Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

In a story that is becoming all too familiar, it was again a tale of two halves.  The first was as good of offensive and defensive basketball as we Maryland fans had witnessed all season.  And at the same time I was waiting for the inevitable collapse.  And our boys did not disappoint.  They went from 52% shooting in the first half to 29% shooting in the second half.  The offensive collapse was not nearly as bad as what happened on the defensive end.   Maryland was tearing up the boards on the first half and ended with a 23-13 rebounding advantage.   They also held BC to 37% shooting.   The second half saw a complete reversal.  BC won the rebounding advantage.  That however is not the alarming number.  The MD defense that we saw Saturday reared its ugly head again, allowing BC to shoot 60% in the second half.  I don’t understand what happens in the locker room, but it amazes me that this happens time and again.  We hired a new strength and conditioning coach for the basketball team, that was supposed to make them stronger and able to finish games.  So far the results seem to be the same as last year.  So I am guessing the conditioning is part of it, but I think has more to do with riding our horses to often.  That is for another day.

What really disturbed me was the disappearance of Landon Milbourne.   It may not have been his fault.  I think Vasquez started to try and do a little too much, but Milbourne was a beast in the first half scoring 12 of his 14 total points.  He was all over the boards, and was scoring inside and with the 12 foot jumpers.  He has become the most consistent player in ACC play.  What happened in the second half.  I am sure BC made some adjustments, but I really think he needs to try and ensure he is a huge part of the offense.  My only complaint is that he gets to passive sometimes.   Funny how we complain about players shooting too much and not enough.  Can never make us happy.  

My other complaint is this new one handed push shot in the lane that Vasquez and Hayes put up in the lane.  It is almost a desperation shot.  Be strong and go all the way to the rim, and make your foul shots.  Either that or rise up and stick a jumper. 

Those are not the only problems we have, but they are ones that irk me.  I think it beginning to set in.  This team is not as talented as teams we have had in the past, and they fight like hell, but it is just two much for them to overcome night in and night out.   With the exception of the Duke game they have fought hard.  We have two players playing out of position just so we can have our best players on the floor.  We are just going to have to enjoy the effort, and take whatever we can.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 10:41 am and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.