Billy and the Terps ...
... oh, but they're weird and they're wonderful.
Having dispensed with a random Elton John reference, let's get to a few snippets of what Billy Packer had to say during the Maryland-Wake Forest telecast.
Assessing how much the Terps need Eric Hayes to return to play point guard, Packer said how Greivis Vasquez is miscast in that role: "The more he has the ball in his hands, the more he feels the pressure to make plays."
After watching Maryland respond to holding a lead late in the game by rushing to take ill-advised shots or turning the ball over, Packer said of Gary Williams: "This has got to be one of the most frustrating teams he's coached."
And finally, summing up the play of both teams, Packer offered: "I've seen a lot of guys playing unintelligent basketball."
Comments
Those comments are just pure Billy Carolina Blue & Duke Packer being Billy Packer.
Posted by: e.t. | January 16, 2008 8:39 AM
Billy is saying the same thing the majority of Terps fans have been saying since early in the season. Hayes is the best point guard available, and Vasquez is a runaway freight train. He has talent, but it is misused at point.
Posted by: ron nixon | January 16, 2008 9:57 AM
Vasquez may be a great player but is a turnover machine at point guard. Plus he has demonstrated that his ego is so big he loses control when the game gets tight. He should play at the 3 spot or the 2 guard at the end of games until he matures.
Posted by: CJ | January 16, 2008 10:13 AM
I think Packer is more right than he knows - if you were to sum up the last five years of Terps hoops, "unintelligent basketball" is about perfect. Going back to the championship year, the number of players who just didn't "get it" even after being here for three and four years is astounding: Caner-Medley, Ibekwe, Garrison, Jones, Randle, Holden - all guys whose basketball IQs Gary seemed helpless to improve. Maybe they were just world-class boneheads that there was no reaching, but looking at how much trouble Gary had reaching Gilchrist - and how we're seeing shades of the same inability to reign in Vasquez this year - it brings Gary's teaching ability into question. Who's the last Terp that fully achieved their potential here? Drew Nicholas? Strawberry? Anyone else?
We've got no business being a middle-of-the-road program - especially not when we're situated in the middle of probably the hottest basketball factory in the country - but thats where we're at. Gary likes to say he's got an impossible struggle to keep up with Duke and UNC, but we're not even keeping pace with Texas A&M, for crying out loud. We're irrelevant in the big picture, and unless we have another magical ACC tourney run, we aren't making the NCAAs this year either - which makes that four out of the last five years, for those keeping score.
Yow has got to see that it's time for fresh blood. But out of loyalty to Gary for having single-handedly built the program, he's not leaving until he decides it's time to walk away. How many more sub-mediocre seasons are we willing to endure?
Posted by: Steve | January 16, 2008 2:30 PM
Actually, Steve, that will only be three out of the last five years that Maryland hasn't made the NCAA. They went in 2003-2004 (D.J. Strawberry's freshman year) and again in 2006-2007 (D.J.'s senior year).
Not saying that it's acceptable, just saying what it is.
Posted by: E$ | January 16, 2008 2:47 PM
I have thought Vasquez is as much of an asset as he is a liability since the Illinois game in 2006. That intensity that Gary loves so much equates to brainless basketball about half of the time. I call Vasquez "Mr. T" for turnover. I'll take Hayes and Tucker or Hayes and Bowie any day.
Posted by: RITerp | January 16, 2008 6:19 PM
Had to agree with Billy all the way, as well as ron nixon. That's been my opinion of Vasquez. I hope Steve Melewski, the resident post-game show Vasquez apologist, was listening.
I was at the women's game Monday, and they play a better, more well-coached brand of ball than the men do.
Posted by: steve | January 16, 2008 6:29 PM