Maryland Basketball: Four Years Gone

#22/23 Maryland Terrapins (22-7, 12-3 ACC) vs.
Virginia Cavaliers (14-14, 5-10 ACC)
John Paul Jones Arena – Charlottesville, VA

It was a great game. Great atmosphere, great effort from the home team and a great result at the end. Even more encouraging was the fact that Duke gave Maryland their best shot and still couldn’t win. On the other hand, Maryland didn’t play their A-game. Greivis Vasquez struggled for the first 30 minutes. Landon Milbourne was a non-factor again. Dino Gregory and James Padgett were forced to play more than Maryland fans would have liked to see. Despite all that, Maryland won by seven points against the “fourth” ranked team in the country.

Just look at the box score. It was a typical performance from the Dookies. They scored 72 points, which was actually above average for them on the road this season. Their three best players combined for 53 of the 72 points, which is typical for them. Their shooting percentages were a little low, but not extraordinarily low. They had 14 offensive rebounds to Maryland’s seven. That was basically the best performance that anyone could expect Dook to muster on the road. The Terps took the body blow and won anyway. Again, Maryland won’t typically get only five points from Milbourne in 18 minutes of play (early foul trouble). Gregory won’t have to be on the court for 20 minutes. The Terps combined for only one – ONE – steal as a team for the entire game. That’s extremely low for any team, including one like Maryland that forces a ton of turnovers. It certainly wasn’t the A-game for Maryland…more like a B+ effort. The Terps even overcame the presence of Karl Hess (a noted Ratface lover…who I predicted weeks ago would be working this game) and Les Jones, who has never seen a flop he doesn’t like or call.

Vasquez took control of the game down the stretch. Jordan Williams, who struggled at times with Lance Thomas and the 7’1” space alien jumping on his back, came through with several crucial rebounds and a huge putback in the final minutes. And Adrian Bowie finally left the Witness Protection Program and showed up for the first time in weeks. Bowie was 4-for-4 from the field, with each basket coming at a critical time. All four baskets came in different ways as well. He scored on a tough layup in transition, a driving floater, a stop-and-pop from 15 feet away (not his strength) and a step back three. I wish we’d see more of this from Bowie down the stretch run since he’ll be asked to score a lot more next season.

The crowd was fantastic. I don’t want to hear any of this b.s. about how vulgar the crowd was. You got people throwing coins and batteries at West Virginia, throwing full bottles at Mississippi State. I know Maryland fans used to do that (back when I was a student), and a part of me wishes the student body was ballsy enough to do it again, but since the infamous Boozer’s Mother game in 2001, I don’t think I’ve seen or heard about anything being thrown at a Maryland game. If the students want to yell curse words, it’s their right. It’s a public university and vulgar language is protected speech. It’s nothing compared to what we’ve heard chanted throughout the years at Juan Dixon (Virginia’s fans came through with the “crack-head parents” chant), D.J. Strawberry (a favorite at ACC arenas everywhere) and Greivis Vasquez (FSU, Virginia Tech and NC State come to mind…even a couple of years ago at Dook there were some heavily xenophobic/racial taunts directed his way). If Maryland fans want to chant “Fuck you Scheyer” then it’s their prerogative. Deal with it. If you don’t like it, don’t go to the games or watch them on TV with the sound down. You think the media is sick and tired of whining about those classless Maryland fans? I’m sick and tired of the media continuously making a big deal about Maryland fans, who might as well be pacifists compared to some of the other fan bases. Just because Maryland fans do it louder and clearer than others shouldn’t make them the poster boy for bad fans. Anyway, I thought the crowd was great. It was certainly the loudest I’ve heard the new building. I also had no problem with the court storm. You win a game over the “fourth” ranked team in the final home game of the year and almost clinch a share of the ACC title…a court storming is allowable.

Lost in all the excitement is Maryland’s season finale at Virginia. The Terps last won in Charlottesville four years and one arena ago. And it’s not as if the Cavaliers have been lighting the conference on fire since 2006. Combine Maryland’s recent futility at Virginia with a potential for a classic letdown game and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Terps lay an egg and lose this one. The fact that Virginia has been in a month-long nose dive only heightens my anxiety. They are due for a decent performance before the year is done. They’ll get it in this game or in the first round of the ACC Tournament.

We last saw the Hoos on February 15th. They were coming off a loss to Virginia Tech and were sitting at 14-8 overall, 5-4 in the ACC. Maryland ran Virginia off the Comcast Center floor with an 85-66 beating that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated. Since that time, Virginia has lost five more games. They’ve scored 60+ only once during that stretch. There have been two occasions where Virginia has failed to score 50. Over the last five games, the Cavs have only averaged 53 points and have lost by an average of 17 points. That’s a remarkable run of ineffectiveness. Virginia hasn’t won a game in over a month (February 3rd against NC State) and they haven’t beaten a decent team since their win against Georgia Tech on January 13th.

Things have gone horribly wrong for Tony Bennett. This is the Virginia I expected to see at the beginning of the season. Bennett was known at Washington State for his defensive tactics and low-scoring games. It wasn’t uncommon for Wazzau to win games 55-47. However, that was the Pac-10. This is the ACC. The offenses are better. Bennett’s UVA team has been scoring at the same clip as his WSU teams did in the past. But his brand of defense has yet to carry over. That’s why you have seen Virginia lose games by an average of 17 points.

It hasn’t helped that his best player has been dealing with a calf injury the past couple of weeks. Sylven Landesberg missed the game against Dook and then struggled at Boston College. He is expected to play today, but will be nowhere near 100%. Furthermore, Virginia’s 2nd best scoring option has been relegated to Bennett’s doghouse. Mike Scott was benched during UVA’s disgusting display against Dook. He was then left out of the starting lineup against BC. Even though Jerome Meyinsse has picked up a little of the slack inside (and I still don’t know why it took Bennett three months to realize Meyinsse is pretty good and deserves more than 15-20 minutes per game), the rest of this team can’t score. So to recap: Landesberg not completely healthy, Scott in the doghouse, Meyinsse and Sammy Zeglinski are the only other scoring options. The rest of this roster is a collection of players who have never played up to potential (Calvin Baker, Solomon Tat, Mustapha Farrakhan) or haven’t been given a chance (Jeff Jones, Jontel Evans and Tristan Spurlock…who was Virginia’s Mr. Basketball and rarely gets in games).

Looking at the rosters and the coaches, there is no real reason that Maryland should lose this game. Not with a share of the ACC title (or perhaps sole possession of it) on the line. It's not going to be a tough road enviroment. I doubt many UVA fans show, and the rumors are that as many as a few thousand Terp fans will make the 90-minute drive to C-ville. However, we’ve seen this before from Terps teams in the past. Virginia is often an afterthought to Dook or UNC. This has all the makings of a trap-game, perfectly nuzzled in between the Dook game and the ACC Tournament. And Maryland has struggled mightily at Virginia against some pretty bad teams. Like I said above, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Maryland found a way to screw this one up. I’m going to trust this team though. They’ve proven throughout the conference season that they can get up for good teams and bad teams and that they won’t suffer a hangover from a previous big win or loss. Let’s go claim this ACC crown boys.

Maryland 72
Virginia 58


Elsewhere in the ACC…

Totally flaked on the games last week, so I’m 43-17 coming into the final weekend.

Florida State at Miami
The Seminoles are in the NCAA Tournament. However, they are flirting with that 8-9 seed cutline. They don’t want to be there and play a #1 seed in the 2nd round. So it would behoove them to win this game and get into the seven seed range.
Pick: Florida State 68, Miami 58

Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech
In the battle of technological that are ironically terrible at engineering (GT has problems with their arena’s roof while VT has problems keeping beer trucks away from their water mains), this is also what amounts to a bubble elimination game. The Hokies must win and then probably must grab a game in the ACC Tournament. The Jackets better win or they too will be forced to win in the ACC Tournament…and since they’ll probably face a resurgent UNC, this is almost a must win for them.
Pick: Georgia Tech 73, Virginia Tech 66

North Carolina at Duke
I’ll be rooting for UNC, but I know they likely have about a 5% chance of winning this game. Maryland isn’t a team that usually catches breaks.
Pick: Duke 78, UNC 63

Boston College at NC State
Ed note: Comments edited out due to worthlessness of game.
Pick: Boston College 61, NC State 59

Clemson at Wake Forest
The Deacons are in trouble. By no means are they a lock for the NCAA Tournament yet. They are playing their worst basketball of the season. They’ve lost four in a row, including a loss to NC State. And check out the box score from their most recent game. Ish Smith scored 14. C.J. Harris scored 12. What about 1st Team All-ACC player Al-Farouq Aminu? He took the donut. No points in the loss to FSU. How does that happen? This is more inexcusable than Georgia Tech not getting the ball to Favors/Lawal. Dino Gaudio…you are no Skip Prosser.
Pick: Wake Forest 75, Clemson 71