Terps Update: Let The Roller Coaster Ride Begin

I resisted the urge to plaster my blog with all kinds of negative criticism of the Maryland Terps 63-58 depressing defeat at the hands of the decidedly below average Miami Hurricanes. And boy am I glad that I did.

After shooting just 22% in a listless defeat to Miami, Maryland comes out three days later and hands #14 Clemson their first defeat of the year, shooting just short of 63% while pulling out the big "W" 92-87. The game was on ESPNU, so most of America didn't get the opportunity to view this win. I had my gamecast fired up, and was listening along with Johnny Holiday's play-by-play almost the entire game. A simple review of the Box Score and you'll get a pretty good impression of how the Terps rebounded from an utterly devestating loss.

Ekene Ibekwe pulled out a huge game scoring 20 points with 10 boards, 2 assists, and missing only 1 free throw. I remember games last year, where Ekene would consistently brick 7 out of 8 from the charity stripe. It's nice to see his measured improvement. I'll be the first to say: I laughed for hours when I read that he was going to declare for the NBA draft last year. He was getting out-rebounded by smaller players, couldn't get to the charity stripe enough, didn't convert when he did, had limited low-post moves, repeatedly got out-hustled, and had no consistent shot to lean on when he was getting shut down. Certainly not characteristics of an NBA draft pick. And while, I still doubt he's NBA material, his improvement has been noticeable.

D.J Strawberry also had a nice line scoring 14 points, with 4 boards and 6 assists. Hayes hit a huge three, and Jones, Gist, and Vasquez all contributed with double digit point totals and a myriad of key dishes and boards. And thus, the roller coaster ride begins. Which Maryland team will show up on any given night? It's difficult to tell, but let's hope that the Miami game was just a deviation from the norm!

The new ESPN/USA Today poll has the Terps jumping up from #25 to #22, despite a 1-1 week. Virginia Tech has landed at #25 with convincing victories over Duke and North Carolina back to back. I wouldn't place too much stock into the polls however, as Duke still sits at #17 despite losing back to back games last week against lackluster competition. It increasingly appears that as many as 6 teams could be in the hunt for the ACC Regular Season crown as the season narrows to an end. I wonder if this will have any NCAA tourney bound ramifications come March?


Up next: 1/16/07 @ Virginia 8 p.m.



Virginia owns two big wins this year. A 93-90 victory over Arizona to open their new building, and a 108-87 drubbing of a vastly over-rated Gonzaga team. They've got two lights-out guards in Sean Singletary and J.R Reynolds. Expect D.J. Strawberry to consistently check off with Singletary. A key match-up will be whomever the Terps send to get a hand in the face of J.R. Reynolds. Virginia's leading big man is Jason Cain, who averages 6.0 boards in only 19 minutes of play, but has been restricted in numerous contests by foul trouble.

Maryland keys to the game:
1. Maryland's ability to defend the 3.
2. Maryland needs to cut down turnovers (20 TO's in a win over Clemson).
3. Defend the paint (Ibekwe, Gist, Osby and Bowers need to do a consistent job of boxing out Virginia's bigs and forcing them out to the perimeter).

I predicted that Maryland would win the Miami game going away. Obviously, I've eaten my fair share of crow. Thus, I'm going to stick to post game commentary and analysis and leave the predictions to Jerry Porter, TO and all the sports writers at ESPN.