Maryland Basketball: Shoot High, Aim Lowe

Maryland Terrapins (17-7, 7-3 ACC) vs.
NC State Wolfpack (14-12, 2-9 ACC)
RBC Center - Raleigh, NC

I don’t mind watching the Terps play every other day, but it’s not easy having to write about them at the same clip. There wasn’t much to say after the Dook loss and there’s not much to say after the Virginia win. Maryland wanted the game, Virginia clearly didn’t. The 19-point difference at the end couldn’t sugarcoat the fact that Maryland was about 30 points better than UVA. Once the Cavs fell behind by 10, they looked completely disinterested. For their part, Maryland at least complied and stepped on their necks at the end of the first half. Nice to see. Greivis Vasquez was unreal in the first half. I know most didn’t see the game, but trust me. I was in attendance and he was unstoppable. Virginia tried to guard him with five different players and none of them could do anything. He made his mind up that he was going to score at will and he did. Hopefully the NBA scouts can get their hands on the game film, because he looked like an NBA player on Monday.

Other than Vasquez, the most impressive thing from the Virginia game was the performance of Cliff Tucker. He didn’t do a whole lot offensively, but his defense was phenomenal. Sean Mosley was given the Sylven Landesberg assignment. Mosley picked up two early fouls and had to sit. Gary surprisingly replaced him with Tucker, whose defense is usually suspect. Tucker helped make Landesberg a non-factor in the first half and helped Maryland to their large early lead. If Tucker can play defense like that, then there is no question in my mind that he should be starting over Mosley. As good as Mosley is defensively, he’s been doing nothing on offense the last few games. He can’t even make open shots. In the last five games, he’s scored a grand total of 21 points on 9-of-26 shooting. Against UVA and the last game against FSU, he didn’t make a shot from the floor. He also has nine turnovers to go with eleven assists. But since he can play defense and scrap together a few rebounds, he’s held down the starting spot.

Tucker has proved over the course of the past month that he’s a much better defender than in the past. Futhermore, putting Tucker in the starting lineup gives a small Maryland team a few more inches of height. It also gives Maryland another player that can’t be ignored on the offensive end. Putting Tucker in the lineup means there’s one less opposing defender that can help out on Vasquez. Tucker is capable of hitting threes, and opposing coaches know it. Whereas whichever player guards Mosley is free to roam and double down, Tucker’s defender can’t afford to leave him alone. I’m not saying Mosley shouldn’t play. I’m not saying that Mosley doesn’t play an important role on the team. I’m just saying that over the course of the last five or six games, Tucker has earned a chance to start while Mosley hasn’t done a whole lot to keep his spot. If Tucker keeps getting 20 minutes a game, then it really doesn’t matter. However, it’s rare that any bench player for Maryland sees 20 minutes. Tucker only played that long against UVA because of Mosley’s foul trouble. It’s certainly worth an experiment over the course of the next couple games.

The Terps now play their third game in five days and make their second trip of the week to the Raleigh-Durham slums. Analyzing NC State is a waste of time. Those who are interested can go to my post last month before the first Pack-Terps game. Here’s the cliff note version: they are bad. When Maryland last played them, State was coming off a win against Duke (a loss that looks more and more ridiculous for the Dookies the further we get from it) and was a respectable 2-3 in the conference. Since getting blown out at College Park, the Wolfpack have lost six straight ACC games. Their only win in that span came against faux-Division 1 team North Carolina Central. Their loss to Georgia Tech was close, but the other five losses came by double-digits.

I guess I’ll spend the rest of the post making fun of Sidney Lowe. It’s become an annual tradition. Lowe is clueless. I still can’t believe that NC State backers ran Herb Sendek out of town after making FIVE straight NCAA tournaments. Sendek probably looks like Dean Smith now for Wolfpack fans. I know that Sendek didn’t play the most entertaining version of basketball. His 72-88 conference record wasn’t anything to brag about. He didn’t do a great job recruiting. He certainly had NC State playing fourth fiddle among the other three Carolina schools. But he was at least a half-decent game day coach. Look at his final five seasons at State: 23-11, 18-13, 21-10, 21-14 and 22-10. Five tournament bids. He won the opening round game four times. He made the Sweet 16 in 2005.

Compare that to Lowe. In his four seasons at State, the records look like this: 20-16, 15-16, 16-14 and 14-12. No tournament bids. Only one NIT invitation. 10th place, 12th place, 10th place and on his way to another 12th place finish in the ACC this season. He’s an abysmal 17-42 in conference play. And he wears a hideous red blazer to all the important games.

There was nothing to ever suggest that Lowe would be a good coach at the college level. He was 79-228 as a NBA head coach. That’s a 25.7% winning percentage. Other than Lowe being a former Wolfpack player, the coaching move from Sendek to Lowe didn’t make sense from the beginning. NC State screwed up its coaching search (going after John Calipari and Rick Barnes, despite having no chance to land either) and got stuck with Lowe. This should be a cautionary tale for those who still think Maryland’s better off replacing Gary. If you don’t have a better candidate lined up before you make the move of firing the current coach, you could get stuck with your fifth or sixth choice.

Things have gotten so bad for Lowe that his own players aren’t even defending him anymore. The only support he’s getting is from a recruit who been stuck playing for him yet. The story is beyond funny. There’s a good chance that Ryan Harrow never gets the chance to play for Lowe, but there’s still a good chance that he does. Either way, Harrow is certainly better off looking for a different school.

As for this game, the only thing stopping Maryland from winning is short rest. It’s the x-factor that could tilt the matchup to NC State. The Wolfpack have played one game the past week. They should be well rested. Other than that, all signs point to Maryland. In order for the Terps to win, they have to stop Tracy Smith. The Terps already did it once this season, as most of Smith’s 18 points up in College Park came in the second half when the game was already out of hand. Gary Williams owns NC State. Sendek would give him trouble every once and awhile, but even when accounting in the Sendek years, Williams is 33-11 against the Wolfpack. Gary is 6-0 against Lowe and all but last year’s ACC Tournament game have been decided by 11 points or more. Vasquez has also dominated the Wolfpack, scoring 15, 33, 17 and 19 in his last four games against State. As bad as the FSU crowd was, the NC State rednecks figure to be much worse in terms of their derogatory comments…a factor that usually helps Vasquez concentrate and play better.

Maryland must win this game. This is their last game of the season against any of the four bottom teams in the conference. None of the next five games are automatic W’s. Even on the road, this is as close to an easy win as you can find in the ACC. Maryland has to take advantage of it.

Maryland 74
NC State 62


Elsewhere in the ACC…

Just two games tonight. I lost track of my overall record, but I believe it is 32-12, give or take a couple of games.

Duke at Miami
Anytime the Dookies go on the road, there’s a chance for them to drop one. However, Miami may be the only team worse than NC State in the ACC. Wouldn’t surprise me, but I’m not picking it.
Pick: Duke 71, Miami 56

Florida State at Virginia
The Cavs are on their predicted crash course to Earth. They’ll remain in the tailspin until jumping up and biting Maryland on the final weekend of the regular season.
Pick: Florida State 67, Virginia 63