Terps overwhelm Rams in 2nd half

After a long break due to exams Maryland was a little rusty coming out of the gate against Winston-Salem State and with a little over three minutes left in the game the Terps were only leading by four points, 33-29. The defense and rebounding were not very strong as the Rams shot 46% from the floor and held a 19:14 rebounding advantage. Then Maryland went on a 8-0 run to end the half, with Vasquez scoring or assisting on every basket, to head into halftime with a 12 point lead. The offense was humming for most of the half as Maryland shot 48% and hit on nine 3-point baskets but often hot jump shooting is fool's gold. In this particular game their shooting didn't cool off in the 2nd half but when ACC play starts that will probably be a different story. Gary Williams was very upset with the lack of effort on the defensive end and if a team is shooting well it is often the case that defensive effort and ball movement are the first to suffer.

At the start of the 2nd half the Terps blew the game open with a 23-5 run in the first five and a half minutes. The ball movement was much better and on defense they held the Rams to 27% shooting. Jordan Williams came off the bench to give the team a nice inside presence and finished with 12 points and 8 rebounds in only 18 minutes of play. His interior scoring is something that neither Landon Milbourne or Dino Gregory can duplicate. I hope that Williams will continue to have a large role going forward and I think he has already proven that he deserves to be a starter. Like his fellow frosh teammate James Padgett he needs to get better on defense but what he gives with rebounding and inside scoring is worth the minor downgrade. Gregory got another start but was all but invisible in the game. He failed to score a point and had more fouls (4) than rebounds (3) in 19 minutes of playing time.

One of more encouraging signs is that Cliff Tucker and Adrian Bowie had their best games of the season off the bench. Tucker was 5/5 from the floor and had a season high 13 points but also was able to stay on the floor for 17 minutes. Adrian Bowie had a very nice game and his shooting may be starting to come back as he went 3/5 from outside the arc for 9 points but added five assists, three rebounds and only one turnover in 21 minutes. If Tucker and Bowie can contribute at this level going forward Maryland's offense will be extremely hard to shut down. As always the key for this duo is consistency and they need to prove they can keep their play at a high level.

Landon Milbourne struggled a little and it still not rebounding very well as the Rams killed he and Gregory on the boards in the early going. Sean Mosley and Eric Hayes both had good games as they shot well and finished with 12 and 10 points respectively. Hayes' hot 3-point shooting continued as he hit 2/4 shots from deep and seems more confident than at any time in his career.

James Padgett got a nice run with 13 minutes of play and produced 7 points and 2 rebounds in mostly garbage time. He did hit 3/4 free throws so that is a good sign he is improving his weak free throw shooting as is Jordan Williams.

With the return of Gregory it looks like Jin Soo Choi won't be seeing to floor very much going forward as he only logged 3 minutes even though Gregory wasn't scoring and was committing a foul every few minutes.

Greivis Vasquez looked like his old self as he nearly got another triple-double with 27 points, 11 assists and 8 rebounds. The Rams had no hope of containing Vasquez who scored from inside and outside with equal ease. His floor game was the best it has been all season as he took good shots and distributed the ball to open teammates and created scoring opportunities on the fast break and with dribble penetrations. He also seemed to really being enjoying himself on the court which bodes well for the rest of the season.

David Pearman and Steve Goins missed the game with injuries.

While the 1st half was sloppy they played about as well as you could expect with a 57 point 2nd half in which they scored more than the Rams did in 40 minutes. Defense and rebounding are still areas that need improvement but this was a vastly better performance than they had against Eastern Kentucky.

2010 basketball recruiting

Maryland signed three players in the fall signing period for the 2010 basketball recruiting class. Point Terrell Stoglin, wing Mychal Parker and forward Ashton Pankey all signed with Maryland to form a very solid class. Stoglin is an underrated scoring point guard who will give Maryland more quickness at the point than they have had in years and a reliable outside shot. Parker is a dynamic wing player who has room for improvement even though he is already very good. Pankey is a four-feet-from-the-basket kind of inside player who will bring a physical rebounding and defensive presence to a team that needs more depth in both areas. Pankey is dealing with an injury at the moment but might be back for some national broadcast games on ESPN in January. The player who has the most attention for the Maryland fans who are recruiting geeks is guard Terrance Ross from Montrose Christian. Ross is gearing up for a rocket ship ride up the recruit rankings after shunning the summer AAU circuit. Ross did not sign a letter of intent with Maryland in the fall period prompting all kinds of speculation regarding the status of Ross' commitment to the Terps. It wouldn't be the first time that a recruit seemed like he was coming to Maryland but ended up elsewhere. Dave Telep in the ACC Sports Journal touched on the Ross commitment and several other players that the staff is involved with right now. If you are a fan who follows the recruiting rumor mill too closely it is worth a read.

Women's basketball assistants paid more than men's

Is it necessary to elaborate on this stunning fact reported by Patrick Stevens in the Washington Times? According to the information publicly available (private schools are under no obligation to report salary data) there is not a men's basketball program in the ACC that pays its assistants less than Maryland. Maryland assistants Chuck Driesell, Keith Booth and Rob Eshan combine to make less salary than Virginia assistant Ritchie McKay. When Virginia hired Tony Bennett as their head basketball coach in the off season they gave him a budget of $600,000 to hire assistants while Maryland will spend less than half that amount this season. Every member of the staff at N.C. State is paid more than the highest paid Maryland assistant (Driesell). The Wolfpack have gone 15-33 in ACC play the last three seasons without a single NCAA appearance. The athletic department responded to the story by claiming that the assistants have generous bonuses if they meet certain criteria and that the budget crisis at the University are a factor in the low salaries paid to the assistants.

It is interesting to note that the assistants for the women's basketball team combine to make $60,000 more than the assistants on the men's team. The women's basketball program operates at a sizable loss every season while the men's program generated over $10.7 million in revenue according to the latest figures. Maryland is the only ACC school where the assistants on the women's team make more than the assistants for the men's program. Women's assistant David Adkins who was an assistant high school coach before being hired by Maryland over the summer is paid nearly $20,000 more than men's assistant Rob Eshan. Only in an athletic department like Maryland's would this be allowed to happen. It is made possible by an athletic director that is obsessed with pouring resources into women's programs that have no possible hope of become financially self sufficient while starving the revenue sports of vital funds to pay assistants and staff. I don't have a problem with devoting resources to women's programs and I'm well aware of the Title IX requirements but it shouldn't be at the cost of the programs that pay the bills.

It is true that Driesell, Booth and Eshan do not have extensive experience as assistant coaches prior to coming to Maryland but they have done better than recent assistants with more extensive resumes. Booth was instrumental in recruiting future star Sean Mosley and Rob Eshan has played a major roll in assembling a highly rated 2010 recruiting class. The only assistant in the ACC, either men's or women's, that makes less than Eshan is the husband of the head women's coach at N.C. State who does not draw a salary. Eshan and Booth have earned more respect with what they have produced than to be treated this poorly. It is no wonder that Maryland has struggled to retain and hire good assistants since Jimmy Patsos and Dave Dickerson left College Park. At any basketball program assistant coaches are vital to continued success in recruiting and player development and it would be nice if the athletic department acted like they understood that.

UNC: Move along, nothing to see here

If you were thinking it would have been appropriate for North Carolina's administration to step in and admonish Roy Williams for his misguided attempt at crowd control during the Presbyterian game the other day you'd be wrong. The Tarheel administration chose to go in a different direction. They decided to try to paint Presbyterian fan Brian King as a uncooperative drunk while at the same time denying that Roy Williams requested that King be removed in the first place. According to UNC's PR toady Williams thought that King was sitting in seats that are reserved for guests of the basketball office. King claims that the three police officers sent to investigate what seat he was sitting in and if he had said anything negative about any Tarheel, living or dead, told him that he was in, "Roy's house, and when Roy says you need to go, you go." According to King he was never even asked to produce a ticket for the seat where he was sitting even though though he had several in his pockets from no shows. North Carolina spokesman and constitutional scholar Steve Kirschner seemed to imply that King should be grateful because he wasn't arrested and charged with anything. See, you were lucky Brian, you could have been arrested and jailed for trying to distract Deon Thompson during a free throw. Thank god we live in America! U-S-A! U-S-A!

ACC News & Notes

North Carolina coach Roy Williams (aka Huckleberry Hound) apparently does not believe in the 1st Amendment. The aw-shucks good ol' boy coach of the Tar Heels had the Dean Dome security eject a Presbyterian fan who heckled Deon Thompson as he was shooting free throws. You would think a fan would have to say something fairly bad to get ejected or to get such a reaction from a coach of the defending national champions as they coasted to a 103-64 win at home. According to the North Carolina media the fan said, "Hey Deon, don't miss it."

That apparently was over the line for Roy Williams who lost his mind and became fixated on instructing security to remove the fan. It is embarrassing that Williams reacted the way he did and more embarrassing that the event staff listened to the irrational Williams and removed a fan for saying something so innocuous. Instead of apologizing afterwards for his unhinged behavior Williams had the gall to suggest that the media were the ones who were overreacting. To quote the Tarheels dictator head coach:

 Let's don't make it a bigger thing than it is. But I just don't think anybody should yell negative things toward our players (when) you come in on our tickets to watch our game.

So every member of the media and every fan who attends a game at the Smith Center should be put on notice that if Roy Williams thinks you are being negative he feels within his rights to have you removed from the attendance for which you paid. I suppose winning two national titles at Carolina gives you a fair amount of power but I had no idea that in Chapel Hill that also includes the ability to censor fans in your arena. Let's not forget this is the same guy who implied that Michigan State's Delvon Roe had lied to him when he chose to commit to Tom Izzo instead. After that kerfuffle Williams went back to his now familiar spin of accusing the media of making more of the story than was justified as he did after the heckling incident when he admonished the media telling them "don't make it bigger than it is." I mean it wasn't as if Williams had made the allegation against a 20 year old in his autobiography or anything.  Williams now seems to have the idea that no only can he remove spectators for saying anything he doesn't like but he should be able to bully the media into reporting on on what he thinks is legitimate. It seems Williams thinks that the Smith Center should be something closer to North Korea than North Carolina and it would be a shame if the University officials there don't give Williams a public reprimand.

Williams will likely get away with this because he is usually obsequious with the media and he has a built the facade of being a soft spoken and unassuming good old boy. If Mike Krzyzewski did something like this the anti-Duke zealots would be all over it but because Williams is great at putting forth a phony public persona it probably won't get much negative attention. Let's not forget this was the same man who cursed at a reporter on national TV (our own Bonnie Bernstein) because she asked a fair question that he didn't like. In sports nothing irks me more than a person who is a phony. Like him or not there is nothing phony about Gary Williams. He doesn't pretend to be something else and doesn't spend time trying to curry favor with the media. He may have gotten a little complacent after his national title but he's never cursed at a reporter on national TV, called a recruit who spurned him a liar or tried to be the ultimate dictator in Comcast Center and he's heard far worse at his home gym than anything Roy has in the last few years. Roy Williams is a damn good recruiter but it isn't just a coincidence that he is also one of the bigger phonies in college basketball.


In other news Boston College dropped another nonconference game at home this time to Rhode Island which is the second in a row and their fourth loss of the season. The Eagles play UMass and South Carolina before getting back to ACC play against Clemson in January. Good thing they beat an overrated Miami to open the season.

Virginia Tech got a good win, at least by Hokie standards, against Penn State but their nonconference slate is devoid of any impressive wins.

Cincinnati lost in double overtime to rival Xavier. Villanova's lack of defense finally caught up to them as they lost to an underrated Temple squad in a Big 5 game.

This weekend will be a big test for the ACC as UNC plays Texas and Duke plays Gonzaga in New York City.