Power outage
After watching the first five Maryland games this season, I have come to the realization that the Terps are missing more than just a true center.
They don't have a legitimate power forward either.
Landon Milbourne is one of the team's best athletes, but he's as much out of position at power forward as both Braxton Dupree and Dave Neal are at center. Tonight's 81-59 defeat to Gonzaga was an indication of things to come for Maryland.
The 'Zags took advantage of their size, strength and length inside. Josh Heytvelt had 22 points, Austin Daye scored 17 points and each had nine rebounds. The Terps had no answers for either of them.
On how many possessions did it seem as if Gonzaga got three, four or even five shots?
The play of Milbourne this season had been overshadowed by the 4-0 start. Since scoring 16 points in the season opener against Bucknell, he fouled out against Youngstown State and Vermont. He was pretty ineffective against both Michigan State and Gonzaga.
At 6 feet 7 and 207 pounds, Milbourne is built to play against small forwards, not power forwards with any kind of athleticism. One of the reasons the Terps were able to upset the Spartans was the absence of Goran Suton and Raymar Morgan's foul trouble.
It's not going to get any easier on Sunday, when Maryland plays Georgetown in the tournament's consolation game. Milbourne will probably be matched up with 6-foot-8, 235-pound DaJuan Summers, the former McDonogh star who is now coming into his own with the Hoyas.
I'll have more tomorrow on the Maryland-Georgetown matchup, the first between the two schools since the 2001 NCAA tournament and the first regular-season matchup since Joe Smith's debut back in the 1993-94 season.
Comments
don.... if you are just figuring out md doesn't have a power forward you need to find another line of work. they have no center no power forward and there not that athletic.
Posted by: fkterp | November 29, 2008 8:59 AM
Milbourne= All Airport Team
Posted by: sugarbear | November 29, 2008 9:49 AM
Don,
Where have you been? People have been saying this for the last year. Gary has not been able to recruit big men. The Terps are woefully undersized and one could argue they have at least four players that are, at best, mid major players (Neal, Dupree, Burney and Gregory not to mention the guy that transferred after last season). Personally, I would add Hayes to that list. Ironically, their best rebounder right now is a guard: Mosley. Gary will have no choice but to go to a three or four guard offense and ditch or revamp the flex offense he loves so much. Unfortunately, Gary will not remove Hayes, who played 34 minutes against Gonzaga. At least half of those minutes should be going to Mosley, Tucker and Bowie, all of who can create points on their own. Hayes cannot. Poor recruiting and playing favorites is a bad combo. In the MSU game, Hayes failed to hustle on several plays. Had that been Tucker or Dupree, they would have been sitting for a long time.
Posted by: Go Terps | November 29, 2008 10:26 AM
Agree! The lack of a true center has long been a problem at Maryland. All the Big men they have recruited over the years have all seemed to be "projects". For once I would like to see a big time 6-10 + guy come in here and clean up inside. The problem with that is that big guys with that kind of talent rarely stay around to graduate. It is hard to find someone of that size that can be dominant in the ACC. If you do find that guy then he is one and done.
Hopefully Burney and Goins will seize control of the opurtunity in front of them. Dupree seems tenative and lacks height and hands.
Last night Maryland looked so much smaller than the Zags at nearly every posistion. Is Gonzaga a freak team or more of the norm in division I? Gonzaga deserves a lot of credit, thier big men can shoot from nearly anywhere and will surely be a big time threat in March
It would appear that for now Maryland will live and die by the three.
Posted by: Dave | November 29, 2008 11:58 AM