Maryland Basketball: Maine Street

Maryland Terrapins (10-5, 1-1 ACC) vs.
Boston College Eagles (10-7, 1-2 ACC)
Conte Forum – Chestnut Hill, MA

I’m not sure what to say about Tuesday’s game. The final score and margin was basically what I thought it would be. But the up-and-down emotions of the game threw me off a little bit. Let’s see if we can recap.

There are no room for moral victories, especially when you need to win nine or ten ACC games. Tuesday’s night game was as close as you could come to a moral victory for Maryland. Once Maryland got down seven points midway through the second half, I thought they were done. They’ve played that game many times before. You know the one I’m talking about. The Terps hang around most of the game, but can never take the second half lead, the opponent goes on a mini-run and Maryland either rushes shots or gives up completely. When Wake extended the lead from three to seven in the second half, and did so on fast break baskets, I figured that was it. Maryland would have a couple of bad possessions and lose by 12 or 13 points.

The opposite happened. Maryland stayed patient. They started by attacking the rim. Then they started kicking out for open outside shots…that they actually made. The defense began getting tough. All of a sudden, Maryland was up with less than two minutes to go. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold on to the lead. Landon Milbourne committed a dumb foul (although upon further review, it looked like it was a phantom call) that gave Wake free points to tie the game. In overtime, Maryland had a couple of bad turnovers and three missed free throws. Then they had a couple of bad luck bounces. Ishmael Smith’s 10-foot floating prayer was answered. The shot was a total brick. But instead of hitting the back iron and bouncing out, the ball hit the iron, took a crazy bounce straight up and then straight down through the net. Greivis Vasquez took a questionable three on the other end, but even after the bad shot, Sean Mosley had a great look to win the game and missed by an inch. I don’t care about the situation. It was a relatively wide open look, Mosley needs to make that shot. All in all, the Terps played well in their first ACC road game against a good Wake Forest team. Unfortunately they came up short, and the loss won’t help them in the long run. The overtime loss to the Deacons won’t be one the committee looks back at with reverence. The loss doesn’t hurt Maryland. It’s certainly not a bad loss. But it’s a game that Maryland should have won on two separate occasions and failed to put away.

A couple of positives that shouldn’t be overlooked. Maryland once again won the rebounding battle against a taller team. That included several key offensive rebounds down the stretch. The other positive is the play of Jordan Williams. Against Wake, he started to look like the player that scored 44 points in high school playoff games. He attacked the rim, he went up strong. He fought off a 6’9” future NBA-lottery pick inside. Very impressive game from him. It was also good to see Adrian Bowie bounce back after a tough game against FSU.

Maryland hits the road again, making the only possible trip North within the conference. Boston College checks in with a very interesting 10-7 record. They have some decent wins: San Diego State, at Providence, at Michigan, UMass and South Carolina. They even managed to beat Miami by a point. They also have several curious losses. They fell to St. Joseph’s and Northern Iowa in the Virgin Islands Tournament. Then they started dropping home games against every New England team they could find. First it was Harvard. Then Rhode Island. Then there was this beauty. Yes, Boston College managed to lose at home to Maine. In fact, they managed to blow a late eight-point lead at home to Maine. The same Maine team that lost by double-digits to such powerhouses as Brown and Quinnipiac. The loss to Maine is by far the worst loss that any ACC team has had this season.

Following the loss to Maine (and a blowout win over lowly New Jersey “Why In The World Are We Division 1” Tech), the Eagles went on the road and got handled by Clemson (for the entire game) and by Duke (just the second half). So we know that the Eagles aren’t that good. We know that they miss Tyrese Rice more than anyone thought they would. We know BC struggles to score against good teams. They are averaging 58.6 points in three ACC games while giving up 70. They clearly aren’t playing well at home. What is to stop Maryland from going up to Chestnut Hill and coming away with a win?

Well, the Eagles do lead the ACC in rebounding margin. They also don’t turn the ball over a lot. As we saw Tuesday, Maryland’s offense still struggles when they aren’t easily forcing turnovers. Also, when BC scores, they get points from a variety of players. Maryland-killer Joe Trapani averages 14.6. Mr. January Reggie Jackson (the Terps already played Chris Singleton…does NC State have a Brady Anderson on the team) scores 13.6 per. Maryland-killer II Corey Raji averages 12. Rakim Sanders chips in 11. The Eagles are also deep. Nine players average 11 minutes or more. That doesn’t necessarily make them good. That just means they are deep. BC is above average in terms of speed. Al Skinner’s team has some weapons. They are fully capable of beating most ACC teams on any given night. But as we’ve seen, they’re also capable of losing to Maine at home.

The two main culprits for the Eagles struggles have been three-point shooting and forcing turnovers. The Eagles are shooting an abysmal 30.8% from the three-point line. And they take a lot of threes (266 through 17 games, or 15-to-16 a game). Other than Tripani and occasionally Biko Paris, there should be no problems for Maryland guarding the perimeter. Actually, I shouldn’t write no problems. There won’t be any excuses for Maryland if they don’t guard the perimeter. And while the Eagles don’t turn the ball over a whole lot, they don’t force many turnovers either. They only have 77 steals as a team on the season, which translates to 4.5 a game. Like their three-point percentage, that number is very low.

Despite the high rebound margin (7.5 a game), the Eagles are small. Tripani is a soft 6'8" and Josh Southern rarely plays anymore. So along with having the shooting and defensive advantage, Maryland should also have the height advantage. This is a game that the Terps should, I repeat should, be able to win. But as we all know, Maryland has a history of dropping games like this.

Maryland 72
Boston College 65


Elsewhere in the ACC…

I was 4-2 on the first set of ACC picks. Not a bad start. Here are the weekend games.

Clemson at NC State
The Tigers finally overcame their UNC bugaboo, and made a statement game. Now typically, every time Clemson wins a big game, they find a way to drop a game they shouldn’t. This would qualify as another bad loss if they fall.
Pick: Clemson 74, NC State 61

Georgia Tech at North Carolina
The most stunning loss during the past week wasn’t UNC getting dominated at Littlejohn. It was Georgia Tech getting dominated at Virginia. The Yellow Jackets weren’t even close. So they sit at 1-2 in the ACC…and that one win is against Duke. Weird.
Pick: UNC 83, Georgia Tech 78

Virginia Tech at Florida State
Did Seth Greenburg’s Hokies really have a 27-point halftime lead against Miami this past week? They sure did, and they may be worth of a national ranking if they get by FSU.
Pick: Florida State 68, Virginia Tech 64

Miami at Virginia
Have you taken a look at the ACC standings recently? I know it’s early, but do it anyway. Sitting at the top, all alone, undefeated in conference play are the 2-0 Virginia Cavaliers. The Canes need to put a stop to this.
Pick: Miami 63, Virginia 60

Wake Forest at Duke
The Deacons are similar to Georgia Tech. They can give Dook all kinds of matchup problems because they are physical inside and the Devils continue to trot out Galactic Space Captain Brian Zoubek…who is not. The Dookies will find a way to win this game because they are at home and some of their shots will eventually fall.
Pick: Duke 80, Wake Forest 71