Even more impotant than Maryland doing its job in a 98-55 threshing last night was the fact that Winston-Salem State did its job. Way to earn your money, Rams. To the abbreviated points:
- I was less impressed with Vasquez’s near-triple-double than I was with his 4-4 mark from three. A sign not only of accuracy, but of judiciousness. Sweet, sweet judiciousness.
- Direct quote from Dino Gregory: “Oil can! Oiiiil!!! Caaaann!!!!”
- Cliff Tucker and Adrian Bowie emerged from the doghouse and the Bermuda Triangle, respectively, to combine for a 22, 5, and 5. Not stellar, but hopefully the start of a turnaround for these guys, who currently lead a pretty moribund bench.
- We eviscerated them in every single phase except rebounding…a classic Achilles heel for the can-we-start-a-fast-break-now Terps. How are you only going to outrebound them by three? I know they had some frisky bigs (esp. Paul Davis), but still.
- If this win can really be considered a momentum builder, let’s hope it keeps up vs. Florida Atlantic on the 27th. Only three more cupcakes and then — hopefully — we can all breathe a big sigh of relief. That’s our Terps!
(Photo credit: www.yesbutnobutyes.com)
Do you think Dino was referring to animated former Expos pitcher Oil Can Boyd? Was he somewhere in the audience?
One thing I tend to get caught up in statistically, and I believe you may have here, is that lesser teams seem to do better in rebounding than you’d expect. That often happens because the lesser team is missing so many shots that they have many more chances at offensive rebounds. Being that the Rams had a 15-8 offensive rebounding edge, I would imagine that this was the case last night. As long as the Terps weren’t getting physically outmatched and they weren’t playing out of position for rebounds, then I wouldn’t dwell on it.
Check Oil Can Boyd’s Wikipedia page, it’s fascinating:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_Can_Boyd
He’s on the comeback trail at 50 years old. OIL CAN! I’m going to start yelling that when I want a beer.
I’m not really going to dwell on anything from this game, given that it was the softest cupcake imaginable, but they were getting outworked on the boards, especially in the first half. It all goes back to that whole consistency thing that so often proves to be the Terps undoing. That was probably also why Gary was screaming at them even though they were up 30 with like 11 minutes left.
I loved hearing the announcers make such a big deal about how Gary “never stops coaching”. That’s not true. He just likes to yell at people. Up or down by 30pts, Gary’s going to yell at someone. So let’s not make it seem like he’s on the ballot for coach of the year. Please.
Gary was National Coach of the Year in 2004, and is a five time national Coach of the Year finalist. I’m just sayin’.
I’m not sure William & Mary is going to be the cupcake we all expected them to be when the schedule came out. They already beat Wake Forest on the road, their RPI ranking is currently #5 in the country, and they’re getting votes in the AP and Coaches polls. Plus, they’re ranked #3 in the all-important DC Sports Bog Atlantic 11 local poll, 4 spots ahead of the Terps. This could be a much closer game than people are imagining.
Mike, you’re absolutely right…William and Mary definitely the toughest hurdle of all the remaining cupcakes. Their best guys is JohnMark Ludwick, a tall guy who can shoot the lights out, but they’re pretty balanced for a CAA squad.