Turtledroppings.com – Maryland Football And Basketball Blog

There were plenty of upsets in the first round, and for most of the first half, it looked like Maryland might have to fight all night to avoid being another one.  Throw in the fact that Houston made a high banking three pointer and nearly half court buzzer beater, and you couldn’t help but think this was going to be one of those nights.  Oh, and Greivis Vasquez only had four points in the first half.

Enter Jordan Williams and Landon Milbourne.  The Terps front court made sure the Terps would survive and advance.  I really thought Milbourne was going to need to have a good game in order for Maryland to win, and he did his job getting rebounds (7 for the night), but more importantly he was looking for his shot, and fighting to get to the line.  On the night he finished with 19 points, but what really showed his aggressiveness was he got to the foul line 7 times and converted all 7.  That was and will be what the Terps need from Landon to continue to run through the tournament.

What can you say about Jordan Williams?  He was a dynamic that Houston had no answer for, and he made sure he was a huge factor, to the tune of 21 points and 17 rebounds.  If you remember by predictions for him, I said we knew we count count on 12 and 10 on the high end of my prediction.  Well the freshman nearly doubled that in his NCAA Tournament debut.  He was the difference maker last night.

I think you have to be happy with the play of the entire team overall.  While it seemed like Vasquez had a quiet night, he still finished with 16 points, 6 assist, and 7 rebounds.  With his 16 points, he is now only 4 behind Len Bias for second all time on the Maryland list.  Eric Hayes was his steady self, and you have to be pleased with the play of the bench.

Adrian Bowie, is starting to look like the player he was in January of last season.  He has a confidence about him right now, that he lacked most of the season.  Cliff Tucker played well, minus the one lazy pass, and Dino was Dino.

With the improved play in the second half, the Terps gave me some optimism moving forward against Michigan State.  For more on the next game check back later.  By the way there will be an update of the Tournament Challenge later this morning.  GO Terps

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 at 5:56 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.