Maryland Basketball: Almost, But Not Quite

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (9-5, 0-1 ACC) vs.
Maryland Terrapins (11-3, 0-0 ACC)
Comcast Center – College Park, MD

You know that opening scene in Super Troopers? The one where the two cops mess with the three kids who are tripping out. During the roadside interrogation, Ramathorn asks the three kids where they’re going:

Stoner #1: “Canada…we’re going to Canada for some French Fries and gravy.”

Ramathorn: “Canada, huh? Almost made it.”

I think that quote accurately describes Maryland’s season so far. They did so well avoiding any major screwups. They got marquee wins over the two Michigan schools. Their two losses, while ugly on the score sheet, were nothing to be ashamed of since they were against Gonzaga and Georgetown. They put potential troublesome teams like George Washington and Charlotte away. Other than the early scare against Vermont, they had no problems with patsies like Elon or Delaware State. They even avoided a repeat loss to American. It was all setting up perfectly going into the conference schedule. There were no major blemishes on the record, and there were two strong non-conference wins to hang their hats on. All they had to do was take care of business against Morgan State.

ACC play, huh? Almost made it.

The Morgan State disaster was worse than the combined affect from the American/Ohio losses last season. American ended up being a tournament team that almost knocked off Tennessee in the first round. Ohio competed fairly well in the rough and tumble MAC. At the end of the season, even though both of those losses significantly hurt Maryland’s chance at a tournament bid, neither of those losses were “embarrassing”. Bad losses, sure. But nothing that would scar Maryland fans for years to come.

But this? Morgan State? A team that is 111th in the RPI (and the reason they are that high is because they beat a high RPI team like Maryland). A team that is 5-8. A team that may win its conference…but it’s a conference that’s only 28th out of 31 conferences in terms of RPI toughness. There are no excuses for this. None. There is no way to sugarcoat this kind of performance and this kind of result.

What’s even worse is how close Maryland got to ACC play without making any major mistakes. Again, other than Vermont, they dominated every game against bad teams. There wasn’t even a hint of trouble. All we heard from the team was how determined the players and coaches were to “not let another American happen”. And they seemed to be focused and determined for their cupcake games. They had a rough time for one half against Charlotte, but Charlotte is an Atlantic-10 school. That’s one of the top mid-major conferences. So that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. There was no reason to expect that they’d have a let down against Morgan State. And the Terps even led by 14 in the 2nd half? How did they manage to lose? How? This team was 10 minutes away from going into conference play with an eight-game winning streak, a 12-2 record and a winnable opening game in conference against struggling Georgia Tech. All they had to do was hold of Morgan State. Not Duke, not UNC, not even Virginia. Morgan State.

Anyway, during the first 15 games, we learned absolutely nothing about Maryland that we didn’t already know. We knew coming in that this was going to be an inexperienced team that relied on jump-shooting and couldn’t be counted on to rebound or attack the basket with any consistency or success. Which means that they will be susceptible to upsets like the one that happened Wednesday night. Maryland is on par with Florida State and Virginia Tech and is still better than NC State, Virginia, Boston College (probably) and the team they are facing today in Georgia Tech. However, they could lose once or twice to any of the teams on this list. If the jump shots don’t fall, like they didn’t earlier this week, they will lose. Period. End of story.

So far I have been impressed the efforts of Landon Milbourne, who is finally using his height and speed to attack the rim. He’s also realized that being a left-hander is an advantage, since even the best defenders aren’t used to defending lefties. Dino Gregory has show the ability to hustle underneath and at least try for rebounds in the limited minutes he gets. And even Dave Neal has shown a little something, but I fear that he’s hit one to many jump shots for his own good. Because he can score in double-figures against the sisters of the poor, he probably figures he can do the same against ACC competition. Hopefully he does more rebounding and less shooting from here on out. On the other hand, Braxton Dupree has been a disappointment. He seems to be Travis Garrison ver. 2.0. He’s got the big man body, but refuses to play the big man game. Dupree seems content to settle for close jumpers instead of going strong to the rim. If he learns to play with his back to the basket, then Maryland actually has a chance to develop some sort of inside game. I just wouldn’t count on that happening this season.

I was going to spend more time on Georgia Tech, but I’ve run out of free time (real job and all). We’ll see these guys later in the season. Paul Hewitt’s club was supposed to be guard oriented coming into the year, but they’ve only shot an abysmal 28.7% from behind the line. They’ve actually found a decent inside game with forwards Gani Lawal (17 and 10 per) and Alade Aminu (13.5 and 9 per). If only the veteran guards of Lewis Clinch and Zach Peacock, along with supposed super-freshman Iman Shumpert (again…the weirder the name, the more likely it is that Hewitt will offer you a scholarship), then Tech may actually have a chance this year. I don’t see the Yellow Jackets ever getting on the same page. This is going to be a 5-6 win ACC team most likely. Georgia Tech did not fair well in the non-conference schedule, with only a home win against Vanderbilt to brag about. They’ve lost games to big schools like Penn State (eh), Southern Cal (eh again) and Alabama (not good…Mark Gottfried better start updating he resume). They’ve also lost to Illinois-Chicago, a loss that is currently worse RPI-wise than Maryland’s debacle against Morgan State. The Jackets also managed to lose at home to Virginia, who I still think will finish last in the ACC. So all in all, this is not a very good team right now.

Going completely against character, I fully expect Maryland to bounce back and win this one. I can’t imagine what practice has been like the last couple of days. Let’s just assume that Gary Williams popped a few blood vessels. Hopefully the loss to Morgan State is simply a blip on the radar screen, and not a sign of things to come.

Maryland 78
Georgia Tech 72

ACC PICKS:

Clemson 83, NC State 66
Duke 74, Florida State 71
Virginia Tech 68, Virginia 57
Miami 80, Boston College 73
Wake Forest 88, North Carolina 80