Terps crush Longwood; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The University of Maryland Terrapins had a tremendous win tonight, not because they beat an inferior opponent by 51, but because they continued to improve as a team.

The Terps shot 56% from the field, as they regularly passed-up jumpers, in order to get closer looks inside the lane. Overall for the game, Maryland had 68 points in the paint, as they scored 106 points overall.

The Good:

1) Maryland played hard, and smart for the entire game, which was impressive considering how quickly they blew-out the game out of reach.

2) Sean Mosley was 8 for 8 from the floor, and 4 for 4 from the line for 21 points. He also added 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. He was not forcing his offensive-game at all, just taking what the defense gave him. Was great to see him breakout with a strong scoring game. Pretty amazing that he came into tonight shooting 58% from the floor, and is going to improve on that after tonight.

3) Milbourne was 7 of 9 from the floor himself, for 19 points and 4 boards. He got his points, and only had to play 20 minutes tonight. The ACC season is going to be a grind, especially for Milbourne as he regularly gives away height, and weight. So it was good to see him not have to get extended time tonight.

4) Hayes quietly added 10 points (6 for 6 from the line), with 6 assists, 4 boards, 1 steal, and 1 block.

5) If the most important takeaway from tonight was Maryland continuing to take inside the paint; the second most important thing was the play of the Terrapin bigs.

5a) Jordan Williams played just 15 minutes, but added 13 points, and 10 boards. His spin and drive to the rack for the dunk was beautiful, and showed good athleticism for the big man. He does so many things well at this early stage of his career. He plays hard, he gets good positioning, he eats up space, he has solid hands. As he further improves his conditioning, and FT shooting, the sky is really the limit for Williams.

5b) James Padgett got 20 important minutes tonight. 10 points, 7 boards, 2 blocks, and reasserted himself as a valuable player of the bench. The Terps are essentially going with a 9 man rotation at this point, and it is important to get regular contributions from Padgett. As I have mentioned before, I think Milbourne will be even more effective in ACC play, if he can have a slight reduction in his minutes. The opportunity is there for Padgett to spell Milbourne some, and come in and bang against the bigger ACC PF’s. He will only be needed to use his athleticism, block shots, and rebound. Tonight should go a long way in again earning him that opportunity.

5c) Dino Gregory had 6 points, 7 boards, and 4 blocks. Four of his points were two viscous put-back slams. Gregory has a decent shot to the top of the key, but he often fires bricks when he is defended. If leaves that part of his game alone, and just worries about rebounding, and blocking shots, he really adds a lot to this team.

6) If the Terps are starting to hit another-gear in their play, part of the credit goes to the improving play of Tucker, and Bowie. They are becoming more confident, and aggressive off the bench. Tonight they combined for 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal.

7) Longwood missed a lot of shots on their own, but the Terps still limited them to 29% from the field. Maryland had 10 steals, 8 blocks, and forced 17 turnovers.

8) The Terps controlled the boards 49 to 27.

The Bad:

1) Maryland was just 23 of 32 from the foul-line. Vasquez was 3 of 4 from the line, but continued his recent spell of not looking overly confident at the charity stripe. He was 3 of 7 against FSU, 8 of 11 against Wake, 1 of 2 against BC; clearly not a ‘worry’ but something to watch. He made 87% of his shots last year, and entered tonight at 80%. As the Terps now enter the conference schedule full-time, foul shooting can make the difference between a W, and an L.

2) In a game like this, you wish that Steve Goins would have been healthy enough to get a few minutes. Even if Goins does not transfer during this season, it is hard to imagine him suiting up for Maryland next-year. Which helps explain the recruitment of Eric McKnight and Juvonte Reddic.

Here is a great article from Testudo Times breaking down those two players:
http://www.testudotimes.com/2010/1/17/1255932/checking-back-in-on-maryland

The Ugly:

1) None.

Up-Next:

Two extremely important home-games against NCST, and Miami. One game at a time, and that means the focus has to be on the Wolfpack who come to College Park on Saturday. Tomorrow, NCST faces Duke at-home.

As we discussed the other day, NCST is 12-6 overall, and 1-3 in the ACC. They might not be a Tournament level team, but their 2 point loss at Arizona, 1 point loss to Florida, and 3 point loss to Clemson shows they are not a team to be overlooked.

Maryland is becoming the team we thought they had the potential to be when this season started. They get contributions from a lot of different players, and when they are able to get turnovers, and score in transition, they are tough to beat. There are a lot of good teams in the ACC, but maybe only Duke can be labeled ‘elite’. There is an opportunity to do some damage in conference, if the Terps can continue to keep progressing.