Posts Tagged ‘Jordan Williams’

A Theme Emerges: Terps Down Duke on Senior Day, Exhibit Mettle

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Anyone who has watched the current incarnation of Maryland men’s basketball over the last three weeks has observed a pattern.

Fight.

The comeback win at N.C. State. The Georgia Tech scrape. The reversal of fortune during the recent Clemson game. The Terps, who haven’t lost since the Feb. 13 blowout by Duke, are warriors. Last night it was a ranked team that fell, #4 Duke by a margin of 79-72, with Maryland demonstrating valor under fire. It isn’t just Greivis either- even when he disappears for a spell, or is getting a well-deserved break, others fill in with courageous clutch shots (particulary Adrian Bowie). While the team still has to travel to U.Va. to close out the campaign, they are one of the hottest college teams in the country going into their hallowed conference tournament, and have considerably improved their NCAA seeding lot.  I wouldn’t wanna face ‘em.

The manner in which Maryland has pulled out close ones, and erased deficits, has stoked the confidence of Jordy Williams. I don’t see how anyone could have hoped for more, going into 2009-10, than a tie for ACC season honors. It’s difficult to imagine one of Duke’s Three S’s (the big three) beating out Vazquez for ACC Player of the Year. Malcolm Delaney has a stronger argument.

Did you see Greivis’ dad after the game? That’s where the emotion comes from. These guys deserved a farewell court storm, and should still be on a cloud above College Park.

The season is far from over, but the foundation has been laid for far more than a token NCAA run. If recent past is prologue, we should all fasten our seat belts.

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Will the freshmen continue to dominate on the court?

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Hidden behind Greivis’ dominant 26 point performance against NC State on Wednesday was the career game by freshman center Jordan Williams, scoring 19 points and grabbing 11 boards.

Last April, I had the opportunity to go see Jordan Williams and James Padgett play in the Charm City Challenge up at Towson University. Although I was really impressed with the offensive production that Padgett put up, I was equally impressed with Jordan Williams who was able to grab rebounds, score (even though the offensive scoring that team U.S. ran didn’t really feature going inside to Williams very often), and also shut down Oklahoma commit Andrew Fitzgerald.

I was one of the people who thought Jordan would step into the starting role right away. And although Jordan did start initially, I think had Dino Gregory not been suspended at the start of the season, Jordan would have been coming off the bench. Looking back now, Dino’s suspension, which forced Jordan Williams into a starting role from the get-go might have been a blessing in disguise.

Jordan’s presence and performance on this team has exceed everyone’s expectations. I thought Jordan would average about 6 points and 3.5 boards a game this season. In reality, he’s averaged almost 9 points and over 8 boards a game. And he’s been getting better as the season has progressed. For a freshman, you often worry that they’ll begin to slow down or hit a wall towards the latter half of the season. That doesn’t appear to be the case for Jordan. Following their win against UVA on Monday night, I had the opportunity to ask Jordan about playing in the grueling ACC schedule and how he’s adjusted to it so far this season.

“I’m used to it now. I’ve been playing for a while, over 20 games into the season, so I think I’ve been getting used to it, so it’s not as much of a change as it was in the beginning. In the beginning, it was very difficult for me to adjust. I think I’ve adjusted now, now it’s just a matter of going out and performing.”

Going out and performing he is. He’s averaging over 11 points per game to go along with 9 boards in his last 6 games. A freshman center averaging almost a double-double in the middle of ACC play. The numbers are, in a word, amazing. Furthermore, not only is Jordan scoring and grabbing boards and doing so with great hands and a soft touch, he’s also opening things up for his teammates: setting screens, clearing out space in the lane for the guards to drive, catching the ball in the low post to draw a double team and then dishing it back out to an open teammate on the outside, and performing extremely well defensively, shutting down some of the best centers in the conference and in the country. All of these things are the result of Jordan’s presence inside. This is the first time we’ve had an inside presence like this since the days of Baxter and Jordan is light years ahead of where Baxter was his freshman year. By the time Jordan is a junior or senior, he very well might be vying for ACC player of the year honors.

Jordan has also turned into the number two scoring option on this team. When he gets the ball in the low post, he’s looking for for his shot and often times making it.

With Jordan playing this well, on a defensive oriented team with two senior guards, another very reliable and productive senior forward, and great production off the bench, the Terps are starting to become a scary team to face late in the season. How they play against Georgia Tech on Saturday and more importantly against Virginia Tech on the road next week will again be indicators as to whether we can raise our expectations for this team come March. I personally will be disappointed by anything less than the sweet 16. And I’m now starting to believe more and more that could become a reality.

I can’t wait to see how Jordan matches up with fellow ACC freshman Derrick Favors on Saturday, the other great ACC center and person Jordan is beginning to challenge for ACC Rookie of the Year.

Lets hope we see another dominant performance from the freshmen.

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What is Going on in the Mid-Atlantics

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

I have no idea what is going on with the weather down there in the D.C. area, but you are getting more snow than I am in Boston this year, and I am not complaining!  I do feel bad for people like my parents, but then I get pictures of my little cousins snow boarding in their back yard, and you know they are loving it. So I am not sure what group you are falling into, but there is no doubt I am happy you are getting it instead of me.

As fate would have it, the snow has impacted Maryland Basketball yet again.  Last week it was Maryland’s advantage.  Tomorrow’s game against UVA has been postponed until Monday, and that could very easily be better for the Hoos.  As a Terp fan, I like the idea of them playing while things are rolling along nicely, with the chance that they pack Comcast with students again, but what are you going to do?

So what does this do for the Terps?  For one the students now get their wish.  They get the Dukies.  I was a little miffed they seemed to forget they had a scheduled game with UVA when they started the “we want Duke” chant after taking UNC to the wood shed.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE nothing more than beating Duke, but there are more than two games on the schedule, and those games are as important as any game against Duke.  Anyway, back to the Terps, it gives them a little rest and some more time to get ready for Duke, but on the other end it shortens the time they have to get ready for UVA.  I guess the same could be said for UVA as they also play Saturday. Still, I like them to get back on the court while they are rolling.  Actually it now means they will have three games in 5 days as they follow up the UVA game with a game at NCST on Wednesday.  Not exactly ideal.

Halfway through the ACC season, I think we have to be pleased with what we have seen so far.  Of the two losses, one was played pretty well (OT loss to Wake), and the other not so much.  All that said, I can live with the one clunker at Clemson.  You have to be pleased with the effort, the ball movement,the shooting and the team defense.  Individually, the Greivis Vasquez we expected to see is here, and Jordan Williams is giving me some hope for the future.  I expected the rebounds for the most part.  His offense and defense has been a pleasant surprise.  It has been a while since the Terps have had a big man that can make the opponents bigs fight for position down low. The other thing I have been totally impressed with are his hands.   He catches entry passes to the post, he can catch on the break.  Speaking of the break, I love the way he runs the floor, on offense and defense, he really busts it.

I hate to single out only two players, because they have really been playing good team basketball that has been absent at times in College Park for a while.  The bench has been there at times, the starters have been pretty consistent for the most part.

In all honesty I thought they would have been 5-3 at this point.  Going forward they have a long way to go, but the way things are trending, I will take it.  Sure they can still slip out of this race, but fighting for the ACC crown is far better than sweating out the NCAA bubble all of March.

So going forward there are some huge games on the schedule, starting with the big match up at Cameron on Saturday.  Follow that up with the make up game against UVA (another school we should all love to beat).  It is really important they take this one game at a time.  Nothing is written in stone yet, and they could easily go on a slide with the schedule that remains.  It is a great time to be a Terp, and it could soon be a season we never forget.

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Getting Back On Track

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Sure, there was a buzz building around the Terps hoops team over the past week.  I mean who could blame us.  They had rolled their four previous opponents (3 of them ACC teams).  It has been a while since us Maryland fans were sitting a top the conference standings, even if it was only 4 games in!

Then reality struck in Littlejohn Coliseum.  The Terps played their worst game since, I don’t know when.  I am sure if I dug through some bad memories I could pull a couple games.  You could look at that Clemson games two ways.  One, it was on the road, a game we didn’t really feel was a lock to win.  Two, they played as poorly as they possibly could, and still managed to fight back and take a second half lead.  But, they let a good opportunity to pick up a coveted road win pass them by.

I choose to live with the fact that despite how poorly they played, they were a contested made three pointer by Trevor Booker from possibly walking away with a win.   That shot kind of took the wind out of the sails I think.   When I was a student, and even up until we won the National Championship, I lived and died by every game.  A loss would make those couple days after a little gloomier.  A win, and I had a little extra bounce in my step.  These days, I seem to have allowed other aspects of my life set my mood a little more.All that said, that game hurt, but at the same time I don’t have a doom and gloom feeling.

Back to today’s Terps.  While that was another close loss on the road, they showed me a lot.  They could have packed it in and gotten blown out like last years visit to Clemson.  They hunkered down, forced Clemson into their own turnover problems and showed they were going to make Clemson really earn it.  To their credit, they did.

Moving forward, as fate would have it, Maryland gets another chance to get a nice road win.  We have one in the pocket, but it would be really good to get another one from Florida State on Thursday night.  I expect it to be a little different than the visit to College Park last month.  The key will again be how Jordan Williams (BTW kudos on a well deserved ACC Rookie of the Week), Landon Milbourne and company can contain Solomon Alabi.  He got in to foul trouble early in the last game, and the Terps were able to roll.

You think back to some of the great Terps teams of the past, and you could almost predict the type of performance you would get on a given night.  This team on the other hand, has the talent to make a nice run late into March, but you just never know what you are going to get from one game to another.  They can go a long way in calming me down by playing poised basketball again.  I would like to think that the Clemson game was just one of those nights, where everything went wrong, and we will see more efforts like we did against NCST, BC, and FSU.  So tune in Thursday night, if for no other reason to try and find out what this team is made of and see if they can improve on their weaknesses. They have to protect the ball under pressure, get tougher on the defensive boards, and continue to shoot well.  If they can improve in those areas, they should be able to contend all season long.  For more on the game check us out at Turtledroppings.  GO TERPS!

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