Evan Nolte summed it up well...
“My high school coach used to say, `The best sound on the road is silence,’ ” UVa forward Evan Nolte said, smiling.
This is doubly true for games at Maryland, where they throw things at the floor, yell obscenities, and class up injury timeouts with chants like “no means no.” Our guys stuck it out through a rash of foul trouble (eight of 10 ‘Hoos that played rotation minutes committed multiple fouls, and four committed four) and two potentially unsettling injuries (to Darion and Justin) to not just gut out a win but dominate Maryland in their own building in a game that was really weird to watch in how the quality of play way outpaced the viewing experience.
Maryland shot 45.5% on twos, their bread and butter, but were unable to goad us into turnovers (we committed just seven, thanks to London Perrantes turning in a seven assist, no turnover line) or crash the offensive glass (we grabbed 89.7% of defensive boards — they took just three of their own misses). With those facets of their game taken away (and without Dez Wells or Evan Smotrycz), the Terps relied on a parade of free throws for points — and while they cashed in on 27 of 36 tries, it wasn’t enough. On the topic, I don’t agree with a lot of the calls, but refereeing is subjective, and it always will be. Different refs will see different things on different nights, and these seemed to see contact in every contest, particularly in or around the lane. The calls were split about fifty/fifty between ridiculous touch fouls and our bigs (AG in particular, but also Tobey) being a hair late recovering from hedging on the pick and roll after Darion got hurt.
I’m never going to complain about our offense the day after we put four guys in double figures and score 76 points. Malcolm had a nice day (and most importantly, he hit two threes, one of which ended Maryland’s chances) with 18 points, Tobey was aggressive about going to the front of the rim to draw contact and hit his three throws, and Justin lived in the painted area for 16 (with seven free throw attempts, which is reassuring) before getting hurt. Marial Shayok played 26 minutes and looked like the mature-beyond-his-years kid that I was praising incessantly before NY, scoring nine, dishing four assists, and adding five boards, AG put up a relatively ho-hum 11, and Evan finally broke through in the final minutes with a three, hopefully cracking the thick ice that’s encased his jumper over the last few weeks. The ball jumped around the court, we were getting guys into the lane, and we were hitting the offensive glass hard. It was a solid offensive effort all around — six of the seven guys who played enough minutes to qualify had offensive ratings over 120 (sorry, Evan).
I’m cautiously optimistic about the injuries. Darion returned to the bench in the second half with a warmup on and didn’t appear to be grimacing too severely when he made it on camera, and Justin had a shoe on and was standing for huddles not long after he left, and walked out of the arena without a boot or a limp. I’m allowing myself optimism because we need both of these guys for Saturday.
Notes:
- I was glad to see Devon Hall get some early run, even if he didn’t do much with it (getting a steal, but also driving too deep into no man’s land and forcing up a bad shot). I think he has the right offensive mindset to add something (creativity off the bounce) to this team.
- Isaiah Wilkins: four fouls in five minutes, lacking the subtlety required to pull off getting minutes against an officiating crew like this one.
- This was one of the better games we’ve seen from Mike Tobey this season, as he played tall and physical on both ends (almost all of his points were generated around dives to the rim, and he blocked two shots).
- This game was vintage Perrantes in how he held onto the ball until he was a dribble or two into the lane before whipping a bullet to a teammate. He still hasn’t made a two-point shot (and only took one total) and the worrywart in me would love to see him have one breakout offensive game before ACC games start, but he’ll probably be fine.
I want to say goodbye and good riddance to Maryland, but I’m almost positive we’ll see them in Charlottesville for the Challenge next season. The Dukes and Louisvilles will get the B1G’s big boys for TV money, and we’ll be left with the “reprising a classic rivalry” angle again. Until next time, same old hate. VCU’s up next.
