Sunday afternoon the University of Maryland Terrapins improved to 5-1 on the year, with a 76-75 victory over Villanova in the Saatva Empire Classic in Newark, NJ.
Villanova is name program.
Traditional Big East power, that has the pride of winning two recent (2016, 2018) National Championships.
This isn’t a vintage Villanova team.
It’s Year 3 for Head Coach Kyle Neptune, and they are still finding themselves.
This was loss number 4 on the season for Villanova, which includes a 10 point defeat to Columbia at home.
The Wildcats had the Terps down 12 at halftime, but MD was able to storm back and get the win.
A neutral court win over a mediocre ‘Nova team isn’t going to mean a ton in March, but it was still a notable for MD.
Gaining the knowledge that you can overcome a deficit, and even an entire half of poor play, is a valuable lesson to be learned.
Those are lessons MD can take from this game.
MD wound up winning on the boards, 34-30. The Terps had 16 offensive rebounds.
The Terps finished shooting 50% from the floor (28 of 56), after going just 11 of 27 in the 1st half.
MD was 6 of 19 from 3, and 14 of 19 at the line.
Kevin Willard’s squad had 13 turnovers for the game, but just 2 after halftime.
Derik Queen got cooking in the 2nd half, and finished with 22 points, 11 boards, and 5 assists.
Julian Reese had 18 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks.
Rodney Rice had 16 points, with three 3’s.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie had 12 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals.
Maryland now has two more tune-up games (Bucknell, and Alcorn State) before hosting Ohio State December 4th.
Some Early Numbers From Maryland Through The First Six Games
- Maryland is up to 31st overall in the KenPom Rankings. They have the 47th rated Offense, and 23rd rated Defense. They are 230th in Tempo.
- The Big Ten teams ahead of MD are Purdue (15th), Ohio State (18th), UCLA (22nd), Wisconsin (26th), Michigan (28th), and Illinois (29th).
- Eight Terps have played in all 6 games (Queen, Reese, Rice, Gillespie, Selton Miguel, DeShawn Harris-Smith, Jay Young, and Tafara Gapare).
- Malachi Palmer has been in 5 games. Jordan Geronimo has been limited to 4 games. Chance Stephens has been limited to 3.
- The four leading scores for MD are Queen (16.2 ppg), Gillespie (14.5 ppg), Rice (14.2 ppg), and Reese (13.2 ppg).
- MD is shooting just 30.6% from 3. Rice is shooting 43% from 3 on 5.8 attempts, Gillespie is shooting 36% from 3 on 5.5 attempts.
- Miguel is 5 of 22 from 3 (23%), after shooting 39% from 3 last year for USF on 5.5 attempts. Harris-Smith is 1 for 8 from 3. Young is 3 of 13 from 3. He did make 19 of 53 attempts (36%) two years ago for UCF.
- Miguel was held scoreless in the opener when apparently dealing with a bad ankle. He was also held scoreless yesterday. In the other four games, he’s averaging 12.2 ppg.
- Gapare had a season high 21 minutes vs. Canisius and had 9 rebounds. He has had 3 rebounds total in the other 5 games. Last year with Georgia Tech he had six games with at-least 6 boards.
- Gillespie has been in double figures scoring each game. His season high is the 24 he had against Marquette, on a season high 17 shot attempts.
- Queen and Reese are combining for 17.1 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per game.
- Gillespie leads MD with 1.7 steals per game.
- MD is making 72% of their FT attempts (91 of 126). Gillespie is 11 of 12, Rice 14 of 17, Queen 21 of 29, Miguel 8 of 11, and Reese is 19 of 27. For Reese, that’s 70.4%, which is a nice jump from the last two years, though his FT attempts per game are down from last year.
Quick Takes & Questions
- I liked Rice joining the starting lineup, and think he has to regularly get plenty of touches.
- In the loss to Marquette, Reese had 10 boards, and a block; but just 2 points on 3 Field Goal attempts, and no trips to the line. He’s probably the 4th or 5th option offensively, but MD needs him to not disappear offensively against similar competition.
- Coach Willard said after the Marquette game he probably relied a bit too much on his core, as he shortened the bench and played the starters a lot of minutes. I think that was true. MD also needed more balanced scoring (Queen and Gillespie combined for 48 of MD’s 74 points). The other thing which stood out is MD didn’t get to the line enough (14 attempts, Marquette 24).
- With the expectation that MD beats Bucknell and Alcorn State; Maryland will be 7-1 when they host Ohio State Dec. 4th. The Buckeyes are 4-1 right now. They’ve beat Texas, and lost to Texas A&M. They have Green Bay tonight, and Pittsburgh Friday. ESPN’s Match-Up Predictor gives MD a 57.1% chance of winning.
- After hosting Ohio State, and traveling to Purdue; MD will have three more Out-of-Conference games vs. St. Francis PA, Syracuse, and MD Eastern Shore. Then they’ll enter the rest of their Big Ten schedule. The match-up against Syracuse will be in Brooklyn. ESPN’s Predictor is giving MD a 70.2% chance of winning there.
- Queen has scored 20+ points in 3 games already, starting with the opener vs. Manhattan, and in the two games vs. Marquette, and Villanova. I find it encouraging that against the two best opponents MD has faced, he’s played his best.
- The currently ranked teams on the schedule are @ Purdue (#6), @ Illinois (#25), @ Indiana (#16), Wisconsin (#19), and Rutgers (#24). The Big Ten schedule will provide multiple tests, but it doesn’t look like an overwhelming slate of games either. If this is Queen’s only year in College Park, MD has to take advantage.
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.