Comcast SportsNet broadcast its Maryland basketball reality television show, "The Proving Ground," before Friday night's 89-74 overtime win against Vermont, chronicling the team's preparation for the 2008-2009 season.

This is what the Terps have proven so far after three ganes:

They have a lot more depth in the backcourt than they did a year ago. The improvement of sophomores Adrian Bowie and Cliff Tucker, as well as the addition of freshman Sean Mosley, gives Gary Williams some options if Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes are not playing well.

I think Williams needs to exercise those options even more than he has, especially giving Mosley longer stints to get into the flow of the game.

Their frontcourt situation is even worse than I imagined. Going into the season, it appeared as if sophomores Braxton Dupree and Jerome Burney were going to split time at center, and that senior Dave Neal would be used as a fill-in. As well as Neal played against Vermont, it was mainly due to the fact that Dupree and Burney were almost nonexistent. It's hard for players that size to be invisible on a basketball court, but Dupree and Burney were certainly that.

I don't think Williams is going to have the same choice against Michigan State in Thursday night's game in Orlando. If anything, I could see him replacing Dupree with Dino Gregory in the starting lineup. Gregory is by far the most athletic of that group, and one of the more athletic players on the team. Having said that, they need someone to score inside aside from Landon Milbourne.

Williams jokingly said that he found his center, referring to the way Bowie got rebounds and offensive put-backs against Vermont. But even Bowie admitted that the reason he went inside was due to the fact that he had a much smaller player guarding him.

In coming back to force overtime, then scoring the first 17 points in the extra period, the Terps also proved they might have a little more heart -- or a lot more -- than a year ago. Had Maryland lost, it would have been compared to last year's losses to American and Ohio, but Vermont was better than either of those teams.

Reality could set in Thursday when Maryland plays Michigan State, which if you hadn't noticed struggled to beat IPFW (Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne) earlier this week.

I know that there have already been some pretty big upsets this season, and Michigan's win over No. 4 UCLA will certainly be mentioned by Williams going into the Old Spice Classic. But there is also the potential for a blowout. Should the No. 5 Spartans play up to their potential, and the Terps don't, Comcast SportsNet might want to add a segment and call it "Stomping Ground."

I hope Dupree and Burney wake up before Maryland gets to the land of the Magic Kingdom.