Wake Forest about equal to Terps: another battle

For some reason I thought Wake was horrible but they're not. I don't like to be too stuck on RPI, but this early we need to go by something. Theirs is 88 to our 101. They were at home and just beat an NCstate-equivalent VA tech by 3. To be honest I expect this to be a win damn it! If Terps slide to 0-2 it's gonna be a bummer, but the next 2 are winnable games, but hell even GA tech damn-near took out duke. I've been part of the talk that the ACC sucks bad this year, and in all honesty I hope that is not the case. Don't wanna finish in the middle simply because the bottom 3 or 4 are no better than dinky-conference bottom feeders themselves.

Alex Len is named ACC freshman of the week! So there is some good news in College Park after all.

This could be one of the 3 ACC wins we get this year, but I wouldn't bet any money on it. I think this team has a long way to go before they are beating anyone in conference. I appreciate that some commentators do not se us as bottom feeders because Stoglin is a scorer and Len is 7ft tall, but I am just not sure that is enough and until they prove otherwise, they are in the bottom 4 in my opinion. It is crowded at the bottom for sure so it could be we are 8th but honestly I think 8th is pretty lofty expectations as that probably reqires 4 or 5 wins to get in the middls brackets.

Terpoboy I like the RPI too, espcially this early.
I like the Sargarin Rankings too.
Fun to watch teams move up and down early as teams they have played win or lose early.
Maryland and Wake are in the 130s.
Should tell a little about Maryland and I hope its good.
Played tough against NC State, now I would like to see a couple wins.
BC, GA Tech and Clemson are potential wins, then who knows.
Go Terps.

Wake and Maryland swapped spots last night in the Sargarin ratings without playing, just shows how close they are in that system.
Still early with little conference play.
Should be a good game and test for Maryland.
Go Terps.

Agreed. To me, the barameter of this team is to beat teams that we're equal or better than..at home,  and lose to teams we're equal or worse to on the road. Sounds simple but that's a good acomplishment for this team. NCstate is prolly a little better than us and we were competitive...may have even taken that one at home. We are pretty close to Wake and need to take that and the next one at home. Right now we're looking at 4 losses NC/Duke and 2 more to VA is they live up to their billing. That's 6 right there. Sooo if we can sneak to a 2-1 start, lose those 6 above, and take 4 of the last 7, that equates to 6 ACC wins, throw in an upset or 2 and we could go to 8 and NIT, IF these guys can just cut out the TO's and get better FT%. Stoglin concerns me however..yes he's a machine, but when other teams gear to stop him, it could get ugly if he doesn't figure out how to PASS THE BALL lol! Might be mistaken but I think he has the lowest assist #'s of any of the starters by far. Even cancer ball hog Vaquez wasn't that bad was he??

Looks good at the half 40 to 24 except for that sloppy stretch near the end.

Half time, Maryland locker room. Coach Turgeon addresses the team.  "Alright guys, after noticing a distinct pattern of play this season, we will now be refering to the second half as... first half part II.  Now get out there and have a great first half part 2!!!"  

Up 5, 1:43 left, c'mon Terps

  Sweet, we'll take it. First ACC win for coach Turgeon. Gotta find a way to put together 2 good halves obviously but they hung on.  Home on Sunday at 4 vs yellow jackets. Go Maryland

Gotta hand it to them. The Terps won, and that first conference win is the hardest to get. They played a very good 15 minutes or so of basketball and then made some FT down the stretch. Stoglin goes ice cold and keeps on pumping it up there because nobody else is doing much and Mosely, who has been involved in the offense lately, is in foul trouble. Ok so they have a 7 footer too, and he can't do much but block shots. So what does howard do? he keeps running to the basket, trying to juke a guy a foot taller than him and then tries to singlehandedly gt his guy to double digit blocks. At least if stoglin is heaving up a three it has a chance at the rim. Trying to shoot over a 7 foot guy 1 ft away doesn't.

Ok enough negatives. I agree with the above. Turgeon needs to figure out how to make these guys believe it is 0-0 again at the beginning of the second half. Usually when a team continually gets beaten in the second half after winning the first, it's because the coaches can't adapt to the changes the other team was forced to make. I really hope that is not the case here.

Congrats young Terps! Good luck with the rambling wreck! 

Actually vasquez had very good assist numbers. He was an all around all time great college player. Top 5 at MD easily and that is saying something. HE was a ball hog at times for the same reason Stoglin is. He was their only chance.

Actually he was better than I thought. Here is where he ranks. I would say 2nd in assists is pretty good for a "ball hog" 


Points - 2nd (Juan Dixon)
Assists - 2nd (Steve Blake)
Rebounds - 22nd (Len Elmore)

I liked the contributions from Pankey and Parker tonight, particularly during the first half.  This game was a carbon copy of the Cornell game, so now the coaches face the formidable challenge of breaking this negative trend (IF we can continue to jump out to big leads early)...although helping Faust reach his potential may prove to be the bigger challenge (he did grab 6 boards tonight).  Once again, it was the senior leadership of Mosley that bailed the team out once Wake got it down to 3. 

I'll say it again: once Stoglin stops being so impressed with himself, he will become a complete and dominant player in this conference on both sides of the ball.  As it stands now, he is WAY TOO LAZY on the defensive end, always seemingly a step too slow when opposing guards drive on him (tonight, both of his fouls were committed because he doesn't play D with his feet).  I realize he's our only legitimate scoring threat, but he's still forcing way too many shots instead of looking for the open man when opposing Ds converge.

It's too bad the Terps couldn't find a way to steal Sunday's game in Raleigh.  We'd be sitting pretty at 2-0 in a wide-open conference (outside of the usual suspects up top) with a weak Ga Tech team coming to Comcast.  It's obviously going to be a "nip and tuck" season from here on out, but maybe these young Terps deserve a little more credit than most of us on here (me included) have been willing to give them to this point.  After all, they did beat a Notre Dame team who is currently 3-1 in the Big East (and who won @ Louisville) and did it without Howard and Len.

They better take care of business at home against the Jackets because the schedule gets significantly more difficult once Ga Tech leaves town.  Way to hang in there tonight, Terps!


LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, MARYLAND!!

One thing really great about this win was that we were able to get such a huge lead on a legit ACC team. Wake is no NC/Duke but they did have a better ranking than us coming in....to get a lead that big fortells huge potential. I liked the benching of Stoglin: Turg has some major balls you didn't see GV getting benched like that for the start of the game. Mosley is big Xfactor so far seems like something has lit a blaze in him. Turg is figuring out his line-up strategy in pretty damn impressively quick fashion. 

WF a legit ACC team? Maybe, but until the conference schedule plays out a little that remains to be seen. The Ga Tech game will tell a tale. Neither them or NC State looked that good last night to me. I think they are on par talent wise with each other. We know what happened away against State, so let's see if there is any difference at home against Tech.

Just so people are not thinking something other than what it was, Stoglin not starting had nothing to do with anything that happened on the court, and I do believe starters were sat by Gary when there was a team rule or academic violation like not going to class.....

Oh and Stoglin is no Vasquez, at least not yet.

throw in an upset or 2 and we could go to 8 and NIT

Congrats Terps to ACC victory!  Keep it up!  

With that said, if we continue to set low expectations, we will probably get low to mediocre results.  Many folks have set NIT expectations not only with this team, but also with some of Gary's teams since the NC days.  Not Invited Tournament is for pretty good mid-major teams who for some reason missed the Big Dance (could be they got upset in their conference tourney, or there were more than one pretty good team in their conference) and for mediocre teams from major conferences.  As Terps fans and supporters of the program, WE deserve better than being a mediocre team.  Expectations mean a lot!

Whatisis: Have you not read all the other posts on here detailing what the program is going through this year?? Are you blind to it? I'm sure Skins' post is coming soon I'll let him explain I'm not too good at those lengthy posts lol. FOR THIS ONE YEAR, I repeat, for this ONE year, NIT would be an accomplishment for this MD team, CONSIDERING the transition we're in. Next year I expect an NCAA birth ok?
     Yeah Skins...I'd like to think Wake is a legit ACC team, just as I'd like to think we are; it's just so up in the air... I mean we lose to NCstate there, then a supposedly crappy team GaTech beats them there and almost beat Duke. Va Tech supposedly good is now 0-2 in ACC. Miami 0-2, Clemson who was supposed to suck at 1-0, then we look ok but barely beat cupcakes...so were those cupcakes actually decent teams or is 80% of the ACC sooo watered down that when we play each other it's competitve and we all don't look so bad. What is it lol! Sorry for the run-on sentences but it happens as a Terp fan. 

Not sure I feel like if judging if teams are "legit" in the ACC THIS early in the season if a really great idea...0-2 or 2-0 in the ACC doesn't define your season at all. I have a feeling that the race for the ACC crown this year will be a lot closer than most peope think. Anyways...enough of that nonsense.

About the game, I was there in the student section, first time in a while...great first half...horrible second half. We were up by 16 at half, close the front door...but we forgot to lock the back door! We can't keep giving up these big leads and expect to win games in the ACC, most of these teams will capitalize on our mistakes and will not slow down as they blow past us. Peshonn...terrible game. He's afraid to take a jumper and he consistently drove blindly into their shot blocker, and when he didn't get his shot blocked he tried passing it to Len/Padgett/Pankey's shoetops and expected them to actually catch the pass. Very dissapointed with his play, he has got to step it up if we want to do anything this year. Terrell sure was feeling it in the first half, man...but he got cold and he kept jacking them up because we have no other consistent scoring options. I think Len can emerge to be that guy, but he is still very raw...Several times he should have just dunked it but he tried to go off the glass. I like what he's doing on the defensive end, though. Same with Pankey and Parker, those guys are giving us great minutes.

Nope Terpo, I am done with that cat.

Terpo..

Some fans were saying the same thing about a few of Gary's teams after the NC run, as they were willing to settle for the NIT.  Expectations should've been higher then, and they should be higher now.  I expect OUR program to not only make the NCAA tournament, but to win some ball games in the NCAA tournament on a regular basis.  This year is no exception.  Excuses are for bums!


 

81..you are done with what cat?