Terps beat by Boston College; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The University of Maryland fell to 7-4 overall, and 0-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a 79-75 loss to the Boston College Eagles.

Former Terrapin recruit Corey Raji hit a critical 3 point late which helped sink Maryland, but ultimately the Terps lost this game on their own.

There are 15 regular season games left in ACC play, but losing this game will force the Terps to pull an upset somewhere on their schedule. Maryland’s only out of conference win of note is against Penn State, who figures to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten standings. If Maryland loses to Villanova in Philadelphia, the Terps path to the NCAA Tournament rests solely on what they do within in the ACC. Losing at-home to Boston College puts increased pressure on all of the Terrapins shoulders.

The Good:

1) Boston College came into the game with a zone defense that was collapsing on on Williams and daring the Terps to hit shots from the outside. Despite the zone, Williams found ways to score and also find shooters outside.

1a) Williams finished with a new career high in scoring with 27 points , and also had 13 rebounds. (According to ESPN’s boxscore, game telecast credited him with 20)

1b) Stoglin’s ability to hit shots (and willingness to shoot) from deep helped open up the BC defense. Stoglin finished with 14 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists.

2) Maryland went 10 deep today, with Howard & Stoglin into the game early and Padgett, Weijs, and Palsson all entering before 1/2 half-time.

2a) Good energy from Palsson who had a steal off of a defensive inbound, and hit his second 3 of the year.

3) Against an ACC team with a strong PG, Maryland was able to create turnovers. With those turnovers, the Terps were able to create offense from defense.

4) Dino Gregory was playing with good aggression. Hitting open shots, and flying to the rim. Outstanding week-side block of Jackson, when Jackson attempted a slam. Gregory had 14 points, 5 boards, and 3 blocks. Can not ask for more from him.

5) Maryland had just 9 turnovers tonight, which was especially good in an up an down the court game.

6) Bowie hit a critical jumper late, and then came up a steal and another basket. He also had 7 assists and 0 turnovers.

7) Josh Southern had averaged 16 points and 8 boards his last two games, but was limited to 6 points, and 6 boards.

8) Maryland won on the boards 34-31.

The Bad:

1) At times the same pressure and trapping defense which was causing turnovers was being beat, and Maryland was not getting back quick enough. This led to several open looks from 3 for the BC shooters. BC hit 13 of their 29 3 point attempts (45%).

1a) Overall, BC hit 48% of their attempts from the floor.

2) You can live with some turnovers, you hate giving away possessions by trying to do too much. Howard had a turnover that came off a spin move, mainly because he was looking for the larger play. Can’t have that with-in ACC play.

3) Tucker picked a poor time to miss two needed free-throws. For the game he was just 2 of 10 from the floor, (1 of 7 from 3).

4) Stoglin followed Tucker’s missed FT’s with an out of control possession, and than missed the front-end of a 1 and 1. He took too long taking his last 3 point attempt, and they should have been going inside anyway.

4a) I liked Stoglin’s aggression, but it seems crazy to me that he winds up with 17 shot-attempts, and Mosley, Tucker, and Bowie combine for 18.

5) The bench got thin in the 2nd-half. Maryland was playing a team that dressed just 7 scholarship players. I think Maryland could have tired BC out further by rotating in more bodies.

The Ugly:

1) For at-least the 3rd time this season Stoglin was handed the ball on an expected last possession of a half. Each time in those situations he has failed to create, and settled for a desperation heave.

2) BC is not a bad team. They came into today having already beat Texas A&M, California, Indiana, UMass, and Providence. Still, this is not the type of team that should come into your building and beat you if you have intentions of legitimately contending within your conference. I thought Maryland played fairly hard today, but there were numerous times they were in position to take control of the game and failed to do so. When you let teams stay around longer than they should, and you combine that with shooting 3 of 17 from 3, and 8 for 14 from the foul-line; you are going to lose games you have no business losing.

Up-Next:

Maryland will roll off 3 consecutive wins against N.J.I.T., North Florida, and Colgate before heading to Duke.  With or without Irving, it is hard to imagine Maryland being able to beat the Blue Devils in Durham. If you consider that game a loss, Maryland will be staring at a 10-5, 0-2 record on January 10th.

That will set-up a very important 6 game stretch between January 12th and January 30th:

1/12 @ Wake Forest
1/15 vs. Villanova in Philadelphia
1/20 vs. Virginia Tech
1/22 vs. Clemson
1/27 @ UVA
1/30 vs. Georgia Tech

For Maryland to be on-track to make the NCAA Tournament for the 3rd consecutive season, they are going to need to do some damage in these games. A win over Villanova would be huge. The Terps can also only lose 1 of those 5 ACC games.