Terps beat FL Gulf Coast; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Returning from Puerto Rico, and prior to up-coming games against Illinois and Notre Dame; the Maryland Terrapins grabbed a 73-67 win against Florida Gulf Coast.

With the win, Maryland moves to 3-2 on the year.

The Good:

1) Mosley used his strength on his 2nd basket, following a Padgett miss with an aggressive board and going up strong. After a Padgett miss at the foul line, Mosley had a hustle play getting the ball back for the Terps. The Senior Guard finished with 6 points, 7 boards, and 3 assists.

2) Auslander used his body well, protecting the ball, finishing and getting to the line on an early basket. He followed that up with a second basket to trim the defecit to 9-6, also had a good defensive play causing a FLGC charge. Late in the 1st half, he hit a jumper to give the Terps the 29-23 edge. In the 2nd half he had a good look finding Padgett.

3) Parker hit an open 3 to pull MD even at 9. Pankey was not able to finish, but Parker had a nice drive and dish to the PF in the 2nd. Had he not been fouled, Parker would have had a dunk that would have been all over the highlights tonight. As the 2nd half progressed, he was more aggressive on the glass and finished with 5 boards.

4) Thomas would also hit an open 3, giving MD the 14-11 lead. Meaning 7 of MD’s first 14 points were from walkons.

5) With MD up 14-13, Stoglin had a very patient possession, driving to the rim and finding Padgett underneath. Padgett was fouled and would get to the line. Coming out of a timeout, Stoglin scored his 18th and 19th points, which featured a sweet ball fake on his drive down the lane. Stoglin finished with 24 points, 3 rebounds, and had just 1 turnover.

6) After getting down 9-2, MD went on a 25-8 run to get control of the game.

7) Weijs did a good job getting back down the court to make a block in transition. In the 2nd half, Weijs put MD up by 16 with a a turn-around hook shot. The Senior Center finished with 7 points, and 2 blocks.

8) During the first half, Faust had two nice drives he was unable to finish. As the half ended, he got out ahead on a break and finished a dunk hard. He has the ability to finish strong, hopefully that lesson has been learned. Faust would put the Terps up 13 at 43-30 with another dunk in the 2nd. Really liked the defense from Faust on in-bounds. The Freshman finished with 8 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks.

9) Padgett had a beautiful drop-step dunk, and another good up and under. He would finish with 11 points.

The Bad:

1) 20 seconds into the game, the Terps were down 3-0. Every opponent is going to make some shots, what I hated seeing was MD beat in transition and giving up the open look.

2) The Terps suffered a 10 second violation at the 17 minute mark of the 1st half. There were a number of times MD had trouble with simple in-bounds plays, especially after the Eagles went to the press with about 10 minutes left in the 2nd half. Illinois, and ND figure to pressure the Terps in the back-court.

3) FL Gulf Coast was coming off a competitive 10 point loss to Miami, and had also played tight against TCU (1 point loss). They clearly had some confidence they could play with the Terps. The Terps helped build that confidence further by quickly falling behind 9-2, and hitting just 1 of their first 7 shots.

4) In the first 7 and a 1/2 minutes, Faust had missed each of his four shots. Three of them were 3’s. He needs to use his size and back down smaller defenders when the outside shot is not falling.

5) Many times during the game Maryland was too willing to settle for quick jumpers against the FLGC 3-2 zone.

6) Mosley had a decent all-around game, but after shooting the ball effectively in Puerto Rico; I was hoping to see him continue to look for his shot. He hit 8 three-pointers in the two games against Iona, and Colorado. Tonight he had just one attempt from that distance. Perhaps he was limited with an ankle he twisted in practice.

7) Padgett, Weijs, and Pankey combined for just 10 rebounds.

8) Up 67-60 with just over 2 minutes left, Stoglin had a poor look to Parker. The pass was too aggressive at that point of the game. On the next defensive possession, he would fall down. Up 69-64, he missed two FT’s. Up 70-66, he would miss two more. He finished 12-21 at the foul-line which is ridiculous considering his usual shooting ability.

The Ugly:

1) It has been a familiar refrain in these inital 5 games, but Parker was again sloppy with the ball. As physically talented as he is, he makes decisions indicative of a player that is playing without a lot of confidence. His FT shooting has also been abysmal.

2) Maryland finished with 16 turnovers, and lost on the boards 36-33. The Terps finished 22-37 at the foul-line. Way to many points to leave at the charity stripe.