Maryland Basketball: Hanging With The Rat Pack

Maryland Terrapins (16-6, 6-2 ACC) vs.
#8/7 Duke Blue Devils (20-4, 8-2 ACC)
The Durham Dump – Durham, NC

So much for overlooking Virginia. The second blizzard in a four-day span sent Tony Bennett and the Hoos singing back to Charlottesville (Like the Tony Bennett joke? Too bad, you’ll be seeing a lot more of them next week). For those who haven’t heard, the Maryland-Virginia game will now be played at 8 p.m. on Monday and found nowhere on TV. If you really want to watch on ESPN360, go for it, but I wouldn’t encourage using it. 360 is inconsistent at best. Game tracker and the radio are honestly better than that. Since I have tickets, I plan to be at the game. Then again, another 2-3 inches of snow are already being predicted for Monday afternoon and the prediction is probably only going to go higher. So maybe not.

There are pros and cons to the cancellation/rescheduling of the UVA game for Monday. One benefit is getting a few extra days to prepare for the Dookies (more on those dorks in a minute). We all knew Maryland was going to spend a few extra days preparing for them anyway, the postponement only assured the Terps they wouldn’t lose to Virginia in the process. I instantly feel better about both the Dook contest and the UVA game with the new-look schedule.

As for the cons, it forces Maryland (and the Cavs) to play four games in eight days. The real problem will be three games in five days. The Terps travel to the slums of Durham Friday, play on Satuday, jet back up to College Park for Monday’s game against Virginia, then go back down to the Triangle to play NC State Wednesday. Ugh. Obviously the Terrapins will be well rested for the Caffeinated Nerds. Virginia will be on the same short rest that Maryland will be, plus the extra travel should give the slight edge to the Terps. But the game at NC State, which looked to be as close to an automatic-win as a team can get on an ACC schedule, is now a lot tougher than originally hoped for. As is the Saturday game against another well-rested team in Georgia Tech. It took Maryland a month to play the first half of their conference schedule. Now it will take them eight days to play a quarter of it.

Maryland also loses some momentum. After going to Tallahassee and outlasting Lenny Hamilton and the Kitchen sink, then beating up on poor Roy and Carolina, it would have been nice to get Virginia as scheduled…even with the trip to Duke on the horizon. The players have been sitting around for days now, since Gary canceled practice on Wednesday and canceled the evening session on Thursday because of the gauntlet facing the team next week. Any momentum from those two wins has now effectively been doused.

As much as I can’t stand Debbie Yow (and maybe later in the year - possibly the next Clemson preview – we’ll get into why), and as obvious as it was that she forced both Maryland and Virginia into this decision because of potential lost revenue and NOT the safety and well being of fans or players, the postponement of the game was the right call. The Washington area saw blizzard like conditions for Wednesday afternoon and early evening, or right as most fans would have been making their way to the Comcast Center. It took me 15-20 minutes to walk from my apartment to work, which usually takes me five. I can promise you that Wisconsin Avenue is still not cleared off and was an absolute mess Wednesday. I can only imagine what the PG County roads looked like. So even though it looks as if the postponement will do more harm than good for the Terps, it was the right move by the University.

So with six days of rest, the snowbound Terps head south to the Durham Dump. They will find the Blow Devils up to their usual tricks of being overrated and hyped up by the national media to nauseating levels. But wait! This is a different Dook team! This team has height! This team can rebound! This team doesn’t rely on jump shots! True, false and very false. Dook is taller than in recent years, but look at who you’re talking about. Alien Space Captain Zoubek is quite possibly the most awkward man to every wear a uniform for Ratface (and that’s really saying something…may I remind you about this freak). Lance “I Got Five Fouls, And I’m Gonna Use Them” Thomas contributes absolutely nothing on either end. He probably won’t play because of a ankle injury suffered against UNC. And it might be better for Dook if he doesn’t suit up. Following in the footsteps of Clemson and Carolina, the Dookies even have their very own set of brothers. The Tweedle-Dumblee brothers are basically the same player. It’s not worth my time to differentiate between the two of them. I do know one of them is a typical Dook White Stiff Thug, since he was responsible for elbowing a FSU player in the face; taking advantage of the injury by dunking on the player and then finishing the play by taunting him. That was followed by a referee (most likely Karl Hess) calling a technical foul on the FSU player for running into Dumblee’s elbow with his face. I’m pretty sure it was Mason…but don’t hold me to it. One of the Dumblees is half-decent, the other is soft. In fact, Dook as a whole is very soft. But I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. These scumbags - protected by the officials - will cheap shot you all game. When one of your players pushes back (aka Dave Neal putting Nolan Smith to sleep last season), the punks flop to the ground like an injured soccer player and wait until the media gets up in arms about the poor Dook players. If the refs and ACC media didn’t coddle these guys, they might never grab a rebound.

Despite all the b.s. about Dook being physical and tall, this team still revolves around three players and still relies way too much on jump-shooting. Smith (a player I can sort of tolerate), Requisite White Stiff and Screamin’ Jon Scheyer are the only three players worth worrying about. Smith, when conscious, plays the game the right way. He’s averaging 17 points and three assists a game. He doesn’t just jack up any shot he sees. In my opinion, he is the most dangerous player on the floor since he does what the other two jerkoffs don’t. He drives to the hoop. He tries mid-range jumpers. He’s good at kicking the ball out to the perimeter. He plays defense. He doesn’t slap the floor like a monkey. He’s a tough matchup for a smaller guard and also one who is tall but slow.

Requisite White Stiff has played well as of late, but has struggled overall this season. As of a couple of weeks ago, there was even a resounding call from the Dook media to bench him. He is certainly one of the dumber players in the league. Despite being 6’8”, and being protected by the refs in most games, Frankenstein shoots 39% of his shots from beyond the arc. Landon Milbourne, a very similar player in both size and game, attempts only 11% of his shots from three. He does most of his work within 10-12 feet of the hoop, and only leads the entire ACC in shooting percentage during conference games. What’s the difference? Landon has a bit of a mean streak and half a brain. Singler should not be a matchup problem for either Milbourne or Sean Mosley in this game.

As for Screamin’ Jon, this is typical Dook creep that the media touts as conference player of the year only because he’s the projected best player on Dook. As of right now, I have Scheyer a solid fourth in the race for ACC POY. He’s well behind Greivis Vasquez, Sylven Landesberg and Al-Farouq Aminu at this point. I would even consider Gani Lawal ahead of the Screamer, since he puts up pretty good numbers on a team that refuses to get him the ball. Don’t believe me? Brainwashed by the typical Tobacco Road media? Let’s take a closer look.

For comparison sake, I’ll just run down his numbers with Vasquez’s, using conference games only (this is a conference award, not a national one). They both play the same position. They are both the leaders on their teams. Vasquez has 20.4 points per game, good enough to be tied for 2nd in the ACC with Landesberg. Scheyer has 18.8 points per game, or 4th place. Vasquez is in the Top 10 in shooting percentage (43%). The Screamer is not. Vasquez leads the conference with 6.9 assists per game, over half an assist more than the nearest player (Ish Smith). Scheyerface has 4.7 a game, which is 5th. Still with me? Good, let’s continue.

3-point shooting percentage, which is what Scheyer is supposedly known for, should be the category that gives him some sort of advantage. Except Vasquez is shooting 43% from long range, 3rd best in the ACC behind Eric Hayes and Malcolm Grant. Scheyer is well below him, shooting only 36.6%. Even White Stiff, who has struggled most of the season, is doing better than that. Vasquez makes 2.8 three-pointers a game, which is best the conference. Screamer is just behind him at 2.6. There are only two categories where Scheyer has an advantage over Vasquez. His assist/turnover ratio is slightly better (3rd best in the ACC as compared to 9th, but Hayes is better than both). Scheyer also has more steals per game than Vasquez. But even there, Scheyer is only 6th. Sean Mosley, who gets fewer minutes than the Screamer does, averages more steals per game.

There you have it. Even though I’d put good money on Scheyer winning the award because of the hate and xenophobia that Vasquez draws from the media (some of it deserved), there’s no way he deserves it at the halfway mark of the conference race. You could do a similar comparison with Landesberg. I could also easily argue Aminu and Lawal, even though they play different positions and a direct comparison really isn’t possible.

As for the game itself, Maryland seems to match up well with this team. Duke probably won’t have Thomas. Which means one of the Dumblees will start in his place. It actually looks as if both Dumblees will start, since the 7’1” alien has been on the short leash recently. So the frontcourt matchup will feature Milbourne and the suddenly-dominant Jordan Williams against a pair of Dumblees. I’m drooling at the idea of that.

The backcourt should be a little more even. With White Stiff and both Plumlees on the court, there isn’t enough speed from Dook to cover Vasquez, Hayes and Mosley. You can bet that Ratface will run the halfcourt hedge to at least slow Maryland down. If Clemson proved anything, it’s that the Terps can get flustered when they are pressured immediately upon crossing the timeline. Whichever Dumblee is forced to guard Milbourne will instantly be a mismatch that Maryland has to exploit. Milbourne MUST show up to this game. There cannot be any repeat performances from the one earlier in Littlejohn.

I can only assume that Hayes and Vasquez will switch up between the Screamer and Smith. As I said earlier, look for Gary to run both Mosley and Milbourne at White Stiff the same way he effectively ran both Byron Mouton and Chris Wilcox at the younger Dunleavy. The interior matchup will be determined by how the officials call it. If Jordan Williams is allowed to play, then he’ll be fine. If they let the Space Captain go over the back, let the Dumblees throw elbows, let White Stiff charge from half-court, then call ticky-tack fouls on Williams, obviously he’ll have no chance.

As for the bench and the coaching…well, both favor Maryland. The only thing Thomas provided was a slightly-warm body. Without him, Dook will play seven guys. The Bearded Alien and Andre Dawkins are the only ones coming off the bench. Dawkins is rarely let out of Ratface’s doghouse, so who knows how effective he’ll be. As I say every season, Ratface simply has no idea how to manage his rotation, and it will be Dook’s eventual downfall in March. He continues to recruit a billion All-Americans, but he has no idea how to use most of them. If Dook gets in foul trouble (I know it will never happen, just humor me), then where will Ratface turn? Smith, Screamer and White Stiff are all in the Top 5 of minutes played in the conference. You saw some of the effect it’s starting to have in the recent Duke-UNC snoozefest. The Dookies only managed to shoot 32% against one of the worst defenses in the country. I’m willing to bet most of that had to do with tired legs more so than Carolina’s D. Even with the upcoming schedule, Gary would be smart to let the Terps run up and down the court all day on these clowns.

Now, most reasonable fans will point to last year’s huge loss at Juan Dixon Stadium and figure that Maryland can’t possibly make up that much ground in one season. Well, the Dookies no longer have Sweet Elbows Henderson and the Terps no longer have to trot out Dave Neal at center. Dook has yet to replace Henderson’s output, while Maryland is getting three times the effort from Williams that they did from Neal. So that’s a huge step up in both directions for the Terps. The main reason Maryland lost that game in horrendous fashion was because of rebounding and second chance points. The Terps lost the battle on the glass 52-29. I can guarantee that won’t happen again this year.

Also, Maryland went to Durham last season struggling. Meanwhile, Dook was playing its best ball of the season. While Dook is currently playing well right now, they are nowhere near the 18-1 record they had last season. Maryland is playing, maybe even peaking too early, right now. This is a much different Maryland team confidence wise. Even over the course of last season, you could see Maryland making up the ground on Dook. After their beating in Durham, Maryland played even with Dook for 30 minutes at home just a month later. Only after the refs saddled Vasquez with foul trouble did Dook pull away. Then when they met in the ACC semifinals, Maryland played even with Dook for 35 minutes on a not-so-neutral court. Again, foul trouble helped Dook win by six. But confidence wise, Maryland has to feel like it’s back close to even ground with the Blow Devils.

The Floorslappers always play better at home than they do on the road. Something about all those uber-dorks and virgins reading cheer sheets gets this team all riled up. I’m sure they’ll be more dorked-out than usual with first place on the line. The Dookies haven’t lost at home all season, but this is still the same team that’s looked pedestrian on the road. Same players, same gameplan, just different colored uniforms. I still can’t get around the fact that Dook lost to NC State by 14. The same NC State team Maryland pummeled by 24 only three days later. This team is due for a loss at home, especially coming off a draining road win IN THE GREATEST RIVALRY IN MANKIND’S HISTORY (*forced by ACC blogger law to say that about any Carolina-Dook game, even though none of the sports fans I knew watched more than five minutes of it on Wednesday…more people actually watched the local hockey team than that supposedly big game). Then you add in the fact that Maryland has had six days of rest and a couple of extra days of preparation. Gary Williams, in his entire career, has lost only two conference games that he’s had six or more days to prepare for. That’s two games in 32 years. A lot of signs favor Maryland in this one. It will depend on how whistle-happy the refs are and how much the Terps have grown up from last season. No pick, just hoping for a Maryland win.


Elsewhere in the ACC…

After the weather allowed me to miss the midweek picks, I’m going to continue to mail it in. The picks, just the picks ma’am.

Clemson 75, Miami 61
UNC 80, NC State 69
Wake Forest 72, Georgia Tech 68
Virginia Tech 65, Virginia 58
Florida State 70, Boston College 60