Dave Neal Gets to Ride Up Front

because he's a good guy at sports?

Seriously, did Dave Neal just drop 17 points in 17 minutes against the #5 team in the country, on ESPN2, en route to winning the Old Spice Player of the Game? Was that a tryptophan induced hallucination?

As someone who absolutely talked TONS of shit about Dave Neal throughout the early part of the season, let me take this moment to extract my foot from my mouth and congratulate Dave "YMCA" Neal on his 27 points in the last two Terps' wins. Nice job, big man.

The Terps managed to rout Michigan State tonight by 18, even with Greivis Vasquez not playing his best game. Sure, he dished 6 dimes and grabbed a team-high 6 boards, but he also shot 5-14 from the field and played very poorly as Michigan State caught up to the Terps at the end of the first half. I am no Greivis hater, but the man needed to settle himself in the worst way for much of the game tonight.

Adrian Bowie came up huge all game, particularly in the first half, scoring 13 points in total while the other point guard, Eric Hayes, was huge with 13 points, 5 assists and 3 steals. Hayes looks a bit quicker this year and more aggressive tonight than he has in the past. The new spry Hayes can be a key asset on a contending Terps team over the next two seasons. And Adrian Bowie can shoot now (he hit three threes). His bandwagon is now filled, and I'm still in the conductor's seat (do they sit?).

I already mentioned how big the non-cyborg edition of Dave Neal was tonight, but Braxton Dupree played perhaps his best game of the season, scoring 7 points and grabbing 5 rebounds in a career high 31 minutes all while looking as active on both ends as he has at any point in his career. Michigan State is pretty damn physical (aka they play a garbage Big Ten style) so holding his own and staying on the court tonight was huge for Brax.

Now the Terps get to play another top 10 team in Gonzaga tomorrow evening, before facing either Georgetown (!!) or Tennessee on Sunday evening in either the championship or the third place game of the Old Spice Classic. Hopefully the Terps get the Hoyas because they're too scared to play us otherwise. Also - they aren't very good. They have little depth, and if the Terps got them into a track meet, Georgetown would lose.

Other stuff:

*Sean Mosley is pretty damn awesome. He might be the smartest player on the team - Dino and EHayes are also on that list, though the whole team has generally played smart ball so far this season. Twice he made plays that really don't translate well to an internets blog, one on a rebound and one on an assist. Since they won't translate well, I won't describe them. Rest assured they were real, and they were spectacular.

*Michigan State shot 44% from the FT line. LOL. That pretty much means that Tom Izzo could hire Ekene Ibekwe as his team's Shot Doctor (D.D.S) and improve them.

*Isn't Gonzaga always highly rated only to underachieve in the tournament? Why can't we win this game? Since we basically don't play anyone for the rest of the nonconference schedule after this weekend, winning one of the next two is still pretty damn important.

*Korean Durant got zero minutes tonight. I have no complaints about the rotation, but that made me sad. What's more fun than watching Korean Durant play ball?

*Is there something below the doghouse to describe where Jerome Burney is that is worse than "dog house"? Again, not that he really should have played tonight, but I feel like he might never see the court again for more than two minutes in a game.

*What is up with this bulleted list? Who do I think I am, a sportswriter? BRB, have 2 add more cliches. (The rhetorical questions were also trite and overused).

*I'm pumped. Fuck a Gonzaga.

*4-0-1 <3 Gary

Terps Preseason Wrap-Up

Saturday in College Park the Terps put it on the glass against D-III opponent Northwood, beating them 104-60. It was the first time since the 06-07 season that the Terps scored 50 or more in a half and also the first time since 06-07 that they scored more than 100 in a game. Of course, this was expected considering the opponent. Except, of course, that this is Maryland sports and we're always good to play down to competition. It was good to see the Terps actually play well and roll an opponent that they should roll. It's hard to truly tell how the Terps will do this year as they played clearly inferior competition. But hopefully they can continue to build from this game and continue to improve into ACC play.

A few thoughts and notes on the game:

• For a Saturday game at 2:00 PM the student attendance was fairly good. The court sections were mostly full and the wall was about 1/3 full for most of the game. Considering the opponent, the score, and the time, I'd day things weren't too bad. Hopefully this bodes well for fan support this year and a decline in the scan and leavers. (It won't, but a boy can dream, can't he?) Paid attendance, however, was atrocious. It was probably easier to count the fans there than the fans not there. Can I blame them? Yes. This is Maryland Basketball.
• Speaking of Maryland Basketball, here's my favorite quote of a certain G. Williams, said after the Oct. 29th scrimmage: This is [expletive] Maryland. This is your [expletive] school. This is my [expletive] school. This is where we won a [expletive] national championship.
• Robert Ehsan, Maryand's new full time coach looks like a sharp cat. Also, I use terms from the 50s. He's pretty much had all his coaching experience under Gary. He graduated from UC Davis in 2005 and has been on the Terps staff since then. He's learn to emulate the master insofar as he even has the Gary Williams crouch. I could see big things from him.
• The announcer needs to announce Keith Booth last on the list of assitance coaches. Currently, he's named right before Rob Ehsan, and I feel like i'm not given enough time to shout "BOOOOOOOOOOOTH." I will now go back in my hole.
• Greivis Vasquez, who did not play Saturday due to violating some rule, looks good in a suit. Let's hope not to see it again until Draft Day 2009.
• Landom Milbourne is good. He looks like he may finally be living up to his potential. He showed hot flashes at times last year but was anything but consistent with it. His ability to slash and drive to the basket is enhanced by his much improved ability to finish. Add to that his nice outside shot and the Terps have a good upperclassman to take some of the offensive workload off of Greivis.
• Thank you, NCAA for not screwing us over on Jin Soo Kim. Kim looks like the real deal as a recruit. He has a nice shot and has the muscle and size to get to the basket and finish. Although he missed all but one of his threes, I'll give him a pass because he's probably still getting used to the longer distance. All of his shots were at least on target and hit the back of the rim. He looked a tad slow playing the two, but that also could be chalked up to him only beginning practice last week. He often looked confused on defense in the first half, but by the time the second half rolled around, he had found his rhythm on both sides of the court.
  
• Adrian Bowie has a jumper. ACC, you have been warned.
• Maybe it's because we don't have the talented big men any more, but it almost seems like we're getting more rebounds. My theory: Because we don't have Gist and Boom to rely on anymore to get the ball, our guards and "big" men are trying harder for to get the ball. This could be a good thing.
• Braxton Dupree, who lost a lot of weight over the summer and really shaped up, showed a lot of hustle. He needs to go up stronger around the basket, but he grabbed a lot of tough rebounds and showed signs as to why he was a four star recruit.
• That being said, our front court will not be pretty. Outside of Landon, the Terps don't have any solid inside man. We all knew this coming into the season, but it's even more evident when it's seen in person. Burney really has no offensive presence. Gregory will get more play, and although he has a mid-range jumper, he doesn't show much of the inside game. Steve Goins actually looked decent, but he's in Braxton Dupree condition Circa 2007. And of course, Dave Neal is Dave Neal. Let's hope Gary employs the four guard offense.

This could be an interesting season. I'm setting the over/under of this team making me want to break something at 11.5.

I'm probably taking the over.

Terps Terps Terps

Have you seen the preseason college basketball publications? They all seem to agree that the Terps are going to finish in the bottom half of the lig this season. The Sporting News even went so far as to pick Maryland dead last in the ACC. That's nearly unfathomable for a program that finished tied for 5th in the conference last season, even while having its worst team in about 15 years.

It's easy to be pessimistic about the coming season, but I'm not having any of that. And neither is Gary Williams, who will be saying Hi Hater to all the naysayers when March rolls around. Don't believe me? Here are five reasons why this team will dance in March.

5. Adrian Bowie is a year older and a year better.

I'm a big fan of Adrian Bowie to say the least. He can handle the ball, he can score, and he can defend. He's already one of the best finishers in the league, to the point that it's often amazing to see how he contorts his body to score in traffic. The one thing that held him back from a breakout season last year was his complete inability to shoot, but if early indications from scrimmages are correct, Bowie has worked hard to correct that flaw in his game. The threes fell for him in three intersquad scrimmages, and if that continues, he will be an All-ACC player by his Junior season.

4. The ACC sucks
Sure, there's UNC, the prohibitive favorites to win the National Championship, but then what? Duke should be very good, but they're far from a team that imposes fear in the hearts of opponents now that Ratface has stopped recruiting post players. Wake Forest is being picked by many to finish third, but they failed to even make the NIT last season. Miami should be good, but that's a one man show with Jack McClinton and no one else of note. Virginia Tech? Good one. The top two spots should be reserved for UNC and Duke, but the Terps can be better than any of the other teams in the conference this season.

3. Sugar Sean Mosley and Korean Durant
Sean Mosley is good at basketball. I hate to talk about intangibles (except when mocking Cap'n Jetes!), but Mosley has them. What I mean is that I couldn't really explain to you why he's good, at least not properly. Sure, he has certain skills, but more than that, he will be one of those guys that has a knack for making plays and doing what the team needs to win. He's an excellent scorer (second all-time among Maryland HS players) who will also hustle for 40 minutes. He's a "Gary Williams player". Think Juan Dixon. Think Greivis Vasquez.

Korean Durant (a/k/a Jin Soo Kim a/k/a Jin Soo Choi) is the greatest person ever to hail from South Korea, and the first to play DI basketball. He led all scorers (along with Landon Milbourne) with 20 points in the Terps exhibition rout of Northwood. Kim's shot was not falling (1-6 from three), but he poured in 18 points in the second half by taking the ball to the hoop. That's impressive for a guy that was supposed to be a three point specialist. Kim also showed great smarts and passing ability. Combine those attributes with a 6-8 frame and you have a potential breakout star.

2. Matchups

This team does not have good big men. Braxton Dupree shed a ton of weight, and should be much improved, but he won't be Lonny Baxter just yet. After that, things are thin at best. Dave Neal will play, but shouldn't. Jerome Burney is an athletic shot blocker, but he'll need to be more than that to play major minutes. Dino Gregory could be improved and ready to play, but he's small. Steve Goins can't crack the lineup in scrimmages.

Gary Williams has said that this team may play a "four guard" lineup with Landon Milbourne sliding to the four to get more of the team's guard depth on the floor. Now some will wonder if Milbourne can keep up with ACC power forwards, but let's turn it around - can they stay with him? Milbourne didn't have a breakout season last year, but he is a very athletic player at 6'6" or so who can hit the three very well. Going small might have its disadvantages, but ask Duke if it dooms you.

1. Greivis Vasquez

Greivis Vasquez will probably go down in Maryland history as the most under-appreciated star in program history. Coming off a 2nd team All-ACC selection (which should have been a first team selection), Vasquez might be gone after this season. But boy can he play. He hasn't yet got a triple-double, but he will. He drops dimes, grabs boards, and scores in many different ways. People who focus on the turnovers or the missed shots are missing the point like a free throw. Vasquez is skilled floor leader who gives 100% every time out. If this is his last year in the Red & White, I'm going to enjoy it.

Still not convinced?



Maryland Basketball is going to be back on the map (Your boy back in the building, Brooklyn we back on the map / Me and my beautiful beeeeeeeitch in the back of that 'Bach).