Maryland crushes UNC; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The University of Maryland Terrapins will remember Super Bowl weekend 2010 for the snow, and the beating they provided to defending National Champion North Carolina.

With the win, Maryland moves to 16-6 overall, and 6-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Terps will enter the 2nd-half of their conference schedule, one-half game behind Duke for the conference lead.

The win was Maryland’s fourth win over the Tar Heels in as many years, and brings the Terps record against UNC to 16-17 overall since January 1995.

The Good:

1) UNC might be leaving College Park with 10 total losses (including 6 in the ACC) but their uniform still reads North Carolina, and there is plenty of talent on that team. After losing to Virginia Tech Thursday night, the Tar Heels headed straight to Maryland. They were a desperate team, that got to solely focus on the Terps for the last few days. I expected to see a lot of fight out UNC today, and a game that went down to the final minutes. While Maryland allowed a few large leads to be wilted down, the Terps were in total control of this game from the start. The Terps deserve credit for being mentally prepared, and taking care of business.

2) Maryland shot 51.5% from the floor today, with 42 points in the paint. All the numbers about MD’s shooting prowess, really goes back to the Terps having the right mindset of attacking inside.

3) I personally do not like seeing the Terps take 23 three-point attempts, but give Maryland credit for hitting 12 of those attempts. Despite the numbers that say otherwise, the Terps are really not a great shooting team. What they are – and what they showed today – is team that is pretty lethal when those shots from outside fall. Vasquez, and Hayes combined to make 10 three-pointers today, and that was a result of how hard they work without the ball.

4) Maryland had 5 different players with at-least 4 rebounds today. The Terps playing even with UNC on the boards is about effort.

5) Beyond Vasquez’s three-point shooting today, he also had 11 assists, 5 boards, a steal, and a block. It bothers me that he is not ‘loved’ more by all Terp fans. You might not love some of the decision making of his, but you can never fault his effort.

6) Very nice game for the reserves Gregory, Tucker, and Bowie. Each of them played hard, and brought something to the table today. Overall, they combined for 18 points, 7 assists, 6 boards, and a block. Gregory in-particular deserves credit for how he ran the court today.

6a) With the lead well in-hand, Padgett was able to get 7 minutes of good-time today.

7) Milbourne again filled up the stat line with 15 points, 5 boards, 3 steals, and 3 blocks. If he had finished that one slam, he would have added another Youtube classic to his resume.

8) Hayes only took 6 shots, but knocked down four 3-pointers. Also had 4 boards, and 5 assists. As Mike Gminski noted, when Hayes hits outside shots, it is a long day for the opposition.

9) Jordan Williams had a bit of rough go of it today, but still finished with 8 points, 6 boards, 2 steals, and a block. Besides his hands, strength, size, and positioning; you have to love his willingness to run the court.

10) Mosley was having a quiet game, but started looking for his shot late and finished 4 of 5 from the floor. Beyond his 8 points, he had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. It was good to see him finish strong, especially with the emphatic slam to end the game.

11) A North Carolina team with a lot of offensive-weapons, and size; was held to 38% from the floor, and 26 points in the paint. Outstanding team defense from Maryland.

The Bad:

1) The Terps hit 83% of their foul-shots today, but were only able to get to the line 12 times. Part of the reason for that, is Maryland was not looking to force contact inside, and was taking a large amount of outside jumpers.

The Ugly:

1) None. Maryland beat a conference-foe by 21 points, with 7 players scoring at-least 7 points. They had strong results on the offensive, and defensive end. Hard to call anything ugly based on that.

Up-Next:

The Terps get to host Sylven Landesberg and 5-3 University of Virginia on Wednesday night. Unlike the Tar Heels who want to run, Cavs Coach Tony Bennet is very comfortable slowing the tempo.

If Virginia has their way, this will be a grind-it-out affair, where the winning team scores in the high 60’s to low 70’s.

In the Cavs three wins against ranked opponents (UAB, Georgia Tech, and Miami) this year, they have averaged 76 points, while allowing an average of 65.

The strength of Virginia is the depth of their guards (Landesberg, Zeglinski, Farrakhan, Jones etc). This means the game against the Terps will essentially be strength vs. strength.

If Maryland can win, it would set-up a game at Duke next Saturday, which could be for the conference lead. The Blue Devils will host North Carolina Wednesday night. Besides the potential to play for the conference lead, the Terps will be looking to avenge their 3 losses to Duke last-season, including the demolishing they took in their 41 point loss at Cameron Indoor last year.

This past-week against FSU, and UNC went a long way to punching Maryland’s ticket back to the NCAA Tournament. This coming-week can go a long way to establishing just what the Terps might do, when they get back to that dance.