As I sit and look out the window while a record breaking snowstorm envelops the area in a pure, clean, white blanket, my thoughts turn to better times for the Maryland basketball team.  It was just nine months ago that the Terps achieved the improbable and made it to March Madness with an undersized squad. Despite a tough tournament draw and second round exit against a talented Memphis team, 2008-2009 was deemed a success, and many felt Gary Williams had done his finest coaching job in his career. The 2009-2010 season seemed to hold so much promise.

Roughly a third of the way through a 2009-2010 season that started with the team ranked in the Top 25 and poised to contend in the ACC, the Terps are treading water. They are a C-average team at mid-term. Mediocre. The Terps aren’t in the “Others Receiving Votes” category.  They aren’t in the national picture at all.

What can Maryland do to rectify its basketball sins from non-conference losses past?  Can the Terps get a Christmas miracle for the second year in a row, do an about face before ACC play starts, and get on track to dance in March?  The short answer is “yes,” but the players will have to be good boys for the rest of the year if they don’t want to wake up to coal in their postseason stockings.  Here’s my short list for Christmas wishes for the team for the rest of this season.

* Greivis Vasquez should see a sports psychologist. I’m not kidding. The guy has so much talent and energy that the sky is the limit, but he has been playing with desperation this year. There is more to it than missing a couple of running jumpers. His father is sick. If he doesn’t make the NBA after this season, he faces the prospect of returning to Venezuela without the means to support his extended family. The kid has way too much pressure on his shoulders, and he’s showing signs of cracking. The Terps need Greivis to play his best, and to do so he’s got to get his head right.

* Eric Hayes needs to channel his inner Steve Blake. Shave your beard. Shave your head.  Go Blake, Eric.  Tell Greivis that he doesn’t need to handle the point, ’cause you got it.  You have a week off.  Call Steve Blake himself – he’ll answer the phone for you. Wish him a Merry Christmas and ask him how he would have handled this team. Write notes, and then execute. If you finally fulfill your destiny as Blake II Electric Boogaloo, the ball movement will improve, nobody will be able to pressure the Terps, and the team will actually look like a March contender with a true point guard.  Gary’s offense needs you to do it.

* Change of plan – abandon the press. This might be a tough pill for Gary Williams to swallow, but he doesn’t have the depth and personnel on the floor to make the press work against good teams.  Hey man, you recruited these players, so you know what you have. What you don’t have is a bunch of six-six, long, athletic tweeners that can give you extended, meaningful minutes. You have role players, and that’s not going to change for the rest of this year. Give-up the press and work on the good ol’ 1-3-1 a little more.

* Grow up fast. Twenty years ago, when talented sophomores still stayed in college, the excuse that “we’re a young team” may have been valid in certain situations.  Now, every team is a young team.  In order to succeed, the freshmen (that means you Williams and Padgett) need to hit their stride at this point in the season, and they need to play like veterans the rest of the way out. If they don’t, Maryland will not contend in the ACC this year.

* Bench Jin Soo Choi. It may not be in the Christmas spirit to single the guy out but, hey, he’s a waste of minutes out there. I’d like Santa to take all of his court time and give it to Dino. That’s all.

Can Gary Williams deliver another second half Christmas miracle from his over sized bag of gifts?  That’s what it is going to take for this team to make it to March.

Happy Holidays!

-Ian (http://shell-games.com)

The uninspired performance of the basketball team in this early season has left some fans fairly nervous about the postseason prospects for this year. With senior Greivis Vasquez struggling and Maryland dropping three of its last four games I’d say there is cause for alarm in College Park. I’m sure Gary Williams doesn’t want to harp on Vasquez’s struggles because putting more pressure on the only player who can get this team to the NCAA tournament would probably just make things worse. On the other hand putting to much hope in the return of Dino Gregory as the answer for Maryland’s troubles doesn’t make much sense either. In an media session the other day Williams emphasized how  Gregory would be a big boost for a team that has struggled with rebounding and defense at times. He even went so far as to say this:

“I honestly feel that the last two months — February and March — last year he was as good defensively as any inside player in the ACC — in terms of blocking shots, rebounding, being able to play good inside players.”

I know Williams zealously defends his players against critics and sometimes he’ll exaggerate to make a point but that comment made me do a double take. Was he really suggesting that in a conference with Solomon Alabi, Trevor Booker, Alade Aminu, Gani Lawal and Ed Davis that Dino Gregory was their equal? Really?

Gregory does deserve credit for his defense in Maryland’s stretch run, which included a loss to Virginia, but he wasn’t really much more than a role player that provided some shot blocking ability on a squad that played Dave Neal and Landon Milbourne in the post most of the time.  In conference games Gregory had a defensive rebound percentage, which unlike rebounds per game is not influenced by how many minutes you play, that ranked him 38th in the ACC behind players like Dennis Horner, Dave Neal, Cheick Diakite and Derwin Kitchen. Gregory was the fourth best defensive rebounder on his own team let alone being one of the better players in the league. I’m not sure where the myth that Gregory is a very good rebounder came from but it certainly isn’t coming from anyone who has looked at the stats.

Gregory also was a fouling machine committing 84 fouls for the season, including 40 in league play, with three disqualifications. During ACC play he committed a foul every 6 minutes of play which isn’t a good indicator of solid defense. In contrast Solomon Alabi led the ACC in blocks and block percentage while only committing 36 fouls and playing significantly more minutes for Florida State. Clearly no one Gary Williams would argue Gregory is as good a defender as Alabi but even a freshman sixth man like UNC’s  Ed Davis who wasn’t known for his defense had fewer fouls (34) while blocking more than twice as many shots as Gregory (12 compared to Davis’ 30). To be fair to Gregory his block percentage (4.7) is one of the better numbers of any player in conference play last season but when you factor in his proclivity to commit fouls it limits the value of those blocked shots.

Anyone who is expecting Gregory to come in and produce significantly better numbers than Jordan Williams has so far this season is probably just setting themselves up for disappointment. Jordan’s offensive rating (102.3) and defensive rebound percentage (23.6) are numbers that Gregory probably has little chance to come close to based on his performance at the end of last season. In fact Gregory’s numbers from the end of last year are not even as good as what James Padgett has produced in limited time this season. Gregory certainly adds an element of experience that neither Williams or Padgett can match and he probably understands more about Gary Williams’ schemes than either of the freshman but that will only take you so far. His offense isn’t going to give the team much of a boost either since he only shot 41% from the floor (to go along with a putrid 85.4 rating) and a horrible 46% from the free throw line. He is probably a better option at the moment than Jin Soo Choi, who looks lost at times, but he is hardly the kind of player that will improve Maryland’s fortunes significantly. The success for failure of this year’s team will almost certainly have little to do with the play of Dino Gregory. You would expect the coaching staff and the players to say that Gregory will significantly improve the fortunes of the team because it is really all they can say but don’t expect this team to suddenly be able to rebound and play perimeter defense because of the return of a role player.