After several weeks of practices and scrimmages, the University of Maryland Men’s Basketball team gets their first opportunity to play against opposing opposition against the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, in an exhibition Tuesday night.
IUP was ranked 6th overall in the Sporting News Division 2 pre-season poll, so they obviously have some skill. Clearly the operative word in the last sentence was ‘Division 2’ though. This exhibition from a MD perspective, is about the Terps, and Terps alone.
Here are some things I will be watching for:
1) Freshman James Padgett went for 17 points and 11 boards yesterday in the Terps scrimmage, after getting 17 points and 7 boards in the scrimmage last-week. It will be interesting to see if Padgett can carry this over against the Crimson Hawks. IUP lacks size, and likely does not have a player with Padgett’s athleticism, so you would like to see a similar showing.
2) Probably more importantly to watch than any individual Terp player, is how Gary Williams starts to craft his rotation. Bowie, Vasquez, Mosley, Milbourne, and Gregory are obviously going to get their minutes as starters. To me though, it is the contributions you get from Hayes, Tucker, Padgett, Williams, JSC, and Goins during this year, which will determine the season MD has.
3) Speaking of Goins, will he be able to play at all? Speaking of Jordan Williams, can he build off of the scrimmage yesterday (11 points, 10 boards) and be a factor on the glass?
4) I am looking to see where the effort is. This game means nothing to MD, but they should not play like that. Even if the offense is not crisp, and they are sloppy at times with the ball, their defensive intensity should show. If they are forcing steals, blocking shots, and dominating on the boards; that will be a good indication of where their heads are. I thought The Sun’s Jeff Barker made a good-point yesterday, that not being ranked in the AP Top 25 (they were 26th) should give the Terps continued motivation to prove how good they are.
This is a talented team, but not a team that can just roll the ball on the court and expect to win against anyone. The Terps will have to have the mindset of proving how good they are every-night. If they do that, they can compete for the ACC title. If they do not have that mind-set, they will lose a game, or two, or three that costs them at-least seeding at the end of the year.
Gary Williams brings it everyday, and every practice (go read the reports of yesterday’s scrimmage, with Gary there in his neck-brace), we will see if the players have matured to the point, where they can match that intensity every-game.
After the exhibition against Maryland, IUP will also have exhibitions against fellow ACC teams Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech. Could be an interesting early measuring-stick for how the Terps will compare against a couple of other conference teams looking to contend with North Carolina, and Duke.
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