Kendall Marshall: Why I Hate You

When the grief is over, beef is over/
I'll be fly when Easter's over

The All-ACC teams came out last week, and in what should not have nearly been a surprise to any Maryland fan who has paid attention to the ACC, Terrell Stoglin did not make the first team, despite leading the league in scoring by three and a half points. In fact, he wasn't even the top vote getter among those who didn't make first team - more on that in a minute. Perhaps only moderately more surprising was the fact that no one really said two words about this snub. Don't get me wrong, I think there were valid cases to be made against Stoglin's inclusion. He was by far the best scorer in the league, but he didn't do a lot of the other things that players need to do well, and he played for a bad team, albeit something that was only tangentially related to his play at any given time. In any event, he would have been a more than valid selection, and if the name on the jersey were different but the performance the same, he'd have been there.

However what gets me is that there was an uproar over the picks. Commentators were absolutely up in arms that Kendall Marshall didn't make the first team. The Andy Katzes and Seth Davises of the world seemed aghast. This guy is a first team All-America, of course he should have been first team all conference! So is this a travesty? Nope. Let's turn it down a few thousands notches, kids.

Kendall Marshall is, first of all, a spectacular passer. Make no mistake that as much as I hate him, he makes some superlative passes. The trouble is that once you get past that, there isn't a whole lot there. Marshall, despite a few big games in the past two or three weeks, has yet to show himself to be a capable scorer at just 7.4 points a game. The typical rejoinder to this is that he's a "true" point guard (whatever that means), that he doesn't need to score, and that he doesn't try to show what he can do because his job is to pass. While it's certainly true that he does have a role as a facillitator, that's not the whole story.

Marshall takes just 10.8% of his team's shots while on the court - basically half of what an average player would take. Of the ACC's 73 regular (approx. 16 minutes a game) players, only Duke's Tyler Thornton ranks lower. It's one thing not to shoot very much and to be a pass first distributor, but it's quite another to shoot so infrequently as to take yourself out of the equation almost entirely against a good defensive team. And more to the point, Marshall isn't very effective on those occasions when he does shoot, hitting under 50% of his two point shots, about 33% from three (with less than one make a game), and only 71% from the stripe. Those numbers aren't awful, but considering how rarely he does shoot, that ought to mean he's picking his shots and taking the very highest percentage shots that he can get.

Then there's the matter of defense. Kendall Marshall pretty simply doesn't play much of it. You only have to watch the games to see that he has trouble matching up against more skilled guards. This is another area where Marshall's team helps him out. He has the luxury of having an outstanding shot blocking front court to erase mistakes when guards get past him and attack the rim, which is not exactly a rare occurence. Look at when Marshall matched up with Faust yesterday. Nick didn't have his best shooting performance of the season at 4-13, but he was able to get past his man and into the lane almost at will when he had the favorable matchup with Marshall. He does get a decent amount of steals, but that's not nearly enough to overcome the fact that he's the weak link defensively in his backcourt and on the team.

Marshall is also a poor rebounder, finishing 67/73 in defensive rebounding and 72/73 in offensive rebounding. Some of this is because of his position, but his numbers do not compare favorably to recent UNC point guards like Lawson and Felton neither of whom were "big" guards.

So what you're left with are the assists, and those numbers are great, but even then, they need context. Marshall plays on an ultra-talent offensive team that runs up and down the court, giving him copious opportunities to drop dimes. No doubt, if the offense is a car, Marshall is a great driver, but he also got handed the keys to a Ferrari, not a Ford Escort. His big men are also outstanding at running the floor and beating their man, giving the opportunity for Marshall to find them for an easy one past the defense if he keeps his head up. Not every PG can make those passes or have that vision, but even the good ones will be able to do it pretty often.

Anyway, Marshall doesn't really lead the country in assists despite all of that. He's second behind Scott Machado. If you look at Assist percentage, the percentage of his team's baskets a player records an assist on while on the floor, Marshall falls even further to sixth in the country. Still spectacular, but hardly quite as record setting when you look at a number that accounts more fully for Marshall playing 38 minutes a game these days with outstanding teammates in an up and down the court offense.

I've been watching the ACC for a long time, and Marshall is a very good point guard. So was Ed Cota. But does anyone really think that Marshall is a overall player than recent point guards like Steve Blake, Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson, Greivis Vasquez, Chris Paul, Stephon Marbury, Nolan Smith, or Jay Williams, not to mention dozens of others? Not being in that category doesn't make Marshall a bad player, but it does mean he's not an elite one.

Now I may be a little biased. I'll admit that I don't like Marshall. Really the problem is that I don't like seeing his fat, ugly father on my television screen. His fat, ugly father had the audacity to tell a tall tale about how Gary failed to give Marshall the time of day when he was a recruit despite it being clear to anyone with an interest in recruiting that Marshall's fat, ugly father would never in a million years have considered sending him to Maryland, regardless of the staff's level of effort or whether he was good enough to go to UNC and play the point.

I'll be interested to see what happens next year if Marshall comes back without the services of Barnes, Henson, and Zeller. Maybe he'll prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

I Don't Know, Man

Like, I just don't know.

It should be easy to be optimistic about the Terps even with a rough season. A new coach means that hope springs eternal and that the GOLDEN AGE of Terrapins' hoops is upon us with the impending commitment of the Harrison twins followed by God Knows Who Else. But here we are at 16-12, coming off a terrible loss, probably headed for 16-14 and no postseason once again, and it sucks.

Should I be so tired of this season? My expectations weren't high. I expected about 17 regular season wins, and there's still a substantially non-zero chance that happens. The team, while far from terrible as far as the talent on the roster goes, isn't nearly great enough to overcome the lack of depth that has hit it over the past few months.

But still how many games can this team play poorly in the second half? How many times can the head coach take a public swipe at his best player? How can you handle a team that has played so well at times losing to the worst team it has lost to since Gary lost to Coppin State way back in his first season here?

I counted myself an early believe in Mark Turgeon, and I don't rescind that at all. Not yet at least. I know that it's mostly frustration, but the first year could have gone better. Most folks have nothing but praise for the new guy, but me? Not so much.

More to the point, the recruiting trail has been ablaze for the Terps in the last year. Yes, there have been some nice commitments, but the program isn't really much past where it was last spring. Alex Len and Shaq Cleare were big gets, but the groundwork had been laid before Gary retired. Jake Layman was a huge win and a great scouting job by the staff, but in reality he only just replaced Justin Anderson who left for douchier pastures in Charlottesville. Seth Allen might be good but he's an unrated combo guard with injury issues - is he that much better than Sterling Gibbs would have been? And let's not get started with the latest commit. Welcome to the family, Damonte, but let's be real, if Gary had signed such an, er, under the radar prospect, people would have screamed bloody murder. No matter how good the Turge thinks he was when he saw him work out, the kid doesn't get an offer if the staff doesn't miss on Mitch McGary, Robert Upshaw, Amile Jefferson, Robert Carter, et al. It's really not a good start to have put together this recruiting class, with just one highly touted big man and no point guards (unless you think Allen is), given the team's needs and the six scholarships to play with.

Either way, it should be interesting in the coming months. Any underclassman on the roster with the exception of Padgett and Faust have to be considered as possibly not on the team for next season for whatever reasons. I still have plenty of faith that Turgeon is the guy, and I realize that I'm just being a whiny little bitch. Let's just hope that year 2 is better than this one.

Seeing double

What the Fuck Did I Just Watch?

How is any of this possible? How can we be 0-6 at Miami since they joined the ACC? They have NO fanbase and have made the tournament once in that time frame. They usually aren't even close. Then we come in here, and they're without their third leading scorer. But instead of winning, we go down by 16 late in the game. And then after a furious comeback, Miami loses their second and fourth leading scorers to fouls in the first overtime and end of the second half, respectively. But of course your Maryland Terrapins cannot capitalize.

I though for sure they were going to play the Benny Hill music at some point during this game because of how stupid everyone involved was. The refs were comical. A bad, questionable T early on against Miami. A double T against Turge after a terrible charge call against Faust. General mayhem all over the place. Reggie Johnson fouled out with a tech for grabbing Faust driving to the rim well after the whistle had blown for a foul out on the perimeter. Both teams played spectacularly dumb basketball. Miami looked like they had no clue how to play with a lead. They gave the Terps a chance to get back into the game by settling for running down the clock after breaking the press rather than attacking the basket, even when they were only up by three or five. The Terps just made mistake after mistake when given the chance to win. Stoglin's long jumper at the end of regulation - granted, a missed foul by the refs - was a terrible look, especially when he had a step to get closer to the rim and maybe draw more obvious contact.

Most of all, the point is that this isn't a moral victory. This team was playing a mediocre Miami team without some of its best players for some or all of the game, and couldn't even manage to take away a win. The team, frustratingly enough, is not getting better as the season goes on. To the contrary, the only notable wins came against Notre Dame and Colorado in the first month of the season. Pe'shon Howard has been generally uneven (to say the least) at the point guard position, and Alex Len has struggled big time since his hot start, although he did have a nice game tonight.

It's so damn frustrating. WE ARE MARYLAND! How can we not win just one damn time at Miami. They're never good. They're never particularly talented. They've never been well coached.

AND ANOTHER THING...

Do we ever just get fucking lucky? I mean, we played good defense on that one key possession and they inbound with four left on the shot clock. The idiot catches the ball and doesn't even realize that he has to shoot for about three seconds, then hits an absolute PRAYER he chucked up from thirty feet. And of course the refs conveniently miss a blatant goal tend on the first possession of the second OT which set the tone for how the game would end. That's pretty much automatic. If the ball is above or near the rim after a shot, and a guy taps it in, if it's not clear that it ISN'T a goaltend, you always see the refs call it. Just not here, and not now.

A Half Dozen Events of Varying Uncertainty

To ring in the new season, and celebrate FEAST WEEK, we bring you the Coors Light SIX PACK O QUESTIONS, in leiu of an outright season preview. But it's not questions, it's more like topic/question hybrids. These responses will appear here with the original copy storied in a hermetically sealed mayonaisse jar on Funk & Wagnall's front porch. Without further whimsy, away we go.

1. How Will Terrell Stoggins Adapt - It's no secret early on that there has been something of an adjustment period between the Turge and Stogs (see Parker over Stogs in Sunday's starting five). It's also no secret that this team - both now and at least for next year - will only go so far as Stoglin takes them. There's no doubt that he's going to be a great scorer for the Terps. Only five men - Smith, Branch, Lucas, Rhodes, and King - scored more points for the Terps as freshmen. The real question is whether he can move beyond that and be a great leader. The Turge has moved him off the ball in favor of Nick Faust, himself better suited to play on the wing, but Stoglin will only become an elite player if he proves capable of running the offense again, this time in a way that maximizes his teammates opportunities as well as his own.

2. Ashton "The X-Factor" Pankey - New nickname! I have to admit that I never really envisioned Pankey doing much here. He signed as a fairly lightly regarded recruit, picking the Terps over Houston, then injured himself and missed his last year of high school ball. He played one minute last year in the season opener against Seattle and injured himself again, earning a redshirt season. It's never good when you have a big man two years removed from competitive play and a growing history of lower body injuries. So far, however, Pankey has been outstanding, having 13 and 8 against UNC-Wilmington in his de-facto debut.. Granted it was one game against a weaker opponent, but even the very solid Dino Gregory rarely did that, to say nothing of your Braxton Duprees or Steve Goins. A good performance in Puerto Rico would be very interesting indeed.

3. How will this team play? - After 20 years at Maryland and 30 as a head coach, it was pretty easy to know what you'd get with Gary as your coach. A fast pace, the flex offense, man to man defense, lots of pressure, and eight or nine man rotation, and a postseason berth. Now in comes Mark Turgeon who will make us acclimate ourselves to a whole new style. His teams at both Wichita State and Texas A&M played a slower, grind it out pace, and while Turge has said he would play differently if he had the personnell, his track record doesn't really indicate that. I'm not so sure a slower style is better for the long term, but on the other hand, even if it isn't, perhaps the team will be better able to use a zone defense, even if only as an occasional gimmick to throw at teams that can't shoot. Of course we won't really know much about this until next season because given the lack of scholarship bodies available, a more deliberate pace is almost an absolute necessity.

4. Recruiting - Lefty once said that recruiting is like shaving - you need to do it every day or else you look like a bum. There's no doubt that this staff adheres to that adage, but the results so far have been mixed. Not bad at all, mind you, but given the overall deficiencies in the program right now, there's no doubt that they have more to do. Jake Layman and Shaq Cleare are an awesome start, but the team needs another guard, preferably a ballhandler, and another big or two, depending on the development of the current roster. 2012 has a few possibilities, but this year's juniors are where to look for the next earth shattering committment. If either the Harrisons or Nate Britt were to commit during the winter, or perhaps a similar name not currently off the radar, it would give the program a huge boost both on the court in a few years, but also immediately in the buzz-susceptible world of recruiting.

5. Fan Support - Fans surely realize that this will be a tough year, but hopefully that doesn't deter them from coming out and supporting THEIR team as Mark Turgeon tries to build the progam up once again. Early results seem less than promising, and of course results could dictate how attendance looks in the new year. If the team can remain competitive early on and get a boost from the returns of Alex Len and MVPe', Comcast could be difficult in February. On the other hand, a dismal showing in Puerto Rico followed by a loss to, say, Florida International (already having nightmares about this one) could mean a sea of open red seats in the Castle.

6. Can this team go .500 or better - It's been a long time since Maryland finished with a sub .500 overall record, but this year it will be a challenge to extend that streak. Given the givens, even my somewhat optimistic predictions only cranked out a 15-15 record for the regular season. There's also the equally long streak of winning at least 7 games in the ACC, which probably goes hand in hand with the former goal this season. Neither "streak" is really much to be proud of or care about, but it will be an interesting benchmark nonetheless.

Happy watching, Terps fans!

A New Era

A new era dawned, unofficially at least, on Friday night at the Comcast Center when new coach Mark Turgeon led a skeleton crew of eight scholarship players into an exhibition battle against the Northwood Seahawks of Big Faced Rollie Massimino. The atmosphere was a bit odd, with a surprisingly sizable, if quiet, student crowd surrounded by a nearly non existent general public. The game seemed to lack fanfare, and the Terps seemed lethargic at times. They went up by almost 20 early in the second half, but never really blew the doors off of Northwood the way they should, allowing them to come nearly all the way back before holding them off for a single digit win.

Of course there's no reason to panic for two reasons:

a) More than one team has already lost an exhibition game this preseason, including Arizona, Butler, West Virginia, and Utah. Even Duke beat the powerhouse from Shaw University by only 14 and

b) We're simply not going to be that good anyway, so why get too heated about anything. There really can't be any concourse games if the expectations are nil.

That's not to say you have to give up, but the first two months of the season without Alex Len and Pe'Shon Howard will be rough. The point guard situation is pretty dire, what with the backup spot being held down by a committee of freshman SG Nick Faust and walk-on Jonathan Taylor Thomas of Tiger Beat fame. The big man situation will not be much better with a three man rotation. The walk ons didn't even get a minute last night, so it would seem that if foul trouble hits the lineups will get really unconventional. Nick Faust may have to do his best Magic Johnson impersonation and play every spot on the floor at some point.

Let's focus on the good things here. Nick "Swag" Faust did quite a bit to live up to his advanced billing, scoring 14 points in 27 minutes before missing most of the second half. His scoring included 4 threes, one of which was a highlight half court (plus) buzzer beater. Bmore what up. Even with the great seasons put up the past two years by Stogs and Jordan Williams as freshmen, it doesn't seem like a stretch to say that Faust could have the most impact of any freshman in College Park since Joe Smith, at least statistically. With the lack of depth and scorers, Faust could very easily average a dozen a night, even without being particularly efficient.

Sean "Bonecrusher" Mosley and Stogs also looked pretty nice offensively, combining for 43 points. You can't expect that to happen every night, but you almost have to expect that in most wins they'll be closer to that then the 20 or so they combined for last season.

Ashton Pankey also looked pretty great. Maybe not great, but damn good. This guy was a lightly regarded recruit coming in who hadn't really played (save for one single minute against Seattle last year) in the past two years due to various injuries, but he showed a lot last night. He's got the size and build to be successful, and he showed a lot of toughness. He scored a dozen points, doing everything from post moves to putbacks to face up shots.

Inspector Padgett also had a nice game, nearly getting a double double and missing only one shot on the night. Also of note is that he recorded two assists. As you may (not) recall, he somehow failed to get a single assist last year despite playing nearly every game. It seems pretty hard to do that even if you tried. Even the great Ekene Ibekwe managed to record double digits in that category every season of his career.

We also got our first taste of Alex Len which will be, of course, our last taste for another seven weeks or so. He's clearly a mountain of a person, living up to his 7-1 listed height. He wound up with 4 and 6 in 16 minutes, not exactly setting the world on fire, but showing enough potential that we will all eagerly anticipate the first game after Christmas to see what he can do in a real game.

As for the negatives, well, there were a few. The team was extra sloppy with 23 turnovers, 10 of them by Mosley and Stogs. The defense was also lacking. Berend Weijs may have gained ten pounds, but still wasn't much of a factor, playing only 11 minutes. He'll certainly play much more with Len out for a few months, but as much as I like him, it's tough to hope for much more than a few blocks and about 15 minutes a game.

Mychal Parker had a pretty awful game. Actually it wasn't so much awful as completely uneventful. He had only 4 points on 3 shots in 26 minutes. At times it was tough to remember that he had even been in the game. It's tough to remember at this point that he was a consensus top 50 recruit who was highly sought after. Of course he'll play quite a bit no matter what and will have plenty of chances to prove me wrong here, but he will have to improve if he wants to still get that time when and if Howard comes back later this winter. It was pretty striking to compare him to Faust last night, a guy who is a year younger and a similarly touted recruit.

I don't think we really learned too much about the team after this game. Time will tell. The conversation we had was how many wins it would take to make this a satisfying season. Not necessarily one that you're happy with, but one you won't starting bitching about Turge after.

It's a tough question. You can start by chalking up 8 wins against the cupcakes. Even though recent history has shown us that these games do indeed sometimes end up as losses, it's not unrealistic to think that even with a weak team we should beat every team that we pay to come to Comcast Center. The field in Puerto Rico is not especially strong so winning one of the final two games - likely to be a weak Colorado team and then either Iona or Western Michigan - is realistic. Let's say the team loses at home to Illinois, at the BB&T against Notre Dame (of course), and then against Temple at the Palestra. That puts us at 9-5 in the non conference. Given how week the ACC is, let's shoot for six wins there - let's just say Wake, UVA, Boston College at home, a sweep of Georgia Tech, and one wild card in there somewhere. Totally believable, right?

So there you have it. Here in College Park we're shooting for 15-15. Average starts here?

Maryland Football Has Left the Building

It's really bad when you write a "Maryland Football has Arrived" post and then have to immediately rescind it upon emerging from your two month disappearance. But hey, that's what happens when you go ahead and get beaten...by Temple...by 31...at home...in week 3...with Randy Edsall at the helm.

Now, let's be real, things haven't been ALL terrible. The games against Georgia Tech and (especially) Clemson and West Virginia could easily have been wins. Even with the blowouts against Florida State and Temple, this team could easily be 4-3 coming out of the tough part of the schedule and well in line to at least make another bowl. And, realistically, that should have been the expectation this season. Some people will say that winning at least 9 games again with Danny O'Brien back under center should have been no problem, but even with DOB (and Kenny Tate) back, the team lost plenty, including it's three most relevant receivers - Adrian Cannon and the Raven's duo of Torrey Smith and Laquan Williams - plus several key defensive players, most notably Alex Wujciak who had about six billion tackles in his four years here as the starter at the MIKE LB spot.

Of course, I'm going to stop right there before this seems like any kind of an excuse for how piss poor the Randy Edsall era has started. It began with Sarge hiring two coordinators that were on thin ice at their old schools, with one of those schools being Southern Mississippi. It continued with moving future first round pick Kenny Tate from his natural safety position to linebacker where it became clear that the smallish Tate was physically overmatched. Its first year will be punctuated in the winter with a recruiting class that currently ranks tenth in the league, behind even Wake Forest.

This really isn't anymore than a rant. The team started out with so much excitement, and now, no one cares. There are two home games left against North Carolina State and Wake, and those two games could be as poorly attended as any in the latter years of the Fridge. The team will need a minor miracle just to pull out another Military Bowl bid, which, even at 6-6, would not be a certainty.

I wanted to become a season ticket holder back in August, but now the incentive just isn't there. That's not to say I'm off the bandwagon or anything like that, but it's clearly not a good sign for the long term health of the program that would-be diehards aren't connecting with the program the way they should. What is most galling is that the Athletic Department replaced the Fridge because of a lack of excitement around the program and then immediately replaced him with someone seemingly incapable of generating any himself. I'm not still bitter that we didn't hire Mike Leach, but that didn't mean we had to find his polar opposite. Even James Franklin has VANDERBILT possibly on its way to a bowl game, and with him at the helm you can bet that Danny O'Brien wouldn't have had as poor a year as he's had so far.

Moral of the story - 11 days until hoops.