Another Cameron Ass-Whooping

If indeed this was Maryland's last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium for a while, it was a fitting one.  The Terps lost their sixth straight there, failing to keep the score to single digits for the fifth time in that span.  For the second straight weekend, a good, but not great, wing from the research triangle lit the Terps up.  This time it was Duke frosh Rasheed Sulaimon who tallied 25 points, including 6 three pointers.  After weeks of offensive struggles where the Terps were able to fall back on their excellent defense, the bottom fell out.  Not only did the Blue Devils put together a scintillating 61.1 eFG% on the day, but the Terps forced an abysmal - even by their low standards - 4 turnovers on the day, including none in the entire second half where Duke's lead ballooned from 8 at the half to north of 20.

For the Terps part, they were right at the point per possession mark, so despite this being a Duke team that was scorched for 90 two nights ago, that qualifies as a success.  The bigs led the way with 25 points on 10-18 shooting, plus eight offensive boards (six by Charles Mitchell), but once again the guards were ice cold from inside the arc and outside the arc, garnishing their missed shots with plenty of turnovers.

I talked about the potential to win the game at the 4, but it didn't turn out like that at all.  Amile Jefferson, once a key Maryland target for the class of 2012, had perhaps his best game of the season with 11 points (9 FTA), 9 boards and 3 blocked shots.

Duke continued to go with a short bench, as expected, playing a seven man rotation except for three minutes by de facto fourth big men Marshall Plumlee and Alex Murphy, two men not nearly as good as their older brothers.  Quinn Cook played all 40 minutes, dishing 9 assists and providing a stark contrast to Maryland's lack of quality point guard play, and Mason Plumlee saw the bench for only three minutes despite vague foul trouble.

Speaking of point guard play, it's getting worse, not better for Maryland.  Nick Faust is not the answer.  His performance last year should have been enough to prove that, but tonight's game was particularly bad.  Faust had a 3-12 night from the field, making two threes but taking several other ill-advised attempts, and turned the ball over four times.  Not that he was alone.  Pe'Shon Howard played 21 minutes with almost nothing positive to show for it, but plenty of lazy passes and WTF moments to make up for it. 

More disappointingly, Seth Allen sat the first half for "disciplinary reasons".  That's now three of the four freshman who have sat extended periods within a game for off the court issues, first with Jake Layman sitting a half for academics and then Charles Mitchell checking in after Spencer Barks at Miami due to "immaturity".  Not a promising sign.

Mitchell was great today, the second straight week he's been a lone beacon in a crappy road loss, going for 13 and 7 in only 12 minutes.  It begs the question of why he'd only play 12 minutes, particularly with Shaq Cleare in foul trouble early, but it seems clear at this point that for whatever reasons, Turgeon doesn't trust Mitchell as a consistent 20+ minute per night player.  No doubt he's one of many on the team that needs to value the ball better, but he's without question the team's strongest rebounder, even over Alex Len, and he shows promising, if not completely refined, offensive skills for a freshman.

And oh yeah, Alex Len did this:

Good times.

Shot breakdown below.  As always, layups/dunks, short shots/jumpers, mid-range jumpers, threes:


Logan Aronhalt: 2-4 (0-1, 0-0, 1-1, 1-2)
Seth Allen: 1-2 (1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 0-1)
Shaq Cleare: 1-2 (0-0, 1-2, 0-0, 0-0)
Nick Faust: 3-12 (1-4, 0-2, 0-1, 2-5)
Pe'Shon Howard: 2-5 (2-2, 0-2, 0-0, 0-1)
Jake Layman: 2-6 (0-0, 1-1, 0-0, 1-5)
Alex Len: 3-6 (3-4, 0-1, 0-1, 0-0)
Charles Mitchell: 5-8 (5-7, 0-1. 0-0, 0-0)
James Padgett: 1-2 (1-2, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0)
Dez Wells: 5-13 (4-7, 0-1, 0-1, 1-4)