Terps blow out UVA; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

With a 66-42 blowout win at Virginia, the University of Maryland Terrapins improved to 13-7 overall, and got back to .500 at 3-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

The Terps were carried by the Senior Adrian Bowie, who had Maryland’s first 7 points of the 2nd half, and finished with a game-high 22 points (including 17 overall in the 2nd half).

The Good:

1) While the Terps struggled to get the ball in the basket during the games first 5 minutes, I thought the tempo of Maryland was improved. They were looking to use their athleticism and push the ball.

2) Stoglin was doing an exceptional job early in the game of cutting without the ball and getting open looks.

3) At the 4:30 mark of the 1st half, Howard had a beautiful drive and dish to Gregory. He followed that up a minute later by knocking down a 3. In the 2nd half he had several more strong offensive moves, and showed active hands on defense. He had a nice game against Temple, but for me this was Howard’s best game since against Charleston in November. Howard finished with 9 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and 2 steals.

4) After Mosley got on the floor for a loose ball, there was an interesting dialogue between Comcast’s Ron Thompson and Junior Burroughs speaking to the strengths of Mosley’s all-around game.

5) Following two misses from Bowie at the foul-line, Gregory came up with a strong rebound and put-back.

6) Maryland got basically nothing from Jordan Williams tonight, and still crushed an ACC foe on the road.

6a) While Williams had just 4 points and 6 rebounds, he did a good job of passing out of double teams in the 2nd half and not forcing things offensively.

7) What a night for Bowie, as he finished with 22 points, 4 steals, 3 boards, and 2 steals. Bowie was 3 of 5 from 3 point land, and also got to the rim with regularity.

8) The perimeter defense improved when Tucker entered the game. Tucker added 13 points of his own, looking like an athletic mismatch for the UVA guards.

The Bad:

1) Immediately prior to the first TV timeout, Stoglin tried to force an entry-pass into Williams, and carelessly threw the ball out of bounds.

2) Through the first 12 minutes, Jordan Williams had just 3 shots and also uncharacteristically dropped a couple of interior passes.

3) As the first-half was winding down, Gregory came up with the ball with about 5 seconds left under the MD basket and threw it the length of the court. There was a lack of court awareness there.

4) Stoglin and Tucker both had mini-runs in the 1st-half, I would have liked their teammates to look for them a bit further for a ‘heat check’, to see just how hot they were.

5) As pointed out above, it was impressive that the Terps were able to blow out an ACC team on the road with basically no offensive contribution from Williams. Still, this was the 2nd game in a week (Virginia Tech) where an opponent did a good job of taking Williams out of the offense. The MD guards had good dribble penetration tonight, so I am frustrated that Williams was not able to get more looks.

6) Thompson and Burroughs did a good job pointing out all of the little positive things that Mosley brings to a team, but after being inserted back into the starting lineup tonight he had 0 points, on 3 shots. Maryland did not need Mosley’s offense tonight, but that production is still not acceptable.

The Ugly:

None. Maryland played with purpose tonight, and did what was necessary to get back to .500 in league play.

Up-Next:

Maryland faces Georgia Tech Sunday night in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets are 10-9 overall, and 3-3 in the ACC after beating Virginia Tech by 15 Monday night. With that victory over the Hokies, Georgia Tech has won 3 of their last 4 (Virgina being the loss) in league play.

Similar to tonight, this is a game Maryland needs to win. With a victory, the Terps will move over .500 in the conference as they prepare for Duke’s arrival on February 2nd.