Last night, the Maryland Terrapins dominated the Bucknell Bison 81-52. As the Sports Freak noted as we were walking into Comcast Center, this is a team that has made it to Big Dance as many times as the Terps in the last 4 years, so the win is impressive. The start was not. Neither team scored until nearly 4 minutes into the game when Bucknell finally dropped one in. It didn't get much better in the first half. The Terps had no inside game. Not just shooting, but nobody went into the paint when jumpers were taken. Offensive rebounds were few and far between. The only thing saving the Terps was that the Bison apparently copied the playbook and did not rebound their own shots.
In the last two minutes of the half, lone senior Dave Neal took the floor in his customary time to pressure the opponent. While the half ended 33-17, the Terps looked sluggish the entire half. Besides Neal, the other spark came from Jin Soo Kim, this season's home crowd favorite, as he drew a foul and shot both free throws.
The second half worked much better. The half started slow again for the Terps. A few minutes in, Gary Williams sent in Neal. He provided the second half tempo that was lacking in the first. Landon Milbourne lead all scorers with 16. Cliff Tucker, Grevis Vasquez, and Adrian Bowie also ended in double digits.
While the Terps found their groove in the seocond half, it was disconcerting to see that they struggled against a mid-major. The Big 10-ACC Challenge and Michigan is only 3 weeks away and then the early ACC season starts. The forwards have to get into the paint for both offense and rebounds. The Bison were all over the Terps defense. That's not good for the upcoming ACC offenses.
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For a team with a lack of depth and post up players in the front court, the team seemed to lack the necessary intensity needed against more difficult opponenents. Going with a three and four guard line up means everyone has to crash the boards.
Some other take aways from last night's game:
Dupree -
Although Braxton Dupree may be the only front court player with low post moves on the team, his minutes should be reduced due to turnovers and committing cheap fouls. His technique needs to be refined on the block and his foot work and pass catching skills need to be improved. With Bourney the only other front court player aside from true freshman Goin, Dupree can't allow himself to committ cheap fouls and must play more disciplined.
Defense -
The team defense was poor in yet another tune up game. It's obvious that Gary is looking for the best combinations of players and skills to put on the court as well as finding a good substituion pattern, but the players on the court need to challenge themselves more to maintain their mental focus in order to do more of the little things and block out to secure loose ball and rebounds.
Every possession is critical on an undersized team with little depth in the front court and no pure shooters in the back court a la Langdon or Reddick and remember both of those players were aided by a fierce interior low post game.
The Terps must limit the opposting teams offensive possessions. Bucknell had too many opportunties during the game. A more talented team would have made Md pay for those mistakes.
Offesense -
The Terps settled for passing the ball around the perimeter and taking jump shots instead of attacking the basket. The strength of the squad lies in the back court. The guards need to become more aggressive and drive the lane. It would help if they had some big bodies to set some screens for them. Otherwise the Terps may consider adding more motion to the flex offense to create more space for the guards to shoot.
Forcing the the opposition's defense to run through two and three screens all night would slow down their offense as they become more tired, create a more up tempo game with less half court sets which would benefit the Terps, and also allow the Terps to see the free throw line more often.
Right now the best weapon the Terps have is Tucker's silky smooth scoop shot unlike some of the wild shots down the lane that have been tossed up. He also has a nice mid range jump shot that should be very usefull this year with the three point line being moved back.
With so many guards on the court at one time, fans should expect to see the ball pushed up court quickly after MADE and missed shots to not allow the defense to set up and create match up problems.
Maryland can throw wave after wave of guards at teams and should use it to their advantage to wear down opponents. It's the Terps best and easiest way to score. UNC loves a track meet type game. This type of match up more than any other would allow Md to be able to mount a come back in a transition type game if they find themselves down on the scoreboard as opposed to a half court team like BC, Duke, and Va Tech.
Hopefully fans will get an opportunity to see Goin in these tune up games before he's thrown into battle in the ACC where he'll see plenty of action with such a thin forward line above him on the depth chart. Any action now can only help Gary show him something on tape of himself and how he needs to work to improve his game.
In General -
Many have forgotten just how much Gary has done for Md and bringing the program back from the near death penalty. He may have won the NCAA Tournament in 2002, but one of his best years of coaching may have come years later winning the ACC Tournament with what many perceived as the biggest bunch of knuckleheads on a roster. A trying season for Gary as he scraped everything he could out of that roster for a win.
Similar to the movie Blue Chips in which Nick Nolte give a speech at the end of the movie telling that the best season he coached wasn't a title but getting everything out of the last player on the squad the previous year that amount to a season a couple of games over .500. For this year's squad it will involve that type of effort and coaching for the Terps to find a way back to the Tournament. This puts Gary in a small class of coaches that can do it.