Maryland Preview: Winning on the Road Edition

by ggggmen08 on Jan 21, 2011 8:22 AM EST in Clemson Basketball

Maryland’s slow and steady fall from prominence is continuing in the 2010-2011 season. Maryland is 11-7 overall and 1-3 in the ACC, after falling to Virginia Tech on Thursday night.

Maryland had question marks coming into this season. Namely, how were they going to replace starters Greivis Vasquez, Eric Hayes, and Landon Milbourne. Because of those question marks, Maryland was picked to finish 6^th in the ACC this season. But even with those guys departing and the mediocre prediction by the media, Maryland fans held out hope for a good season. Gary Williams seems to get his teams to thrive when they are underdogs. The Terps had two good reasons to believe they wouldn’t completely fall off the map: Jordan Williams and Sean Mosley.

Jordan Williams has had an excellent season. He is a double-double machine. He recorded his 12^th straight double-double on Thursday night against Virginia Tech, scoring 11 points to go along with 11 rebounds. Williams won’t wow you with his athleticism. In fact, he has been working hard to get his weight down since he got onto campus. But, he has tremendous footwork and touch around the basket to make up for any disadvantage he may have in quickness and leaping ability.

If I were Coach Brownell, Williams would be keeping me up at night. Clemson has to find a way to minimize his impact on the game. There are two ways to do that:

Constant double-teams whenever he touches the ball. Force Williams to pass out of the double-team and make Maryland’s guards make shots. Maryland’s supporting cast doesn’t worry me in the least. As a team they shoot 32.6% from 3. Only Cliff Tucker has a good percentage at 37.7%.
Get Williams in foul trouble. Williams is prone to fouls and will commit dumb ones if you keep going at him. When our big men get the ball they need to be aggressive and take it right at Williams, not fade away. The guards can get him in trouble too, because when Williams gets tired he tends to reach and not move his feet.

Mosley has been a disappointment and hasn’t stepped up like some thought he would. He had been a great role player the past two years, but many people thought he would step up this year with the loss of the other starters. It hasn’t happened. He is averaging just 8.4 PPG.

The same can be said for Adrian Bowie, who had been playing behind Vazquez and Hayes for the last 3 years. He hasn’t taken his game to the next level and is, at times, being outplayed by freshmen Terrell Stoglin and Pe’Shon Howard. He is averaging just 9 PPG.

Cliff Tucker is probably Maryland’s second best player. He is a very streaky player. If he gets hot, he will shoot it well and shoot it with confidence. But he also gets himself into Gary Williams’ doghouse because when he isn’t shooting well he seemingly disappears all together. If Clemson does double-team Williams in the post, Tucker is the guy they should stick with on the perimeter. Make Bowie, Mosley, Howard, and Stoglin knock down 3’s. If we lose that way, I can live with that. I just don’t want to lose by letting Williams and Tucker get theirs.

The Comcast Center in Maryland is a very tough place to play. Generally, the crowd is very raucous. A win at Maryland would be huge for Clemson and Coach Brownell.

Statistically, this is how the two teams stack up against one another.

College Basketball

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I'll add

That we match up MUCH better w Maryland than UNC. For the most party, Maryland plays with a 3 guard lineup. Jordan Williams is 6’10", but he’s not a big shot blocker. Dino Gregory is 6’7".. and that’s about all of the size that they have.

Maryland does a pretty good job of sharing the ball, since other than Williams.. they don’t have another really good scorer. They run their sets.. get the ball inside.. and they normally don’t beat themselves.. they just don’t have a TON of talent.

We have to try to figure out how in God’s name to fill the 30 minutes a game that Tanner plays. Talent wise.. Tanner is a kid that should play about 15 a game.. and we ask him to play double that. Now.. we have Narcisse, Anderson, and Stanton trying to fill that void.. yikes.

For me, the key to this game is poise.. Turnovers killed us in the 1st half at UNC as did falling in love with the 3. We need to get the ball inside.. attack Williams.. get to the foul line.. and work to get Jerai’s confidence back.

by sedge94 on Jan 21, 2011 9:50 AM EST reply actions

Agreed

Williams is a great player, but Grant won’t have to worry about having his shots shoved down his throat every time he goes up against Williams.

Live ball turnovers were the key to UNC. It is one thing to waste a possession by throwing the ball out of bounds. But it is a whole lot worse when you commit a live ball turnover around the midcourt line, which results in an easy 2 points for UNC. That happened way too much in the first half against UNC and cannot happen on Saturday.

by ggggmen08 on Jan 21, 2011 11:32 AM EST up reply actions

Season in a glimpse

After losing 3 straight games in December I don’t think we can be pissed at a 2-2 start.

the next 7 games will show us how far this team has come.

3 Road games – Maryland, UVA, and Ga tech. Maryland is definitely the toughest test, but I think we could go 2-1 in these games, but 1-2 might be more likely.

4 home games – NC ST, FSU, BC, and UNC. 3 of the top 4 teams in conference, and a chance for revenge after close losses on the road to FSU and UNC. 2-2 seems possible.

If we could go 4-3, that puts us at 6-5 with 5 games to go.. With a home game vs Wake Forest in there… 8-8 could be possible. never would have dreamed that 8-8 was possible, but it’s just going to come down to closing out a couple of these close games (especially on the road). If Brad goes 8-8 with this amount of talent… we’ve got a helluva coach.

by sedge94 on Jan 21, 2011 3:51 PM EST reply actions