The Diamondback doesn’t publish on the weekend, but Terp basketball doesn’t stop for us.
Here are some noteworthy snippets from today’s media availability session ahead of tomorrow’s game against Georgia Tech at Comcast Center. Topics include Sean Mosley’s struggles, Eric Hayes’ illness, the Yellow Jackets’ lack of success against the Terps and the prospect of using a more traditional lineup.
MOSLEY PERSEVERES: Terp guard Sean Mosley has scuffled recently after a scorching hot start to the season. The sophomore has hit double figures just twice in 11 ACC contests, and he’s shot just 20 percent (3-for-15) in his last three games.
“When you’re going through a stretch like I’m going through right now, it’s kinda tough,” Mosley said. “I know I can hit the shots that I miss. The only thing I can do is keep shooting until I make them.”
Coach Gary Williams said he doesn’t worry about Mosley’s shooting as long as he continues to be a defensive stopper, corral big rebounds and add the intangibles that earned him a starting spot during his cold-shooting freshman campaign. Buried at the end of the upcoming quote seems to be a justification for keeping Mosley in the starting lineup for the foreseeable future.
“I want him to feel secure in that as long as he generates those other things, he’s going to get his playing time,” Williams said. “That’s the way it is, especially this time of year. We’ve been through a lot together, and there’s not going to be a whole lot of changes this time of year.”
Mosley said he spent Thursday working on “game-like shots” to try to get his rhythm back, but it’s clear the Baltimore product isn’t panicking yet.
If you want to look at Mosley’s struggles in a different context, that’s okay, too. It’s just basketball after all.
“At the end of the day, Kobe don’t make all the shots,” Mosley said as some in the room started laughing. “Like you’re not going to make every shot you shoot. Kobe has some off nights, so I guess I can have some off nights. But at the end of the day, I do anything and everything to help my team win.”
ERIC IN A HAZE?: Guard Eric Hayes said he’s been dealing with an illness since Sunday night, describing them as “flu-type, cold symptoms.”
Williams mentioned Hayes wasn’t feeling well after Monday’s win against Virginia. In that game, Hayes scored 10 points on 4-0f-6 shooting in 25 minutes.
The senior said he was feeling a bit better by Wednesday’s game at N.C. State, but he clearly wasn’t right in being held scoreless for the first time this season. Hayes missed all five of his field goal attempts, including three 3-pointers.
“It was kinda different Wednesday,” Hayes said. “I was feeling a lot better, but my throat was really killing me. It was tough for me to breath. I just got tired real quickly.”
YELLOW JACKET DOMINANCE: The Terps have won eight straight against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets haven’t beaten the Terps since a 75-64 win at Comcast Center on Feb. 19, 2004.
So the real question is does that kind of success against one opponent have any sort of carry over effect from season to season? Not at all, coach Gary Williams said.
“We don’t even talk about it because it’s this year. It’s current,” Williams said. “They have a different team, we have a different team. I was watching last year’s game and Dave Neal played great against Georgia Tech. We’re a different team this year, and so are they. We’ll see how this year goes. That’s a thing that coaches get thrown in your face when you’re losing to the other team. You’re reminded of that all the time. When you’re winning, you don’t hear much about that.”
No one pointed out that Williams has also never lost to N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe, who dropped his seventh straight decision to the Terps as Wolfpack head coach on Wednesday.
GET BIG OR STAY SMALL?: A constant story line this season has been how the Terps have matched up against some of the conference’s best front courts. And Williams is feeling comfortable using any of four big men in his two front court spots. But that doesn’t mean he plans to show a more traditional lineup any time soon.
Williams talked about how much college basketball has changed when addressing his three-guard lineup and said that moving Landon Milbourne to the small forward position is a strategy that will remain a practice experiment.
The 21st-year coach said he likes using guards Cliff Tucker and Adrian Bowie off the bench to rotate in with starters Greivis Vasquez, Sean Mosley and Eric Hayes. If the Terps switched to a three forward lineup even for short stints in the middle of games, the duo likely would lose minutes.
“Not many teams can change that abruptly in a game,” Williams said. “In other words to go from three guards to three big guys by this game, you don’t have time to change a lot of things even if you want to.”
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.