9 replies to this topic

[BSLChrisStoner]

Terps lose to Kentucky; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
http://baltimorespor...ife.com/?p=5247

[BSLMikeLowe]

Len and Mitchell are studs. Allen and Layman need more minutes. Howard and Faust need less minutes....a lot less.

Great showing overall though. They came back from 15 down and hung with the #3 team right til the end. I wish they were playing some decent teams between now and the ACC schedule though. This was their only shot to get a nice OOC win, and unfortunately the tournament committee probably won't remember that they mostly played well in this game come March.

[Mike B]

I am not sure about P at the point. Tough to be too critical as the guy is coming off a very serious injury. Hated the last play but that is going to happen sometimes in hotly contested games. As for Faust, he is a good player and will play major minutes. He struggled early but then made some nice plays getting to the rim. He must have cramped up a couple of times late.
Real learning exp. for the kids. I loved the way Charles Mitchell kept working undertneath. He seemed shocked by KY. size early but then started using his body and played with terrific effort.

Let's not throw guys on the bench yet. One game against a supremely talented team.

[mweb08]

I am not sure about P at the point. Tough to be too critical as the guy is coming off a very serious injury. Hated the last play but that is going to happen sometimes in hotly contested games. As for Faust, he is a good player and will play major minutes. He struggled early but then made some nice plays getting to the rim. He must have cramped up a couple of times late.
Real learning exp. for the kids. I loved the way Charles Mitchell kept working undertneath. He seemed shocked by KY. size early but then started using his body and played with terrific effort.

Let's not throw guys on the bench yet. One game against a supremely talented team.

Agree with the last point. 1 game isn't enough to say anyone should play drastically more or less going forward.

[Mike B]

I am not sure about P at the point. Tough to be too critical as the guy is coming off a very serious injury. Hated the last play but that is going to happen sometimes in hotly contested games. As for Faust, he is a good player and will play major minutes. He struggled early but then made some nice plays getting to the rim. He must have cramped up a couple of times late.
Real learning exp. for the kids. I loved the way Charles Mitchell kept working undertneath. He seemed shocked by KY. size early but then started using his body and played with terrific effort.

Let's not throw guys on the bench yet. One game against a supremely talented team.

Exactly, and I fully expect to see more of Allen at the point. Actually I liked the lineup when Allen and Howard were in together.

Maryland is really deep, so expect to see Turgeon play a lot of different combinations.

[BSLMattJergensen]

I'd be very surprised not to see Allen get major minutes at the point as the year progresses. He has an excellent handle, can distribute and hit the three.

Howard has been snakebit by injuries but he's not really a point guard anyway and more of a combo. Seemed hesitant on his stroke last night. I like Faust as well as a slashing 3 as opposed to handling to run the offense. I think as Allen asserts himself their roles will flesh out to better suit the team.

Most impressed with the frontcourt last night. Big bodies, aggressive, and simply outworked Kentucky under the boards. If Alex Len plays with that type of consistency the Terps will make noise in the ACC. I liked Layman and the versatility he brings on the floor and if the team needs to go small for match-up purposes he could slide into the 4.

It's very exciting to see the Terps restocked with talent and how the rotations will work out. It's still the first game of the season and offense is always a work in progress early. I'd expect the poor shooting to improve as well as the lineup rotations. Turge is still really seeing what he has.

The last play of the game got blown up by Layman's screen on the defender. I'd looked as if Howard was to use the screen and then dish to Aronhalt for a game tying three.

Great effort though as they acquitted themselves well against a national power. They forced Vitale to stop signing the praises of Calipari and his Wildcats at least for the least 20 minutes.

[bnickle]

Well one more year of Gary holdovers and then it's all Turge. Amazing that he has completely remade the roster over this quickly. Now, I think Padge and Howard will both have moments and contribute but IMO neither should be starting for us and probably won't come ACC time.

[Mike B]

I thought Padgett played well last night. He really worked on the glass and hit his free throws. He had one play where he went up soft when he should have slammed it home and that hurt but he really competed against the size Kentucky brought. I did find it interesting though that Mitchell was on the floor the last few minutes.
Mitchell played with a fire that reminded me of former Maryland great Buck Williams. If he brings that kind of effort all the time we may have something. Rebounding is largely about effort and want to, and Charles Mitchell brought it last night.
I hate to lose but I feel good about Maryland this year.
Let's give Howard time to play back to form. If he does not then Seth Allen gets a real shot.

[ravens8589]

Really thinking about it, Maryland only did a few things poorly in my eyes. One of which is the most obvious. They did not shoot very well and it ultimately hurt them. Shooting 32% is tough to win, especially when you shoot around 75 times. Faust, Howard, Wells all struggled shooting. Besides the shooting, the switches on defense were poor. Wijiter got too many open 3's, even after he had shown he was knocking them down. Poor pickups on switches led to that, but easily correctable.

Now, to not harp on the bad, let's really look at some good they did. They out rebounded a much taller team. They were faster to the ball and are a scrappy team. I love that. Charles Mitchell looks like he is going to be an animal on the boards. Alex Len, need I say more? That is a player who got significantly better in the offseason. I was also impressed with the freshman as a whole. None of them seemed to get really rattled in the moment, especially Seth Allen and Charles Mitchell.

I know Wells didn't do as well as everyone had hoped, but he is a slasher and it is pretty tough to do so on a tall frontline. He will do better as the season goes along, I have no doubts about that. They shoot better than that all season, this is a top 25 team, I have no doubts about that.

[Mike B]

Really thinking about it, Maryland only did a few things poorly in my eyes. One of which is the most obvious. They did not shoot very well and it ultimately hurt them. Shooting 32% is tough to win, especially when you shoot around 75 times. Faust, Howard, Wells all struggled shooting. Besides the shooting, the switches on defense were poor. Wijiter got too many open 3's, even after he had shown he was knocking them down. Poor pickups on switches led to that, but easily correctable.

Now, to not harp on the bad, let's really look at some good they did. They out rebounded a much taller team. They were faster to the ball and are a scrappy team. I love that. Charles Mitchell looks like he is going to be an animal on the boards. Alex Len, need I say more? That is a player who got significantly better in the offseason. I was also impressed with the freshman as a whole. None of them seemed to get really rattled in the moment, especially Seth Allen and Charles Mitchell.

I know Wells didn't do as well as everyone had hoped, but he is a slasher and it is pretty tough to do so on a tall frontline. He will do better as the season goes along, I have no doubts about that. They shoot better than that all season, this is a top 25 team, I have no doubts about that.

Good Post. I think this is a Maryland team that has a chance to get better. Maryland outhustled, and out played UK. Their bigs badly outplayed the Kentucky bigs. As you pointed out the shooting killed them but their is reason to believe that will get better.
Turgeon showed more of his style in one game then he was able to do all last year.
The better coach IMO sat on the Maryland sideline yesterday.