Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

I just wanted to throw out a few things before this CRUCIAL home game today at 4PM.  A win gets the Terps back to .500 in the conference, with some huge landmines remaining on the schedule.  Let’s not worry about them.  In reality, today’s game is a landmine.  Tech is 4-2 against the Terps since joining the conference.  Let’s be honest here, a loss today, and baring some kind of finish where they beat UNC and Duke, and you can put the NCAA Tournament talk to bed.  A win and anything is possible.

Here are just a couple of random factoids:

Greivis Vasques needs 8 points to pass Joe Smith and become the 24th all-time scorer for the Terps.  18 and he will pass Jay McMillen to get to 23.

One assist for Eric Hayes will move him into a tie for 15th on the all-time record books.  Vasquez is already number 5.  18 more and Vasquez will tie John Lucas.  Currently Hayes’ and Vasquez career FT % have them in the top 5 all-time.

The Terps need Landon Milbourne involved.  The last two games he has combined for only 12 points.  When the Terps offense is at its best, Milbourne has been the key. 

Look for time for Cliff Tucker again.  There were a couple of different articles about him this week, and nothing but praise from Gary Williams.

Adrian Bowie should be back at full strength after his sickness.  For once a week long break may have benefited the Terps.

Keep an eye on Dave Neal and Dino Gregory against Jeff Allen.   At times he can be one of the most dominating inside players in the ACC.  Other times he can be frustrated and taken out of the game.  I am not sure our bigs pose the threat to do that, but they will certainly try.

Extra Droplets

So I watched some of the Lincoln vs St. Patrick’s HS game last night.  Here are my thoughts.  North Carolina is getting another very, very good guard.  Dexter Strickland was the best player on the floor last night.  James Padgett had moments where he looked solid, and moments where he has some work to do.  He will be able to come in and play defense and rebound right away.  He needs to work on post moves and footwork.  And in what seems to have been a continuing trend among Maryland big men, he had trouble finishing in traffic and around the rim.  I also feel like HS big men aren’t used to the best of the ability, since pg’s are controlling the ball and trying to get to the rim any chance they get.  This seemed to be the case as they missed him when he had position on his man a couple of times.  The good news is he has time.  Now on to Lance “Born Ready” Stephenson.  I know it is not a good idea to judge someone on one performance, but he did not live up to the hype for me.  There were some lazy passes.  When his team got down early he tried to force some plays, putting up fall away jumpers, and long 3′s etc.  I also wasn’t impressed with his body language.  You could tell it wasn’t his night.  Every call against him he contested or rolled his eyes.  At times late in the third quarter, he just let people go to the basket.  He has the physical abilities.  He is built like a TE.  He is quick and can handle the ball pretty good.  If he can handle Gary’s toughness, he could really be a good player, but if what little I know about how Gary is, he is going to have to break him of those habits and rebuild him.  He has the chance to be a very, very good player, but has to let bad calls or plays go, and move on and make other plays. 

One last thing.  For those of you out there who need one more reminder, today is Valentines Day.  Do something special for your lady, and for those of you who are lucky enough to go to the game, make sure you do something extra special after the game.  Like a meal at Marathon Deli!

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 7:55 am and is filed under Maryland Terps Basketball. 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.