With images of beaches, and hula-dancers in their heads; the University of Maryland Terrapins will face New Hampshire on November 20th, before they head to Maui.
Last-year, New Hampshire was 14-16 overall, and 8-8 in the American East conference. This year, the Wildcats believe they are capable of competing for the league-title, and a birth in the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
An interesting stat is that they held the opposing team’s leading scorer under his season average 17 times last-year. Obviously that is a philosophy, which will be interesting to see against Vasquez and the Terps. If New Hampshire overplays on Vasquez, I will enjoy watching to see how Vasquez handles that. Does he look to get his teammates involved, or does he take it as a personal-challenge, and force shots? I think Vasquez grew-up a lot last year, and I would expect him to find his teammates who will make New Hampshire pay for such a strategy. This will be Vasquez reminding everyone that one of the reasons he is as good as he is, is that he cares about winning above anything else.
Last-year, New Hampshire lost by 10 at Boston College, and by 9 at Rhode Island. That experience might help make this game against the Terps, closer then most Maryland fans would expect.
What will definitively help New Hampshire through-out this season, is the International experience 3 of their players gained this Summer.
Junior Guard Alvin Abreu spent a month with the Dominican National Team, practicing against a number of NBA and Euro League pros. In his own-words he has comeback to New Hampshire hungry, with something to prove. He scored in double-figures 21 times last-year, so he was already going to be someone to watch. Expect him to make his game against MD as an opportunity to make a statement.
6’8 Junior PF James Valladares made the El Salvador National Team. Playing in the FIFA COCABA games, Valladares averaged 17.4 points per game, for the 5 game Tournament. That included a Tournament high 25 points against Mexico.
6’9 240 pound Junior C Dane DiLiegro represented the US, in The Maccabiah Games in Israel. Playing under University of Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl, DiLiegro averaged 8.8 points, and 5.2 rebounds over the course of 6 games. Those performances helped DiLiegro and US win the Gold Medal game over Israel.
This will be a good early-test for MD. The Terps will be playing a team that lost a game to an ACC team by just 10 points last year. A team that returns 4 starters, and likes to play defense. A team that has 3 players who gained International experience. A team with two bigs who could be difficult match-ups.
I would still expect a 15-20 point Terps win, but the ingredients are in-place for MD to be pushed a bit. A mentally-strong, and focused Terrapin team, will come out on the court with a purpose, and take control of the game quickly. In addition to what I mentioned about Vasquez above, I will be intently watching to see how prepared the Terps players are for this game, and MD’s bigs fare against Valladares, and DiLiegro.
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.