FL State...

Sorry Tyler I'm beating you to this lol. As some of you have said there's a chance FL State played their game of the year against NC and maybe they'll be a little flat tomorrow. State is kinda scary they have a big line-up loaded with upperclassmen: wouldn't be surprised if they finish in the top third in ACC, nor would I be surprised if we drop this one. However, earlier estimates that we only win 3-5 ACC games is way off IMHO, I see us going at least 7-9 based on the way things are panning out right now. Duke had a hard time again today, NC got wiped off the court, VA to me is still unproven, as are us, but State dismantling NC by 33 is amazing.

Duke and Carolina have both had a couple tough spots this year.
Might be a down year for the ACC, a good thing for Maryland?
A bunch of teams looking inconsistant top to bottom.

Terpo, what exactly have you seen that makes you think MD can win 7 games? Who do you see these wins being against, and who do you see MD beating on the road, unless you think we are going to beat two of Duke, UVA, and UNC here? Just because a good team has a rough night against someone early in the season does not mean we will get the same poor game from them. We have seen below average MD teams beat Duke before, but what on this team have you seen to make you think this is one of those teams? I will hold out some hope that FLST looks past us, but I doubt it. If anything their coach should point to this game as one they have to win at home if they want to be an NCAA team at the end of the year.

Don't get me wrong, nobody is happier that they got these two home victories, no matter how they got them, and I am definitely mor hopeful than I was in the beginning and after scraping by the scrubs, but I haven't seen anything on the court, in our games, to make me think that we are better than our preseason ranking. Teams have some film on Len now and seem to be adjusting to him. As the teams get better he is committing more over the back fouls. Surprisingly, based on the last two years play, Mosely is carrying the team on the court. As the only senior he should be, but based on his past I don't trust it to continue. If it does, and he scored 12+ points with 6+ rebounds we have a chance against half the league if everything else clicks.

Sargarin ranking after GT win, up to 123.  Two tough top 50 games and then Duke.
It wouldn't surprise me if Duke and NC keep playing inconsistant, they may both be out of the top 10.
  41  Florida State   Next    
  47  Temple     after/FS          
  48  Iona           L        
  55  NC State       L        
  67  Virginia Tech           
  70  Miami-Florida  2x       
  91  Notre Dame    W         
  92  Colorado        W       
 119  Georgia T  After MD Win
 123  Maryland                
 130  Clemson                 
 164  Wake Forest   W         
 180  NC Wilmington   W       
 197  Florida Gulf Coast  W   
 199  Albany-NY        W      
 213  Cornell            W    
 252  Boston College          
 259  Fla. International    W 
 306  Samford           W     
 315  Mount St. Mary's    W   
 327  Radford                W

No worries Terpoboy, don't have the time to start these threads anymore so I really appreciate you doing it this year.


MD has become a much a more mature team this year and I can't wait to see them come together in the next couple years. This FSU game is going to be a tough one but lets see if the Terps try grinding this one out. 

Ok Skins' here is my predictions from here on out. Let me know where you disagree I'm curious:
 
At FL State:    L
Temple          NA
 Duke            L
VA Tech         W        they look, uh, not good
@Miami         L
NC                W*   * after what Duke/NC look like, I'm predicting we take one of those four games. Unreasonable? i think not.
@Clemson     L         road game let down after NC
@Duke          L         They have owned us 
BC                W
@VA              L        not sold on them either, but it's on the road
Miami           W       at home, team should really be gelling by this time
@GT             L        They're not too bad either
@NC             L        Pay back
VA                W       we get them back at home

Ok, that's 5 wins above, plus 2 we have now = 7. Judging by what the ACC looks like thus far this is not far-fetched. Whatisis is gonna see this and go Terpo you are a bum of a fan such low expectations. 

I think you are a hell of a fan, and so is whatsis. I just don't have the patience to keep explaining the obvious that he can't or won't try to comprehend. We all understand his position. If you have high expectations of your kids and accept nothing less than excellence, you probably will get much better results than if you simply encourage them but accept C's. If you want to jump 8ft, you shoot for 10 ft because if you only shoot for 8 you probably never make it. When I run 3 miles, I always feel like I barely make the finish, but when I run 5 miles I breeze past the 3 mile mark, and don't feel like I can't make it until I almost get to the 5. It's psychological. However no matter what I shoot for, today I cannot run a marathon. I may have a strategy to run one in the future, but for now a 10k is about as far as I can run no matter what I or anyone else expects or demands from me.

I do not think we will beat anyone on the road, nor will we beat UNC at all. The Va Tech and BC games at home are completely winnable, and we should be favored. Miami is a pretty good team, and don't forget other teams also will be "gelling" leading up to the ACC tournament so I don't see that one either. The home UVA game is a toss up as it will be senior night and all the stars will be out. You never know who shows, but if legends of old are in attendence it usually works out pretty well for at least a half. For this year it may be their last hurrah before heading to Greensboro to get waxed by a top 4 seed, so you never know, it could happen. That gives you a max of 5 wins for me, plus you never know, when it comes to the tournament it's a new season. 

The caveat is I have not looked at the other teams schedules to see if we catch someone on a short week or at the end of exams, or after what will be a rivalry game for them so there could be a let down. But all things being equal I think this is about where we should be. If we get to where you have us, then we should get an NIT bid this year at 18-12. I expect a 4+ game jump next season, and an NCAA invite but if we get the 4 games and finish 8-8 next year and only get an NIT bid, I will not be mad, as by then we will also know who our next top 10 recruiting class is and the future will be so bright we will need sunglasses!

This is two more regular season wins than I thought a month ago, so they have earned some respect due to hard play and the re-emergence of Mosely. Other than that they need to show me a little more to climb up to upsets of top 20 teams.    

On a follow-up, the ACC isn't even in the top 3 so far in RPI rank:

1.   Big Ten 0.5942 0.56441122
2.   Big East 0.5786 0.55752163 
3.   Big 12 0.5772 0.54394104
4.   Atlantic Coast 0.5662 0.54683125  
5.   Southeastern 0.5656 0.53836126 
6.   Mountain West 0.5601 0.50381187
7.   Atlantic 10 0.5505 0.53548148
8.   Missouri Valley 0.5460 0.53945109 
9.   Pacific-12 0.5325 0.537771210 
10. Conference USA 0.5268 0.51971012
  

Yet another note: ESPN has MD 6th in ACC power rank thus far this season. Still not much to go on, but it's better than most of us expected. I have a sick feeling about FL State. Not good timing on this one. This is a monster test IMHO..
 http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebask
etballnation/tag/_/name/power-ranki
ngs-011612

We will see how they do tonight.
Just thinking about the what to expect tone of the thread.
I think BC could be the young team no one wants to play this year <G> with Maryland there too.
Both could have some surprises on a given night.
At least we have BC at home later.
A bit early to look that far but fun.
Go Terps.

Well I'm gonna go ahead and say I'm not expecting a win today...the last 2 yes i was btw. I predict that this will be another learning experience and that we will succumb somewhat to their defensive pressure on the road. However with the way things have gone in the ACC a win would not shock me. Here are the keys if we are to win:
1. Len needs to step up here...they have 2 or 3 big F/Center combos.
2. See above..they might gameplan to take Stoglin out of it. I see Faust at 6'6 needs to continue defensive aggresiveness and                 hopefully Mosley can stay on fire.
3. Florida St needs to retrogress a little and cool off shooting %...hopefully they'll have a let down after NC (it does happen) and play       more like they did in a 20 pt loss to Clemson. 
4. Needs to be close at half. If they have a lead over 5 at half = not good. We've been characteristically bad the 2nd half.                                Hopefully our own D pressure will rattle them a little in another low-scoring game like GT. 

One thing fl state does more than we do...surprisingly..is turn the ball over to the tune of 17X a game, and Terps actually have allowed one total point less per game than them. Just looked at their starting line-up against NC...two fowards 6'10 & 6'11, then all 3 of the guards are at 6'5. We have a midget line-up by comparison. LEN step it up!

Im curious to get anyone's opinion on this question. Would you rather have the Terps win tonight on the road to get to 3-1 in the ACC to a team with and RPI of 42? Or a road win on Saturday against Temple whos RPI is 24?

Big game tonight! I see a VERY low scoring game but as always im a homer so I say the Terps get a big road win 59-55.

Go Terps!

You have to win the conference games if you can, and a road win in conference is big any time.

Terpo? Retrogress? Really? Please tell me you did not learn that at UMD. LOL j/k revert or regress maybe? Sorry, I am the last one that should laugh at anyones english, grammar, typing or anything else, but I am about to leave work and get ready to head to the phonebooth for some hockey.

I will have to depend on you guys tonight for my MD report. My gut feeling from watching the last few games is Len is not ready. If he improves through the season like JW did instead of crawl into a shell the way Padgett did his first couple of years, then we will be a better match for the FLST's of the world, but right now they are very big, strong and experienced and this is going to be one of the humbling games for him I fear.

The key will once again be if Stoglin is on his 3pt shooting, and how aggressive Mosely is. Turnovers and FT shooting. This may e the game that Weijs or Pankey or Parker is asked to step up and bang a little.

Great game by the lady Terps last night. Taking control and holding it against a very game UVA team while their leading scorer had an unusually bad night.

Go Terps!  

Yeah skins retrogress. It's a word SI! Looked it up in the merrimans online even lol:

 

Definition of RETROGRESS

intransitive verb: to move backward : revert See retrogress defined for kids »

 

They put any ebonics in the dictionary these days. I hope you didn't learn
 it in college. That would be a shame.

And you may be right, but in my stidies retrogression was a common description, where retrogress was not used as you would think. Though probably not incorrect in definition. AND IT WAS A JOKE. LOL as evidenced by the LOL and the j/k. Again LOL. Back to the sorry Caps game. Later all and GO TERPS!

Only down by 3 points at the half, I'll take it.  Can the TERPS dig down deep and find a way to upset FSU on the road?  It sure would be nice.  Keep the faith TERP fans.

GO TERPS

Wow not too much on the post-game analysis here. They flat out whupped us. Man do they have a presence inside. Need to 2X check but I think all their big guys are seniors too, and at the age we're talking about, there's a big difference in development between 18 yr olds and 21. Don't be surprised if they're in the top 3 ACC at the end. At least this was 14 pts not 33 like NC. Cliche but once again a learning experience on the road ACC top=50 RPI team. We are who we thought we were, and that's not too bad at this point. Len apparently got overwelmed by their senior bigs, and that's to be expected...he's still a freshman beanpole. His day will come too. I really wouldn't mind too much to see FL State rampage Duke and NC for the ACC title either. Did anyone see the whole game. If so, analysis please. 

Actually they have a guy that is a 26 year old Air Force veteran with three tours of duty in the the middle east under his belt. How is that for leadership and handling pressure. He wasa beast. i watched the game this morning when I got up. As I was afrais of Len did not show up. He needs to get a mean streak. if he is going to foul out anyway, he might as well make hs minutes count. He played 18 minutes and had 2 rebounds and 3 points. Stogling was very Grevious like I must say, filling up the stat sheet without shooting a bad % at around 50%. He also had 4 assists so nothing to really complain about there I guess.

Foust was 4 of 8 from the field, but 0-3 form the arc. If he is going to shoot the three, he needs to practice some more. I think he can do it, but he simply hasn't.

All in all it was not a terrible game. We were in it most of the way and had a chance to take the lead late in the first half several times. For a road game against a very experienced big team it was respectable to say the least. Hey they only beat us by half what they beat UNC by so we should crush them right?

During the game the announcer flashed his three teirs of ACC teams and MD was in the second teir with almost half the conference so I don't know what I read into that except he thinks we are not bottom 4.