Maryland Basketball: Unable To Send Text Message

Maryland Terrapins (4-2) at
Indiana Hoosiers (3-3)
Assembly Hall - Bloomington, IN
ACC/Big Ten Challenge

If you are a guard dominated team, eventually you are going to have to make shots. The most alarming trend for Maryland during their wasted trip to Maui wasn’t the deficiency on the offensive boards. It wasn’t the fact that opponents were able to make threes. It wasn’t the continued failure of Greivis Vasquez to take over a big game like he did last season. It was the complete inability by any of the five guards to hit shots. Not just any shots, but wide open shots. Watching the three games in Maui, it was hard to complain about the majority of the shots Maryland took. Many of the shots were good looks. They just couldn’t hit them. For a team that made crucial shots during crucial stretches of crucial games last season, it was extremely frustrating to watch Vasquez, Eric Hayes, Sean Mosley, Adrian Bowie and Cliff Tucker all go cold at the same time. It was really remarkable. I can’t remember the last time a good team missed that many open shots during the course three games.

There were other problems as well, and many of them were obvious and glaring. The fact Jin Soo Choi sees any playing time is a real problem. It’s always hard to question Gary Williams, but you really have to wonder what Choi is contributing when he’s on the court. He’s never going to be a strong interior player. He looks hesitant every time he passes the ball. He’s supposedly a shooter, but I think the three or four shots he took during the tournament missed by an average of 15 feet. Other than having five fouls to give, there isn’t anything to like.

The problems in the interior will be solved somewhat when Dino Gregory returns and Steve Goins gets completely healthy. The only problem for Maryland is Gregory will miss the Indiana and Villanova games before returning from suspension. That wasn’t a problem at this point last week. But after missing chances to get a quality win or two, the Terps desperately need the Indiana game tonight and the Villanova game is as close to a non-conference must win as a December game can get. If Maryland picked up a real win in Maui (Chaminade doesn’t count), then all they’d have to do is beat Indiana and win 8 or 9 conference games. Now they have to win both games, or they have to somehow find 10 conference wins on their schedule. Not sure if they’ll be able to do that.

A lot of people already put down the game tonight as a victory. It’s true that the Hoosiers are far removed from the team that Maryland faced in the 2002 National Championship Game. And it’s true that Indiana is far removed from their glorious past. It’s also true that Indiana may easily be the worst team in the Big Ten for the second year running. The Hoosiers have Kelvin Sampson, his cell phone and text messages to thank for all that. This is a team that has already lost to Ole Miss, George Mason and Boston U. Not Boston College…Boston U. And they almost lost to South Carolina-Upstate at home. The only convincing wins they have are over Northwestern State and Howard, a perennial bottom feeder in the MEAC. It’s hard to believe that Indiana could ever put out a product this dreadful. But it’s a program that has been hit by a quadruple-whammy of NCAA sanctions, NBA defections (Eric Gordon), transfers and coaching changes.

However, this is a true road game for Maryland. Assembly Hall is never an easy place to play, regardless of the Indiana team on the floor. Tom Crean is a remarkable coach, building Marquette back up after the program stagnated in the 1980’s and early 90’s. And while this current team may be bad, they are heads and shoulders above the 6-26 team that was forced on a death march last season. Crean had a very nice recruiting class come in this past year. Maurice Creek is a 6’5” slasher that is averaging over 16 points a game. Christian Watford is averaging a respectable 12 and 7 per. Derek Elston doesn’t start, but is the first man off the bench. He chips in 8 and 5 in only about 16 minutes a game. Also contributing is Georgetown transfer Jeremiah Rivers. Little Racist III tried to run him out of town after thinking he was white, only to be reminded that Rivers’ father is Celtics coach Doc. Jeremiah still doesn’t score a lot, but he’s a Sean Mosley clone. He’ll grab rebounds (averaging almost six per game) and he also averages five assists per contest. Because Indiana is young and the expectations are so low, Crean can be liberal with his substitutions. Ten players see at least eight minutes or more of playing time per game. And despite being undersized, Indiana is pretty much even with their opponents in terms of rebounding.

While Maryland tends to play down in games like this (like at Virginia, for example) the name on the opponents’ jersey and the atmosphere of Assembly Hall will help remind the Terps that this is a team that is easily capable of knocking them off. Crean and Indiana are desperately looking for a big time win that will signal to their large fan base and the rest of college basketball that the Hoosiers aren’t far from returning to prominence. A nationally televised game would be the perfect place to do that. Despite all that, this is a game Maryland should win. Indiana is not much better than the Fairfield’s and New Hampshire’s of the world. Closer than the experts think.

Maryland 71
Indiana 58

As for the ACC’s Annual Beatdown of the Big Ten Challenge, this might be the year for the Midwesterners! They are 0-10 in this event. They got a big win last night with Penn State beating Virginia. I think Maryland, Duke (over Wisconsin), Virginia Tech (over Iowa) and Clemson (over Illinois) are locks for the ACC. Purdue (over Wake), Ohio State (over FSU) and Michigan (over BC) are locks for the Big Ten. Michigan State should be favored, even on the road, against UNC. Minnesota should have the slight edge over Miami. Northwestern and NC State is a toss-up. I think the Big Ten finally grabs this even in the slimmest of margins (6-5). If they don’t win this year, then I don’t know when they’ll ever be able to win it.