What is up with Hayes? Every game I'm hoping that he will break out and do what I think so many people think he can, but he doesn't. He quietly scored 32 points in the tourney and had only six turnovers, but he shot 22% from behind the 3pt line. This was actually worse than the team average of about 26% (inflated by Neal's 4/5 or 80% performance). I guess my question is the following: Are Hayes and others just not playing up to potential or is the lack of inside threat going to allow other teams to cheat in favor of perimeter defense and thus we won't have much of an offense at all, aside from the erratic play of Vasquez?

The tourney was good for Maryland. It showed the reality of how bad this team really is and keeps them and the fans from thinking they will qualify for any post season tourney. Hopefully the big men coming in next year can help them return to a team better than "pathetic".

Obviously the tournament is good because you play good competition. At the same time, Maryland's flaws were horribly exposed.

No frontcourt presence (or even players who can catch a pass - Dupree anyone?) will make this team easy to defend. As you stated above, if Maryland hits their shots, they stand a good chance of winning.

If they can't hit their shots, they won't win.

What is more distressing however is how the Maryland program gets to a point where there is nothing in the frontcourt except for an ultra over-achieving player in Dave Neal.

Good job capitalizing on your National Championship Gary. Your recruiting since then has been awful. Lot more misses than hits.

Don sooner or later and preferably sooner, the in denial terps fans will realize just how bad this team is. They will also come to the realization that it will not get any better until Gary williams gets fired. I know people and probably you as well will say how can you fire a great coach like gary that has done so much good for the school the past 20 years.It's simple , as good as gary was for this institution he is just as bad for them now for his stubborn attitude and unflexable coaching and recruiting methods. Don it's imperative to make a change. Other schools have made very tough decisons to fire legendary coaches at there schools and Md better make that tough call as well. Personally it needs to be done with the football program as well.

Personally I am all for getting out there and taking on the best around and seeing what your made of and I like that Gary gives you that. Other schools will hide behind a weak out of conference schedule and then be exposed in conference. Don't get me wrong I HATE losing, but I had not making an effort even more.

I think it was a good tournament for the Terps to measure themselves against ranked opponents.

We were able to reconfirm that the Terps really have no inside game - will hope that next year's recruiting class can help this team move forward.

This is going to be Maryland's season. Up and down. With a young, inexperienced, and undersized frontcourt, Maryland will play well against smaller teams (like Michigan State who was missing their center and their power forward was in foul trouble) and struggle against the bigger, more physical teams like Gonzaga and Georgetown. Maryland needs to develop some frontcourt talent to go with the perimeter guys.

I think marylands big men can not play with anybody in the ACC. I think this fact is why the guard play is not doing the best it can do. A good big man is the same as a soild run game in football. I just hope the terps and get some top guys down low next year, So Eric Hayes without Greivis Vasquez "goes pro i hope" can lead them to the top of the Acc for his senior year

I did watch the entire Gonzaga game and think it was much closer than the score indicated. Maryland missed far too many wide-open shots. They were 1-13 form the 3 point line and missed at least a dozen wide open short to mid-level jumpers. Frankly, had they shot 40- 45% they would have won the game.

Georgetown was another matter. They did contest many more shots but even then, Maryland missed plenty of good opennings. Still, Georgetown is a far better team at this point in the season.

I also don't know what was up with Vasquez. Is it possible that the Georgetown defenders got in his head?

Finally, Maryland has not been a good shoting team for a number of years. If they shot like this the rest of the year they will surely have a losing season.

One last thought, since out "bigs" are not rebounding or blocking shots, why play them? Try for a smaller, quicker lineup.

I think it was good for this YOUNG team... It showed them what they need to do to win...

Waaaay Overmatched...Must Have Big Men...We're a couple years off at least.

First, I'll take some credit for suggesting on this site that Maryland had to go to the three guard offense after the loss to Gonzaga in order to get their best players on the court. Gary did exactly that against Georgetown. Frankly, a four guard offense similar to Villanova might be their best bet. Spread the floor, ditch the flex, press non-stop and run the Princeton (Georgetown) offense. Why Gary sticks with Hayes is anyone's guess. Why he is dissing Tucker is anyone's guess. Why Gary keeps rotating in players is anyone's guess. Play your best six or seven guys. Problem is, right now, Hayes and Dupree are starting and neither should be. Maryland's best players are as follows:

Vazquez
Milbourne
Bowie
Mosley
Tucker
Neal
Dupree
Burney
Hayes
Kim

Move one: Remove Dupree, start Neal. At least he can catch the ball, can shoot a three and plays with heart.

Remove Hayes and start Bowie or Tucker. Both have shown flashes of brilliance. Both can score in transition. Both play defense. Both can create their own shots.

Then, get out and start recruiting. Maryland needs a complete overhaul. Part of that is on Gary. Stop screaming. Start coaching. The flex is one offenseive option, not the only offense. Play zone. Man to man is great if you have the talent. You don't Start coaching and lose the stubborness.

the terps honestly got lucky in beating michigan state so soundly. they were obviously hurting without their primary big man. still you could see great stretches of potential. hats off to the young terps. even in the win, their lack of interior presence was too easy to notice. dupree seems shorter than listed. gregory is active but given only a reduced role, and i haven't seen enough of burney but think he should be allowed to work through his offensive shortcomings. his lack of offense has always been talked about, but his style and game really reminds me of georgetown's former nba player jerome williams. active, producer and defender who can find ways to score once given the opportunity. he seems better suited for a 'soft' team like this. they are all players but there is no aggressiveness on the defensive end other than bowie and a couple others. give burney more time, less leash and offensive opportunities. he made a couple of moves that didn't convert that made me say 'mmmmmm....' this guys got potential. i don't think dupree is the answer right now. or get beefier and play burney and dupree together. great guard play and hustle lasts only for a while until a team's will gets beat down. expect to see a few heartless terps games this year just for that fact alone. i would even say give goins a run and see how he comes along. and more importantly- give mosely the green light to shoot the ball. he is not looking to shoot or take his man off the dribble at all. he does NOT appear intimidated by any team or anyone guarding him and the opposing player is given the ability to Tee off on him right after they realize mosely is used only on defense and to 'run-the-play' since he has good hands and instincts and doesn't turn the ball over. as i predicted. the terps will have some nice moments but this will be a burn-baby-burn season. i almost fear the acc season...
--and i have to mention the play of eric hayes. he is definitely developing. he seems to be growing too—look out.

We go from here? Straight to the bottom of the ACC......

The tournament was great for the Terps because of the win over a Top 5 team, which is probably not going to happen again this season. The bad news is that it proved that we are not gonna get by with Braxton Dupree functioning as our lowpost presence. He's looking like the latest in the revolving door of soft big men we get saddled with - Tahj Holden, Ryan Randle, Jamar Smith, Travis Garrison, etc. We are in for a LONG season as currently aligned because all our best players are guards and we only put two of them on the court at a time, despite the fact that Dupree couldn't box out a mannequin.

Despite their massive deficiency in the lowpost, it's not as though the Terps don't have a lot of talent - it's just that the talent doesn't fit the mold that Gary tries to shoehorn every Maryland team into, personnel be damned. Gary's not much for messing with the formula - why else would be trying to throw the ball down low when there's no one down there who can do anything with it? The flex offense works best - some would say only works - when there's someone downlow who can cause the defense to collapse, freeing up the perimeter. This year - not happening...if anyone had any fear of Dupree, Burney or Milbourne before this weekend, that's long gone. Why aren't we running a four guard set regularly? I would love to see Gary throw out Bowie-Vasquez-Mosley-Tucker and one of Milbourne, Dupree or Gregory (whose looked better than his stats to this point). Just admit that you're not going to have a downlow anchor and just run the hell out of your opponent...at least that way you've got all your playmakers on the court at the same time.

Despite the hard thud at the end of it, I have to call it a good tournament. Our great effort against Mich St put us into the winners bracket, where our strength of schedule got a huge boost. Although the Spartans were without a top player, it was a thorough enough win that it might not have mattered, and the NCAA selection committee may not remember that Mich St was playing with a big man down when evaluating quality wins.

Of course, schedule strength, and selection committees only matter if the Terps are at least on the bubble come March 1st. No real size on this team, and poor shooting and tempo like last night look more like NIT.

Let's just find a way to win against the Wolverines, and use the remaining (mostly soft) pre-ACC schedule to figure out who really belongs in the starting lineup.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Gary has a distaste for recruiting and playing 'the game' and he probably always will. He won't hire recruits family members or friends for bogus jobs just to secure a certain player. Gone are the days of Pastos, Hahn and Dickerson who recruited exactly the type of player Gary could win with. After the National Championship our recruiting faded and we have struggled to say the least. The upside is Chuck, Booth, and surprisingly Rob have really worked hard and already secured 2 big men that I feel can help get us moving in the right direction. With the guard play we already have I feel confident that Jordan Williams and James Padget can really get us moving.

i think md needs to play a combination of burney, goins, neal, gregory and dare i say softy dupree with 2 of these "big men" on the floor at a time. kim should be used as a small forward until he can bulk up. milbourne and tucker have done nothing, though milbourne is playing out of position at power forward. and it might be best to have vasquez back at point where he can utilize his height over other point guards and use bowie as an off guard because he shows a lot of athleticism.

The Terps are in for a long season. I think that firing Gray is absurd. How many other coaches in the ACC have consistently put up 20 win seasons? Two, and we all know who they coach for. Easy to recruit when your school wears blue and is from North Carolina.

They will have to slash through the lane and draw fouls and kick out to the perimeter for threes. Much like against Michigan State. This only works if they can shoot! MD has to develop a solid three-point attack. Their lack of size inside is going to kill them. I don’t know if they can over come this shortfall this year.

Recruit a big man or two or three and look towards the future.

So we are a small team that has no true three-point threats and no inside game that turns the ball over alot. Sounds like a D-III team.

We in trouble.

Jordan Williams and James Padget will help, but they are both only 6'8" though Williams comes in around 245 with Padget more in the Ekeze mold.

It would be nice to land someone in the 6-10 to 7 foot range (knowing full well that they don't come along too often) with athleticism and a good pair of hands. Looking long range at Maryland's recruiting targets for next season and beyond, there don't appear to be any players over 6'9 in consideration.

Never in my wildest dreams would I EVER envision saying the following:

"I miss Will Bowers"

Marlyand is just flat out a bad team. I do agree that Tucker and Bowie need to be played more and Hayes should sit his butt on the bench because that is the only place he is useful. Mosely looked decent, but he also missed some wide open 3 pointers. I know Gary does not like to recruit, but he needs to get off his lazy butt or get fired. With future talents out there like Isiah Epps, TaranBiue, and Roscoe Smith, the potential for Maryland is endless. As a lifelong and crazy terps fan, it is frustrating to see the hoops team fail like this when they are only 7 years removed from a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP...... this was suppose to help recruiting.... NOT HURT IT!!! Yet we continue to lose top talents like Wally Judge, Dante Taylor, and Isiah Armwood to other schools because Gary is not personally recruiting them while other head coachs are.

The Terps will get better as the season moves on. Of course they are not one of the top 15-25 teams in the country right now. We played 3 top 20 teams in the tournament and beat one of them. It doesn't matter who was injured...the fact is MD won. Also, the same people that are saying the Terps are terrible are the same people who will come crawling back when they go on a winning streak in January or February.

Of course Gary needs to recruit better players and might need to change his style of coaching a little bit, but don't count this team out quite yet. With a team full of freshman, sophomores, and juniors the Terps will only get better as the season goes on. They will be above .500 in non-ACC games, will hopefully be around .500 in ACC games, and make a run in the ACC tournament.

So many people that just love to dump on when it's easy. The Terps aren't as good as their win over Michigan State might suggest- but they also AREN';T as bad as their subsequent losses suggest. Even in the Gonzaga game- I thought the Terps showed heart. They were dominated on the offensive boards, and that's what ultimately did them in- but Gonzaga was making EVERYTHING. Running jumpers and lucky bank shots 3's with the shot clock expiring. The Terps would play excellent defense, force a tough shot- and then not grab the rebound. It was very disheartening, and I'm sure, as a young (tired) team, they just weren't able to rebound against a tough- and pissed off Georgetown team. Being cross town rivals and so familiar with each other also hurt the Terps in my opinion. NOt that Maryland will intimidate anyone at all- but familiarity breeds comfort and when a better team is ALSO comfortable- AND motivated (after losing to tenn)- they will be tough.

The terps showed they can play and have alot of potential. I think they will take down Duke this year at least once, that's for sure. They'll rebound, as they always do- even with the naysayers constantly bemoaning they're losses.

They are young and have 2 tough losses- but against top notch competition. Maybe they got a little too high on themselves after their win, and just weren't prepared for their big loss to Gonzaga. Gary gets his money to get the team to focus in times like this, and I think he will.

Can we at least see a few more games before we start dismissing the Terps as having any post season potential?? Come on man...

it seems that the first opposition to a bball recruit comes from the yow(men's program only). in most progams the a d assists,at umcp, yow"dislikes" coach and revels in her "power". of course, if more players graduated, yow would then only need to watch out for the dance team.

No where, they stink plain and simple.

This all comes back to poor recruiting and blame lies solely with Gary Williams. It may be time to start thinking about the next chapter of MD b-ball.

Can you say recruiting failures?? Where's the BEEF????

Being a Georgetown fan, i'm tempted to ask what do you mean what's wrong with the Terps? But I won't rub it in. Couple of things jumped out at me. First Vasquez tanked that game. No excuse why your point guard is taking 3's he hasn't been making when the floor is wide open in front of him to penetrate and either pass off the dribble or take it strong and score or get fouled. Absolutely wasn't assertive at all. Personally don't believe he's that good anyway. Second, as many have said they have no inside presence. Totally a doughnut team: no middle. Third, there are no scorers on the team. Vasquez is it, but no one else can fill it either inside or out on a consistent basis. Their best option would likely be to spread the floor on offense, run a motion offense and press all over, but they'd likely still get hammered--can't keep anyone off the glass due to lack of height. Realistically the Gary era should draw to a close. He's never had much fire to recruit the top level recruits, prefering the over-achievers like Joe Smith, Lonny, and Juan Dixon. He completely dropped the ball on capitalizing on the National Championship and now routinely loses prized local recruits to out of towners: Carmelo, Durant, Beasley (two guys who crew up like 10 miles from campus), Austin Freeman and Chris Wright, Donte Green, Rudy Gay, etc. The rest of the college basketball world has passed Gary by and after 20 years he doesn't seem to have the fire to do much about it.