It’s probably reached the point where you’re thinking, “There’s 10 days between Terp men’s basketball games- And I have to spend the time in between writing papers and taking exams?”
Well, in between doing the same thing myself, I’ve prepared a quick and easy study guide of a few things to think about before the Terps (6-3) host Winston-Salem State a week from today.
DINO’S BACK
This was the main headline going into Saturday’s win against Eastern Kentucky. It remains a key issue if for no other reason than it takes away the “there’s two freshmen big men logging major minutes inside” defense going forward. Gregory started and played 33 minutes against the quirky Colonels, while freshman Jordan Williams, who had started his first eight games as a Terp, played just nine minutes. And freshman James Padgett didn’t even see the court.
That rotation will no doubt change going forward against more conventional teams, but Dino’s appearance-and career-high eight points-is clearly a good thing for this team. Coach Gary Williams continues to stress that this was the way the team had expected to play all along, so being without one of its five projected starters had a major effect.
Even if Gregory doesn’t average the eight points per game he scored agains the Colonels, he’ll bring energy, defense and just in general make everyone feel more comfortable.
Guard Sean Mosley said he noticed the difference on Saturday, even if it was just knowing when to screen and running through the offense more smoothly.
“Jordan and James will realize that after a couple games, or next year,” Mosley said. “But Dino is a veteran player and he did a great job of coming out here playing and helping the team out today.”
THEY’RE OK…REALLY
With some of the preseason hype on this team, some outside the program are probably a little bit disappointed that the team hasn’t scored a major win at this point in the year. (Just don’t tell people inside the program that.)
But there’s still a lot of time left, and as Williams likes to point out, with the way the field of 65 is selected, you have to win a fair amount of conference games no matter what. That means that even though the Terps don’t have a non-conference win to hang their hat on (a la a win against Michigan State early last season) they will still have every opportunity to play their way into the field in the next three months or so.
As Williams also likes to point out, William and Mary comes in on Dec. 30, and the Tribe have cracked the “Others Receiving Votes” category in the polls thanks to a strong start, so that’s a game to look forward to in the interim.
Right now, the Terps sit at 57th in the RPI, according to www.realtimerpi.com. That’s a spot behind a Minnesota team that was ranked earlier this year and a spot ahead of Hofstra.
The three losses are to teams that should find themselves in the NCAA Tournament field come March, and while the Terps would’ve liked to win at least one of them, Williams said his team is in a lot better shape than last year at this time when they were still finding their identity.
“Those teams are really good,” Williams said of the Terps’ three losses. “To beat them, you have to do everything right. You have to have everybody in place to play. So we do now, and we’ll go from here.”
WHERE’S THE D?
One of the things you can expect during this break from games for final exams is the Terps really committing to being a better defensive team. About every player mentioned that they weren’t happy with the effort against Eastern Kentucky, especially on the perimeter. The Terps allowed 16 threes against Villanova and followed that up 11 threes against the Colonels.
Again, Gregory coming back should help inside because without him, you’d just expect that Williams and Padgett would have started to wear down as the ACC schedule started-even before the real pounding begins.
Right now, the Terps rank 10th in the league in scoring defense, yielding 64.6 points per game. (No. 10 North Carolina is last at 71 points per game, by the way.) And as you might expect, they’re second to last in three-point defense with opponents knocking in 36 percent of the attempts.
At times, early this season the Terps simply outclassed their small conference opponents with a stifling press. But with four straight games against power conference foes (that yielded the three losses) and then a tough match-up with Eastern Kentucky, they’ve been forced to back off and play more zone.
Guard Greivis Vasquez, who definitely represents another point to think about with his interesting season so far, said he wants to get back to that fast and loose style from the first four games. The only way to do that is to play better defense. And nows the perfect time to figure out exactly what has worked and what hasn’t.
“A two week vacation is not the idea,” Mosley said. “The idea is just getting better as a team within those two weeks.”
It might still be hard to tell exactly where this team is going, as my colleague Greg Schimmel likes to point out. So take a little time to get away from basketball. Study a little bit. And when you come back to Comcast Center next week keep these things in mind.
Eric Detweiler is The Diamondback’s Terrapin Men’s Basketball Team beat writer. He can be reached at edetweilerdbk@gmail.com. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/edetweiler.