A starting lineup?
Gary Williams insists that we shouldn't read anything into the lineups he put out there for the start of Wednesday's scrimmage -- Eric Hayes, Greivis Vasquez, Sean Mosley, Braxton Dupree and Landon Milbourne on one team; Adrian Bowie, Cliff Tucker, Dino Gregory, Jerome Burney and David Pearman on the other.
"We don't have a starting lineup set,'' Williams said of the first group. "There's no starting lineup in October. I'm trying to get this team better. What you are in October has nothing to do with where you want to be in January. So every day, you're trying different things, you're trying to motivate them different ways. This is a tough time of year for the players. You practice every day and you don't really get the reward of playing like you do once the games start.''
Though he changed things around later on -- switching Gregory for Milbourne during the second period, for instance -- I can definitely see that first group opening the season against Bucknell on Nov. 14. The only differences I can see is if Adrian Bowie plays his way into the first group, and Dupree plays his way back onto the bench.
Williams said he was happy with the way Dupree played on Wednesday. Though I was able to stay for less than half the scrimmage before going out to Navy football practice, the sophomore from Calvert Hall did look a little more active despite getting his shot blocked a couple of times by Burney.
"I thought Braxton did a good job today of staying aggressive,'' Williams said of Dupree, who finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds. "He's gotten himself in much better shape, so that allows him to play longer, harder. He showed a little bit of that today and on Saturday."
It's hard to see through the numbers that were compiled exactly where everybody is, but Milbourne, Hayes and Tucker appear to have taken a step up from last year and Vasquez looks as if he's struggling to get back to where he was last year after undergoing ankle surgery. He also might be having the same problem Hayes did playing off the ball last season.
According to the stats, the Terps shot 48 percent from the floor and 88 percent from the foul line. As a team last season, Maryland shot 46.2 percent from the floor and 70.3 percent from the line. .
Here are the stats from the scrimmage:
Milbourne... 8-18 fg, 2-5 3pt, 6-6 ft, 24 pts, 7 rebs
Dupree... 7-18 fg, 11-12 ft, 25 pts, 12 rebs, 8 o-reb
Hayes... 12-18 fg, 3-7 3pt, 28 pts, 7 asts, 3 t-overs
Mosley... 4-9 fg, 6-6 ft, 14 pts, 5 rebs, 4 stls
Vasquez... 6-14 fg, 4-4 ft... 16 pts, 3 rebs, 2 to, 10 asts, 4 stls
Bowie... 7-13 fg, 16 pts, 6 reb, 2 to, 9 asts
Tucker... 10-15 fg, 6-8 ft, 27 pts, 5 reb, 4 stl
Burney... 3-5 fg... 7 pts, 5 reb, 6 blk
Gregory 2-10 fg... 5-7 ft, 9 pts, 9 reb, 2 blk
Neal... 5-7 fg, 12 pts, 5 rebs.
Williams even admits that he doesn't put complete stock into these scrimmages.
"The thing that's hard and you really don't know until you go against outside competition exactly what you have, because then you can tell your players, you're going to play four or five minutes hard, then someone else is going to come in for you and give you some rest,'' he said. "Each guy has to play basically 40 minutes in this situation. They won't play that many minutes once the season starts."
Comments
I know the kool aid drinkers won't agree but that bunch listed above will be last or very near the bottom of the ACC.When basketball season rolled around in the past, there weren't constant questions of what the starting lineup was going to be. There weren't any issues of whether this team was going to be in the dance in march. There weren't any concerns that this .team was going to be in the final 25 poll at the end of the year. My My how the times have changed. We can't even be sure now that this once proud program will even get a NIT bid , WONDER WHAT HAS CHANGED
Posted by: bob lancione | October 30, 2008 5:26 PM
Don, what is the status of Goins and Kim. Are they not cleared to scrimmage?
Posted by: bob b. | October 30, 2008 5:35 PM
All teams go through slight declines. Unforunately, Gary didn't use the 2002 Championship or the 2004 ACC Championship to his advantage in recruiting. But Gary has a knack of making teams talented when he doesn't have the most highly touted players in the system (e.g. 2001 & 2002 Final Four teams).
Posted by: Kirby | October 30, 2008 5:45 PM
Good to see Vasquez is well below 50% from the field. He should easily get 7 or 8 double doubles this year in missed shots and turnovers.
Posted by: Bret | October 30, 2008 7:03 PM
How is 6-14 well below 50% from the field? Goins was playing in the scrimmage just not enough to do accumulate any stats. He looked extremely raw and out of place. He also seems very out of shape. Kim was on the sideline watching and I think they are making a decision on him really soon.
Posted by: Trevor | October 30, 2008 9:48 PM
Kirby - I have to disagree with your comments re: MD not taking advantage of the title in recruiting wars. The 2002 class (Caner-Medley, McCray, Gilchrist and Garrison) and the 2003 class (Fofana, Ebekwe, Jones, Bowers and Strawberry) were both Top 5 classes nationally. The players just didn't pan out because they were either highly overrated (Jones, Ebekwe and Garrison) or there were chemistry/character issues (Gilchrist, Fofana and McCray).
This led to the erosion in the MD record, which has now hurt them severely in recruiting. Maryland is not UNC. UNC can take three years off in recruiting like it did under Guthredge, fail to make tourneys and still not miss a beat due to the history and the number of players in the NBA that played at UNC.
It will take MD time to get back to that level and a lot of hard work by Gary and his staff on the recruiting trails.
Posted by: Dan | October 31, 2008 1:53 PM
The loss of Gus Gilchrist was unfortunate -- he'd have made a real difference for the 2009 season. Dupree, Burney and Gregory may play well, but they're not in the same class as Gilchrist.
You can't really be too hard on Gary Williams for Gilchrist deciding to transfer. It really didn't make sense for him -- he's talented enough to be a legit pro prospect in 2011, so what's the advantage in transferring again, sitting out next season, and getting 4 years of eligibility? Instead, with three transfers in three years, the scouts will have to question his commitment.
James Padgett, Jordan Williams, Taran Buie, and Isiah Epps would be a nice nucleus of young players to join Sean Mosely. That would take a lot of pressure off some of the less talented but hard-working Maryland players.
Posted by: samson151 | October 31, 2008 3:02 PM
This team reminds me of the 92-93 Terps. Solid guard play, restricted by under-skilled bigs (Kerwin/Burns). The team will be lucky to get to .500 in the ACC... but should be streaky enough to pull off some surprising wins. I hope the D'Antoni-style of offense Gary ran last winter shows up this year... because these guys should run, run, run.
Posted by: Brian Schneider | October 31, 2008 7:03 PM
i believe this edition for this year, will be fortunate to be 500 for the season. even so, i will watch and hope for the best. so many busts after the title. cant do that in big time basketball. not all garys fault.
Posted by: ron nixon | November 1, 2008 9:28 AM
i like buie and epps hope they come, but what about the real star like doron lamb,roscoe smith,tobias harris,will barton.What the odd getting guy like this to come play as well.2 of the guy are right in the back yard we need not to let then out.Guys like that will help us to get where duke and unc are at so people will fear the terps again.How and what do we need to do to get them.
Posted by: mike mike | November 1, 2008 9:37 AM