Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

Can you really project what players are going to turn into after two games?   Not exactly, but two games into the Terp careers of James Padgett and Jordan Williams, I have been pleased.  With the absence of Dino Gregory, and the injury to Steve Goins’ knee, Williams and Padgett are being counted on a little more than they may have originally have been expected to, and to this point they have been just what the Terps need inside.

Jordan Williams has started both games so far this season at center, and is averaging 9 points, 7 boards in 23 minutes, while shooting 50% from the field.  He has impressed me with his moves down low.  But before we even get to that, he has shown pretty good hands, and has passed it out enough to keep me happy.   He is not a black hole, and if he doesn’t have a move or shot, he has shown he has the smarts to kick it out.  One thing I would like to see him improve however, is getting to the line.  He can catch it down low, but he needs to work on using his size and positioning to get him to the line.  It has been a while since the Terps have been able to run the offense through a big man, and Williams looks like that may very well be an option this year.  Overall to this point you have to be excited about what he can bring.

Padgett, has come off the bench after starting the exhibition game, but it hasn’t seemed to bother him.  James is averaging 8 points and 7.5 boards so far in 20 minutes.  He has missed some shots inside that you would like to see made, but he hits the offensive boards really well.  He is averaging 4.5 offensive rebounds a game.  Like I said a couple of them have been on his own missed shots that you would like to see made, but the desire to stay with the ball after a miss is great.  I am very excited to watch his career.  I don’t know what it is, and it has only been two games, but I see a future all ACC performer before his career is over.

So if you told me Padgett and Williams would BOTH be averaging more points than Greivis Vasquez after the first two games and Vasquez played an average of 33.5 minutes, I would be extremely excited.  To be honest, I am still very excited to have these guys playing down low for Maryland.  They haven’t exactly played the elite talent down low yet, but the effort, and the way they play game lead me to believe we have found a solid front court foundation for the next four years.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 7:58 pm and is filed under 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.