In one of the uglier offensive games the University of Maryland has played in the last 20 years, the Terrapins lost 54-47 tonight in Miami. With the loss, Maryland falls to 13-3 overall, 1-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

The Good:

1) In the opening minutes, Faust had a nice look down low to Padgett. Down 12-7, Faust came up with a steal, and found Len for a dunk. After an ugly looking jump shot the previous time down, Faust beat Miami down the court for a layup, making it a 16-11 Miami lead. Faust did a good job helping out on the boards tonight, finishing with 8. Perfect alley-oop to Len late in the game.

2) Wells gave MD their first FG, tying the game at 3. A minute later he scored on a reverse. With MD down 12-5, Wells scored again. At 12-9 Miami, Wells came up with a strip. With 5:29 left in the 1st, Wells baited Miami’s Kadji into a charge. Attacking the basket and using his strength, MD pulled within 3 (30-27) on Wells layup, and made foul-shot. He scored again the next time down. He lost the ball on the way up, and scored on persistence. He ripped a rebound as Miami came back down the court. Down 10, Wells put his head down, used the rim, and scored on a reverse. He was also fouled. Wells had 18 points, 5 boards.

3) With MD down 10-5, Cleare showed his strength ripping down a board.

4) Len got his first points off a dunk from a pass from Faust. With strong hands, Len grabbed a pass, and scored through traffic late in the 1st. A layup from Len made it a 23-18 Miami lead, early in the 2nd. With MD down 26-20, Len would go up strong, and get to the line. Len fought for a loose ball on Wells’ missed FT at 39-31, this lead to an Aronhalt 3. Getting position inside, Len scored to pull MD within 6 with a minute left. A vicious dunk made it a 4 point game with 40 seconds left. Len finished with 16 points, and 9 boards.

5) Maryland’s offense in the 1st half was pathetic, but their energy on the defensive side (and Miami’s own ineptness); kept the Terrapins in the game.

6) Allen turned the corner early in the 2nd half, getting his first points. Allen got a 2nd basket on a short jumper at the 18 minute mark.

7) With MD down 26-20, Mitchell tied-up Miami, and ripped away the ball.

8) Great hustle from Layman to get a loose ball at the 15 minute mark of the 2nd half. He followed with MD’s first 3, a minute later.

9) Down 28-24 in the 2nd half, Maryland had a nice offensive series, with multiple passes around the perimeter. Guys were passing up shots, looking for better shots. Finally Aronhalt – who was going to the basket – found a slicing Padgett. Padgett was fouled on the play, and got the line. While Padgett missed his FT’s, the patience was good to see.

10) Aronhalt’s 3 made it a 39-34 game with 4 minutes left.

The Bad:

1) Maryland controlled the tap, and found Len down low. Len immediately turned the ball over with too many steps. With the game tied at 3, Len streaked down the court and caught a pass. He brought the ball down low and was stripped. Down 19-12, Len was unable to finish a Faust miss. The next time down, he missed a turn-around jumper. Len missed 2 FT’s late in the 1st half. Down 5 (26-21), Kadji put a head-fake on Len, and got Len to foul him. Coming out of a timeout with 6:25 left, Len missed a long 3. No reason for that shot attempt.

2) Pushing the ball through traffic, Allen missed everything on an attempted layup.  At the 10:30 mark of the 2nd half, Allen turned the ball over on a simple pass inside. At 32-29, Allen missed another layup.

3) At the 16:30 mark, Padgett had the ball down low. He threw-up an ugly brick from 5 feet.

4) In MD’s first 12 possessions, they had 5 turnovers. At the 14 minute mark, Spencer Barks entered the game, showing Coach Turgeon’s frustration. I supposed we will hear after the game why he entered before Mitchell.

5) Howard also entered the game at the 14 minute mark, and quickly air-balled a 3. Coming off an in-bounds, Howard missed another 3 at the 14:30 mark of the 2nd half. Down 28-24, with 12:30 left in the 2nd half, Howard forced another attempt from 3.

6) Down 12-5, Maryland turned the ball over again, with Aronhalt unable to get a shot off in the lane.

7) Down 12-9, Wells came up with a strip and then made a poor decision on the fast-break with an errant pass to Layman. At 16-9, Wells was not able to finish a layup. After a couple of nice plays in a row from Wells at the around the middle of the 2nd half, he wasted a possession with a charge.

8) MD was forced into a timeout at the 7:46 mark of the 1st half, with Miami up 16-9. Turgeon was clearly irritated with the Maryland defense, with ESPN’s Jay Williams suggesting Miami needed to continue to attack Len with screen and rolls.

9) At the 7 minute mark of the 1st, Faust passed up an open 3, and followed with an ugly looking shot from the foul line. After making a layup on the next series, he missed a long 3.  At 19-12, Faust missed a lay-up along the baseline. Faust was just 1 of 8 from the floor.

10) At 19-11, Padgett missed a follow dunk. Seemingly at-least once a game he is unable to finish inside.

11) Down 19-11, with less than 3:30 left in the 1st half, MD ran back-t0-back possessions through Mitchell in the post, with Len also on the floor. Mitchell missed both attempts. I like getting Mitchell looks, but not at the expense of Len.

12) Layman missed a shot at the 16 minute mark of the 2nd half, which was a bit forced. At 37-29 Miami, Layman threw a lazy pass that was picked off, and led to a Miami dunk. Layman also pouted for a second after the pass, and did not immediately get back down the court.

13) Poor offensive possession coming out of the TV timeout with 7:54 left in the game.

The Ugly:

1) With MD down 8-5, Len attempted a fade-away jumper and was blocked. The ball fell away, and Len had a weak attempt to throw it off the Miami player. The Hurricanes came up with the ball, go down the other-end, and Len commits the foul. Pretty brutal early stretch for Maryland’s Sophomore big.

2) Miami was held scoreless over the last 4:43 of the 1st half, which of course is a ‘good’ thing, but MD’s offense managed just 3 points of their own during that stretch. The 14 point 1st half was one of the ugliest 20 minutes of offense I’ve ever seen from the Terps. MD was 6 of 28 from the floor, 0 for 6 from 3, 2 of 6 from the foul line at the half.

3) The numbers say Maryland is a very good defensive team. Due to that, I understand Coach Turgeon is not going to want to adjust his style of play much. However, while MD’s defensive FG% is strong, the Terrapins do not generate enough turnovers defensively to help compensate for turnovers they have on the offensive end. (Turgeon did begin to use some pressure defense with 7 minutes left in the game.)

3a) I also agree with the comments made by the poster ‘Ricker Says’ in the BSL game thread. The constant substitution from Turgeon does not allow for the offense to easily find a rhythm or continuity. When MD was playing the ‘Little Sisters of the Poor’ portion of their Out-of-Conference schedule, we liked that Turgeon was using a deep rotation and finding minutes for a lot of players. We did wonder however if enough minutes were being given to the starters, to allow them to really feel good about their games. As the competition has improved against conference opponents, Maryland’s turnover issues, and finding consistent offense is on full display. (Especially against physical, athletic teams like FSU, and Miami. I do expect Maryland to look better offensively Wednesday in more of an up-and-down transition game against NCST.)

4) Maryland was 18 of 57 from the floor, 3of 15 from 3, 8 of 17 from the foul line. They had 13 turnovers against just 4 assists.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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