Any basketball player can miss, say, nine shots in a row. What sets the good ones apart is that they don't unravel. They compose themselves and find the confidence and focus and fortitude to convert the 10th if the situation demands it.

That ability -- to regain one's footing, to stay in the moment -- is the essence of one of the questions Gary Williams was asking Tiger Woods the other day.

Williams and Chick Hernandez had the opportunity to question Woods on Comcast SportsNet at the AT&T National.

Said Williams: "In basketball, you have to move on to the next play. You can yell at a referee -- every once in awhile I'll do that. But the next play is happening while you do that."

Woods said he'll look at the scenery, gauge the wind and begin assessing the next shot. The key is not to get stuck reliving a difficult moment.

Williams said he heard that Woods' father told his son he had 12 steps to forget a botched shot.

Said Woods: "It was his way of saying, 'Get over it.'"

Handout photo courtesy of Comcast SportsNet.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:59 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Schools were once dazzled by Lance Stephenson, New York State's boys career scoring leader. Maryland took a long, hard look. So did many others.

But, one by one, schools pulled out of the running. The Baltimore Sun reported on June 15 that Maryland was no longer recruiting him.

Colleges were wary of the recruit in part because of an Internet reality series called Born Ready. Some schools worry the NCAA may question an athlete's involvement with such a site. There was also concern about a misdemeanor sexual assault charge.

But there will always be a suitor for a basketball talent as enticing as Stephenson. And yesterday, Stephenson found his match. He will play for the University of Cincinnati.

"We are very excited about Lance's decision to become a Bearcat," Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said in a written statement. "Lance has terrific talent as a basketball player, and is also a fierce competitor on the court. His desire to win will help us compete for a BIG EAST Championship."

More from Cronin: "As a big guard, Lance brings playmaking ability and versatility to our team, along with his talent for scoring. We look forward to getting Lance here for summer school and building our team for the upcoming season."

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:41 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Sure, it's 90 degrees out. But what is stopping us from looking ahead for a moment to the hoops season? Absolutely nothing. So let's proceed.

What do you think of Gary Williams' recent tweet? The one where he said: "With Greivis (Vasquez) back and our 09' class and the rest of our team improving every day, I truly believe we have the chance to be top 25 next year."

Here's my take:

Maryland could be a top 25 team, but some things would need to happen.

Greivis coming back is welcome news for Maryland, but it still needs more offense. The Terps certainly hustle on defense -- trapping and pressing and clogging the lane. But what happens when they get into a shootout such as when North Carolina hit 11 of its first 14 three-point attempts to begin a 108-91 victory in Chapel Hill?

Maryland needs more scoring options. Sean Mosley averaged 5.3 points per game and Adrian Bowie averaged 9.0. The Terps need more scoring from these backcourt guys not named "Vasquez." Note: an improving Eric Hayes averaged 10.3 points.

I'm looking at Mosley and Bowie -- and Landon Milbourne-- as sources of more scoring. I think the Terps need to have at least two of these three players pick it up offensively.

And it could well happen. Mosley, a freshman, is such a hard worker and does other things so well, particularly rebound. But he was 5-for-21 on threes (23.8 percent). We've all seen players make big strides once their freshmen season is behind them.

Bowie, so speedy to the basket, can also improve his outside game. He was 13 of 58 on threes (22.4 percent).

Continue reading "A look ahead to Terps hoops season" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (27)
        

You heard it here first, folks. Lance Stephenson is no longer being recruited by Maryland. I filed a story for today's paper on this, but let me give you more if I can.

My sources say Stephenson hasn't been in the recruiting picture for about three weeks. One source said flatly that Stephenson will not be a Terrapin.

This story was slow in developing. I began to get curious when I was a guest on Jerry Coleman's radio show on Baltimore's Fox 1370 on the same day Gary Williams did a call-in interview a few weeks ago. Coleman asked Williams whether the makeup of next year's team was uncertain.

Replied Williams: "I've got a pretty good idea. I don't know how hard we're waiting, let's put it that way."

Williams was not free to go further. But doesn't that sound like a hint? Obviously I couldn't write something based on a whim, and it took some time to confirm it.

Stephenson is obviously a talent. I don't know all the reasons behind Maryland's decision to stop pursuing him. I wish I did. Much of it remains private.

But I would say this, folks. Recruiting isn't just about bringing in the best player. Programs have to consider whether the player has baggage, what it takes to get him and whether he fits into the system you're running. You think Maryland wouldn't pursue a player as talented as Born Ready without a sound reason?

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

What a pleasant, sunny day at Comcast Center yesterday.

Greivis Vasquez was back and happy. His teammates -- some were milling around, others were running sprints on an adjacent field -- wore smiles.

I think most suspected Vasquez wouldn't stay in the NBA draft and would return for his senior season. "I thought he would (remain)," Eric Hayes said. Gary Williams had said much the same thing.

But still. You never know when an itchy NBA team will get a covetous feeling about a player and whisper in his ear.

Gary Williams said he was perfectly prepared to say goodbye to Greivis if the player got a top-20 draft nibble. But I don't think the coach expected that to happen. And neither did most of you Terps fans.

Say what you will about Greivis and his personality -- mercurial? passionate? hot-headed? I think the guy really works to improve himself. He knows all about the turnovers and knows he must improve his shot. I expect him to return a better player this year.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

The long-anticipated meeting of Greivis Vasquez and Maryland coaches is ongoing. Obviously it's private.

But I'll get you a verdict as soon as I get it.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 2:46 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Greivis Vasquez has until 5 p.m. today to decide whether to remain at Maryland or keep his name in the NBA draft.

My theories on why the announcement came down to the last day:

*I think Greivis decided the smart strategic move was to keep everybody in suspense. That way, he could potentially exact a higher price from any interested NBA teams because his status was uncertain. You try to use any leverage you can get.

*He wanted to take full advantage of the workout process with NBA teams. The process is good for his game -- he got lots of feedback from NBA coaches -- and he seems to have genuinely enjoyed it. He had workouts scheduled right up until the final weekend.

*I think there were genuinely some mixed feelings about the decision. Pros and cons either way, although I've said before that it's probably best for him to return to college and continue to work on his game, particularly in such a guard-heavy draft.

I was told over the weekend there was a meeting scheduled between Greivis and coach Gary Williams, but no details available yet. We'll keep you posted today. Obviously this is an important decision for the Terps. I could be proved wrong, but it doesn't seem these days that recruit Lance Stephenson fits into Maryland's plans, or vice-versa.

While this situation is still fluid, consider these comments that Gary Williams made a few weeks ago. He was asked by Jerry Coleman of Fox 1370 in Baltimore whether the makeup of next year's team was uncertain.

Williams: "I've got a pretty good idea. I don't know how hard we're waiting, let's put it that way."

The Terps could really use Vasquez's ability to create shots for himself and, just as important, for others.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:08 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

First, let me tell you the latest from Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez's road tour as he visits NBA teams.

*Greivis continues to work out for teams. Most recently, he attended a workout of some 10 clubs. His schedule has been pretty frenetic.

*He recently met Larry Bird. This was a big moment for him. The former NBA great is the Indiana Pacers team president.

*Vasquez hasn't made up his mind yet. "He's not leaning one way or another," said Stu Vetter, his former high school coach at Montrose Christian. "It's definitely going to come down to the last day or two."

The deadline to decide is two weeks away. One advantage to waiting until the very end is that it gives Vasquez some leverage.

Consider what happens if an NBA team covets Vasquez. If he is still seriously considering returning for his senior season, the team may need to up the ante to secure his remaining in the draft.

Having said all that, I believe Vasquez will likely remain at Maryland. One reason is the abundance of quality point guards in this year's draft. Another is that Vasquez feels at home at Maryland. If he believes it will benefit his draft position to come out next year instead of this one, that's what he will do.

Continue reading "Looking at Vasquez and Born Ready" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

Thoughts after watching Greivis Vasquez work out with the Wizards and talking with him afterward:

*You get the sense that this process of working out with NBA teams will be good for Greivis even if he returns to Maryland. I had never attended one of these sessions before so I didn't realize that prospects can get some feedback from guys who really know hoops. Vasquez's session was run by Washington coach Flip Saunders with help from former NBAers Sam Cassell and Gene Banks.

"Show them how they do it at Maryland, baby," Banks, who played at Duke, yelled to Vasquez during one of the drills. Banks was not shy about offering encouragement or pointers to Vasquez and other players on hand.

Greivis seemed not only comfortable but buoyant afterward.

In the two-on-two drills, he had pretty easily taken the other prospects to the hoop. Remember that there were no big men in the drills to guard the lane. Vasquez's outside shot was not great in the scrimmages, but he looked good from behind the arc during shooting drills. He made nine of 14 uncontested shots from behind the line during one drill.

Vasquez said there is no downside to working out -- this was his third such "tryout" -- for NBA teams and going against such talents as Kentucky's Jodie Meeks and North Carolina's Wayne Ellington.

Continue reading "More on Greivis and the NBA" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Maryland guard Greivis Vasquez will work out for the Washington Wizards Thursday -- part of his NBA tour to decide if he'll leave his name in the draft or return for his senior season in College Park.

The Wizards said the workout will last about an hour.

Also working out for the club tomorrow are three other guards -- LSU's Marcus Thornton, Kentucky's Jodie Meeks and Mississippi's David Huertas.

Like other NBA clubs, the Wizards may invite as many as 40 to 60 players to work out before the June 25 draft. So this should not be taken as a sign of serious interest. If Washington did select him, it wouldn't be in the first round. The Wizards hold the fifth pick.

Vasquez is also scheduled to attend a pre-draft combine in Chicago on May 27-31.

The 6-foot-6 guard from Caracas, Venezuela -- who led the Terps in scoring, assists and rebounds -- has not hired an agent and could still opt to return to school in the fall.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 5:52 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

*Steve Goins, the 6-foot-10 center, had been expected to transfer but it hasn't happened yet. I'm told now that he may remain with the Terps. Some fan sites jumped the gun by saying he was already gone. We'll see.

*Jerome Burney is still bothered by a stress fracture. It's been hard for coaches to evaluate Burney because he has been sidelined so much. He played in nine games and averaged 0.9 points.

*Maryland coaches are hopeful that incoming freshmen Jordan Williams and James Padgett will be able to contribute early in their careers. They may need to.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:36 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

So Braxton Dupree is a Towson Tiger.

I asked him yesterday about his Maryland experience.

High point? He said it was the wins over North Carolina, one in his freshman season and one this past season.

Low points? After starting out well in his freshman year, he struggled with consistency and with his weight. Remember that Dupree scored 14 points in his first game as a starter, followed by 10 points the next game.

The next game was a loss to VCU at Verizon Center in which he started but scored only three points with one rebound in 12 minutes. He scored three points the next game, too (against Morgan State). He had trouble regaining momentum after that.

Dupree told me: "I just felt like if I had taken better advantage of my initial opportunity by being more consistent, then we wouldn't be having this conversation right now."

Give Dupree credit for this: he lost 20-25 pounds and moved better his sophomore season. But that, it seems, came too late to salvage his Maryland career.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Everybody remember Tyree Evans and Gus Gilchrist, the two almost-Terps?

Both of their recruitments came with issues -- neither was simple. As you know, there was a war of words between Gary Williams and the athletic department last season over why Evans and Gilchrist didn't end up playing for Maryland.

Since this is the offseason, I wanted to check up on how these guys did.

*Evans played for Kent State, starting eight games and averaging 11.7 points per game. He was solid from the three-point line, shooting 39.9 percent on 158 attempts.

*Gilchrist started a dozen games for South Florida and averaged 10.2 points and 4.4 rebounds a game.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:21 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Here are notes from Greivis Vasquez's world as the junior guard begins the process of working out for a series of NBA teams. I've filed a story about Vasquez's schedule, which includes attending a pre-draft camp in Chicago on May 27-31. Here are some items not in the story:

*The pre-draft camp is more of a combine than a camp. It's about getting weighed and measured and doing drills. Players typically do agility tests and sprints and get their body fat indexed. Participants are not scheduled to play actual games this year.

The NBA says the testing is "anthropometric." That's AN-THRO-POM-ET-RIC, meaning related to bodily proportions. Thanks, NBA. Miss Myers, my eighth-grade english teacher, would be so delighted I learned a new word.  

So what is the camp's point, you ask? It's just more information for the NBA teams. Supplemental data, really. I don't think teams make decisions based on these combines, but the data might steer them in one direction or another.

*Schools like Maryland are in an odd position. Obviously Maryland would like for Greivis to stay for his senior season. At the same time, the school says it is helping Greivis make an informed decision -- the right decision for him. Can Maryland do both those things at once? You be the judge.

*Is it significant that the Wizards told me they're interested in Greivis? Not so much. The Wizards didn't say they were interested in drafting Greivis, but rather in bringing him to Verizon Center for a workout. The team is likely to bring in dozens of players before the draft. They brought in four players Wednesday and they've scheduled more workouts for next Monday, Thursday and Friday.

*The last word is yours. Do you think The Excitable One is coming back?

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:22 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

You may have seen that Gary Williams has joined the Twitter brigade. Old School meets new tech, right?

Maryland's news release said the coach "has become part of the social networking site Twitter.com. With the launch of Williams' official Twitter account (www.twitter.com/MDCoachWilliams), fans can receive updates from the popular Terps' coach on the Internet or on their mobile phone."

I call Williams "old school" because of his coaching style. But I think Maryland has been pretty quick to adopt new tools such as ample online video streaming and reality programming related to Terps teams.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 5:39 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

College coaches' contracts typically contain lots of add-ons and incentives. I looked at the contracts of some Maryland coaches and wrote a story on them for today's paper.

Here is a sampling of the provisions I found:

* Men's basketball coach Gary Williams gets $300,000 from the university in the year beginning July 1, 2008, to make appearances on the university's behalf in connection with equipment or clothing worn by players.

* Football coach Ralph Friedgen gets various bonuses if the Terps finish in the top half of the ACC. Like Williams, offensive coordinator James Franklin and women's basketball coach Brenda Frese, Friedgen also has incentives related to players' academic performance or graduation rates. Friedgen gets $500 a month to lease a "late-model luxury automobile for his personal use."

* Franklin gets six complimentary season tickets to home football games and four season tickets for men's basketball home games.

* Frese gets a $50,000 bonus if the graduation rate of the program is 70 percent or higher.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:42 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

These are among the images I'll remember from the first two rounds in Kansas City, where the Terps beat Cal and lost to Memphis:

*Maryland's Dave Neal making the first basket of the game against Memphis and getting all pumped up. He said later that he thought at that moment that the Terps would win. The team will miss his spirit next year.

*Morgan State's Ameer Ali flipping Oklahoma's Blake Griffin over his shoulder during the team's first-round game. Oh my goodness. Griffin was the model of restraint. He just walked away.

*Memphis fans chanting "ACC' at the Terps in a mocking way after the Tigers had the game in hand. Some Terps fans chanting "SAT" right back in an equally mocking fashion.

*Jerome Randle, the 5-foot-10 Cal guard, repeatedly driving into the lane on Maryland in the first half. But what I'll really remember is how the Terps all but made him disappear in the second half by shutting down his penetration.

*Cal State-Northridge, playing without key team members due to criminal charges and an unrelated auto accident, leading Memphis with about seven minutes to play. The 15th-seeded Matadors were within four with 2:30 to play, but couldn't hang on.

Continue reading "Images of the NCAA tournament" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Notes from Memphis 89, Maryland 70:

*Officiating obviously didn't decide this game. But the Terps sure were getting testy at not getting calls after seeming to draw contact. Greivis Vasquez said his technical foul was the result of accumulated frustration.

For those who watched on television, do you believe the game was loosely officiated? And was it balanced? Let me say again that this is a side issue, not a deciding one.

*Lost in the Maryland defeat were blocked shots by Sean Mosley, Dino Gregory and Dave Neal. This was Neal's final Maryland game, and he got nine points and four rebounds.

*Vasquez said he accomplished his goal of penetrating on offense. But he said Memphis collapsed on him, and he was unable to kick the ball back out as he did so successfully against N.C. State in the ACC tournament (10 assists).

"They couldn't stop my drive. They just stopped me from making the extra pass," Vasquez said.

*If you talk about motivation you can't omit that the Tigers haven't forgotten last season’s national championship game loss to Kansas in overtime after blowing a nine-point, second-half lead. There's some incentive right there.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Baltimore Sun reporter David Steele will host a live video discussion on the NCAA tournament at noon Monday on baltimoresun.com. He'll be joined by Maryland beat reporter Jeff Barker and will take questions from readers before and during the video discussion, which can be seen at baltimoresun.com/sports.

If you have a question about Maryland's season or the NCAA tournament, please submit it as a blog comment below. Please include your name, city and state with your question, and remember to visit baltimoresun.com at noon Monday to watch the live discussion.

Posted by baltimoresun.com at 6:30 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Maryland has been able to overachieve this season, and it's been fun to watch. Michigan State. North Carolina. Wake Forest. The Terps beat some good teams with intensity, pressing defense and astute coaching.

But there clearly was a limit to how far this season's Terps could go.Undersized Maryland wasn't going to beat a team that was:
*Big
*Good.
*Motivated.
*Hot from the floor.

Memphis was all of the above today. The Terps caught the Tigers on the wrong day. I covered the Memphis-Cal State Northridge game Thursday and Memphis was really flat. They were passive against the Northridge zone.

Unfortunately for Maryland, the Tigers heard all about that poor effort from coach John Calipari and came out a very different team today.

Game. Set. Match. I'll have a season-ending story for Monday's paper. Thanks for all your comments and thanks to Rick Maese for being a fellow tour guide to help us all along on this NCAA journey.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 9:14 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

There are highlights from the post-game press conference featuring Memphis players and head coach John Calipari.

John Calipari

On the game: Well, we played well. We were prepared for their press to attack it. We were going to try to shoot layups and we did it. I thought these three up here were unbelievable, and I'm so proud of Doneal Mack because here's a young man who played very poorly and he knew it. I said something. He said, "I got to put that game behind me." Today, he goes four for five or whatever he was, 17 points, one assist and only one turnover in 21 minutes, and that's following that other game. So I'm just so proud of him and I'll say it again, Robert Dozier, when he plays and really competes and battles and does the things he's capable of, we're a pretty good team. But that was a good effort by us. I thought Maryland was a terrific team. They just hit us on a bad day.

On Vasquez’ comments: The information age right now, these guys got their computers with them. They're looking at the Internet. They're watching TV and listening. They probably got wind of it, but the biggest thing is, it's got to come from within. I mean, this tournament if it's not coming from within, you'll have one good game and lose the next. Whatever he said, he said. Like they said, where would we finish in the ACC? We don't know. We're not in the league. Where would we finish in the Big East? We don't know. We're not in that league. And so, you know, he said it, but I think we were more concerned about how we played the last game than what he said. … I was kind of happy he said it [laughter]. You know, we met last night and talked about their team. We practiced, met last night and we shot around today. We came to the building this morning and went through their -- my concern against Maryland was would their press make them the aggressor? So all we did was here is how we're attacking this press and we're shooting layups. I don't care. We can't win playing this way, then we won't win. We're going to be the aggressor. Defensively we were going to press them and put it back on them. With our style of play, the dribble/drive, if you spread the court on us, it really opens up those gaps even more so. So, it doesn't bother us. That's basically we'd rather have that.

On if he’d be happy if his players said something similar to Vasquez: I've had that. You haven't followed us very closely. I had Joey Dorsey kind of wake up a sleeping giant in Ohio State. I've been there before. I walk out in the morning and see in the newspaper the headlines when Joey said. I go, "Why did you say it?" He said, "I was trying to get myself going." I said, "Joey try something different, please" (Laughter). Obviously had a bad game and we got beat in an Elite 8 with an opportunity to go to the Final Four, and I thought that team had a chance to win the national title. We would have had to get through Florida, but I've had it, believe me. I've had it.

On what this means to city of Memphis: I would imagine today at 2:30 in Memphis, Tennessee, there was not a car on the highways or the roads, not one. And if someone was out, the police pulled them over to find out why they were out (laughter). I think there's many watering holes that are very happy we're still playing because they were packed. Many restaurants were packed. You know what? For our people in our city, it's a big deal. See, the University of Memphis is not about our little university. It's about our city. It's about people who are trying to do more with less, which what is we're trying to do. It's about people who have been looked at in a different way, like we have. We graduated 19 - this May, will be 19 of our last 22 seniors who have gone through the program. 19 of 22. Our city is as proud of that as they are of us winning ball games.

On the hot stretch in the first half: If we make shots, we're going to beat people. In we don't make shots, we're a good enough defensive team that we can hang in there and try to beat you at the end. That's the good news about this team. We've been that way for the last four years, which is why we've won so many games. I think CBS did something in the last four years our defensive field goal percentages it one or two, 3-point is one, rebounding blocks are five over that entire period. Rebounding blocks up D. If you don't shoot it, don't worry about it. Just defend and rebound and we can still win games. They may be ugly games. We've had some ugly games now. But we can grind it, and what we did, I told the guys at halftime with about 13 minutes to go, "We're going to grind this thing out." They were a little tired, and they didn't have timeouts, and we were just going grind them. Basically played how they played is what we did offensively.

On Tyreke Evans: Some of the things I talked about after the game, one was Doneal Mack, how proud I was. You know who else I was proud of? Roburt Sallie. How about having to follow-up that performance, thinking that "Every shot I take, they're going to try to save. Am I a good player, or was that a fluke?" He went in and played well again. And then I said Tyreke Evans, when he plays with speed instead of jogging the ball, when he catches it and does not hold the ball, just catch it and attack, he's as good as there is in the country. But his habits -- which are slowly, he's moving away from which are going at a comfortable pace or catch it and hold it, you can't go -- the defense is set. So that's all we worked on. He's getting more comfortable, and again, you watched him and you had to say, he's going to be as good as anybody in the country and he is. He's blocks defensively. He's long, physically strong. He's tough. I'm proud of him, really am proud of him.

Senior Antonio Anderson

On Vasquez’s comments: Well, we never even thought about those comments. We're not in the ACC, so we don't know. We're in Conference USA and love it. That's our conference, and we represent for the rest of the teams who didn't make the tournament. In the tournament we try to do a good job.

On whether they’d ever played better: Honestly, I don't know. There's been quite a few we played up to this level, and it's been scary. You know, it's scary when Coach is not yelling at us as much so -- no. We just come out, and the Coach showed us last night in our meeting we're going to go down, we're going to go down fighting, and we don't want Coach to be disappointed and not be disappointed in ourselves. We're seniors, but we want ourselves to keep going. We're going to leave it on the floor every time we step out there. When we do that, the sky is the limit for us.

On the Vasquez game plan: Coach told us, he's a great player. Told me that he can score on the ball. He's not very fast, but he can handle it. He's got moves and up and under. He can step through, do various things. It just wasn't me. I had Doneal and everybody helping me as much as possible. Everybody probably going to try to give me the credit for that, but it's five of us and the rest of the guys like Robert did it and Doneal did it. We all did a good job on it. Team defense.

On Tyreke Evans: Coach, all of us, we know what he brings to us on a daily basis. Today he was in a whole other gear. He's beating up the court. The guy is already at half court. He's unstoppable. We're probably going to get that from him every game, and when he continues to do that, he just makes everything easier for guys like Robert and to do dunks and tip-ins and things off transition.

Junior Doneal Mack:

On momentum: All my teammates they came the me like put the game behind me. Even Coach, he came to me and talked to me.put that game behind me. If they got confidence in me, then I got confidence in me. …We're a tough team to beat. We're not known as a 3-point shooter team, we're known as dribble-drive. When we're shooting the ball like that and playing tough defense like that, it's hard to get beat.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 7:29 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

These are highlights from the post-game press conference that featured Maryland players and coach Gary Williams:

Dave Neal

On Memphis’ attack: There's nothing we could do. They were bringing guys off the bench that hit 3s. When a team catches fire like that, we knew it was going to be a tough game. Our mentality coming into this game was we wanted them to take 3s with hands in their faces. I give them all the credit in the world. They made those 3s and made some tough shots. They're a great team. Nothing against them. They've got a great coach. They came out and caught fire early and pretty much stayed hot the whole entire game.

On his senior season: Probably one of the best senior seasons I could possibly think of. Coach Williams said it the best in the locker room. "Only one team goes out at the end of the season happy, that's the national champion." It's going to take a couple days to put this loss behind. After that, look at the stuff we did this year. We beat Wake Forest, Michigan State, North Carolina, all top 10 teams. In the end we made it back to the NCAA Tournament. A lot of people coming into this season never thought that we had a chance to do that. The fact that we stayed tough as a team, we fought through a lot of stuff, and at the end we made it back to the NCAA Tournament, won a game, and I mean it's been a dream come true for me. One I'll never forget and probably talk about this year for the rest of my life. We have an awesome team. We fought hard. We have a lot of heart, and it's been an awesome season, even though we took a tough loss today. As a whole, it's been an awesome season and I'm going to miss it a lot.

On Vasquez’ comments: I mean I guess it might have sparked something. Memphis is overall a great team. They've won 26 games in a row, and they play in Conference USA. There are good teams in there. Some of those teams had good quality wins this year. He said it, and I mean nothing you can do about it. Memphis came out, they were fired up and caught fire early, and once they caught fire, they stayed hot the whole game, and I mean they got a great coach. He got them prepared really well and Memphis is a great team. They're long, athletic and got some excellent players.

Gary Williams

On defensive plan: It was to try to help as much as possible with Tyreke Evans, because he's such a great driver of the basketball. A lot of their offense generates from that, where you get into the paint, you help. He's good at floating it to the big guys. With our size disadvantage, we didn't want that to happen. We were hoping we could get back out and bother their shooting, caving in on the perimeter. Beside Sallie, their other players shot 1 for 13 from the 3-point line the game before. We gambled a little bit. They made some shots. We played good defense on some shots that they did make. Others we left them open.

On Vasquez' technical: He obviously said something to the referee. I didn't get a description of what he said. He just said something. That, by the way, that is a very good officiating crew. Any coach would like to see those three referees out there when you come to play a game.

On Vasquez’ comments Friday: You know, he's wrong -- he's wrong in saying those things like he said, but, at the same time, sometimes the translation gets lost a little bit what he says and whether exactly what he said, I didn't hear, but I know the reporter got the quote, called John Calipari to make sure he got that information which I think is interesting.

On size disadvantage: It's hit us a couple times. You go into a game, you talk about boxing out, but you know when a guy makes a play two feet over the rim, that's what they can do. We don't play up there this year. We probably will next year a little, but right now, we don't play there. So that's why we try to keep Evans out of the paint so the ball wouldn't be there on some lob passes and things like that. But as your question stated, you know, they made some shots that they didn't make the game before. You know, you're always -- unless you're one of the top four, five teams, you make adjustments on every game you play, not just here today. You're always -- this year it was about making adjustments just about every time once we got into league play.
On this year’s team: I'll be real proud of this year's team. They were incredible in terms of support for me, number one, and their ability to be resilient I think is the thing I'll remember about this team. We had some tough losses, and we were able to come back and make the NCAA Tournament in a year where I thought there was probably, maybe 80 teams that could have made the tournament very easily based on what they did during the year, and we were one of the 64 to make it and we were one of the teams to get to 32. So I'll remember that about this team and how they competed all year.

On Memphis: I think you could see today why a lot of people felt they could have been a No. 1 seed the way things fell out the last couples weeks. In other words, there was a lot of talk I thought the last week about Memphis being the No. 1 seed. When you have a point guard with that size and quickness and he's a little better shooter than he gets credit for sometimes, but Evans is just a terrific player and, you know, you see the 6-2, 6-3 point guards. You see many of the 6-6 guys with the same quickness of the 6-2, 6-3. He was really -- if you didn't know how big he was, you would have thought he was about six feet the way he was playing out there in terms of when he had the ball. When he gets inside, he's big enough to finish because he has that 6-6 size. He's an outstanding player, but when you get two inside players about that 6-10 size that can post-up and go out and shoot it, do things like that and react quick if you have to help. You're talking about special players and Memphis has special players. They have two players back to a team that nobody ever came closer to winning a national championship than Memphis did last year. Those two guys with the new players they do have can really help carry the team a long way.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 7:10 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

It's all over.

The game. The Terps' NCAA Tournament. The rollercoaster of a season.

Barker and I have to hit the press conferences and locker rooms. But I'll keep the second half commentary below, and feel free to use this post to share your thoughts on the game and season.

Plenty more in this space later this evening and tomorrow...

[Running commentary from the second half of Maryland-Memphis from the Sprint Center.]

Final -- Memphis 89, Maryland 70

1:29 -- Memphis 88, Maryland 67

Dave Neal left the court for the final time of his collegiate career with 1:52 remaining and his team team trailing 86-67. It's not how he imagined the final game, but he knows his senior season has been like a dream.

Also, at the 2:47 mark, Williams inserted Jin Soo Kim into the game. Mosley and Neal were the only starters on the floor.

Memphis hasn't had a field goal since 5:52 was remaining on the clock. For whatever that's worth.

2:57 -- Memphis 86, Maryland 63

Tyreke Evans was pulled from the game at the 4:10 mark. He finished with 19 points, 15 of which game in the first half.

Memphis is going to finish this game with five players in double-digits. Maryland might have just two -- Vasquez, who currently has 18, and Hayes, who has 10.

4:49 -- Memphis 86, Maryland 57

At the 6:45 mark, Memphis fans came to their feet, following a Tigers defensive rebound. They seemed to recognize that the end was near. At least the end of the game -- and probably the end of the Maryland season.

Then, with less than five minutes to play, Memphis fans began chanting "A-C-C! A-C-C!" I'm not sure if they were lobbying for an invitation or what.

Vasquez returned at about the 6:30 mark. The Terps didn't manage a single field goal with him on the bench for those two minutes.

The Memphis lead has snuck up to near 30 points.

Just waiting for the clock to reach zero...

7:59 -- Memphis 77, Maryland 55

Maryland is showing little signs that a run is coming. Vasquez, though, does have 12 points in the half, which gives him 18 for the game.

He just drew a technical foul, which brought Memphis fans to their feet and provided us with the loudest cheering of the half. Vasquez now has three fouls.

Look, I know where this is going. If the game is out of hand, the Tiger fans are going to have their way with Vasquez.

So here's something for Terps fans, something Vasquez said yesterday that got lost in the wake of his controversial remarks.

"I never thought I was going to be in this position….it’s unbelievable," he told us. "I never thought like five or seven years ago, I never thought I’d be here playing in the NCAA."

He said in his home country of Venezuela, people have been going nuts. He thinks the fascination with Maryland basketball rivals the attention that's being devoted to the World Baseball Classic.

"Our baseball players are watching [us]," he said. "I talked to Bobby Abreu two days ago, wishing him luck, telling him I want him to beat USA so bad. The whole team is watching. They’ve been supporting me. The whole country, you can tell by the way they call me, send me messages on Facebook, or emails. They’re cheering for their national team and for me. For Maryland. Not only me, but for Maryland. I think everybody in Venezuela has a Maryland shirt by now."

11:32 -- Memphis 72, Maryland 50

From the corner in which we're sitting, we could see Landon Milbourne flying right at us, bellowing, "Arghhhh!" He could've been Tarzan on a vine. He was trying to get a piece of Dozier's shot, but he was too late. Memphis 70-48.

The Terps have switched to a man defense.

Though the arena is now filled, it definitely feels a bit subdued in here. Except for the Memphis fans.

14:13-- Memphis 68, Maryland 48

The Terps have opened up here again in a zone defense. Seems they don't trust that Memphis can keep shooting this way. Hey, we're six minutes in and they only have two 3-pointers thus far!

Vasquez hit a 3-pointer for the Terps at the 16:40 mark and another a minute later -- he has 8 points early on. (The Tigers answered that first trey with an alley-oop dunk on the other end -- Taggart from Sallie.)

Vasquez hit another runner through the lane that made it 65-48. He's definitely not giving up.

18:54 -- Memphis 55, Maryland 33

Vasquez launches the Terps first field-goal attempt of the half -- a miss. Right before the half began, I heard a lone voice bellow out from a section of blue. "Vasqwez, you're an idiot!"

A couple of things on that: Is Memphis winning this game because of what Vasquez said? Of course not. And are the Terps losing this game because of Vasquez? Again, probably not.

Doesn't make anything he said smart. Just makes it look silly when you talk loud before a game but can't match the volume with your play on the court.

Evans scored the first points of the second half.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 4:30 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Just running off at the top of my head here as I review the stat sheet and look back on the first 20 minutes of play...

I found Jimmy Patsos in the stands. We scanned over the halftime numbers and agreed -- What in the world is Maryland supposed to do? The Tigers are hitting everything. Memphis is shooting 70.4 percent, 19-of-27.

Maryland is picking up some points inside but their mid-range and long jumpers are rushed and mostly off target. The Terps have only three assists, which indicates they're struggling to run their half-court offense a bit.

Defensively, Maryland has closed lanes and forced Memphis to shoot the 3. The problem is, the Tigers are hitting them.

Memphis is 8-of-11 from behind the arc. By comparison, the Terps are only 1-of-9.

Maryland actually holds the advantage in the paint, outscoring the Tigers 22-18. And while Memphis is outrebounding Maryland 17-15, on the offensive boards, it's Maryland 9, Memphis 3.

The Terps are led by Vasquez and Neal, who have 6 points apiece. Seven different Maryland players have two rebounds. None has more than that.

As for Memphis, Tyreke Evans leads all scorers with 15 points; Doneal Mack has 14, thanks to those four straight 3-pointers. Antonio Anderson has no points but he does have seven assists and played amazing defense.

If the Tigers pull away, the blogging may slow a bit in the second half. With an early deadline, I'll have to turn my attention to tomorrow's column pretty soon.

Not sure what Williams could do to stop the bleeding. But he makes in-game adjustments as good as any coach I've been around. Perhaps the Tigers get a bit lazy in the second half and start planning their trip to Phoenix early?

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 4:18 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

[Running commentary from the first half of Maryland-Memphis from the Sprint Center.]

Halftime -- Memphis 53, Maryland 33

Eric Hayes' 3-pointer as time expired in the half just cut the Tiger lead to 20. Probably not what Maryland fans hoped to hear as their team headed to the locker room.

This is officially getting ugly. I can't believe I declared two days ago this was a promising matchup for the Terps. I mean, it was at the time -- in the first round, Memphis looked terrible and Maryland looked more than solid. What a stupid I am.

Terps switched back to a man defense. But it doesn't seem to matter. What an amazing display of shooting we're seeing. Memphis just cannot miss.

Meanwhile, the Terps leading scorer -- Vasquez -- has only 6 points, on 2-of-7 shooting.

2:20 -- Memphis 48, Maryland 28

A friend just sent me a Gchat message that read: "Dude, the team you're covering today is putting up so many bricks you could construct a university."

It's not just that Maryland can't find the hoop; rather Memphis can't miss it.

I'm not sure what adjustments Williams is going to be able to make. Memphis will not let up defensively and Maryland is struggling to run anything that works. There's a reason Memphis gives up only 57 points a game.

Meanwhile, Maryland has no answer defensively either. They've switched back to a man defense, and Mack just shot another 3-pointer, this time over Vasquez. He's on fire right now. Much like Sallie two nights ago.

Right now, Memphis is shooting an incredible 70 percent from the field. I believe they're 7-of-10 from behind 3-point arc, as well. Not sure many teams would be leading a Tiger team shooting that well.

3:21 -- Memphis 44, Maryland 26

I hate to state the obvious, but Memphis looks a lot different than they did in their first-round game against Cal St. Northridge. I know not everyone agrees, but seems to me this team could probably win a couple of ACC games.

Actually, a Memphis fan seated behind me just screamed: "Hey Greivis, welcome to Conference USA." At least he pronounced Greivis right.

Memphis has the hot shooting hand right now. Doneal Mack drilled three 3-pointers made it an 18-point ball game.

Mosley had a nice block to save 2 points on a Memphis break. I think it was on Evans, but the Tiger mascot with the Calipari mask is distracting.

Vasquez returned to the game at the 6:29 mark.

6:29 -- Memphis 31, Maryland 19

This Tiger defense is too tough for the Terps. Maryland's best chance today might to find someone with a hot hand. Thus far, shots aren't falling.

Memphis is sticking with a man, but they have no problem switching defenders. Vasquez is not looking good, and you can bet if his frustration mounts, things good go downhill quick for the Terps. I have him at 2-of-5 from the field, but he's getting no good looks.

Tiger fans could be having a lot of fun at his expense when this is over with.

It's be nice if Bowie could develop some confidence in his jumper before next season.

With eight minutes to play, Vasquez went to the bench and was replaced by Cliff Tucker. Not sure that's the answer.

Memphis has just one field goal in the past three minutes -- a big Dozier dunk.

9:53 -- Memphis 24, Maryland 14

Landon Milbourne just showed a nice spin move on the baseline to cut the Tiger lead into the single digits. On the next possession, Adrian Bowie drove hard to the hoop for a layup, making it 19-12.

I talked to Bowie yesterday and he said Gary Williams has been telling him all year he needs to be more aggressive and attack the hoop more. He says he's finally feeling comfortable doing so -- four times already today -- and that it's really a mental block more than anything.

Memphis is shooting the ball well today. The Terps switched to a zone after that last timeout, but Memphis is moving the ball around the perimeter.

Sallie's 3 and Dozier's 2 keeps Memphis up by 10. Terps failed to take advantage of Evans brief visit to the bench.

12:48 -- Memphis 19, Maryland 8

So how are the two team's top scorers faring? It took Vasquez more than four minutes to even attempt his first shot -- a miss -- and he didn't score his first basket until 14:09. Meanwhile Evans already has 11 points (and we're not even midway through the half yet!)

Antonio Anderson is giving Vasquez zero breathing room. It's a tight man defense from the Tigers thus far. Vasquez has penetrated to the hoop twice -- both misses -- and is 1-for-3 thus far.

The Terps are also sticking with their man defense.

Geez, now the Tiger mascot is wearing a Calipari mask. Unlike the Memphis cheerleaders, it's an improved look for the Tiger, who is more cartoonish than ferocious. I like my jungle cats to strike fear in people's hearts, not spoon-feed me breakfast cereal.

16:01 -- Memphis, 13, Maryland 4

The Terps just had to call a timeout, which was wise. Maryland's shots aren't falling and Memphis has already build a 9-point lead -- thanks in large part to Evans' 7 points.

I fear that if Maryland falls behind by any margin of note, it'll be hard for them to fight their way back into it. Memphis is too good defensively.

Robert Sallie checked in at the 16:23 mark and received a loud ovation from the Memphis fans. Probably something to do with those 35 points the other night and the way he single-handedly carried the Tigers into the second round.

The Terps have missed their past shots.

17:35 -- Memphis 7, Maryland 4

Maryland opened up in a man-to-man defense and came out sprinting on offense. On the break, Sean Mosley bounced a pass to Dane Neal for the lay-up and the game's first points. It also marked the first appearance of the Dave Neal Growling Face, which I've come to enjoy.

The Terps picked up two fouls within the game's first minute -- Neal and Greivis Vasquez. They will not win this game shorthanded.

Tyreke Evans shot a trey over Vasquez to break a 2-2 tie. Maryland is terrible at drawing fouls this year, but it'd be wise if they could somehow get Evans into foul trouble today. Memphis is a different team without him on the court.

20:00 -- Maryland 0, Memphis 0

As the national anthem played, the Terps stood in a straight line. They all swayed from side to side, shaking their legs, flexing their fingers. They're clearly eager to tip-off.

This is the first game of today's session at the Spring Center, so there are a good number of empty seats early on. Blue outnumbers red by a comfortable margin right now, and Greivis Vasquez was greeted with loud boos during the pregame introductions. Maybe when the Oklahoma and Michigan fans show up, they'll side with the No. 10 Terps to register an upset.

Here's what scares me most about Memphis so far: the cheerleaders. OK, they look fine, and I'm not exactly a beauty-queen judge. But they're wearing masks featuring the mug of Tigers coach John Calipari. Not exactly how I like my cheerleaders. Then again, there are many reasons they don't like me.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 3:09 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

*Lots of Memphis blue in the house today. Loud applause as Memphis came out for warmups. Maryland sold its allotment of tickets -- I believe it's 350. But participating teams' fans can load up on tickets from the open market, and that seems to be what Memphis backers did. Terps wearing their red today, by the way.

*I think the Terps will play well today. As underdogs, they have less pressure on them than does second-seeded Memphis. I also think Memphis got a wakeup call in its opening round game and will win today. I'll call it 79-70.

My colleague and buddy Rick Maese has it 75-65 in favor of Memphis. He says the Tigers' defense will be hard to overcome.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 2:55 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

 "Chirpy Terp" -- that's the main headline right now on the front of Yahoo's sports page. Greivis Vasquez was asked a leading question yesterday, something like "You like being in the spotlight, don't you?"

"I love it," he said.

Well, it's shining bright on him right now -- probably a bit brighter than Terps fans like.

Here's the Yahoo piece, in which writer Jason King delves into the good and the bad of Greivis. Here's an excerpt:

Some people like Vasquez. Others hate him. Either way, no player in Kansas City this week has created as much buzz as The Venezuelan Sensation, whose mouth has turned what appeared to be a ho-hum, Saturday afternoon game between Maryland and Memphis into must-watch TV.

During Thursday’s first-round NCAA tournament victory over Cal, Vasquez turned to The Washington Post reporter Eric Prisbell, who was seated on press row. A month earlier Prisbell had written an article that chronicled Williams’ shortcomings on the recruiting trail.

“Don’t look at me!” Vasquez screamed at Prisbell. “Don’t look at me!”

Asked about the incident a day later, Prisbell said: “I have always respected Greivis’ candor and passion for the game. That’s why he’s among the players I’ve most enjoyed covering.”

Continue reading "Maryland's 'chirpy Terp' draws attention" »

Posted by Rick Maese at 12:23 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

As Maryland-Memphis approaches...

*The Tigers have won 26 games in a row. But the Terps sure sounded like a confident bunch in the locker room yesterday. They kept comparing Memphis to Wake Forest.

This from Dave Neal: "I mean, they're long, they're athletic, and they remind us a lot
like Wake Forest, a team we just recently beat. We've watched tape and
seen what they're weaknesses are. We're going to be ready to go to war
with them for 40 minutes tomorrow."

More Neal: "The biggest thing I think we did against Wake Forest that
pretty much sealed the win for us was the way we controlled the
boards. Memphis and Wake Forest, they're both teams that rely a lot on
their second-chance points."

Maryland obviously got a big boost by beating Wake Forest in the ACC tournament. The Terps earned it. And I don't want to spoil the party by suggesting Wake isn't talented. They are. But the Demon Deacons don't always play up to their potential -- don't always play smart basketball -- as evidenced by their 15-point loss to Cleveland State in the tournament last night.

Continue reading "Is Memphis Like Wake Forest?" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (13)
        

Here are a few highlights from Gary Williams' news conference today:

On Memphis reminding him of Wake Forest: I think that's a pretty good comparison because of Wake's size compared to Memphis. They have big people, but they're both long. Both those teams are very long, and they both had really good seasons that we had to play against. You really have to be on your game. We have to make up for some things when we play against a team like that. Hopefully, we'll be able to do a good job and continue to play well. Memphis will certainly try to take us out of what we do, just like we did with them, and that's the key is to be able to do the things that we do pretty well.

On the blueprint provided by Cal St. Northridge: I thought Northridge did a great job. I thought they were really well prepared in that they played the way they played all year, and I think that they made some adjustments for Memphis, but they just went right out and played their game. They didn't try to say well, Memphis is this or that. They tried to play their game. They did a great job, obviously, and I think that's a lesson for everybody, you know, that if you're in the NCAA tournament, you must have done some good things during the year, and this time of year, you can't change a lot of the things you've been doing since October. So hopefully, you play well. That's I think, for me anyway as a coach, I try to get my team to play well, then you make adjustments for Memphis, but, you know, we have to do a good job if we expect to beat Memphis.

On the quality of Memphis schedule: Memphis has some good wins outside their conference. They've played some good teams. They've gone and played teams. You know, they're in Conference USA. I think any conference when you go on the road, there's tough games. I've been in Big 10, ACC, Big East, America West. Road games are tough in all those conferences just like the ACC. I'm sure they were in tough situations. When you're in Memphis, you're the giant. Everybody gets ready to play against you. I'm sure they saw a lot of the teams' best games this year in conference play. So, when you get to the NCAA, you know, everybody looks for reasons why teams should play well, why they shouldn't play well. Basically it's your team, your players, what you've done. Memphis has an outstanding team. They're the No. 2 seed for a reason and we're the 10 for a reason. It's going to be a very tough game. Anytime a 10 plays a 2, it's a tough game, but I think we've been playing really good basketball lately and hopefully that will help us tomorrow.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 4:52 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Here's some of what Memphis coach John Calipari had to say at today's press conference:

On Vasquez: One, he's really crafty. So his feel for the game is as good as I've seen and he's also got size. You're not just going to put someone with size on him and have that affect him. Not happen. He is so crafty. Gets everyone involved. In other words, he's trying to curl in the lane to catch balls. As much to pass as he is to score and now all of a sudden, he's getting a player a play he can make. He's getting the ball to a guy next to the rim where he's making that. Second thing is people help so much on him when he does miss they offensive rebound because those guys aren't body to body with somebody. They do a great job of really bum rushing the rim. They've got arms on you and hands on you and that ball goes up, you're like fighting for your life. That's how they play.

On defending Vasquez: : He's multidimensional. He's scoring for us, he'll defend when he has to. He's probably got as many assists as Tyreke has at point guard 4s. We also have Doneal Mack who I can put on Vasquez. If I want to do that, we can. I can also put Roburt Sallie on him. We can also switch and put Robert Dozier on him. So we got a lot of guys we can play him with. But Antonio, the biggest thing is he made the baskets down the stretch of this last game, he made three shots that really broke their back, and that's after he had six turnovers. They had six turnovers. Yet with six minutes to go, we stepped it up and played.

On how coaching has changed since he last faced Williams in the tourney: Biggest thing is players leaving early. That is the one thing that, you know, during my time at UMass I had one player leave early, Marcus Camby in his junior year. Gary Williams had one, Joe Smith. He left in his junior year. He may have left as a sophomore. That was the beginning of kids leaving early. You had a lot of teams where now the run we're on at Memphis is with three, four different teams because anybody that can really play, they left. They're not there anymore, and you had to do it with new guys. I would tell you that that would be the biggest change. But we had great games. We played Gary probably three games that were not NCAA Tournament games, and then we played that game in Wichita against him. I said there's a big difference now. My point guard then was Derek Kellogg, who is now the coach at UMass. And that's why we lost. My point guard now is Tyreke Evans.

On standards for Memphis: The standard in Memphis right now is 30 wins and if you don't get to 30, something is wrong, putting For Sale signs in my front yard. The other thing is that two, three players will be drafted. One might go 1, one will go 7, but you're going to have players drafted. That's what the standard becomes, and I call it rarefied air. Some of the stuff we're doing the last four years has never been done in college basketball history. Our people, our fans think, well, this is how it's supposed to be now.

So it's hard. But, Larry Brown keeps texting me and saying, "It's hard when they're
expected to win every game. Keep loving them." That's Larry Brown. He's texted me ten times. "Love them." It's hard when they're supposed to win every game.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 4:31 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Oops, someone missed the memo. You generally want to avoid providing material for the opposing team’s bulletin board, right? Maybe that doesn’t apply to No. 10 seeds who are taking on No. 2 seeds.

Here’s what Greivis Vasquez said this afternoon when asked how Memphis would fare if they played in the ACC instead of Conference USA.

“They’d have a losing record in the league – probably win all of their games outside the league, losing record in the league," Vasquez said. "The ACC is too tough. You can’t just win games night in and night out because you’re so athletic.”

He repeated similar sentiments a couple of times, and repeatedly called Memphis’ conference “questionable.”

It was a popular line of questioning from the Memphis reporters. Dave Neal was a bit more careful with his words, though he did suggest Memphis would be "fourth or fifth" in the ACC.

"When you're sitting around TV watching Memphis win 25 games in a row, you're thinking, 'Well, do they play as tough teams as we do?' Not to knock Conference USA but the ACC is the No. 1 rated conference in the country and we play against better competition," Neal said. "We're going to be ready tomorrow to show them what ACC basketball is all about."

Memphis players addressed similar questions when they met with reporters earlier in the afternoon. None of them declared C-USA better, and while many acknowledged the ACC is a tough conference, they aren't scared of Maryland

"It's really not a big deal about which conference they are in," said Memphis forward Shawn Taggart. "That's for everybody around the country boost us up and try to give us up hype, but we just have to go out there and win."

Antonio Anderson is a senior for the Tigers. He's heard the conference comparisons for four years now.

"It doesn't get us up any more. It's another game. Conference stuff is thrown out the window, the records are thrown out the window. Two good teams going at it. The NCAA tournament, we're trying to advance. We don't worry about what people say about our conference," Anderson said.

"We played in the national championship last year and the Elite Eight the year before. We know what we're capable of as a team. We don't pay that any mind.

John Calipari addresses the Memphis schedule right here. And Gary Williams mentions it right here.

Update: Just to allow Vasquez to expand a bit, he first addressed the C-USA-ACC matter at a news conference. Here is what he said there, according to a transcript:

"Our conference is pretty tough. I didn't mean to disrespect their conference. We have tough games night in, night out. Every game we play in the ACC is tough. Every team can beat any team. Georgia Tech beat Wake Forest when Wake Forest was No. 1 team in the nation or something like that. We beat UNC but, you know, I mean, our conference is tough. I think our conference, the Big East [are the] toughest conferences. But that's my opinion, you know. Their conference, I mean, you can say it's tough, but I think it's as tough as our conference. So they need to play against some good competition. We're pretty good. We'll see what happens tomorrow."

Posted by Rick Maese at 3:17 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

*Gary Williams vs. John Calipari. It's reminiscent of 1994 when Calipari coached Massachusetts. Like this season, Maryland was a 10 seed. And like this season, Calipari's team was a two seed. The Terps beat the Minutemen 95-87 in the second round before losing to Michigan in the next round.

I'll talk to Maryland and Memphis players this afternoon and we'll preview Saturday's second-round game.

*Memphis did not play well against Cal State Northridge -- except for the surprising Roburt Sallie.

Sallie, who entered averaging 4.5 points per game, made 10 three-pointers and scored a career-high 35 points.

Sallie is a sophomore who hadn’t scored more than 13 points in a game this season. He broke Larry Kenon’s 36-year-old Memphis record of 34 points in an NCAA tournament game. “I don't think my teammates would ever expect me to break a record like that,” Sallie said. “I'm just a shooter. I just was hitting shots today.”

Continue reading "Notes as the Terps move on" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Maryland's Greivis Vasquez and Dave Neal talk about the 84-71 win over Cal.

Baltimore Sun video by Karl Merton Ferron

Posted by baltimoresun.com at 10:21 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

While we get ready for Morgan State-Oklahoma -- and a crazy deadline that's sure to shed three years off Jeff Barker's life expectancy -- just a quick reminder that we'll be back at the Sprint Center all day tomorrow.

Memphis practices from 1-2:30 p.m. ET. Maryland will take part in its practice here from 4:10-5:40 p.m. ET. It's closed to the public and to reporters.

Before they hit the court, though, the Terps will meet with us.

So we'll have a lot more tomorrow on Maryland's matchup with Memphis. That game, by the way, is scheduled to begin at 3:20 p.m. ET Saturday.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 9:07 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Michigan-Clemson is underway, which means we're just a couple of hours away from Morgan State make its first appearance in the Division I NCAA Tournament. So how about a Morgan tidbit?

Probably the funniest name you’ll see on a roster at the NCAA Tournament – or at least here in Kansas City – is that of Itchy Bolden, the Bears' quick point guard.

He was born Jermaine but everyone calls him Itchy, which prompted the first question at yesterday’s press conference with the players: “OK, I’ll ask it," a reporter said. "Where does the name Itchy come from?”

Oddly, Bolden didn’t seem to know for a long time exactly where it came from.

“My mom told me recently it was my brother that came up with the nickname “Itchy,” from the cartoon The Simpsons,” said Bolden, a Baltimore native who starred at Douglass. “My brother gave me that. “

Bolden said his brother died a few years ago. “He was killed in an argument, like I say, about a couple blocks away from our home.”

Posted by Rick Maese at 8:14 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

OK, last post from me before I turn my attention to tomorrow's column and then get ready for Morgan-Oklahoma later tonight.

While head coach Gary Williams was especially pleased with his team's effort, it was his decision to switch defenses that helped the Terps to pull away in the second half. "We played pretty good defense against a very good shooting team, and we finally got moving a little better the second half," he said. "I think that resulted in taking out the score. And of course we went zone there and that was a big gamble but sometimes you have to do some things that might work, and it worked out well for us. And the players did a great job of executing down the stretch.

-- After shooting a solid 37.5 percent in the first half; the Terps shot a blistering 61.1 in the second;
-- After they were outrebounded 24-19 in the first half, the Terps outrebounded Cal 17-11 in the second;
-- After the Bears outscored Maryland 14-8 in the paint in the first half, the Terps responded by outscoring Cal 30-18 in the second half.

The Terps switched to a zone to find their rhythm while knocking Cal completely out of theirs. Williams made the call, I think, coming out of the media timeout with 11:49 remaining in the game. At the time, Maryland trailed by one -- 51-50 -- so there was definitely risk involved. But the Terps went on a 13-2 run.

"I thought they were hurting us by taking the ball to the basket. ...It was a gamble," Williams said. "The score was close and they made some 3s down the stretch but not enough to really hurt us because we started to score well once we went to zone. That changed the game..."

If you're curious, Williams said he didn't watch any of the Memphis game. Several players, though, said they watched a lot of it from the locker room.

"When I get back to the hotel, I'm going to start on Memphis," Williams said, "but my job is to get ready for this game today. California is too good to worry about anything else. I've always done it that way."

He'll start breaking down Memphis immediately, but Williams already knows one thing his players could struggle with: "The problem is you can't duplicate the athletic ability that's going to be there Saturday," he said. "That's always the problem when you get ready for a game like this against Memphis."

-- Rick Maese

Baltimore Sun video by Karl Merton Ferron

Posted by Rick Maese at 6:44 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

Cal forward Jamal Boykin might've put it best when he said, "They were very passionate. They had a desire to win and when they made the run, we just couldn't rebound from it."

OK, maybe it wasn't solely desire. There were a few other reasons. In the words of the players:

Eric Hayes
On winning the first one: "It is definitely a lot different playing here rather than the ACC touranment or any other game. There is a lot of stuff going on, but we did a great job of fighting through that and down to playing our game in the second half. When we did that, they couldn't do much with us after that."

On stopping the Bears 3-point shooters: "We were kind of straight and hard in practice on getting out on them and getting a hand in their faces when they are shooting. They knocked some down on us, but for the majority of the game, I think we did a good job out there."

Patrick Christopher, Cal guard
On shooting 0-for-7 from 3-point arc: "It was just one of those nights. Sadly, it had to be in a game like this. So yeah, it was just one of those nights."

On Terps' defense: "I think it was a mixture of their press, and that kind of slowed us down and got us out of our offense a little bit. They did a great job as far as mixing it up. They had a couple of different presses. Sometime in the first half, they dropped into a zone, but for the most part, it just kind of messed us up offensively.

Boykin
On what went wrong: "Their press was very good, and there were some rebounds that we could have gotten and some turnovers that we had. But ultimately, they made a great run. They had some unexpected guys step up today, and we just didn't play our best game."

Dino Gregory
On his putbacks: "It was really big. The game was swinging a whole lot, and everyone was knocking down shots. We started getting stops after that, and our facs got into it and we were able to pull it away."

On winning the the first one: "It's a great feeling. Moving on to round two on Saturday, it's a great feeling."

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 6:12 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Final: Maryland 84, Cal 71

We'll have plenty more in this space throughout the afternoon and evening. But we have to hit the locker room.... and start making dinner plans for tomorrow night. Feel free to leave your thoughts below on today's big win and Saturday's big matchup against No. 2 Memphis.

Terps fans should be very encouraged by what they've seen here today -- both in Maryland's win and the game before it. The Tigers looked verrrrrrry beatable, didn't they? In fact, there isn't a No. 2 in this tournament that I'd rather face on Saturday.

John Calipari seemed to shrug off his team's performance. "Just about every tournament we start this is -- first games are hard," he said. "They're all hard to be honest with you."

As for the Terps, no major problems today. No reason to sound the sirens. The defense was there. The game plan worked. Nerves didn't wreck the young guys and inconsistency didn't cripple the older ones.

I think when we look over the final numbers, we'll see that Maryland was much more patient offensively and found smarter shots in the second half. Not official but Vasquez finishes with 27, Neal with 15, Hayes 14 and Bowie with 12.

After scoring 11 in the first half, Cal's Jerome Randle finished with just 14 points. Robertson led the Bears with 20.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 5:00 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

[Note: All of the second-half posts have been consolidated into a single post here.]

4:05: Maryland 74, Cal 59

After Bowie clanked a pair of free throws, Vasquez ended up tracking down the loose ball, driving to the basket and drawing the foul on a make. The full-court press finally worked and forced the turnover, which resulted in a Dave Neal 2-pointer. Fifteen points now for Neal and 22 for Vasquez.

Cal is starting to a look a bit desperate, rushing some shots and failing to take care of the ball. At one point, Randle launched an ugly 3 from 24 feet out, hoping to draw the foul. He didn't, and the Terps ended up with the ball. Randle isn't having as much success in this half. Maryland has cut off his driving lanes. After scoring 11 in the first half, he's just 1-of-3 here with 3 points in the second.

Meanwhile Dino Gregory just followed a Hayes' miss with a big slam. The crowd is definitely into it now.

And I'm thinking Cal just may be out of it.

7:54: Maryland 63, Cal 53

The Terps have used a 13-2 to pull ahead.

After another Bowie layup -- he now has 10 points, 6 assists and 1 awesome 'hawk -- we saw Vasquez with a nice open look.

Air ball.

The grimace on his face told you Vasquez was going to make up for it. Sure enough, just 10 seconds later, Vasquez stole the ball and converted a fast-break layup. He now has 19 and the Terps have pulled ahead by 10.

Cal has just one field goal in the past four minutes.

9:55: Maryalnd 59, Cal 51

On the wing, Vasquez no-looked to Hayes in the corner, right here in front of me. Hayes drilled his first 3-pointer of the game. On the other end of the court, Hayes came up with a defensive board, and just :34 seconds later, Milbourne hit a 3 of his own.

Cal's supposed to be the better 3-point shooting team, but midway through the second half, the Terps are 5-of-12 from behind the arc, and the Bears are shooting 4-of-12.

11:49: Cal 51, Maryland 50

Cal's Jamal Boykin, who shot just 1-of-6 in the first half, made sure his first points of the second half were big ones: His bucket at 14:47 made it 47-46 and gave the Bears their first lead of the game.

Maryland regained the lead on Bowie's layup and the two teams exchanged baskets.

I feel bad mentioning Robinson's quiet first half in my halftime post because he's playing pretty strong right now. He already has 12, including a jumper at the 12:12 mark that again gave Cal a 1-point lead.

The crowd, by the way, is pretty quiet. A lot of Memphis fans across from me. When I turn around, I see a bunch of Maryland fans, but I'm not hearing them too much.

15:14: Maryland 46, Cal 45

I know we toss around this phrase a lot -- "playing with their backs against the wall" -- particularly with this Maryland team. But there is something fun about watching a guy play when it very well could be his final game. I'm talking about Dave Neal, the Terps lone senior who came out this half and hit the Terps' first field goal and pulled down their first defensive rebound. I wrote about Neal in a column this morning.

I've really liked Sean Mosley lately, but he's not looking so hot today. He mishandled a no-look pass from Vasquez early here in the second half but was fortunate that Neal recovered and finally found the free-throw line. The two free throws gave the Terps a bit of breathing room -- 40-36 -- and Neal now has 11 points.

After the Bears broke Maryland's full-court press, Christopher was wide open for a 3, but at the other end of the court, Vasquez responded with a trey of his own. Looks like Vasquez wants to be the difference here in the second half. He's leading all scorers with 17 points.

Through the first five minutes of the half, Randle is scoreless but Robertson has come alive. After scoring just 6 in the first half, he already has 9 points here in the second.

This is shaping up like a game that could go down to the wire.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 4:49 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Halftime: Maryland 34, Cal 31

I thought this game would be decided by guard play, but thus far, it's Cal's inside game that's really keeping them in it. The Bears are outscoring Maryland 14-8 in the paint, and they hold a 24-19 rebounding advantage at the break. I don't know why Gary Williams doesn't get more frustrated when his bigs play so soft offensively and can never seem to get to the free-throw line. Cal, by the way, is 14-4 this year when outrebounding opponents.

No surprise that Jerome Randle is leading Cal with 11 points, shooting 5-of-8 from the field. He's as good as advertised. I liked the way Adrian Bowie was handling him, though. I'll be curious to see what changes Williams makes at the half.

Bowie, by the way, has four assists. Which is four more than Greivis Vasquez. (Though Vasquez is leading the Terps with 11 points.)

Terps shot 12-of-32 from the field, 37.5 percent. Interesting stat: The Bears are 6-0 when they hold their opponent below 40 percent shooting.

Neither team has especially impressed and both have failed to seize control and opportunity when presented.

Cal didn't notch a single field goal over the final two minutes, not since Seeley's 3 that tied that game 30-30. But the Bears haven't had a whole lot of lock from the perimeter. Theo Robertson is shooting 49.1 percent from behind the arc and is the school's all-time leading 3-point shooter. But through the first 20 minutes here, He's 1-for-5 from the field and 1-for-2 on 3-point attempts.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 3:55 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

[Note: I've consolidated previous blog posts into a single entry.]

0:37.6: Maryland 32, Cal 30

It's probably too early to start scouting Memphis.

The Terps scoring drought was snapped by Adrian Bowie hitting a pair of free throws. Maryland still needs to warm-up from the field a bit more. Not sure they're happy about some of their looks. Vasquez is 4-of-11, though, leading all scorers with 11 points.

Cal is warming up. Freshman D.J. Seeley drilled a 3-pointer from right in front of me to temporarily tie the game at 30-apiece. It was the closest the game has been since the tip.

Thus far, Cal is enjoying a comfy advantage on the boards, 22-14 according to an unofficial count. Three Bears will enter the break with at least four rebounds. (Unrelated: Two Terps starters will enter the half with two fouls -- Vasquez and Mosley.)

I'll post another update as the second half begins.

3:56: Maryland 24, Cal 23

Maryland has scored just 2 points points in the last seven minutes and none for nearly the past five. By my count, the Terps are 1-for-9 from the field in that stretch and have committed four turnovers, including two by Landon Milbourne.

Fortunately for the Terps, Cal isn't faring much better. They outscored the Terps just 6-2 over that seven-minute period.

It's not pretty basketball.

7:31: Maryland 24, Cal 21

The best 3-point shooting team in the country is faring only OK from outside, though they aren't exactly lighting the nets on fire here. The Bears are shooting 2-of-7 thus far from behind arc.

Maryland is sticking with a man defense. Adrian Bowie and Jerome Randle were fun to watch on both ends of the court. When Eric Hayes subbed in, he and Randle continued to play tight, but with about 10:45 on the clock, Randle dribbled behind his back before poking through the paint for 2, cutting Maryland's lead to 22-17.

Greivis Vasquez answered at the other end with a 3, and a Maryland fan behind me screamed, "That's ACC basketball." Which I suppose it was.

On defense, Vasquez switched to Randle, and Cal's point guard lofted an alley-oop to Patrick Christopher, whose dunk cut the Terps lead to 22-21. Hayes then fired over Randle for his first 3 of the game. As we saw last week in Atlanta, the Terps are well-served if Hayes has confidence and he's firing well.

13:00: Maryland 16, Cal 10

I'll tell you, I might have house pets bigger than Jerome Randle, but I think he'll be fun to watch this afternoon. He's already shown us a pair of sweet drives to the basket. He's listed as 5-foot-10, but that seems about as accurate as me introducing myself as Mr. T.

Speaking of Mr. T, Adrian Bowie freshened up his 'hawk and he looks sharp. Not just the hair, but he's playing well in the opening minutes.

And Dave Neal's leading all scorers with 5, including a nice 3 from outside the arc that put Terps up 10-3. Cal coach Mike Montgomery knew he'd be difficult to contain because he's such a shooting threat coming out of a screen.

Cal hit just one of their first five field goal attempts. Their shooting will improve.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 3:43 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

We're just about to tip-off here, and I thought it was time to check the temperature in Terp land. (Geez, forgive me for saying Terp land. Blame the fact that I can't bring coffee to my seat on press row. Stupid NCAA rules!)

Well, we knew Obama likes the Terps today. And we know Kornheiser does, too. So does Barker and so do I.

But you, loyal Terps fan, have spoken, too. And you went wayyyy out on the limb and by a narrow margin have picked No. 10 Maryland to beat No. 7 Cal. More than 4,000 of you voted in the Sun's online poll, and 85 percent of you predicted an upset in this afternoon's game.

Did you pick with your heart, your head or a coin?

For the record, it's 0-0 right now. A nail-biter!

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 3:00 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Wow. We nearly saw a great upset here. Cal State Northridge made that game way too close for comfort but ultimately fell short, losing 81-70. I am a bit worried for Maryland, though. John Calipari was sweating hair gel over there. Hope they mop that up before this next game begins.

There's a half hour between games, so expect Maryland-Cal to tip shortly after 3 p.m.

The two teams just took the court. Maryland is wearing red and Cal is in white.

More importantly, the Terps bench is directly across from my seat, which means I'll have a great view of Gary Williams all afternoon. I suspect he'll do some sweating, though it won't be hair gel.

I'll check in here again early in the first half.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 2:22 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

We’re starting the second half of the first game here, where Cal State Northridge trails by only 3 to Memphis. It’d ruin all of my brackets, but if you can’t root for a 15 seed to upset a 2, you were probably born with no heart!

Anyways, I’m flipping through today's USA Today today – cuz I’m old-school and like smudged ink on my fingers – and came across an interesting piece on the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments. (If you don’t have time to run to the gas station and buy a copy of the print edition, just click here. It’s free!)

Maryland is one of 26 schools that have both its men’s and women’s programs competing in the NCAA Tournaments. That’s the most since the women’s tournament expanded in 1994 and both tournaments have featured a 64-team field.

For the Terps, this year marks the fifth time since that expansion that both men’s and women’s programs went dancing. The men’s team is a 10-seed and tip-off this afternoon and the women begin play next week in College Park as a No. 1.

Previously the Terps sent two teams in 1997 (men 5 seed, women 9 seed), 2001 (men 3, women 8), 2004 (men 4, women 12) and 2007 (men 4, women 2).
USA Today points out the teams from the power conferences seem to produce stronger men-women combos. In total, four ACC schools are playing in both tournaments: Maryland, Duke, North Carolina and Florida State.

Also receiving some love in the USA Today story: Jeff Walz, Brena Frese's former assistant who has led Louisville's women's team into the tourney.

(By the way, there's less than 14:00 left in the second half here, and Memphis trails by 1 point. Nearly the entire arena seems to be newly converted Matador fans.)

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 1:44 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Kansas City has provided us with an interesting convergence of teams and personalities.

Obviously Terps fans are aware that Morgan State, which gave Maryland its biggest black eye of the season, was shipped to the same site for the first- and second-round games. And you know that Morgan has 10 guys from Baltimore-D.C. area and the Terps have seven guys from Maryland or Virginia, so the players on the two teams are plenty familiar with each other.

But the weirdest thing, I think, is that Morgan coach Todd Bozeman got sent to the same site as his former school Cal. When the brackets were announced, Bozeman was thrilled and overcome with emotion. But he did notice that his new Bears and his old Bears would be hitting the same town.

“I can’t say that it didn’t raise my eyebrow,” Bozeman said. “I smiled because I know that although the circumstances of me leaving weren’t necessarily the greatest, I know that I still have a lot of family and friends out there.”

Suffice it to say, Cal coach Mike Montgomery did not raise an eyebrow.

“I suppose that to some people there would be some irony there,” Montgomery said. “To me, it couldn’t be less of an issue or deal or anything else. ... He got caught in an unfortunate situation and had I been at Cal at the time, there would probably have been some feelings one way or the other. But I didn’t really have any because I wasn’t there and didn’t know all of the circumstances.

“I think from a humanistic standpoint, I’m happy to see he’s rebounded and got back in and now able to get his team to a tournament. But as far as the angle that he was at Cal, no, there’s not much there.”

Posted by Rick Maese at 12:18 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Difficult game to pick. No doubt Cal can shoot and has faced and beaten some good teams (Washington, Arizona State, Utah).

But I like the Terps in a close game because:

*Maryland's defensive pressure and general intensity makes them no fun to play, particularly when you haven't encountered the Terps before.

*The Terps have gained confidence as the year has progressed and were feeling good about themselves after the ACC tournament. Their play in that tournament suggests that they're a different team than they were in January.

*The ACC is so rugged that it prepares you well for nonconference opponents, provided you've had a little rest.

Predictions, anyone?

Posted by Jeff Barker at 11:40 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

There's a reason ESPN's Pat Forde is one of the best. Dude's got his finger near the pulse of every program. He went through the entire NCAA Tournament field and presented the best-case and worst-case scenarios each team faces over the next couple of days and weeks. Here's what Forde says about Maryland:

Best Case: Gary Williams and athletic director Debbie Yow embrace after the Terrapins upset both California and Memphis to reach the Sweet 16. Not done there, Greivis Vasquez solves Missouri's pressure defense, and the Terps reach the regional final before losing to UConn. Williams says, "This run is for you, Debbie." Yow responds, "Lifetime contract, Gary." Without encouragement or involvement from Under Armour, recruits line up to sign with the Terps.

Worst Case: Williams and Yow engage in hallway hissing match in Kansas City after Maryland loses by 20 to Cal. "I made this athletic department," Williams says. "I'm calling Tubby," Yow responds. Under Armour reps slip out the back door of the locker room. Duke and North Carolina go on to the Final Four.

Click here to see what he said about Morgan's best/worst case scenario and the other 62 teams in the field.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 11:15 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Because we refuse to acknowledge that silly play-in date in Dayton, the NCAA tournament officially tips off shortly. Here's what to expect from us today: blogs, blogs and more blogs. When we're not blogging, it's only because they've reloaded the beautiful pot of hot cheese in the corner of the media workroom. But anyway, Jeff Barker and I will update you all day from the Sprint Center on all things Terps and Morgan State.

I've been scrambling so much, I didn't fill out a single bracket until this morning. I just completed four of them, and how do I see that 7-10 matchup in the West? In two brackets, I picked Cal. In two, I picked Maryland. Let's just agree that I have no clue. It's that kind of a game. Seeding doesn't matter. It looks like a pick'em to me. In fact, it could turn out to be one of the day's better games.

I'm saying Maryland 78, Cal 70. We'll see a lot of man defense and it could come down to how the Terps guard the perimeter.

We'll get Barker to weigh in, too, later today, but for now, what's your prediction?

[Update: Check out Barker's pick here.]

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 10:13 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

I didn't know until yesterday that Gary Williams had declared to his players that the Terps would beat North Carolina the second time around.

I did a story on it for today's paper. I know it hardly compares to Joe Namath declaring the Jets would win the 1969 Super Bowl. But it was still a bold move. And it worked.

Williams did it while in the locker room of the Dean Dome after the first Maryland-UNC meeting. He put in writing his belief that the Terrapins would beat the Heels in the rematch at Comcast Center. Then his players signed an erasable board indicating that they believed, too. They all kept it pretty private, clearly not wanting to give the Tar Heels bulletin-board material.

As you know, the Terps did win the rematch in overtime.

Sean Mosley and other Terps were struck by the unusual move. It stayed with them.

"He [Williams] had never focused on one game before when we had other games to worry about first," Sean Mosley said.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

It's one of the best days of the year, isn't it? It's all about hope and upsets and basketball. But mostly basketball.

Here are some items from Kansas City as you prep for Maryland-Cal:

*The mohawk is back. Adrian Bowie was sporting the haircut again yesterday. But he couldn't persuade his teammates to join him.

*Morgan State's Todd Bozeman said he always believed he'd return to college basketball after recruiting violations ended his stint at Cal. "It's been a long, long road," said Bozeman, who added that his only regret was that his late father wasn't around to see him return to the NCAA tournament.

By the way, Bozeman said his most memorable career win came came when his Cal team beat Duke in the tournament in 1993. "The Duke fans say, 'Hey, you messed up my bracket,' " Bozeman said.

*Not that Greivis Vasquez is looking past Cal. But Greivis said yesterday: "I want to go to the Sweet Sixteen. We're on a mission. I think we could so some damage."

Continue reading "It's NCAA game day" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

For an update on Lance Stephenson, the big-fish recruit the Terps hope to land for next season, be sure to check out Matt Bracken's latest post. OK, back to Cal-Maryland...

We all know we're going to see some good guard play, and Cal coach Mike Montgomery addressed today the head-to-head matchup between Greivis Vasquez and Jerome Randle, the Bears junior point guard. Vasquez is averaging 17.2 points and 5 assists per game. Randle contributes 18.4 points and 4.9 assists. Plus, both guards are eager to take over a game and come up with the big shot.
But Montgomery said it'd be "dangerous" if Cal found itself in a tight game that strictly came down to Vasquez vs. Randle.
"They're a little bit different players," Montgomery said. "I think Vasquez is a better passer. He's 6-6. He can see over people and pass over people. He can finish at the basket easier than Jerome can.
"Jerome has to do what he can do," the coach continued. "Certainly late in the games, Jerome has won a lot of games for us, from shooting from deep. But they're really totally different type of players, and... I wouldn't want it to come down to that. We've got other people who need to be involved, and Jerome has to keep them involved."

A couple more Cal quotes from today:

Jerome Randle on stopping Vasquez: "This is a team game. You have to play team defense.... We're not going to focus so much on him. We're going to just play basketball. I mean, he can't win a whole game by himself, you know, he needs the rest of his teammates. He's definitely No. 1 on our list, but we have to just contain him and just be smart out there."

Montgomery on what Maryland film he reviewed: "Well, we didn't watch much of the first half [of the season]. I think it's pretty obvious they were getting in a situation where it was getting to the point where they needed to win some games to have a chance to play in the tournament. Gary, as he would want to do in a lot of situations, got it turned around, and the kids kind of came together. ...We checked statistically the last 10 games, and their numbers are way up in terms of their shooting percentages, all that kind of stuff. It's pretty obvious they're playing much better now."

Montgomery on tempo: "I think both coaches would like to get out and get the stuff that comes off of break, if you can. I don't want them to have it. I don't want Vasquez in the open court any more than I can prevent it from happening. It also means that if they're in the open court, we probably missed shots. So obviously both are comfortable in the open court because of the skill sets. Neither team is have-back-to-the-basket, pound-them-out, grind-them-out type teams. We get a lot of good slots in the open court, if we can get it....
"I don't think you're going to see that because I would say typically in the NCAA [tournament], things slow down a little bit, possessions become more valued. You become a little more conservative what you try to do as time goes on. But I know from my perspective, I would sure like to get some numbers off the break, and I'm sure Gary feels the same way."

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 4:04 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Head coach Gary Williams isn't typically shy when it comes to defending his program or his own efforts, but he's tried pretty hard in recent days to keep that chip on his shoulder from answering questions for him.
Still, coming into an environment with reporters from several different cities waving their tape recorders, he was bound to get asked about the recent criticisms he's faced. Below are a couple of his responses, plus some other leftover quotes from Maryland players.
(Cal coach Mike Montgomery just spoke with us. I'll share some of his thoughts on tomorrow's game shortly...)

Williams on recruiting: “I think people lose that nowadays sometimes with all the attention recruiting gets. The idea is still to win The idea is to get to the NCAA Tournament. As I’ve said, we’ve been here 13 out of 16 years. Either I’m a hell of a coach or we’re pretty good recruiters.”

Williams on criticism: “We’ve been to the NCAA Tournament 13 out of 16 years. So, I mean, the recruiting thing, you know, if you judge recruiting on names is one thing, but you should judge recruiting on wins, who wins.

Dave Neal on the Terps as underdogs: “Being the underdog, people maybe have a chance of overlooking you. Kind of being a 10-seed, people don’t about the 10-seed being a great team. I know how well we’re playing the game right now. We’re playing extremely well. We’ve won some big games coming down the stretch. If you want to overlook us, that’s fine. If they do that, that gives us a great chance to maka run here in the NCAA Tournament.”

Landon Milbourne on adversity: “I think we’ve been against a lot of adversity throughout the whole season, and we’ve done a pretty good job of proving people wrong and showing up for big games. It’s just another stepping stone and another way to prove everybody wrong.”

Neal on criticism of Williams: “As a team, it made us extremely upset. Coach Williams had a great deal of success at the University of Maryland. Since I’ve been here, we’ve made it to the NCAA Tournament two times in the last four years, and I mean, that’s tough. That’s a great thing. A lot of teams don’t make that four-year span at all. ….I think it showed a lot of people that Coach Williams, even though people were talking bad about him, he’s not going to quit. He’s going to work hard. He loves the University of Maryland and wants to see a team like us be as successful as we are this year.”

Williams on Vasquez: “I admire what he’s done. He came here from Venezuela and basically had to learn how to speak English as he progressed as a basketball player. The thing about Greivis, he wants to win above everything else, and that’s how I’ve always been as a coach. Winning is the most important thing. And he’ll sacrifice. In other words, he’ll rebound, play defense, handle the ball, in addition to his scoring, if that’s what makes us a better basketball team, gives us a better chance to win.”

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 3:06 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

The Terps public practice was uneventful. The best part was the end.
Practice doesn’t officially conclude until someone drills a half-court shot. Last week at the ACC Tournament, Dave Neal was the first shooter, and he nailed it.
This afternoon at Sprint Center, with a few hundred fans watching from the stands, Neal again went first, but his shot bounced hard off the rim. Greivis Vasquez was second, and his shot was all net. He flung his arms open wide and did a short sprint downcourt, screaming the whole way. Honestly, it was the kind of celebration you make after winning a national title.
Maybe that’s what he thought he was practicing for today?
-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 1:55 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

From a reporter’s point of view, the best thing about the NCAA tournament – open locker room. It allows us to take you a little bit closer to the team. Before the Terps took the court for practice, players relaxed in the locker room and watched as President Obama unveiled his bracket on ESPN.

If you missed the bit, Obama has the Terps beating Cal but losing to Memphis. Maryland players were a bit mixed on his bracket.

“I like the fact that he picked us to win the first game,” said Greivis Vasquez. “We have to prove him wrong by winning the second game.”

The Terps are a team that embrace the fact they have critics. But they aren’t necessarily counting Obama as a Terp-hater. Players instead seemed to focus on the fact that he picked Maryland to win in the first round, not that he has the Terps losing in the second.

“It shows respect for us,” said Adrian Bowie.

Actually, it shows a lot of respect. Remember that Obama’s brother-in-law happens to coach in the Pac-10 – Oregon State’s Craig Robinson. The Beavers beat Cal twice this season, so might Obama have some inside info that leads him to believe the Terps have an edge?

Just the fact that the president was on TV, going through the bracket with ESPN’s Andy Katz struck players as pretty cool.

“He knows basketball,” said Dave Neal. “I love that we have a president that likes basketball and is into it.”

Still, Neal said Obama’s bracket seemed to be safe and the president avoided picking too many upsets. Neal has been filling out brackets with his family since he was young and said that next year the president can lean on him for some help.

“If he needs to call me for some advice… I’m definitely available for that job,” the senior said.

If you’re wondering what kind of prognosticator Obama is, remember that he picked the Steelers in the Super Bowl.

-- Rick Maese

Posted by Rick Maese at 1:55 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Rick Maese, pinch-hitting for Jeff Barker, here. We're at the arena and getting ready for a full afternoon of practices and press conferences. We'll update this space several more times throughout the afternoon.

I'm curious to hear a bit more about this Cal team. One of the more intriguing personalities on its roster has to be Jordan Wilkes. I was flipping through a packet of media clippings this morning and came across the headline, "Jordan Wilkes leaving Cal basketball after this season." It didn't make sense because frankly, Wilkes, a junior and the Bears' starting center, isn't good enough to go pro yet.

Sure, he's a 7-foot tall and yes, his father is Jamaal Wilkes, who starred at UCLA and played with the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. But come on, Jordan, you're averaging 4.8 points and 4 rebounds a game.

Well, it turns out that Jordan isn't forgoing his senior season for a pro basketball career. Check out the story. "I'm just curious as to what other challenges are out there, away from the court," he told the Contra Costa Times, "and I want to pursue them after I graduate."

Sounds like someone who should be highlighted in one of those lame student-athlete commercials that reminds us that most are going pro in something other than basketball. I used to scoff at those. Not anymore.

Posted by Ron Fritz at 1:09 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

*The Terps are available to the media today at about 1 p.m. Eastern. Then they have an open practice at 1:45. I'll keep you updated.

*Maryland will play during the Thursday afternoon session (game time about 2:55 Eastern). Afternoon sessions are notorious for lacking the fan excitement of the evening games.

Said Gary Williams: "If you're a good team, you're not counting people. This time of year you shouldn't have to have a crowd to help you play well."

*Does Cal remind Gary of anybody? "If they took more threes, they'd look a little bit like Duke," the coach said.

*Gary was playing with the media before the Terps departed for Kansas City yesterday afternoon. He was asked a question about two seasons ago, when Maryland beat Davidson in the tournament. "We were in the NCAA tournament? People just forgot that for a long time," the coach said.

*Dave Neal was pretty blunt about the fact that the team has been motivated by the fact that -- as Neal put it -- Gary has been "kind of attacked by the media."

"We did it mostly for him," Neal said of the team's push for the NCAA tournament.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:15 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (3)
        

Basketball has taken over in downtown Kansas City, where it is unusually warm. There is the NCAA tournament at the Sprint Center, and an NAIA tournament at Municipal Auditorium. The hotels are filled with big guys -- including some Terps -- milling around the lobbies wearing sweat suits and headsets.

I love that the NCAA tournament is in Kansas City and Dayton and Boise and other mid-sized locales. Would Miami have been a fun destination for the Terps? Of course, but there is something democratic -- something Americana -- about spreading the tournament around to places that, well, aren't exactly Miami.

Nobody has a home-state advantage here in Kansas City. It's not like Greensboro -- where North Carolina and Duke get to play-- or Philadelphia, where Villanova plays American. There are no Missouri or Kansas schools here, and that seems to leave everybody on equal footing. The Terps included.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

I wrote a story for today on Cal coach Mike Montgomery and his Golden Bears. It strikes me that the Bears and Maryland have the same issue -- a lack of inside presence -- and compensate for it in different ways. Cal shoots threes. Maryland traps, presses and penetrates.

It's worked out fine for both teams. But at one point Montgomery asked himself whether Maryland wouldn't mind having a rugged, 6-10 center.

Montgomery answered his own question.

"Probably," he said.

Here are some Montgomery quotes that aren't in the story:

*On why Maryland's loss to Morgan State wasn't as bad it might have seemed:

"Morgan State is in the NCAA (tournament) so that’s just a name problem for you. The last 10 games…they (the Terps) have been pretty doggone good."

*On Greivis Vasquez:

"Vasquez, he's a wild card. He's capable of making everybody better."

*On why guard play is so critical in the NCAA tournament:

"It's really hard to score in the low post in the tournament because there's not much called. So it puts the ball in the guards' hands. You just don’t see big guys have monster games because it's hard to score in the paint in the NCAAs."

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Sure, the Terps are thrilled to get in. Now it's a race between two excellent game coaches -- Gary Williams and Mike Montgomery -- to prepare. These teams haven't played each other since 1996-'97 (the Terps won).

I have to start by noting how good Williams is in the first round. Give him and another coach the same amount of time to game-plan for an opponent they haven't played ... and Gary usually comes out on top.

Here's my anxiety if I'm Maryland.

I wrote from Atlanta how the Terps, out of necessity, played a pack-it-in zone whenever possible. At the beginning of the season, several players told me they were more comfortable in man-to-man.

But they sometimes have to play zone because they are a smallish team and need to clog the lane to prevent opposing big guys from dominating. At the ACC tournament, they played zone quite well and didn't pay a high price. N.C. State and Wake Forest combined to shoot just 11-for-52 from beyond the three-point line.

But playing a sagging of zone is a luxury you can't afford if the other team starts to hit threes. That's what happened against Duke.

And that's where Cal can hurt you. The Golden Bears make 43.4 percent of their threes -- best in the nation.

Jerome Randle, a 5-foot-10 junior guard from Chicago, is third in the nation at 46.8 percent on threes.

Maryland is 225th in the nation -- and 11th in the ACC -- in three-point field-goal percentage defense (35.1 percent).

Having said all that, Maryland needn't worry about Cal's inside game as much as it did against, say, Wake Forest.

Continue reading "NCAA tournament: a look at Terps vs. Cal" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (39)
        

Just a quick update from Comcast Center before we turn our attention to tomorrow's dead-tree edition of The Sun. Not surprisingly, the Maryland players were pretty excited. Head coach Gary Williams, though, was a bit reserved, speaking from behind a bouquet of microphones. You could definitely sense his excitement bubbling underneath.

Here are a few comments from the Terps. Again, check tomorrow's Sun for more and there will be much more in this space later from Jeff Barker.

Eric Hayes

On the moment: "The moment coming up to that, when our name was called, was pretty nerve-wracking. We saw a couple of other bubble teams get called that could have hurt us bad. Once our name was called, all havoc broke loose in the room and we were just going crazy, hugging each other, throwing stuff. It was pretty fun."

On his recent play: "I think I might be playing a little bit more aggressive offensively, scoring a little more. The most important is when I'm making shots, its a lot easier to be more confident."

Greivis Vasquez

On the moment: "It was one of the best moments of my life."

On the adversity this season: "We're just excited, happy. We went through so much this season. Getting back in the tournament means so much to everybody here."

On Venezuela: "I'm sure everybody in my country is celebrating and jumping up and down and into this. They're big fans, big Maryland fans. I know everybody back home is happy and proud of us."

On critics: "All those people who wrote what they wrote and said what they said, now they can answer their own questions -- What else do they want? Hopefully, we can make it the Final Four, so they can really just never talk anymore about Maryland. Unbelievable job for coach Williams. If you look at our roster, we got guys who aren't super-talented; we got guys who just work hard every day. We're hard workers, and that's the reason we made it. We don't have the talent like UNC or Memphis or somebody like that, but we work hard and we're going to compete regardless."

Sean Mosley

On the season: "We had ups and downs throughout the whole season. A lot of people were doubting that we'd get this far. Just going into the ACC tournament, everybody had the same mindset: we win two games, were in."

Dave Neal

On the moment: "At first, I'm not going to lie, I was nervous when I saw Arizona was the first bubble team in there. My heart started beating extremely fast, I turned and said, 'This could get a little nervous.' Once I saw Maryland get up there, I threw a clipboard down, jumped up and screamed as loud as I could. I know how hard we've worked this year and what we've gone through. The fact that were back in the NCAA tournament, a lot of people didn't expect that."

On coach Williams: "I'm so happy for coach Williams. He works so extremely hard during the season; there's some nights he won't sleep at all because he's watching so much game tape, he wants to win as many games as possible. He's had a tough season. The media's been on him. The fact that we played extremely tough and made it back to the NCAA tournament shows people what a great coach he is."

On the tournament: "We have a great chance to make a run here. We're playing extremely well right now."

Gary Williams

On the selection: "It's never easy. When you look at those teams that are left out every year, its incredible how many good teams there are now. That's the thing you realize when you look at the selection process -- it's the way it is, I guess it's not going to expand, so there's going to be teams left out every year. So if you're in a situation like ours, where its not completely smooth during the year, the players are going to feel like they're in and out of the tournament at various times of the year. So you have to maintain that ability to focus on the next game and not listen to everything you hear or read and be able to still have hope that you can make it. When that happens, that's when you erupt. Thats why it's such a great feeling."

-Rick Maese

Posted by baltimoresun.com at 7:54 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

Just one wall and a pair of closed doors separated the Terps from the assembled members of the media. It didn't matter how far away they were; we could could hear the nail-biting, especially when Arizona -- considered an outsider by most -- was announced as an at-large team. But the sound of nibbling nails paled in comparison to the eruption of noise that exploded through the bowels of Comcast Center when Greg Gumbel announced Maryland's place in the NCAA tournament field: a 10-seed, slated to play No. 7 California on Thursday in Kansas City, Mo.

We'll have more on California in a bit. What you need to know now: They finished the season 22-10 (11-7 Pac-10). They'll enter Thursday's game having played just one game in the past 12 days. They lost in the opening round of the Pac-10 tournament to Southern Cal, 79-75. Cal, which seemed to be in the race for the regular-season title for a while, was a three seed in the tournament and lost to sixth-seeded USC. They closed the season losing four of their final six games.

Cal seems to be a pretty strong team offensively. They have three starters averaging double-digits and as a team, they average 75 points per game. The Golden Bears' guard play is especially strong, so it might not be a terrible matchup for the undersized Terps.

Check out their season stats here.

The Terps are in the bottom half of the bracket in the West region. Their path won't be an easy one. In fact, winning two games feels like a long shot. If they can get past California, awaiting in the second round is No. 2 Memphis, a team that easily could've been a No. 1 seed in this tournament.

We're awaiting Gary Williams and some players, so we should have some quotes and information on Cal coming up soon

If Maryland somehow sneaks by Memphis -- a Tiger flu bug? a missed Memphis flight? -- then they'd be looking at a team like No. 4 Washington or No. 5 Purdue in the Sweet 16 round.

Check out the full bracket here.

Who do you like in the Maryland-Cal matchup? Do you like the Terps' draw?

-- Rick Maese

Posted by baltimoresun.com at 6:26 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (29)
        

Here is the All-Tournament First Team, courtesy of the ACC:

MVP-Jon Scheyer (DU), Toney Douglas (FSU), Kyle Singler (DU), Tyler Hansbrough (UNC), Gerald Henderson (DU).

How about some love for Eric Hayes, who topped his old career high twice in scoring 21 and 20 points?

Posted by Jeff Barker at 4:15 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

So, Terps fans. You've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"

Sure, Maryland built a case for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. But luck is involved, too, because there are so many moving parts. Along these lines, the Terps caught a break when Baylor failed to win the Big 12 automatic bid yesterday. By losing in the championship game, Bayor is probably out of the dance -- one less team the Terps must compete with.

I think Maryland is likely to get in. I know athletic department folks believe the Terps should get in -- but they don't want to make any rash statements and upset the wrong people.

You will probably get the verdict before I do. My early-morning flight was grounded in Atlanta and I am still making my way up the East Coast on alternative flights. I'm in Charlotte now. The lesson is: Don't fly during spring break season if you can avoid it. Just don't. The flights are more packed than the Comcast Center student section for a Duke game.

But my Sun colleagues will keep you covered until I return. We'll have people out at College Park during the selection show.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 3:57 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

Some moments I'll remember:

*Dave Neal's excitement in the final moments of the Wake Forest victory. He was really pumped.

*Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg stripping off his jacket and slamming it to the floor when he thought one of his players was fouled against North Carolina. Reminded me of a Gary toss.

*Former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom expressing admiration for Gary Williams by saying: "He must be doing it with mirrors."

And Duke coach Krzyzewski said: "Maryland has been on a mission, and Vasquez has led them."

*Florida State's Toney Douglas not only lighting up North Carolina with his shooting -- he had 52 points in two games.-- but pestering relentlessly with his defense. Great to see a scorer playing on both ends of the court.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I know how it must feel for the Terps to lose to Duke -- again. But they may have done enough in this tournament to secure an NCAA bid.

Some thoughts:

* Maryland was unable to play as much zone defense as it wanted because of Duke's three-point shooting.

"[Kyle] Singler made a couple in the first half that probably kept us from going zone earlier than we did," coach Gary Williams said. "When we did go to zone [Jon] Scheyer knocked a couple down."

* Greivis Vasquez didn’t score in the second half until the 10:51 mark.

* Adrian Bowie was particularly aggressive, taking 11 shots and scoring 10 points.

* Dino Gregory missed a one-handed follow slam midway through the second half that would have been one of the shots of the year.

* Maryland finished 8-8 in the ACC last season and didn't make the tournament. The Terps must hope the conference's strength this season -- plus their two ACC tournament wins -- will put them over the top.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:07 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Gary Williams said last night that he wouldn't speculate about whether two wins in the ACC tournament was enough to secure an NCAA bid.

But Williams, at his media availability following the Wake Forest win, came prepared with some informational ammunition.

The coach said something I hadn't thought about. He said Maryland has played six games against teams ranked No. 1 at some point in the season. I expect we'll be hearing that statistic, or one like it, from Maryland again before tomorrow's tournament selection.

By the way, I'm guessing Williams was talking about:

* North Carolina (Terps split with the Tar Heels).
* Wake Forest (Terps earned split with last night's win).
* Duke (Terps lost two, but have another shot today).

Posted by Jeff Barker at 2:40 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

This is an unexpected season in many ways. After the loss at Virginia, Maryland could have been headed to a dreadful finish had it lost in the ACC tournament's first round.

But now? Two wins in the tournament and the season's story line has been rewritten -- again.

It's been a great tournament for Gary Williams, who has seemed to out-coach Sidney Lowe and Dino Gaudio. It stops being a coincidence when opponent after opponent shoots poorly against the Terps.

Williams said he walked the team through his pack-it-in-the-lane defense at the hotel before Friday night's game. The defense helped Maryland neutralize the opponents' size advantage.

Other notes:

* Greivis Vasquez seemed to shake Adrian Bowie at one point during the game. "I was trying to wake him up and tell him that we needed him to play harder. And he did," Greivis said.

* What's the deal with Bowie's sneakers?

Bowie lost his shoe on the first defensive sequence. He slipped it on when Maryland got back on offense without anyone calling a timeout. Then he lost it again in the first defensive sequence of the second half.

* Former Wake coach Dave Odom said Gary Williams must be using "mirrors" to get the results he gets against powerful, larger teams.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (17)
        

* Did Maryland trick Wake Forest and N.C. State?

The Terps converged in the lane defensively against both, seeming to dare them to shoot three-pointers. Both opponents did shoot the three often -- and neither very successfully.

"We had to sag a little bit," Sean Mosley said.

Gary Williams called the defense a gamble. But it worked.

Wake Forest was 3-for-25 on three-pointers.

* Can the Terps play three days in a row without running out of energy and intensity? No doubt they can run on adrenaline for a time.

* Maryland really took pride in outrebounding Wake. "The way we rebounded tonight, I think we made a statement that even though we’re undersized we can still play with the big boys," Dave Neal said.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 11:20 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

*Can the Terps overcome Wake Forest's size advantage tonight and make their NCAA dream a (possible) reality?

Maryland's front line was dwarfed in the teams' last meeting by 7-footer Chas McFarland, 6-11 Tony Woods, 6-9 James Johnson and 6-9 Al-Farouq Aminu.

Maryland surrendered 19 offensive rebounds and allowed 20 second-chance points.

Still, Maryland only lost by two.

How did the Terps stay close?

*Dave Neal had five threes.
*Maryland, with its usual energetic defense at Comcast Center, held potent Wake to 25 points in the first half and believed it could win the game.

Maryland, which is occasionally scoring-challenged, is going to need a big night not only from Greivis Vasquez, but also someone else. Maybe Neal. Or Eric Hayes, who had five threes last night. Or Landon Milbourne, who works hard but has been mysteriously silent with five, two, 10 and seven points in the past four games.

The Terps tired in the second half of the teams' first meeting. They'll need to go on adrenalin tonight, particularly since they're playing on back-to-back nights. These conference tournaments are all about endurance.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

* Is it just me or do the Wolfpack seem to take an excessive amount of jump shots for a team with some size and inside skill?

N.C. State attempted 27 three-pointers against Maryland. The Terps tried 16 but still made more from behind the arc -- nine to eight.

Principal culprits: Brandon Costner (1-for-5) and Julius Mays (3-for-9).

* How sluggish did the Terps look in the first 10 minutes, when they had scored only eight points and were trailing by 13?

But Eric Hayes settled them down.

“I’m not sure we ever recover... if Eric isn’t in that game,” Gary Williams said. “Sometimes you make one or two shots and everyone [on your team] relaxes.”

* It really makes little difference that Hayes is no longer a starter. He always seems to be on the court when it matters. Gary just trusts him.

* Is Dino Gregory coming on? Seven rebounds may not sound like much, but it is on this small Terps team. And he got those boards in 23 minutes. No other Terps player had more than four.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 11:00 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

* Odd thing about the Georgia Dome configuration is that some fans are seated so far off in corners that they're facing other stands. They have to crane their necks – as if peeking around a corner – to see the court, which is little more than a rumor. This sometimes happens when you configure a football stadium for hoops.

* Here's a tournament irony. Teams get keyed up for the tourney, which is a big deal. And then they play in the afternoon session with lots of empty seats and relatively little fan excitement. Maybe it's the dome effect that's swallowing the noise. Anyways, I hope it's louder for the Maryland-N.C. State evening contest than for the afternoon games. I know lots of fans are waiting until tomorrow to come out when North Carolina and Duke play.

* This is, by the way, is only the 10th time in 56 years that the tournament has been played outside the state of North Carolina.

* Miami's loss to Virginia Tech today puts it out of the NCAA tournament for sure. "We will probably get invited to the NIT," Hurricanes coach Frank Haith said.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 3:20 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (8)
        

Greivis Vasquez always seems to find motivation. He finds it by encouraging the home fans to yell louder, or by feeding off opposing crowds' taunts, or by popping his jersey.

So now Vasquez has another motivator.

He said here in Atlanta yesterday that this could be his final ACC tournament.

Vasquez is planning to test the NBA draft waters at season’s end. That doesn't mean he's not coming back but rather that he's considering his options. If he does come back, he said he hopes his Terps teammates include Lance Stephenson, the highly-touted recruit from Brooklyn, N.Y.

Said Vasquez: " It could be my last game. Or it could not be. You never know. You never know what could happen.”

Whatever works, Greivis.

By the way, Vasquez went into more detail about the last N.C. State game. That was the game in which he threw up a three-pointer to beat the buzzer with the Terps comfortably ahead.

The Sun's Rick Maese quotes Vasquez in today's column:

“[Fans] were talking about me being an immigrant and [having] a green card and stuff like that,” Vasquez said. While Vasquez later said he recognized the fans were trying to be funny, “at the moment I thought it was racist.”

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

You see Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti in his courtside seat and you know he's a big Terps fan. For those of you who wonder how that happened -- he is a graduate of what was then called Salisbury State -- I wrote a story on Bisciotti for today's paper.

Here are some quotes that weren't in the story.

On being a fan:

"My whole life my brother and I were following (the Terps). I was in college at Salisbury when it was Buck Williams and Albert King. I've always been a big fan of college basketball and Maryland was my team."

On how he originally got his seats:

"I had a good friend who ended up contributing enough to have four seats on the floor. He wanted to reduce that and asked me if I could buy two. I came in in' 92 when they had Exree Hipp and Duane Simpkins."

On Maryland's fortunes and criticism of Gary Williams for missing the NCAAs:

"I argue if Strawberry hadn't gotten hurt and McCray had gone to class we wouldn’t be having this conversation."

Note: Bisciotti was referring to 2004-05 when the Terps got 19 wins --and played many games without an injured D.J. Strawberry--and went to the NIT. He was also citing 2005-06 when Maryland was without leading scorer Chris McCray, who was out for the spring because he was academically ineligible. That was also an NIT season.

Continue reading "Steve Bisciotti and the Terps" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (24)
        

* Gary Williams said a couple victories in Atlanta would likely gain the Terps entrance into the NCAA tournament.

"Two wins would put us in good shape," the coach said.

He qualified his remarks to make sure everyone listening knew he was not looking past N.C. State in Thursday night's opener.

"N.C. State -- that's the whole key," he said.

* Some faithful blog posters have suggested it's time to be realistic and quit thinking about the NCAA tournament this season.

My response as a sportswriter following the team is in two parts:
1) Why?
2) Speculating about NCAA prospects is much more fun than assessing where the Terps might open in the NIT. I'm just not mentally prepared for that yet.

* You know it and I know it: for the Terps to win any games in the ACC tournament at all, they must go to the foul line more.

Maryland shot six free throws against Virginia, and two against Wake Forest. Getting to the foul line a lot is a good indicator of aggressive play. It means you're driving the lane and competing for offensive rebounds.

Maryland's free-throw percentage has fallen as the year has progressed. It's now 73.9 percent. But that's still pretty good (fifth in the ACC) and it's better than the 70.3 it shot last season. The Terps don't score enough in other ways to have the luxury of not shooting lots of free throws.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (30)
        

Everybody remember how Greivis Vasquez took a three in the final seconds with the Terps already up by eight at North Carolina State?

Greivis was taunting the Wolfpack fans a bit, saying afterward: "It's nothing personal. I was into the game. Nothing against the fans."

Think the Wolfpack will remember Greivis and his shot when the teams meet in the ACC tournament?

"I mean, I'm sure they've got that in the back of their mind that he did that," Dave Neal said yesterday. "I think Greivis loves that pressure. They're going to be talking about that. He definitely got some boos after that, but that's part of his game, that's what he does. That kind of gets Greivis playing harder."

Gary Williams says there was more to the story. He says Wolfpack fans were really riding Greivis hard.

"A lot of stuff was said from the fans that wasn't real nice," Williams said.

My take: I believe what the Wolfpack will remember most is that Vasquez scored 33 points. They'll try to figure out a defense to keep him out of the lane. He was in there all night. That was the real story -- more so than the three-point shot.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I had been wondering as the year progressed whether Greivis Vasquez -- particularly after his triple-double, followed by 33 points two games later -- might have a chance at cracking first-team All-ACC.

Not even close. He got 116 out of a possible 228 votes, which was good enough (barely) for second team.

I think Greivis can be underappreciated. There are better shooters out there, better passers and better rebounders. But he's a rare combination of a guy that does all three pretty well. Does he have room for maturation? No doubt. But can you imagine what this scoring-challenged, rebounding-challenged team would have looked like this season without Vasquez? I shudder to think.

Among those ahead of Greivis was North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough -- the only player to be selected unanimously by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.

Here are all the picks, followed by their voting points:

First Team
Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina (228)
Toney Douglas, Florida State (226)
Ty Lawson, North Carolina (224)
Gerald Henderson, Duke (210)
Jack McClinton, Miami (188)

Second Team
Jeff Teague, Wake Forest (185)
Trevor Booker, Clemson (156)
Tyrese Rice, Boston College (151)
Kyle Singler, Duke (128)
Greivis Vasquez, Maryland (116)

Continue reading "Greivis named second-team All-ACC" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

I have a theory about Maryland's season.

Most teams play better at home than elsewhere, but it seemed the home-road differential was particularly pronounced for the Terps.

Assuming Maryland doesn't dance, road games will have been the culprit.

Maryland won but two ACC road games -- by a point against Georgia Tech, and by 11 at N.C. State. Neither of those opponents is headed to the NCAA tournament.

The Terps dropped games on the road by 41 (Duke), 29 (Clemson) and 18 (North Carolina). Saturday's road loss to Virginia was the most damaging of all, coming at a critical juncture and against a team that had lost four games in a row.

Maryland, since it's not as big or high-scoring as many teams, wins on defense. Defense, which is about will, is fueled by passion and intensity -- commodities that can be obtained far more easily when there is a loud home crowd urging you on. Maryland feeds on its fans' enthusiasm.

Fans often focus on offense -- on triple-doubles and who was the high scorer. But you know what impressed me more than anything this season? It was Maryland holding Wake Forest to 63 points in a two-point loss at Comcast Center.

This was a Wake team that scored 96, 93, 92 and 91 points in other ACC games. Sixty-three was its lowest ACC total of the season.

If it beats N.C. State, Maryland will play Wake Forest again on Friday night. Too bad for the Terps that they can't move the tournament up to Comcast Center.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (11)
        

I've been reading your assessments of the season, and of Gary Williams in particular.

I like getting different viewpoints. One interesting one came from Bob Tallent, the former George Washington coach. Tallent played for Kentucky and was on the team that lost the 1966 NCAA championship in a game that was featured in the movie "Glory Road."

I asked Tallent, who lives in the Washington area, what he felt when he heard that Gary was under fire at Maryland earlier this season.

"I just laughed," Tallent said. "It just made no sense to me. I just thought, 'Who are you going to get better than Gary Williams?' "

Tallent continued: "They run the Flex (offense). They set so many screens and he gets everybody involved. The center gets involved, too. His teams are very fundamentally sound."

In the interest of balance, I should note that Tallent didn't address Maryland's recruiting, which has been closely scrutinized by fans and the media this season to say the least. It's obviously a vital issue. But I did want to offer one former coach's perspective.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (26)
        

Here at last are the pairings (below), courtesy of the ACC. I know many of you were hopeful that Maryland -- if it can first beat N.C. State -- would draw Duke in the second round instead of Wake Forest.

One piece of good news for Maryland is that the Terps avoid a first-round matchup against Miami's Jack McClinton, the guard from Baltimore. He had 18 points in each game against Maryland during the regular season but is capable of much more.

If Maryland beats N.C. State, there is at least the possibility of rekindling some fun for Terps fans in this trying season. A first-round win would provide a small measure of hope that the Terps could hang in against Wake Forest -- as they did at Comcast Center -- and perhaps gain a different outcome this time.

A first-round loss would be dreadful for the Terps because it would mean they ended the critical part of their season with losses against teams (Virginia and N.C. State) seeded 10th and 11th in a 12-team league. It would erase some of the goodwill the team deservedly built with its fans after the upset of North Carolina.

I'm curious whether Maryland's fan contingent in Atlanta will be smaller than at past ACC tournaments, owing to the economy and to Maryland's 7-9 conference mark. What do you think?

I'm ready for Atlanta. Basketball and sweet tea and barbecue. Must try a chili cheese dog this time at The Varsity, which bills itself as The World's Largest Drive-in Restaurant.

The schedule follows. Many fans must be pleased that Maryland avoided the noon game -- harder to be planted in front of a television at that hour -- and got placed instead in prime time.

Continue reading "ACC tournament pairings" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (12)
        

Despite losing yesterday, the Terps get the No. 7 seed in the ACC tournament because Virginia Tech lost today.

Maryland will play No. 10 N.C. State in Atlanta on Thursday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.

The winner will play Wake Forest, the No. 2 seed, on Friday at 7 p.m.

Maryland played the Demon Deacons tough at Comcast Center, as you know. But Wake Forest sure gave the Terps fits because of its size advantage.

I'm going to be looking back at the regular season and making some assessments. If anyone wants to weigh in on Gary Williams and his coaching job this season, feel free to post or to e-mail me directly at jeff.barker@baltsun.com. All comments welcome. I'd love to hear from boosters and/or longtime season-ticket holders.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:03 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

Here's why this loss was surprising:

*Because Virginia had lost four games in a row.
*Because the Cavaliers missed 14 of their first 17 shots and Maryland took a 21-8 lead.
*Because the Terps had everything to play for, and Virginia was playing for pride.

It's almost as if Maryland -- cruising early in the game with that 13-point lead -- presumed it would win.

"It is a game where you look at the start and almost think it is too easy," Gary Williams said.

Said Greivis Vasquez: "We need seven or eight guys ready to play, and I don’t think we had it tonight."

Williams seemed especially animated, even for him. I couldn't help but thinking that after everything that has happened this season -- the questions in January about his job security above all -- that this must have been a wrenching game for him to lose.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:01 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (21)
        

* Maryland usually plays good enough defense to win -- and it did again. But there wasn’t enough scoring. As Greivis Vasquez said, the Terps seemed to “slow down” against Virginia in a game they had to have.

Said Dave Neal: “Once again their zone defense probably threw us out of whack. If you’re a good team, you can make that adjustment.”

* Maryland got two points from starter Sean Mosley and four points from starter Adrian Bowie.

* Maryland only got to the foul line six times, making four. Virginia shot 20-of-24 on free throws.

* A large Maryland contingent at the arena chanted “Let’s go Maryland” and “Gary, Gary.”

* Cliff Tucker, Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes all shot air balls from long range. But Dave Neal and Hayes hit big three-pointers to pull Maryland into a 61-61 tie.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:59 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (16)
        

With today's loss, Maryland heads to the ACC tournament in Atlanta needing to win at least two games to qualify for the NCAA tournament.

If Virginia Tech defeats Florida State tomorrow, Maryland will play its opening game Thursday at noon against Miami in the game pitting the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds.

If the Hokies lose tomorrow, Maryland will be the No. 7 seed and will face No. 10 North Carolina State on Thursday night.

In 2003-04, Maryland made the NCAA tournament with a 7-9 record in the ACC regular season--- the same mark as this season. But the Terps won the ACC tournament that year and got the automatic berth.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:45 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

Maryland's is basically playing today for a No. 7 seed in the ACC tournament. Terps need to win today to lock in that seed.

If the Terps get the 7th seed, they would play 10th-seeded N.C. State on Thursday night at 7:00 on ESPN2. If they won that, they would play the No. 2 seed on Friday night at 7:00.

If Maryland loses today, it would not know its seed until Virginia Tech plays tomorrow. If the Terps fall to No. 8, they would play at noon on Thursday against ninth-seeded Miami.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 5:09 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

* Gary Williams said today that 8-8 in the ACC deserves an NCAA tournament bid because the conference is so strong.

Now the Terps just have to beat Virginia tomorrow to reach .500, and then hope that the tournament selection committee agrees with Gary.

A win or two in the ACC tournament would certainly help make the case.

* Did you know that Greivis Vasquez is bidding to be the sixth player in ACC history to lead his team in scoring, reboundiing and assists?

The others were Tim Duncan (Wake Forest), Danny Ferry (Duke), Anthony Grundy (N.C. State), Julius Hodge (N.C. State) and Bob Sura (Florida State).

Gary Williams today compared Vasquez to former Terps standout Walt Williams, who -- as many of you remember -- was quite versatile.

Walt Williams still holds the record for points in a season (776).

Posted by Jeff Barker at 3:50 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Folks: We'll have an update after Gary Williams and players are available beginning at noon.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:33 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Once again, it was evident after the Wake Forest game how fond Gary Williams is of this year's team.

It came across in his response to a question about how last season's team finished 8-8 in the ACC, but missed the NCAA tournament.

Williams used the question to address how this year's group is different and how committed it is to playing hard. "I'm really proud of these guys," the coach said.

It got me thinking: what was wrong with last year's team? Think about it. Last season, Maryland had most of the current group but also had two pretty good front court players in James Gist and Bambale Osby, both double-digit scorers.

You'd think this season's Terps would have been worse, not better, after losing Gist and Osby to graduation.

I have a couple theories. Feel free to add your own.

I suspect that Gist drove Gary a little crazy. He's a solid player but he could disappear at times. I remember Gist scoring 31 in a win at Wake Forest. But I also remember him fouling out after scoring three points in the 67-59 loss to American -- a team Maryland beat by 16 this season.

Continue reading "Comparing Terps teams, part deux" »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (20)
        

Last season: The Terps finished 8-8 in the ACC and 19-15 overall and didn't make the NCAA tournament.

This season: The Terps are 7-8 in the ACC and 18-11 overall.

Gary Williams bristled at what he thought was a media member's suggestion that the two seasons --and teams -- are somehow similar.

"Ah, this is different. You’re wrong," the coach said. "The way we work, the way we go after things. These guys have had my back all year. They’ve been tremendous. And I’m going to have their back."

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (19)
        

* By now, Maryland seems to have a pretty good formula for upending taller opponents. Maryland’s forwards converge down low on defense, and the guards sag into the lane to help. On offense, the Terps look to run whenever possible and drive the ball to the basket.

But sometimes, the bigger guys prevail. Wake did last night.

* Wake Forest blocked 10 shots. "Don't underestimate James Johnson's block down there at the end [with] under a minute," Demon Deacons coach Dino Gaudio said.

It's hard for the Terps to practice against really good big guys, because they don't have any.

* Maryland played quite a bit of zone against the larger Demon Deacons. "We figured they would play man-to-man, so when they went to a zone it kind of confused us for a little bit," Wake Forest's Jeff Teague said.

* Twenty-one times this season -- out of 29 games -- Maryland has committed fewer turnovers than the opposition. Last night, Maryland had 10 turnovers and forced 16.

Continue reading "Did you notice that ... " »

Posted by Jeff Barker at 7:00 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (22)
        

I think the Terps ran out of gas in the second half. Hard to blame them. Not only did they play an energetic first half, but consider what happened before that.

Maryland played at N.C. State on Sunday, then got on a plane in a snowstorm and arrived home late in the evening.

Not to make excuses, but players wear down -- particularly when they're staring at a large front line that makes them work harder than the opposition to get shots and secure rebounds.

Maryland is a team that relies on intensity. It has to. The Terps aren't big and aren't the best three-point shooters, although Dave Neal made five of six tonight. When the energy level dissipates, the Terps are very beatable.

Here's the good news for the Terps. They made all their foul shots. Here's the bad news. They only went to the free-throw line twice the whole evening.

The bigger Demon Deacons went to the line 17 times.

More in the morning.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 12:35 AM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (9)
        

*Maryland is wearing its gold, which has become the home uniform color or choice. I wondered if Terps would switch off gold after the Duke loss. They had been undefeated in gold this season before that.

*Fans already chanting "Dave Neal" in honor of the lone Maryland senior on Senior Night. One sign in the student section says "I ask you to Neal."

*Jerome Burney (bruised foot) is out tonight.

Posted by Jeff Barker at 8:45 PM in Terps basketball | Permalink | Comments (2)
        

Returning to RBC Center for the Maryland-N.C. State game reminded me of when I was there last season for the NCAAs. That was when Stephen Curry dropped 25 points on Georgetown --