February rolls around. I knew J.R. Reynolds meant a lot to this team, but I didn’t know he meant that much. Sean Singletary is trying to do it himself and his numbers are still pretty damn good. However, unless you have a guy like Michael Beasley, who can influence both scoring and rebounding, a one-man team isn’t the way to go in major Division 1 basketball. And Virginia is finding that out the hard way. While Singletary can drop 30 points at moments notice, he has no answer for the lack of big men on the Wahoo roster. As bad as Dook’s inside game is, Virginia’s is much, much worse.

On top of that, Dave Leitao has taken a page out of the Ratface book on bench management and player rotation. In other words, Leitao isn’t using his bench at all. Take a gander at the box score from the Cavs’ overtime loss to Georgia Tech this past Sunday. Singletary played 41 minutes. Mamadi Diane played 42. Adrian Joseph and Calvin Baker played well over 30. In a game where Paul Hewitt found ways to get 11 different players at least 10 minutes of action, Leitao responded by only getting 7 different players at least 10 minutes of playing time…and all 7 ended up playing more than 20 minutes a piece. That is not a winning formula. It’s no surprise that Virginia started out hot, blew a 10-point halftime lead, and crumbled down the stretch. If it wasn’t for Singletary’s extraordinary last second coast-to-coast layup, the game wouldn’t have reached overtime.

The Terps need to improvise a Tyler Hansbrough strategy in this game. They can allow Singletary to get his points. They just can’t allow the rest of the Cavaliers to beat them. It is very possible to give up 30-35 points to Singletary, but still hold UVA as a whole to under 70 points. Offensively, the game plan used against UNC and most of the Duke game should still be in place. Get the ball inside early and often. Force Diane and Joseph to pick up early fouls. Force Leitao to go to his bench, which he clearly does not want to do. If the fouls don’t work, pick up the pace and get the Cavs winded. Other than Singletary, it shouldn’t be hard to do. With a superior front court and depth, there is really no way Maryland should lose this game. Right?

Maryland 77
Virginia 68