VCU Beats Maryland (and I am officially going to hate this season)

12/2/2007 10:38:57 PM I am depressed. I think I would have preferred to have been waterboarded than to have watched Maryland disintegrate in the last 10 minutes of tonight's game. Maryland clearly has a long way to go before its fans can depend them for a quality outing night in and night out. They got schooled tonight by a quick, aggressive pressing defense and experienced perimeter players (Maynor and Schuler). The worst part? It really wasn't even an upset. That doesn't mean it wasn't a bad loss. VCU is a good mid-major, but not a great one. They lost to Hampton. After watching tonight's game, it's clear to me that we would have lost the Hampton game if it had been away from Comcast

It is stating the obvious, but Vasquez has regressed. His decision making continues to be atrocious (did you see the cross-court telegraphed pass late in the second half?) and his shooting is equally bad. He can't hit anything outside of the paint.

I was surprised at how poorly Maryland handled VCU's press. We know the Terps are turnover prone; but beyond the turnovers, the press led to an overall sloppiness that was unacceptable. The Terps were incapable of running effective halfcourt sets because they have no outside shooting. None. Eric Hayes will not hit a shot off the dribble all year and Vasquez is essentially useless beyond the arc. Which, by the way, we should have known at the beginning of the season. I don't quite remember what his 3PT % was last year, but I am pretty sure it was below 30%.

Don't be surprised if Maryland does not win a game away from the Comcast Center this season. The guards lack the maturity to handle the pressure.

I also figured out why Cliff Tucker doesn't play more minutes. For all of his promise, he makes too many freshman mistakes. Forced passes and missed defensive assignments. However, I think he is the only guy on the team that can create his own shot. He needed to play more. Much more.

Speaking of creating shots, Gist sure can't. Anyone have an idea what's wrong with him? He's hanging out beyond the arc WAY too much and when he is inside, he is getting smothered. Now, the latter is likely due to teams collapsing in on the paint because of the aforementioned shooting problems. But still, something is wrong with him.

I don't think that I can state this enough: this is the worst shooting Maryland team in my memory. If someone can remember a squad that worse, please let me know.

Now, I'll bet that the Terps go out against BC next Sunday and play much better. They may even win. But I won't be fooled. I know that there are too many performances like tonight that we will have to endure before this season comes ends. I'm not ready to call us a NIT team just yet; but I'm close. I just don't see how they can possibly win an ACC road game this year. We certainly aren't running the table at Comcast, so unless, we start fixing the problems, we won't be dancing.

Before I go, I have two quick announcements:

1. The good folks at Inside The Shell Magazine (http://shellmag.com), asked that I help them with the launch of their new site by mentioning it on Turtle Soup. It looks like a great site and it should rival the infomation that you would find at the Terrapin Times. Please check it out. I've linked to Shell Mag in the "Friends" section of this site.

2. Long time readers may remember that on the old Turtle Soup site, I re-published what I termed, "The Anti-Duke Manifesto". Well the original author is a UNC alum by the name of Brian Allen. Recently, Brian published a book of humorous musings entitled, Dukie V’s Season to Remember: A Hilarious Collection of Parody Columns From the 2006-07 College Basketball Season. The book can be viewed at the publisher site, Outskirt Express (http://www.outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?isbn=1432716786). Brian is not a Terp fan, but shares our hatred for Duke. I wish him the best and if his manifesto is any indication, I'm sure the book is great.
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