pe shon howard is maryland's next point guard. he has a tremendous feel for the game.

Sorry, Stoglin is the next PG. Leonard lacks the leadership skills to run the first team.

Read the article, it says Doron Lamb had to tell Leonard to be more aggressive.

Parker and Stoglin will have nice careers at MD. Pankey, Paissen and Leonard are the practice team.

Seems like Mr. Broman and I (as well as freddy from boca) are all on the same page regarding Howard (see comment to prior blog, "Two future Terps in Baltimore today"). The initial word on Palsson is, however, a little discouraging.

zig zag Who is Leonard? do you mean Howard.? Howard is very much a leader and will be a impact player at Maryland. He his a great passer. Read what his coach said about him. How do you know that Pankey and Palsson will be on the practice team. You have never seen them play, therefore your opinion has no merit. They both come from GREAT H.S. programs. Don"t base your opinion of a player on what happened to other players. There not the same.

Matt-

Does that concern you about Paulson? That is the 3rd time I have seen a similar report on him. He just isn't ACC material.
We need big men, and that scholarship is now wasted. We have wasted more scholarships the last 3 years.

We have 2 left for next year if Goins leaves, and the year-to-year for Pearman is not renewed.

I don't think they will use any more, but, this team is really going to struggle after making good strides back towards the top this season.
I just don't get it.

Oh, and whoever said Howard is the next PG, SToglin is the next PG. He is so much further along defensively and offensively.

SHREDS123-

The 2003 Class was the #1 class in the nation, at least at 1 point.

Mike Jones was the HIGHEST rated SG in the country behind....Lebron James.

Some would say, that the downturn occured when Gary went after those elite players, instead of the local players that got us to that point.

I don't have a problem with the quality of the players that Gary recruits.
He knows more about what he wants than I do.
My only concern is, he goes after swing players and gaurds that are elite, and doesn't even target big men.

The problem MD has had beating the elite teams consistently, and just being a dominant program, is because we are so small. I wish he would go after better big men.
If he had just 1 top 50 big coming in to play next to JW, then this team would be a top 25 team again, if not better depending on how Stoglin and Parker develop. But, he doesn't.

They get crushed on the boards, so, even though they play great defense every year, teams get 2,3,4 shots a possession, and so many easy put back dunks, etc.

Yes, I think Stoglin Will Be good, but keep in mind that the level of competition he played against is nowhere near the teams that Howard"s team plays. Based on that fact, I Wouldn"t be surprised if Stoglin enters the fall behind Howard. I think the both will flourish with GW. We clearly need rebounding help. Padgett"s development will make a difference. My understanding is that Pankey is very athletic and a terrific defensive presence and rebounder, at least he was when he was at ST. Benedicts We don"t know how he'll come back from the injury. Palsson,according to people who know, is clearly a ACC caliber player.Smart,works hard, does all the little things.He is suppose to be a good rebounder. Lets see him play here before we judge, cause none of us really know.

I concur 120% regarding Hawk's lack of talent. I saw him play minor minutes of today's game and he looked lost and didn't do anything of note. Truely distressed that GW thinks that he can play at ACC level. We could have used his spot on a "project" big man and would have been better off. Iceland doesn't produce they best in hoops, if this kid is any indication.

As far as the kid from Iceland goes...It's my understanding he doesn't start for his high school team as a senior. 'Nuff said. Do we need any 6'6" projects? If we're lucky he turns out to be David Neal and gives us one good year. If he ends up being Mike Grinnon he'll contribute to our team gpa. Maybe we get really lucky and we just drafted the Tom Brady of college basketball. My gut tells me Gary will be taking heat for this recruitment until he transfers to Loyola. By the way, I will gladly eat my words when it's time. I'm still munching on a little deep fried Vasquez.

sheesh - all the usual negative prognosticating going on. Can't wait for the next class to come in...and see them play and develop.

I am sure there was a a very good reason they offered the Hawk...maybe they see a glue guy, or a worker on the boards. Can't we just lighten up a little on both Gary and the kid? Can the haters can at least wait until he steps on the comcast court before trying to bury him? Maybe he'll have a better matchup and game in the next round. Relax just a little.

I'll always trust Gary's judgement of who he wants on his team above some regular naysayers here. Not referring to Bracken or TT Broman's reporting btw...love both.

shreds123 Palsson doesn"t start for Monteverde(#2 H.S. Team in Country) because he was new to program according to his coach in a recent interview. The kid was going to go to DeMatha, but the guy who was recruiting him left. The coach at Monteverde said that Palsson has all the tools to play in the acc and will get better and work hard. Again, how do you know he is aproject. Hes eems to have a high basketball IQ. The school he plays for doesn't have stiffs playing for them, They recruit.

It just seems to me if you are an ACC type player, then you start on your high school team. I don't care if you are a recent transfer or not. I also said I am more than willing to eat my words, as I have done plenty this past season. If Gary says this kid is worthy of the 5th scholarship offered for next season then great. He had better be worth it, because size is what we need, not more depth at the 3.

shreds 123 The Monteverde coach said this has been his policy all his coaching career.He wants to reward kids who have been there through thick and thin.His teams are always very good, so he clearly knows what he is doing. Trust him on Palsson, He's put tons of players into major colleges

Milbourne didnt start his senior year in high school...

Boy, I hate feeding trolls, but Ryan, do you ever think before you contribute to this blog? By your statement, it appears that you've never even seen Palsson play. How can you determine a kid's capabilitites without ever watching him? While I was a bit concerned from Mr. Broman's entry regarding his evaluation of Palsson after the opening round game, I took the time to watch some of today's game to see for myself what Palsson brings to the table. Frankly, in watching him today, I don't think such a small sampling provided a significant enough view of his overall skill set to properly judge him. I get the impression that the strength of his game falls in the subtleties of him doing many of the "small" things that don't necessarily make it onto a stat sheet. If both his high school coach and Williams each feel that he has a great basketball IQ and has the talent and work ethic to succeed in the ACC, then that's good enough for me.

As far as his not starting on his high school team as a measurement of Palsson's qualifications as an ACC-caliber player, there really is no correlation, especially in today's game when you see these prep schools loading up their rosters with national and international players, all of which end up at D-1 schools. Again, Palsson was originally targeted to go to DeMatha. His late transfer (and, don't get me wrong, I don't believe he's a Top-50 quality player that would have forced him into any school's starting line-up) pretty much guaranteed him a place coming off of Montverde Academy's the bench. As the 6th man for the #4 ranked team in the nation, he plays virtually as much as any starter anyway.

As for Howard, Ryan, did you even bother to watch any of Oak Hill's game against Mountain State Academy, or have you ever seen him play? What about Stoglin, have you ever seen him play? If not, how can you even begin to issue your sweeping pontifications of either of them as players and who will/should start. Howard, who played against stellar competition throughout his 4 year STARTING career at Oak Hill, played a very strong floor game--albeit, I saw the 2nd half only--and showed incredible court vision. He will make a very strong point guard.

Practically I want both Howard and Stoglin to show the ability to play both guard positions as there will be many occasions when the Terps will need multiple guards/players who can handle the ball on the court at the same time. Likewise, in 2011 (and I'm not dismissing Mosley's presence), I don't see any particular problem in frequently seeing Stoglin and Howard on the court together with Stoglin at the 2 guard position should his scoring prowess be the "real deal."

In the end, the reality is that Gary Williams, based upon the players' performance and practice effort and his judgment, will determine who, when and what position each will play. Neither your, my or anyone else's opinion will count for anything.

Oak Hill Academy's two best guards are Doron Lamb (undecided) and Juwan Staten (Dayton) so Pe'shon Howard is the third best guard on that team. He only starts because they play 3 guards like Gary does. There is no way the #3 guard on that team starts over Stoglin who, I believe, is second place all time in Arizona HS history in scoring.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The usual whining nonsense. Nothing new here.

Maybe Ryan can throw in the towel BEFORE the season even starts instead of at HALFTIME of an ACC game at the MIDPOINT of the season. LOL

Landon Milbourne didnt start at Oak Hill. He turned out ok. Its a joke that so many people who haven't seen a kid play, or who saw him one time, think that they are better talent evaluators than our coaches. Get a life. Better yet, coach your 9 year old daughter's rec team.

If I recall, Reggie Lewis didn't start at Dunbar. Also, there is too much emphasis on what is expected out of freshman. Years ago, not much was expected until your junior year in the ACC. Not sure Dave Neal was a good player (even without his injuries) until his junior year as well. We need to give these guys a chance.

Palsson might be a wasted "ship". Just because you have 5 or 6, doesn't mean you have to use one in haste, Gus Gilghrest leaves for S. Fla, so MD signs 6-10 Goins, who DEPAUL wasn't even recruiting!!

palsson doesn't start for his team because he isn't very good. I actually watched that game and he didn't do ANYTHING. Its beyond me why he got a scholarship. He's probably going to be a 6'6''' steve goins. And that team was the 4 seed in that tournament and didn't look very good, I'm not sure why they're "ranked #2" if they really are

Again. At this point, this is kind of funny. People are already tearing apart a class they were lauding a couple of months ago.

This all seems to be sparked by a couple of comments about two recruits who haven't played a single minute in the ACC. They're already getting taken to task because of numbers or feel -- or lack thereof -- or size. Kind of sad and also pretty ridiculous. I'll offer it again. Is there even a snowballs chance that any of the naysayers know more than Gary Williams? Really? Even the most remote of chances? Could you sit down and really talk x's and o's with the man and outduel him? Do you know more high school coaches in the country? More contacts? Do you have more experience in gametime situations at a high level as a coach and a player? As a recruiter? Won more championships? If not, why is everybody doubting him?

One of the things that I really appreciate about GW is that he's very honest with himself and with us. He coaches the way he does because it is a reflection of his personality. He also recruits the way he does because it is another reflection of his personality. He is looking for players with that internal drive and hunger. He will help them to get better if they truly wan to better themselves. Not necessarily "size," but heart. I'll take heart over size any day. Michigan State is a small team and they made it to the Final Four (FYI, their starting center is 6'8" on a good day). But for a last second three, that could have easily been MD. Butler made it to the National Championship game. Again, where's the size? WVU? They even had size problems against Duke.

Not ever team in the country can have a huge frontline. I think GW realizes that. Sure, he goes after players with size, but not all of them want to come here. That's fine. GW has proven that he can succeed with smaller players that have heart.

Boom wasn't tall, but he had heart. Baxter wasn't tall for his position, but he had heart. Joe Smith wasn't tall, but he had heart. Dave Neal? Landon Milbourne? Starting to see a pattern? As for the "he's not a shooter, he's not a starter on his high school team, he doesn't have a good feel for the game" stuff, are you kidding? Really? Making comments like that after watching one or two games is just plain ole silly. If you look at all of those players and their career stat lines, all of those players have been very successful in high school. To now knock a couple because of some random "tournament" doesn't make a lot of sense.

Again. Could we just focus on the positive for a bit? Just a bit. This was a great season (to me, winning an ACC regular season title qualifies as a great season). This is a really good recruiting class and it seems like there's a lot of potential there. Maybe they all won't turn into All ACC players or Cousey award winners or 2010 Three Point Championship Winners (by the way, who thought that about GV or Hayes when they were being recruited), but they all appear to reflect the inner makeup of their coach. They all have heart. I'll take that any day.

Trust in GW. Fear the turtle!

The recruiting class that was lauded a couple of months ago is not the same class that will be arriving on campus next fall. Ross, and it may turn out to be a good thing, is gone. He was perhaps the highest ranked player in the incoming class. He was replaced by a smaller, less regarded player, that may turn out to be wonderful. I can accept those changes. Another 6'6 guy, with this particular pedigree, leaves me scratching my head. 5 scholarships in one class is a lot.

Charles is right it was a great season and we should be thankful. One thing though is G.V. and Hayes were highly regarded four star recruits, were as Palsson and Howard are not. If anything, Hayes did not live up to his expectation where as G.V. exceeded his. Although G.V. was pretty darn good his senior year in high school. Point is that Gary will take these guys and make them scrapy and they will fit his mentality of us against the world. Make no doudt about it Gary's passion and strength is making average to better than average players better. He will never be a great recruiter. Everyone of our top local recruits for 2011 will end up else where. I wish it was not the case but history will repeat itself. From a recruiting stainpoint we are no different than Skin fans who think they are going to win the Superbowl every year and have the realization half way into the season that it is not going to happen. We will have a good team, just not with any of the current top recruits mentioned for 2011. If Stoglin and Parker turn in offensive performances as freshman, we have something in the makings for a good team in two years. I just can't see us doing much next year.

terp n texas
re ryan
you will note that ryan really just rambles...always ... just an ongoing whinner ...
gw produces good guys that will win and make us all happy. stop the madness already

I usually don't respond because, well, its funny to me that people really care.

But, I haven't seen the kid play. I am only going on the different reports. I am not going to collect them, cuz I don't wanna waste the time. ESPN has one, but there have been a few saying that t/his kid is a total roll of the dice. I could care less though.
All I said was, we need big men.

I guess I am totally wrong.
I'm way off base.
Oh, when is the last time MD made a sweet 16? When was the last time MD consistently beat top 12 teams?
What happened to MD against Michigan St? A team that was without their best player for the whole 2nd half.
GT?
If you are happy with struggling to get it done, and breathing sighs of relief, then fine.
I'm not. So, their glaring weakness is a solid rotation of big men. I will continue to point it out until they have one again and can consistently beat top teams.
I don't know why people get so mad at that, but its the truth, anyone on the outside can see it, and Gary obviously agrees with me. I guess they went hard after Harris, Abraham, Smith and others for no reason at all.
lol. Dopes.

I'm kind of curious about the last comment. That brings up an interesting point. Does MD need additional big men? Why/what position? JW is a pretty big guy. Are you talking about more of a step out power forward who can shoot the three or some other kind of big man?

Like, another big body to crash the boards or something? They have Padgett and Dino already. I'm not sure why everyone's so down on Padgett, but I expect him to have a great year next year.

Pankey's a big man recruit? Sure, he's injured now, but he's also pretty young. I think there's more than a decent chance that he'll bounce back from his injury.

So, I'm still wondering why? Just to stockpile them or something? Georgetown has been doing that for the past few years and they've had issues with transfers.

Arguably, MD tried to do that a few recruiting classes ago and many of their big men left. UNC has had many "talented" big recruits over the past few years and many of them have been injured over and over and over again.

So, is recruiting some additional bigs for this class really a critical element for the team and why? I get the fact that nobody enjoys seeing this team get outrebounded, but they held their own in the ACC against many "bigger" and "better rebounding" teams. If they get a few more bigger bodies, will that automatically translate into more dominance on the boards? I'm not sure about that. I don't think anybody liked seeing them get outrebounded against Mich St., but Mich St. is one of the best rebounding teams in the country. There are few teams they can't outrebound. And, they have a small lineup.

Will having more big men automatically lead to more consistent wins over national powers (I think MD's already demonstrated this over the last couple of years; I think beating the two teams who played in the National Championship game last year qualifies)? I'm not sure of that either. They already have a healthy amount of recent wins against top teams. As for not wanting to worry about how the team does year in and year out, I'm not sure having a few more big men will lead to that either. Plus, they play in the ACC. Pretty much the best league in the country. So, I think people will tend to worry no matter what. If you stop worrying, you start to have UNC like seasons.

So, again, why more big men. Other than Duke, all of the Final Four teams this year had smaller lineups. Is that a coincidence?

It's an interesting subject, but I'm just not sold that more big men equals more wins. I like the smallish lineup that GW has been deploying over the past few years. They're a better pressing team, a better running team, and a better shooting team. Much of college basketball today is predicated on those keys. Rebounding will always be important, but I'm not sure you need lots and lots of big men to accomplish that feat. Some guards and forwards who can jump, block out, and who have heart may more than make up for a few big men.

Actually, the success of the last few years would seem to support that conclusion.

Charles,
J-Will can't pay 40 minutes.
If you are happy, content, and confident in the other bigs, then ok.
I am not. I am also talking about 2011.
Duke, right now has made another title game with 3 quality bigs, even though the gaurds haven't played well.
Gregory is just 6'7 and the offense is at BEST mediocre.
Padgett is 6'8, and maybe he will be better. Who knows.
Pankey, is also just 6'8, and the scouting reports on him are that he is not an offensive player.
Everyone on here gets mad at that observation.

And if you want to win more, they really hate you. lol.

JW can't play 40 minutes a game -- yet, who knows what some additional conditioning might do for him -- but they also have Gregory, Padgett, and Pankey. I think it is important that you pointed out their height. The 6'7"-6'8" frontcourt range is comparable to the frontcourt of three out of the teams that are/were in the Final Four.

I guess my point is I don't think that's a coincidence. Having a couple of guys who are 6'10" up to 7'0" will not equate to wins. There are many teams who have proven that time and time again.

It's interesting that you bring up Duke because for the past decade they have played small. It was only this year that they had a serviceable rotation of bigs (and they lose two of the best this year). And, again, Duke is the only team in the Final Four with that kind of depth.

So, is your concern more linked to scoring? I guess you're kind of looking for someone to spell JW or to complement him on the frontline? If so, I guess, yes, I'm fine with the bigs they have. I think they can fill that void nicely. And they should be fine for 2011 with that core group. I suspect there will be additional signings in the future.

I have no problem with the fact that you want MD to win more. I applaud it. I guess it would be nice if MD won more or played for a championship every year, but I guess I think that's unrealistic. Possible, but extremely difficult in college basketball nowadays. Everybody has their ups and down. Everybody. UNC was hot, now they're not. Texas was great and they crashed and burned. UCLA? USC? Arizona? Connecticut? Michigan? Indiana? Oregon? Florida barely squeaked into the tournament after dominating the NCAA for a few years.

It's hard to recruit today. Schools in big conferences have to fight and fight and, in the end, many kids will choose schools for various reasons. Some good, some bad, but it's their decision. And, I'm just not sure that MD would win more if they had more bigs. In fact, one might argue that the traditional frontline makeup that they offered up five or six years ago slowed them down and made them a much worse defensive team.

I just like to focus on what MD "has" and the positive potential there. I think the Haukur pick up was interesting. There are a lot of unsigned players around the country that fit that description, but GW offered him a scholarship. He's a shooter with experience at the international level. Besides Tucker (who will be a senior), there aren't many other shooters on this team. So, why not take a chance and see if he can offer something? Maybe a spot player that can play solid D and can hit the occasional three. Maybe something more? Maybe a lot more? Who ever would have imagined that Dave Neal could develop more of an outside game than an inside game? You just never know about the players that GW recruits. Some aren't heralded recruits but, for the most part, the ones that stay (and I think that's a critical piece) are fighters who improve their game and make the University and their fans proud. I'm proud of that.

I don't disagree with your passion. I guess at the end of the day, it's an unknown to both (all) of us. I'm just there to support them. This coach and all of these young men do (did and will do) a great deal for this University and I'm proud to be a fan. Fear the turtle!

Great game by Butler and Duke. Congrats to Duke. They represented the ACC well in a "down year." And, who was the last team that beat them? That's right, fear the turtle!

Yesterday's game shows Ryan is a fool again. Butler did not have highly recurited players, but they still went to the final. They didn't have many big men, yet they lost the game because that how game should decided - by chance (though one question call against Hayward's charge helped Duke won)and not by enough of talent.

Maryland beat the past two champions in the regular seasons, so the Terps were not to bad in tanlent and game plan as Ryan indicated.

The guy who made a fool of himself all season long, is calling other people dopes. LOL. That has to take the cake.

Ryan, you're the laughingstock of this blog dude.

On to other topics. Lance Stephenson has gone pro after leading Cincinnati to an NIT berth. Just another one-and-done player who proved nothing in college. Thankfully, Maryland rescinded their scholarship offer to him knowing full well he'd bring nothing to a college basketball program. Adios.

I love GW and Terp basketball. But I have to admit that it was GW who let Greivis down. Had Gary and his staff been able to recruit just 1 decent big to complement Jordan Williams, the Terps would have been a sweet 16 and/or elite 8 team this year in the NCAA Tournament, and might have beaten GT and advanced deep into the ACC Tournament. You simply can't win consistently vs big time programs with a bunch of Landon Milbourne type players at power forward. GW needs to land some bigs to help out Jordan Williams. Why GW seems to have so many problems closing on a big time big man recruit is a puzzle to me. Definitely one of his weaknesses. Padgett was a complete bust this year. Gave us absolutely nothing. Hopefully, he'll pan out better in the future. Dino? Regressed this year. No more than a bench player at best.