20 replies to this topic

[BSLChrisStoner]

Heading into tomorrow's game vs. Boston College, the University of Maryland has lost 6 of their last 8 games. After this game vs. the Eagles, the Terps will travel to Virginia Saturday, host Miami Tuesday, and head to Atlanta next Saturday.

Should MD run the table against those 4, the Terps would be 18-10 overall, and 8-6 in the ACC, with games remaining at UNC, and vs. UVA. Clearly life is going to be even harder for the Terps without Howard. That said, MD has the opportunity to play their way into the bubble, if they can start to string some wins together. Can't string together multiple wins, without getting a victory over BC first.

BC is 8-17 overall, 3-8 in the league play.

After beating FSU on the 8th, the Eagles lost by one at VaTech on the 12th. BC has lost 7 of their last 8 overall.
The win over the Seminoles was obviously their best win of the year. The next best wins were against Clemson, and VaTech.

BC enters the game:

323rd overall in PPG: 59.7
327th overall in Rebounds: 29.9
270th overall in Assists: 11.6
273rd overall in FG%: .412

The Terps are:

166th in PPG: 68.8
81st in Rebounds: 36.5
320th overall in Assists: 10.5
192nd overall in FG%: .431

BC has 9 players averaging over 10 minutes per, and at 2.4 ppg and above.
The Eagles have 5 players averaging 8.1ppg and above, led by Jr Guard Matt Humphrey at 10.4 ppg. The Oregon transfer is averaging 31% from 3 point land (5.6 attempts per), and 61% from the line.

Ryan Anderson (Fr. Forward) is averaging 9.9 ppg, 6.8 boards. He has played well recently, with 11 boards against GaTech, 14 pts, 6 boards vs. FSU, and 17 pts, 7 boards vs. VaTech.

Freshman Guard Patrick Heckmann has not played in the last 5 games. He was their 3rd leading scorer, who put up 32 points against UC Riverside earlier in the year.

Another Freshman Guard, Jordan Daniels (5'9, 153lbs) put up 21 pts vs. FSU. For the year, he is averaging 6.4 ppg, and shooting 33% from 3.

The Eagles are shooting 68% from the line, and 34% from 3 point land.

[Mackus]

This will be a solid 15-point win that MD plays into a 5-point game in the last few minutes.

Stoglin goes off for nearly 30. One of Faust or Parker builds on their good games against Duke, the other takes a step back.

[glenn__davis]

Pretty tough schedule going Thursday-Saturday-Tuesday here, especially with Howard gone now.

[Slappy]

We should be able to pound BC on the inside. I expect Pankey and Len to have decent games here. This is an absolute must win, it's the one almost gimme left on the schedule.

BTW, I can't believe we're talking about a potential bubble team. I don't think it's really going to happen because I see no way we take 2 from UVa*2 and UNC. But just the fact that it isn't out of the realm of possibility tells me either that Turgeon has done a great job or that the ACC is just truly awful this year.

[8istheman]

One game at a time. Would love to see the Terps play hard for 40 minutes first before talking about NIT or NCAA.

[BSLChrisStoner]

One game at a time. Would love to see the Terps play hard for 40 minutes first before talking about NIT or NCAA.

No doubt about that. I should have kept all NCAAT discussion to myself in the opening post. Really was trying to illustrate that I would not be shocked to see the Terps go on a 4-0 run here this next week, and be in decent position for those last two games.

Losing Howard though is such a blow for this team.

I'm hoping to see Parker and Faust build on what they did against Duke, and see Pankey and Len have the games Slappy envisions.

[Mackus]

Stoglin with a 14-0 run all by himself! That's awesome.

[BSLChrisStoner]

Stoglin with a 14-0 run all by himself! That's awesome.

Over just 2 mts 45 seconds...... that is some scoring.

[Mackus]

Jesus the Terps are throwing everything in the basket!

25-2 run including 7 made threes.

[Mackus]

Lots of good passing and moving without the ball by the Terps so far tonight. Plus everything they throw in the air is falling into the basket, which helps.

[BSLChrisStoner]

Be nice if they could do what 8istheman said, and put it together for the full game. I really want to see them keep up the defensive intensity the rest of the way.

[mweb08]

The showing by the students/fans is disappointing.

[8istheman]

Keep the foot on the gas, finish them. Go Terps!

[DJ MC]

Faust with a great dunk to pretty much end BC's comeback attempt.

Final: 81-65, Maryland.

[BSLChrisStoner]

BSL: MD over BC, Terps grab 15th win; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
http://baltimorespor...ife.com/?p=3889

[You Play to Win the Game]

The showing by the students/fans is disappointing.

Agreed. I guess it's become obvious we're not dancing, so the fans aren't out in full force.

[Mackus]

Really solid game from the Terps. I know we're supposed to beat teams like BC, but they played hard the whole game and well for most of it.

Pretty much everyone had a good night. Pankey and Padgett were invisible in the first half, but Pankey played a bit better in the 2nd and Padgett was an animal on the offensive glass.

Stoglin's 14-0 run was very cool. Reminded me of when Vasquez scored MD's first 17 points or whatever it was when they upset UNC at Comcast a few years back.

I thought Faust did a decent job at the point. His ability to get into the lane will be a huge big asset when he's calm and settled enough to do something productive with the ball once he's in there. He basically always looks like he is about to have the ball stolen from him, but they only actually took it away once or twice. Parker didn't play as big of a role, but he was playing very hard when he was in. The sequence where he blocked a BC fast break from behind, then Weijs blocked the follow-up attempt was a great play and just pure effort on both Parker and Weijs' parts.

Len wasn't huge in the stat book, but I thought he played really nice game.

[BSLChrisStoner]

Agreed. I guess it's become obvious we're not dancing, so the fans aren't out in full force.

Attendance has been an issue all year it seems. Really mitigates the home-field advantage. It is one thing when you don't get a sell out in December when students are on vacation, and you are playing Mt. St. Mary's, another thing to have lots of empty seats vs. a conference opponent in Feb.

That said, I don't agree with it being obvious that MD is not dancing. Unlikely? Sure. Terps are 15-10, 5-6, with an RPI right around 90. I see MD splitting with UVA, and beating Miami and GaTech at home. That gets you to .500 in league play. You win one in the ACCT, you'd probably be on the bubble. Win two, you'd probably have your name called on Selection Sunday.

If MD can pull the upset tomorrow at UVA, the Terps will have more than a puncher's chance.

[Mackus]

That said, I don't agree with it being obvious that MD is not dancing. Unlikely? Sure. Terps are 15-10, 5-6, with an RPI right around 90. I see MD splitting with UVA, and beating Miami and GaTech at home. That gets you to .500 in league play. You win one in the ACCT, you'd probably be on the bubble. Win two, you'd probably have your name called on Selection Sunday.

If MD can pull the upset tomorrow at UVA, the Terps will have more than a puncher's chance.

I'm not sure I really agree with this. Even if we sweep UVA and then lose to UNC, we're sitting at 9-7. In a very weak ACC. We don't have any really premium wins, and our only good wins would be UVA, Notre Dame, and Colorado. I think we'd come up short barring a really deep ACCT run.

I guess that would put us on the bubble, but I wouldn't expect to be dancing. Maybe if we split w/ UVA and pull a miracle upset at UNC. A premium win would really make the resume look a lot nicer.

But that's a long ways away. I'll be really impressed if the team even gets to a .500 ACC record. With a .500 ACC record, there is no chance, IMO, that they make the tournament as an at large bid, even if we win three games and make the ACC finals.

[You Play to Win the Game]

That said, I don't agree with it being obvious that MD is not dancing. Unlikely? Sure. Terps are 15-10, 5-6, with an RPI right around 90. I see MD splitting with UVA, and beating Miami and GaTech at home. That gets you to .500 in league play. You win one in the ACCT, you'd probably be on the bubble. Win two, you'd probably have your name called on Selection Sunday.

If MD can pull the upset tomorrow at UVA, the Terps will have more than a puncher's chance.

I'm not sure I really agree with this. Even if we sweep UVA and then lose to UNC, we're sitting at 9-7. In a very weak ACC. We don't have any really premium wins, and our only good wins would be UVA, Notre Dame, and Colorado. I think we'd come up short barring a really deep ACCT run.

I guess that would put us on the bubble, but I wouldn't expect to be dancing. Maybe if we split w/ UVA and pull a miracle upset at UNC. A premium win would really make the resume look a lot nicer.

But that's a long ways away. I'll be really impressed if the team even gets to a .500 ACC record. With a .500 ACC record, there is no chance, IMO, that they make the tournament as an at large bid, even if we win three games and make the ACC finals.

This is where I'm at with it too. You have to beat UNC to have a shot, or make a miracle run in the ACCT. Either way, I don't see a way that either happens. They're just not deep enough. Regardless, I'm pleased with what Turg has done with this squad. I really think we've got a good one in Turgeon.

As far as the attendance is concerned, I think the attendance will be fine when the fans are convinced that meaningful games are being played. You see the passion is still there, in a losing season, when we play Duke/UNC. Next season we'll see a different scene and a lot more consistency at the Comcast Center, IMHO.