On Senior Day, the University of Maryland Terrapins found a new low to this 2010-11 season, by losing to Virginia 74-60. With the loss, Maryland finishes the regular-season 18-13 overall, and 7-9 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

The Terps played like a team with shaky self-confidence, understandable after their loss in Coral Gables Wednesday night. Maryland tried to turn on their intensity late, but spent too much of the game playing with a lackluster effort.

The Good:

1) Outstanding interior touch-pass from Howard to Gregory. The Terps finished with 13 assists, and Howard had 6 of them.

2) Early in the game, Raycom’s Dave Odom remarked that he thought Stoglin was showing good effort on defense. Improvement with Stoglin’s defense is another example of the maturation in his game.

3) Jordan Williams is just an easy player to like. Not just because he is an All-ACC talent, and one of the best bigs in the country; but because he plays the game right.  Just love the way he runs the court, and the positioning he gets under the basket. 17 points, 6 boards, and 6 blocks today.

4) For the second-straight game Maryland found minutes for Parker. I’ve said all year I anticipate he will emerge next year. Giving him some time to end this year has to be good for confidence. On a Stoglin missed 3, Parker had the rebound and made a strong pass to Gregory for the basket.

5) After falling behind by 11 points in the 2nd half, the Terps also got Weijs into the game. This was an example of Coach Williams wanting to change the effort he was seeing on the floor, and a move I liked seeing. Weijs immediately contributed with a strong offensive move, and a blocked-shot.

6) Dino Gregory stepped-up on Senior Day just like he has many times during his Senior year. 6 of 10 from the floor for 15 points, and 3 boards.

7) It was a block party for the Terps, as Maryland finished with 10 blocks.

8) The Terps were 16 of 21 from the foul-line.

The Bad:

1) Somewhere between the scouting reports and the execution on the court; there is something has been missing with Maryland’s perimeter defense down the stretch. Consistently in the 2nd half of the ACC schedule, Maryland has been torched by 3 point shooters. Today’s Terrapin assassin was Sammy Zeglinski. The Junior came into today averaging 6.8 ppg, and shooting 36% from 3. In 11 games before today he had made at-least two threes. You had to be aware of him. Today he hit his first 5 shots, including 4 threes. He finished with 25 points, including 6 of 7 from behind the arc.  You give credit to him for hitting his shots, but you have to question the defense against him.

2) A Bowie FT closed the game to 44-40 at the 17:24 mark of the 2nd half. Immediately after that, the Terps allowed a 7-0 run to fall behind by 11 points with under 15 minutes left in the game. This Terrapin team has struggled with completing runs and getting stops when needed.

3) I thought Parker was playing hard defensively, but he was getting lost on screens. Some of this you have to chalk-up to his lack of time on the court this year. On the other-hand, if this happens regularly in-practice, you can understand how it could be contributing factor to the limited time he received this year. He also lost a pass with under 2 minutes left by simply taking his eyes off the ball.

4) At the 5:12 mark of the 2nd half, Tucker hit his first FT to close the deficit to 5. Tucker would miss his second FT. Williams missed a dunk, Howard missed a layup, and Tucker missed a 3 in successive possessions. Wasted opportunities.

4a) Just as frustrating as those missed opportunities, you could see Maryland playing with more energy in this stretch of the game. Were was that effort earlier?

5) Jordan Williams was 6 from 8 from the floor. The negative here is that he only had 8 attempts.

5a) For that matter, Stoglin just had 10 attempts. In four of the previous five games Stoglin had 20+ points. In each of those 20+ games, he had at-least 12 shots; including three games with at-least 14 attempts. Maybe he also should have had a few more attempts today.

The Ugly:

1) Mosley had 0 points (0 for 3 from the floor), while Bowie and Tucker were a combined 2 of 8 from floor for 10 total points. Just not enough production from the experienced guards of this team.

2) Virginia walked into the Comcast Center and leaves having shot 47% from 3 (8 of 17) on way to a 14 point win. Senior Day is a day to play with some pride. Maryland should have also been motivated to finish the year with a .500 record in Conference play. Instead the Terps lost their 4th ACC game of the year at-home, and 3rd consecutive game overall (all double-figure losses). That is as ugly as it gets.

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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