The Terps Led The Sixth-Ranked Team By 11. Then Virginia Shot 77 Percent.

Maryland lost 87-83 to No. 6 Virginia on Friday night at Xfinity Center, leading by 11 at halftime before the Cavaliers went 20-of-26 from the field after the break. The Terps are 1-2, 0-2 in the quality portion of their non-conference schedule, and they host Alcorn State on Monday.

Seventeen Of Twenty

Virginia shot 20-of-26 in the second half. Seventeen of those twenty makes were layups or dunks. Three were threes.

Walk the play-by-play from the break and it reads like a drill. Lewis layup. Lewis layup. Mallory layup. Gertrude layup. Mallory layup. De Ridder layup. Lewis layup. Lewis layup. De Ridder dunk. Carrere layup. Grunloh layup. Lewis layup. Lewis dunk. De Ridder layup. De Ridder layup. Lewis layup. Lewis layup.

Sam Lewis finished with a career-high 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting and did not make a three.

Maryland did not get beaten by a hot shooting night. Maryland got beaten at the rim for twenty straight minutes by a team that never had to shoot over anybody. The mechanism was pick-and-roll, and the Terps had no answer for it once Virginia settled in.

That is the part that should worry people, because it ties the first three games into one problem rather than three bad nights.

Georgetown made 15 threes – the most by a Hoyas team since 2010 – attacking switches. West Virginia made eight of its first 11 in the exhibition doing the same thing. Maryland tightened that up Friday, holding Virginia to 4-of-10 from deep, and the identical coverage breakdown simply produced a different shot. Close out harder and the roller is open. Help on the roller and the shooter is open.

KenPom has Maryland 78th on defense this morning, and 48th on offense. For a team sold on defense and questioned on shooting, that is the wrong way around.

Maryland Won Almost Every Other Category

This is the strange part. Pull the box apart and the Terps won nearly everything except the one thing that decided it.

	Maryland	Virginia
Turnovers	10	17
Steals	10	5
Free throws	31-39 (79%)	17-27 (63%)
Assists	12	11
Field goal %	42.1%	62.3%

Seven fewer turnovers, five more steals, fourteen more made free throws, and a four-point loss.

That is a complete inversion of the Georgetown game a week earlier, when Maryland assisted on 35% of its makes and turned it over 14 times against nine assists. The ball security and the line were the indictment then. Friday they were strengths. Thirty-one made free throws on 39 attempts is exactly the formula Williams’ teams have always needed, and the Terps executed it.

The shooting was still cold – 4-of-17 from three – but the shot selection was noticeably better. Maryland took 20 threes against Georgetown and forced most of them. Seventeen against a Top 10 defense, with fewer bad ones, is progress even if the makes did not come.

It also means the loss is harder to explain away than the Georgetown loss was. There is no variance argument here. Virginia shot 62.3% from the floor and 76.9% in the second half. That is a defensive result, not a shooting-luck result.

The Lineup Change, The Glass, And Payne’s Missing Touches

Williams started Robert Jennings II and Bishop Boswell in place of Tomislav Buljan and Mike McNair Jr. The logic tracked – staggering Payne and Buljan’s minutes makes sense against a frontline with Johann Grunloh and Thijs De Ridder, and Boswell is the best perimeter defender on the roster against a team with real guards.

It also meant Maryland opened against a 7-foot frontline with less size on the floor than it had available, and the rebounding went with it.

Virginia 33, Maryland 24. Outrebounded by nine.

That is the first time all season the glass has not been a Maryland strength, and it happened against the first opponent with genuine size. The progression across three games: 54 boards against Bucknell with a 28-6 offensive edge, 37 against Georgetown with a 19-10 edge, 24 against Virginia and a nine-board deficit.

Pharrel Payne grabbed three rebounds in 34 minutes. Jennings had zero in 16. Buljan led the team with six, off the bench, in 22 minutes.

The other thing the play-by-play shows is Payne disappearing after halftime. He finished with 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 8-of-10 from the line, working hard against a quality front line. But in the entire second half he attempted six field goals and two free throws. Twenty minutes, roughly eight possessions used.

That is the game. Virginia had three players at four fouls or more. Chance Mallory and Nolan Adekunle both fouled out. Maryland had the Cavaliers’ frontcourt in foul trouble and stopped attacking it.

The counterpoint, and it is a real one: McNair did exactly what he needed to do. After taking two shots in 21 minutes against Georgetown, he came off the bench Friday and took six threes in 18 minutes, made three, went 6-of-6 at the line, finished with 15 points and zero turnovers. That is the most efficient night anyone has had for Maryland this season.

Three Games, Three Shapes, One Problem

• Bucknell: slow start, trailed twice, recovered with a 21-5 run to close the half, won by 29.
• Georgetown: slow start, down 12 before halftime, never recovered, closed on a 19-6 run once it was decided.
• Virginia: strong start, led by 11 at the break, gave up 51 second-half points and lost.

The shape keeps changing. The constant is that Maryland has not played 40 connected minutes against anybody, which is understandable for a team finding themselves in early/mid November.

Some of this is self-inflicted. Williams has been using mass substitutions – five at a time, which he has called hockey subs – and said after the opener he intends to keep doing it for a few games. Against Bucknell that produced an eight-minute stretch without a field goal. Friday the rotation was noticeably tighter: five starters, House, McNair and Buljan carrying the load, six minutes for Baba Oladotun, one for Adama Tambedou, nothing for Austin Brown. That is an eight-man group, and it looked more like a team.

Virginia came in 5-0 with four starters back from a 30-win team and had not trailed by more than five at any point this season. They had four games of cohesion in the bank and were playing their third in six days. Maryland led them by 11 at home, in a building where the Cavaliers have won three straight, against a program the Terps have not beaten since March 9th, 2014.

A bubble team trying to find itself on the fly pushed a national contender for 40 minutes and lost by four. That is not nothing in mid-November of Year two of the Buzz era.

But a program of Maryland’s caliber does not get to feel good about close losses. Even up 11 at the half, the second-half collapse felt predictable. The Terps are 0-2 in the quality portion of their non-conference schedule with four chances left.

Where The Players Stand

Pharrel Payne. Twenty points on 6-of-10 and 8-of-10 at the line against a high-quality front line, after 28 against Georgetown and 13 against Bucknell. He has been everything advertised. Only three rebounds Friday, and the second-half touch problem is on the staff more than on him.

Kaden House. Seventeen points, three boards, three assists, 9-of-10 at the line. He was 4-of-11 from the floor and it did not matter, because he makes things happen – strong awareness, constant pressure on the rim, and he has now drawn six, seven and ten free throw attempts in three games. He is the most consistent perimeter producer on the roster. Through three games, the freshman is arguably Maryland’s second-best player.

Mike McNair Jr. Fifteen points, 3-of-6 from three, 6-of-6 at the line, no turnovers, 18 minutes. Message received. Now do it again.

DJ Wagner. The line reads quiet at nine points, but all four field goals came in the second half, he had five assists against a single turnover, two steals, and he hit his first three of the season after an 0-for-8 start. He got better as the game went on, which nobody else can say.

Andre Mills. Two-of-13 from the floor, 0-of-4 from three, six points. Hard to upset the sixth-ranked team in the country when your returning leading scorer gives you that. Three steals and one genuinely vicious dunk on Grunloh, but Maryland will not beat good teams on nights when he does not score. Through three games he is 12-of-40 from the field.  Flip side argument is that MD had a chance to upset UVA, with getting very little from Mills.

Tomislav Buljan. Eight points and a team-high six rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench. He has 23 boards in three games and continues to throw his weight around without lumbering.

Baba Oladotun. Six minutes, two points, one rebound, three fouls. The one shot he made was a short elbow jumper, and that may well be his spot. He has handles for his size but gets in trouble putting it on the floor. Maryland’s ceiling is tied to how much he grows between now and March, and six minutes against Virginia is not growth. Alcorn State on Monday is an opportunity to get him going.

Bishop Boswell. Two points on 1-of-4 in 24 minutes as a starter. He has a reputation as a lockdown perimeter defender, and Maryland needs that reputation to show up – Virginia’s guards got wherever they wanted in the second half.

Robert Jennings II. Four points, zero rebounds, four fouls and two offensive fouls in 16 starting minutes. A rough night from a player who has otherwise been a useful reserve big. He’s got to give you rebounding and defense in every minute he gets.

Alcorn State And Wagner: What To Get Out Of Them

Maryland hosts Alcorn State on Monday and Wagner on the 20th. The Terps will win both. Then comes Tennessee in Las Vegas on the 24th, the front end of three games in four days — possibly four in five — against the best competition on the non-conference schedule.

So these two games plus the practice time between them are the last runway before it gets real again. The wins are not the point. Here is what is.

1. Fix the pick-and-roll coverage. Alcorn State and Wagner obviously don’t have UVA’s weapons, but still an opportunity to work on something which will show as an obvious weakness from last night. Three opponents have now found the same seam and taken whatever shot the coverage gave them. Alcorn State and Wagner will run ball screens too, and the staff gets two live rehearsals to decide what the base coverage is and drill it. If this is not better by Vegas, Tennessee will do what Virginia did.

2. Get Oladotun comfortable. Six minutes against Virginia in early November is understandable. These next two games are games to force-feed him – touches at the elbow where he made his one shot Friday, chances to rebound and alter shots, minutes where the speed of the game can slow down. He is 18 in December, he reclassified, and he missed most of his senior season with an ankle injury. He is also 37th on ESPN’s 2027 draft board and may be a one-and-done, which means every game that goes by is a game Maryland does not get back. Simplify it for him: start here, then add this.

3. Decide on the starting five. Three games, three different lineups. McNair started twice and came off the bench to have his best game. Buljan was benched and led the team in rebounding. Boswell has started and reserved. Some experimenting in November is healthy; and some coaches move guys in and out of starting lineups. I’d prefer to see MD arrive in Las Vegas comfortable with their starters and reserves behind them.

4. Get Payne 18 to 20 touches. He has scored 13, 28 and 20 and shot 24-of-34 from the floor over three games. The problem is not Payne, it is possessions. Maryland needs an actual plan for feeding him when the opponent adjusts at halftime, and two low-stakes games are the place to build it.

5. Let Mills find the bottom of the net. He is 12-of-40 from the floor. Confidence is a real thing, and two games against overmatched defenses are exactly when a shooter gets right. He also needs reps at the thing he does not do enough: when the jumper is not falling, attack and get to the line.

6. Play 40 minutes. Not 25 good ones. The Terps have not strung together a full game yet, and the only way to build that habit is to build it when it is available.

The Four That Are Left

Six chances at a quality non-conference win were on the schedule in October. Georgetown and Virginia are gone. Here is what remains.

Date	Opponent	Site	KenPom
Nov 24th	Tennessee	Las Vegas	35th, 3-0
Nov 26th	Iowa State or San Diego State	Las Vegas	15th / 69th
Nov 27th	TBD	Las Vegas	—
Dec 19th	South Carolina	CFG Bank Arena, Baltimore	85th, 3-0

Three of the four come inside a four-day stretch, which is why Williams called this November schedule “more than you want as a head coach being transparent” at media day.

The Players Era has expanded to 16 teams, split into two eight-team brackets at T-Mobile Arena and Michelob ULTRA Arena, with the two bracket winners meeting for the title on Nov. 28th. The field: Alabama, Baylor, Creighton, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Kansas State, Louisville, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Oregon, San Diego State, St. John’s, Tennessee, Texas Tech and TCU. Eight of those were in our preseason Top 20.

Because it is bracket play, the Nov. 26th and Nov. 27th opponents depend on results. The one certainty is Tennessee in the opening round – a team we had 11th nationally, rebuilt around offense with Juke Harris, Jalen Haralson and Terrence Hill Jr.

Then South Carolina at CFG Bank Arena on Dec. 19th, the only one of the four on anything like a home floor, and the last quality non-conference chance of the season.

The math. Go 3-1 the rest of the way and the non-conference resume is in good shape. Go 2-2 and it is passable. Go 1-3 and Maryland arrives in Big Ten play with a resume that offers very little, needing to win league games their not currently favored to win.

Via KenPom, Tennessee is 35th with the nation’s 33rd-ranked defense and has not played anybody – their strength of schedule ranks 328th. Iowa State is the one to dread: 15th overall with the fifth-best defense in the country. San Diego State at 69th and South Carolina at 85th are the two genuinely winnable games on that list, and South Carolina’s defense ranks 82nd.

KenPom has Maryland 64th this morning – 48th on offense, 78th on defense. Among the 16 teams in the Players Era field, the Terps rank 14th, ahead of only San Diego State and Kansas State. Gonzaga, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Alabama, Louisville, St. John’s, Miami and Michigan are all inside the Top 25.

If MD lost to Tennessee, and beat San Diego State; they’d currently project to face Louisville on the 27th.

Before The Players Era Championship, MD has these two games vs. Alcorn State and Wagner.

Have to build off the positives from last night, and use these games (and practice time) to grow further before facing Tennessee.