Maryland Basketball: Snow Patrol

North Carolina Tar Heels (13-9, 2-5 ACC) vs.
Maryland Terrapins (15-6, 5-2 ACC)
Comcast Center, behind the mountain of snow - College Park, MD

Oh, hello there! I didn’t see you behind that snow drift. In case you didn’t know, it’s a tad snowy here in the D.C. area. Since I’m stuck at home until at least next weekend, and I probably won’t be able to find my car until St. Patrick’s Day, I guess that gives me plenty of time to update the page.

The residents of the Washington D.C. corridor are ridiculed almost nation-wide because we have a tendency to freak out over just the idea of an inch of snow (ask Brian Williams, who spent the first couple of minutes of the nightly news doing a standup routine). And I’m usually one of the first to start cracking jokes at the chicken-littles. I never mind snow, even a lot of it. I rarely, if ever, let it affect my life. I go outside. I drive in it. I really don’t care. Let me assure those outside the greater Capital area that this is no joke. This is no “sky is falling” routine. As of right now, the meteorologists are saying that 20 inches have already fallen…and we’re only about two-thirds of the way through the storm. So 30 inches maybe? That’s 45% of my body height. I stepped outside for the heck of it this morning, and the snow was already piled to my knees. Remember, this is an area that is ill-equipped to deal with a handful of flakes. Even though I live off Wisconsin Avenue, which is main thoroughfare to and from the District, I doubt I’ll be able to go much of anyway for a few days.

Fortunately Maryland made it back to town before the “snowpocalypse” or “snowmageddon” as the Post has taken to calling the blizzard. My personal favorite is “SNO-MG!!!”, but to each his own. The Terps returned from Tallahassee after a much needed road win. Maryland struggled again to shoot from the field, but did enough on the glass and enough defensively to counter that. Well, they did enough defensively on seven of the eight guys FSU put on the floor. For some reason, no one wanted to get a body on Derwin Kitchen. But that just goes to prove my theory that one player, no matter how good he is, can’t beat you by himself.

Let’s go to some quick kudos. Another sterling effort from Jordan Williams. He now has 27 points and 19 boards in his last two games while going against the Booker brothers, Solomon Alabi and Chris Singleton. In the first half, Williams and Landon Milbourne were basically the only source of points for the Terps and kept Maryland in it until Greivis Vasquez could rescue them. Kudos also go to Sean Mosley. Looking at the box score, nothing jumps out at you. He only scored one point, four boards and three assists in 24 minutes. BUT it was his defense that was key. Mosley gave up four inches to Singleton, but made him a non-factor for most of the game. Very impressive defensive effort from Mosley. Also, kudos to Lenny Hamilton who failed to tell Singleton to hit the rim on this intentionally missed free throw. That rule has only been around since the 40’s. I haven’t seen someone try to do that since I was on the playground in sixth grade.

Finally, a tip of the hat to Vasquez. As former Times writer Patrick Stevens scribbled yesterday, Vasquez had to deal with a slew of racist taunts from the rednecks who attend that safety school. He poured in 23, including the go-ahead basket in the final minute and four free throws to seal the game. Despite Mountain-queer fans throwing crap on the court, to Virginia’s “crackhead parents” chant towards Juan Dixon, to the FSU idiots to the Dook fans with cheer sheets, it’s the Maryland fan base that continues to draw criticism because of ONE vile chant a few years ago. And it wasn’t even that creative or hurtful. But no, it’s completely fair to keep making a big deal about it and ignoring the rest of these disgusting groups.

Anyway, a job well done to Maryland who claimed their second ACC road win. As of today, Maryland is the only ACC team that’s +2 (which means they haven’t lost any home games and also have two road wins in conference). Everyone else is +1 or much, much worse. The win gives the Terps their second quality victory in conference. It also gets Maryland back to 3 games over .500 with two home games on the horizon. Big win. Very big win.

The North Carolina Tar Heels also braved the trip to Alaska (which Gary Williams infamously called Maryland a few years ago while referencing the ACC officials) since they left early Friday after their game in Blacksburg. These aren’t your grandfather’s Tar Heels. These aren’t you father’s Tar Heels. These aren’t even your one-year-old cousin’s Tar Heels. Less than 12 months after winning the National Championship, Roy Williams and UNC are on skid row.

For the first two months of the season, there was no real indicator that Carolina would have major problems this season. The losses to Syracuse, Kentucky and Texas certainly didn’t indicate anything. I think everyone knew that after losing Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and others that Carolina probably wouldn’t be returning to the Final Four. But UNC is now 13-9 and only 2-5 in the conference. In a year that 8-8 in the ACC probably won’t get you to the NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heels are in real trouble. Since the calendar turned to 2010, UNC has lost six of eight games. They started the new year by losing to College of Charleston. This isn’t the 1995 version of Charleston that snuck up on Maryland in the first round of the tournament and Bobby Cremins no longer possesses the talent he did at Georgia Tech. That loss was terrible for Carolina, but not season-threatening. UNC then subsequently lost at Clemson, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Virginia and at Virginia Tech. The only wins they have in conference have come at home against the Hokies, and at pathetic NC State. The same State team that is 2-6 and can only blowout the Dookies. The Tar Heels still have two against their archrivals, still have road trips to Wake and Georgia Tech and still have a home game against FSU. And of course, they have this game on Sunday. They can only lose two of those games, or they probably won’t be dancing. That is a stunning plummet for UNC.

Two things can be pointed to as the reason for the nosedive. The first is injuries. Tyler Zeller has missed the last six games and will miss this one as well. Ed Davis has been banged up all season, and recently missed the home loss to Wake. The same can be said of Marcus Ginyard, the requisite eight-year senior that every ACC team seems to have. Ginyard has missed four games already. But despite the nagging injuries, the real problem has been North Carolina’s backcourt. It seems with all the great recruiting that Roy Williams does, he neglected to find a replacement for Lawson at point.

Larry Drew has been asked to step up at point. While the six assists a game are good, an average point guard could have six a game with the big men that UNC possesses. His three turnovers a game are more alarming. When he turns it over, the Heels typically lose. He had five against Charleston, five against Wake and seven against Georgia Tech. UNC as a team is averaging over 16 turnovers a game. As a team that forces plenty of turnovers, Maryland’s guards should be salivating at the chance to play this team.

On top of turning the ball over, the backcourt has had problems scoring. Drew only averages nine a game. Ginyard only averages eight. Dexter Strickland only six. As dependent as Maryland was last season on their guards, UNC is equally or even more dependent on their forwards this year.

Davis and Deon Thompson both average 15 a game and average 16 boards between them. The Wear Twins and John Henson struggled earlier in the season, but all three are starting to get more playing time and starting to round into form. You can count on all three of those freshmen playing better as the year goes on. As always, Roy Williams has a deep team. Maryland will probably see at least ten different players in this game. Despite the problems in the backcourt, UNC still manages 80 points a game and they shoot at a 47% clip as a team. They also grab 42 rebounds a game. Just because they are 13-9 doesn’t mean this team doesn’t have talent. They certainly have wave after wave of big men to come off the bench. They’ll certainly have the advantage on the glass in this game. They score at will inside. They block at least six to seven shots a game.

The weaknesses are more obvious though for UNC than in years past. The backcourt will certainly be a problem for them on Sunday. They shoot 67% as a team from the line and 36% from beyond the arc. The Heels have given up 70 points or more in five of their seven ACC games so far. Defensively, they are very suspect from the perimeter. Maryland should light them up from three and should be able to score plenty of baskets off turnovers. Maryland also has the experience advantage. Thompson and Ginyard are the only upperclassmen that see playing time. Furthermore, Gary has had Roy’s number the past few seasons. Maryland has won three of their last four against UNC, and those three wins came against Tar Heels teams that were in the Top 10 (not to mention Gary’s win over Roy’s Kansas team in the Final Four back in 2002).

The only x-factor will be the crowd. It could go one of two ways. Either no one shows up because of the weather, like the Villanova-Georgetown game. That means it basically becomes a neutral-site environment (which Maryland rarely fares well in). Or, the University does the smart thing and makes it a general admission game like they did during the 2003 blizzard when Wake Forest was in town. Comcast Center was completely filled, and UMD estimated that over 12,000 of the fans were students. It was the most hostile atmosphere I can ever remember seeing at a basketball game. Maryland crushed a very talented Wake team that night. There are plenty of students on campus right now with absolutely nothing to do. At least 25,000 if the University’s numbers are correct. Open up the doors and let everyone come in and sit wherever they want. As badly as Carolina needs this game, Maryland needs this one (and the Virginia game) even more. They need to keep the momentum going into the brutal final seven games of conference play.

Maryland 83
North Carolina 74

Elsewhere in the ACC…

I was 3-1 during the week, and the only game I got wrong was the Maryland score. I can live with that. I’m now 22-10 overall in the conference.

Wake Forest at Virginia
Still not buying LegitVirginia. Bringing in Tony Bennett should not be making this much difference.
Pick: Wake Forest 65, Virginia 59

Duke at Boston College
Gary Williams take note. Dook is now the third team that has to play two games in 48 hours with the second game being on the road. Wouldn’t be surprised if BC jumped up and bit them.
Pick: Duke 76, Boston College 67

NC State at Georgia Tech
Bounce back game for the Jackets, another loss for Sidney Lowe. Nine games left until he is run out of Raleigh.
Pick: Georgia Tech 75, NC State 61

Clemson at Virginia Tech
There’s no doubt in my mind that Seth Greenberg is still celebrating the win over Carolina. He’ll allow Purnell and company to sneak out with a win.
Pick: Clemson 72, Virginia Tech 67

Miami at Florida State
Something tells me that Miami will guard Derwin Kitchen a little better than Maryland did. They’ll also have no answer for both Solomon Alabi and Chris Singleton.
Pick: Florida State 68, Miami 58