85 - 66 Maryland didn’t spend much time dwelling on the defeat at the hands of Duke on Saturday and like a veteran team they put it behind them and got ready for the next opponent. On the back of a virtuoso performance by Greivis Vasquez Maryland trampled the Cavaliers in a game that was even more lopsided than the final 19 point margin. The senior guard had 25 points in the first half and ended up with 30 hitting 12 of his 19 shot attempts. Vasquez probably could have gone for 40 points but he stopped looking for his shot in the 2nd half and deferred to his teammates on most offensive sets. Tony Bennett tried nearly every guard he had to stop Vasquez but none of them could do anything to cool his hot hand. He added 8 rebounds and 5 assists without a single turnover. He got some better contributions from his fellow seniors as Eric Hayes and Landon Milbourne both chipped in 8 points in the 1st half and finished with 10 and 14 points respectively. Hayes didn’t pour in points but was very efficient on 4/6 shooting and handled the ball much better on his way to a season high 9 assists with only 2 turnovers. Milbourne did struggle to guard Mike Scott who is one of the more baffling players in the ACC. Scott has the talent to be a poor man’s Al-Farouq Aminu but doesn’t have the consistency or the help on this inside to consistently produce.
Jordan Williams bounced back from a poor game against Duke to post a double-double, his fourth of the season, with 11 points and 11 rebounds. He left four points at the foul line by missing all but one of his five free throws. His defensive rebounding was excellent and he helped the team grab an impressive 73.7% of the defensive rebounds. For the game the Terps outrebounded UVA 42-28 which was Maryland’s best performance in ACC play. He had several nice baseline moves and played with much better effort.
Dino Gregory did what he is good at and hit his free throws to finish with 7 points and 2 rebounds. James Padgett played more minutes (13) than in any other ACC game this season. It was nice to see Gary Williams get him involved in the game before it became a blowout and the play became sloppy. The freshman scored 4 points, tying a season high in ACC play, and grabbed a rebound. It seems in the last three games that Williams is making a more conscious effort to get Padgett playing time as he logged 28 minutes in the last three games after only playing one minute against FSU and Clemson.
Sean Mosley got into early foul trouble trying to contain Sylven Landesberg which limited him to just 9 minutes but that opened up things for Cliff Tucker who played 22 minutes and did a decent job with his opportunity. Tucker scored 7 points, hauled in 3 rebounds and added 3 assists for a nice all-around floor game. Tucker has been improving the last three games during which he is averaging 8.6 points and shooting 45.8% from the floor. Adrian Bowie also logged 13 minutes but he is still trying to find his way on offense.
Sean Mosley is in a bit of a slump. Right now he is giving valuable contributions on defense but his play in most areas has declined since the start of league play. As you can see below his offensive rating has dropped off dramatically.
The January 19 game was against Longwood and his rating has been dropping ever since. His shooting percentage in ACC play has fallen to 38% down from the 40% he shot last season. Mosley looks uncomfortable on offense and out of rhythm. It is a complete turnaround from earlier in the season when Sean looked very confident in his role. Now he is barely taking any shots and isn’t participating much in the offense. I’m not sure if the ankle sprain he suffered is bothering him but it would explain his disappearance. The rebounding struggles the team has had recently are also related to Mosley’s slump.
As you can see above Mosley has been making less of an impact rebounding that he was earlier in the ACC season. That has left the Terps vulnerable to opponents crashing the boards as Duke did with vigor. With games against Georgia Tech and Clemson coming up getting Mosley back on track will be vital. None of this implies that Mosley is not a very good player, on the contrary I think it illustrates how much better this team can be when he is playing like he is capable of playing.
An interesting note is that the Terps scored 85 points but only took 8 3-point shots and hit 4 while also only shooting 15 free throws. It is impressive to score that many point while not scoring much from either the foul line or outside the arc. The Maryland offense at Comcast Center this season has been amazing.
