Photo by Adam Fried/ The Diamondback
At one point, James Padgett was known to Terp fans as the recruit who could help woo Lincoln High School teammate and uber-recruit Lance Stephenson to College Park.
But with Greivis Vasquez returning alongside his merry band of overachievers, this Terp team does not need another ball-dominant star. It needs big bodies. In that sense, Padgett will be a, ahem, big piece of the puzzle.
Padgett started in the Terps’ exhibition win against Indiana (Pa.) while Dino Gregory sat out, suspended due to an unspecified violation of team rules. If Gregory is kept off the court, the Terps will need Padgett to be a reliable option in the early going.
Listed at 6-foot-8, James Padgett is not the largest of fellows, but he is expected to make a large contribution on the glass. Lazy media-types might call this grit, scrap or hustle. Padgett calls it enthusiasm.
“I always look for the ball,” said Padgett, speaking at media day. “Follow it. Gotta go get it. You have to treat every game like it’s your last, so if the ball is not with you, you don’t feel right.”
Right then, he made a believer out of me. And after the team’s second scrimmage this knack was becoming apparent.
“Even though James wasn’t on my team, he rebounded the ball pretty well,” Vasquez said after the Oct. 31 scrimmage. “That really bothered me a little bit because he’s going to take my spot. and he’s probably going to lead the team in rebounding, so that’s not good.”
“I’m just playing,” Greivis said, smiling. “But that’s good to know.”
Best Case: Padgett starts in Gregory’s absence, provides the interior presence in the post and on the boards that the Terps lacked last season, and cleans up his teammates misses for some scrap points.
After the Oct. 31 scrimmage, Gary Williams compared Padgett to former Terp and No. 1 overall pick Joe Smith. Williams explained that both entered college with offensive talents obfuscated alongside ball-dominant guards (Joe Smith played with Allen Iverson, Pagett with the aforementioned Stephenson.) While Padgett lacks Smith’s jumper, he does have a few more sneaky post moves than expected.
Worst Case: The learning curve is too steep, too early, and Padgett is abused by more established bigs. He cries on the court as the Terps lose to the Stephenson-led Cincinnati Bearcats in the second round of the Maui.
Realistic Case: Padgett contributes solid if unspectacular minutes to a team that desperately lacked any traditional post presence one year ago. He chips in on the glass, while some garbage buckets make up the bulk of his offensive production.
Wacky Case: James Padgett grits/scraps/hustles his way into the media’s heart, becoming the “Black Tyler Hansbrough” of the resurgent Terps. Thus he embarks on path toward an awkward AT&T commercial pending his graduation.
James Padgett is from Brooklyn, N.Y. Usually, Brooklyn residents like Notorious BIG and the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. With Padgett, I can’t confirm the former, but I can the latter. In awesome video fashion.
Only four hot dogs? We’ll give the kid a break, assuming he can rebound.
Michael Katz is a staff writer and internet expert for The Diamondback. He can be reached at mkatzdbk@gmail.com