Maryland vs. Butler, 3/17

[Tony-OH]

That's what is great about college basketball. Play solid fundamental basketball, execute your gameplan, shoot the ball well and you have a chance to beat teams with much more raw talent. Butler is a damn good team and while it is disappointing I think it's a little over the top to say that it is embarrassment losing to them.

I have to agree. although maryland was the more athletic team, Butler dictated the tempo of the game and they executed their gameplan to perfection. They hit their threes and when you add in a poor game from the free throw line from Maryland, you get what you got.

Look, we got a pretty good run from a team with no go to scoring threat. Both Vasquez and Hayes showed their youth in the tournament with neither taking a step up. Ibekwe and Gist were good shot blockers, but neither showed any ability to dominate the inside game despite the fact that neither Davidson or Butler had any inside players.

Could Maryland have beaten Butler on another day, certainly. But the Butler squad is a good slow tempo team that made Maryland play their game. Unfortunately, Williams wasn't able to find a combination to break that tempo and Butler kept hitting their three's.

I give credit where credit is due, and that's to Butler for perfectly executing their gameplan.

[clapdiddy]

Does Gary have any plan of bringing in a JUCO big man who can actually score with his back to the basket? I know he likes athletes who can run the floor, but when you don't have the outside shooters, you need to have a big guy who you can run the half-court offense through.

As much as I like Gist, his game is geared toward playing the wing and being a little creative. I also don't think Osby is a starter and he's not much of an offensive threat either.

They need a big guy in the Lonnie Baxter mode who can score down low and is smart enough to stay out of foul trouble. What a waste of talent Ibekwe has been. A guy with that athleticism should have dominated.

[mweb]

Does Gary have any plan of bringing in a JUCO big man who can actually score with his back to the basket? I know he likes athletes who can run the floor, but when you don't have the outside shooters, you need to have a big guy who you can run the half-court offense through.

As much as I like Gist, his game is geared toward playing the wing and being a little creative. I also don't think Osby is a starter and he's not much of an offensive threat either.

They need a big guy in the Lonnie Baxter mode who can score down low and is smart enough to stay out of foul trouble. What a waste of talent Ibekwe has been. A guy with that athleticism should have dominated.

Braxton Dupree is an incoming freshman who has been compared to Baxter. We'll need him and/or another big man step up to go along with Gist and Osby to be a good team next year. Milbourne and/or hopefully Lucas will also need to contribute quite a bit.

[BaltBird 24]

The one thing that killed Ibekwe the most seemed to be that his basketball IQ was about 0. I don't care how athletic you are, very few players can get by on just their athletic ability. At times throughout his career it seemed as if he had no idea what he was doing on the court.

I disagree about Osby not being a scorer. He might not be our top option to go inside for scoring, but I think he's better around the basket than Gist scoring-wise. Osby can bang the points in. Gist seems more suited to the spin and shoot shot.

It might be a long year, however, considering we'll be entering the year with new starters at the 2, 3, and 4 assuming Gist is the center. Who are we looking at for the 3? Milbourne?

[mweb]

The one thing that killed Ibekwe the most seemed to be that his basketball IQ was about 0. I don't care how athletic you are, very few players can get by on just their athletic ability. At times throughout his career it seemed as if he had no idea what he was doing on the court.

I disagree about Osby not being a scorer. He might not be our top option to go inside for scoring, but I think he's better around the basket than Gist scoring-wise. Osby can bang the points in. Gist seems more suited to the spin and shoot shot.

It might be a long year, however, considering we'll be entering the year with new starters at the 2, 3, and 4 assuming Gist is the center. Who are we looking at for the 3? Milbourne?

I would think either Milbourne or go with 3 guards if Lucas is signed.

[Fairfax Bird]

Boy this is my first post to this thread and I know it was already said, but Gary really blew it.

Forty seconds to go and down two, you extend the game. He choked. You have to foul. I was stupifyied by his decision to let them run the clock down. I can't imagine doing what he did. Terrible.

[Fairfax Bird]

When the team is having trouble scoring it's always best to keep your best scoring threat on the bench. They teach that at the Gary Williams school of coaching.

I was told last week that he was a great game coach. It did not show today.

[mweb]

Boy this is my first post to this thread and I know it was already said, but Gary really blew it.

Forty seconds to go and down two, you extend the game. He choked. You have to foul. I was stupifyied by his decision to let them run the clock down. I can't imagine doing what he did. Terrible.

Well the problem with that is the guy who had the ball is the 2nd best FT shooter in the nation. If they got the defensive rebound they would have been in a decent position. However, I'd prefer to see a foul there as well, but don't think it was that bad of a decision.

[Fairfax Bird]

Well the problem with that is the guy who had the ball is the 2nd best FT shooter in the nation. If they got the defensive rebound they would have been in a decent position. However, I'd prefer to see a foul there as well, but don't think it was that bad of a decision.

Extend the game. Graves hits two free throws. They let Maryland get a lay-up almost uncontested and you deny Graves any chance to catch the inbounds the 2nd time. Now you are down two but instead of only 3 freakin seconds on the clock there are about 20. It was AWEFUL coaching.

[bbasal]

i know this is my 2nd post on this site but i've been a die hard terp fan since i was 6 years old going to watch the terps for the first time play wake. i remind oyu i am from upstate ny.

i have read your posts for the last 2 weeks and decided i would like to join this forum. the reason i decided to join this forum is b/c you people are real about things.

Look at how we lost tonight, all of you could have blamed the charge on straw, but none of you did unless i didn't look back more in this thread. i commend all of you for being real terp fans through inand through out.

i think we all know the reason we lost is because of all the open 3's we allowed to 3 point shooting teams. we are lucky davidson did not take advantage of us and beat us.

i love the terps and hope you all understand my comments

[mweb]

Extend the game. Graves hits two free throws. They let Maryland get a lay-up almost uncontested and you deny Graves any chance to catch the inbounds the 2nd time. Now you are down two but instead of only 3 freakin seconds on the clock there are about 20. It was AWEFUL coaching.

If they get the rebound it's not awful coaching. And your down 2 with Butler having the ball and a even if you can deny Graves from getting the ball(not as easy as you make it seem), a good FT shooter will get the ball. Yes, it probably would have been smarter to do that, but I can see the other side of this.

[rolliefingers]

If they get the rebound it's not awful coaching. And your down 2 with Butler having the ball and a even if you can deny Graves from getting the ball(not as easy as you make it seem), a good FT shooter will get the ball. Yes, it probably would have been smarter to do that, but I can see the other side of this.

They let Graves run down the clock a little bit, but he passed the ball to other guys with plenty of time left. Those were the guys we should have fouled. Just a terrible decision there.

I will give credit where it's due - Butler executed their game plan perfectly, and didn't turn the ball over very much, and when they did, it always seemed to go out of bounds, to preclude any transition points.

That said, terrible officiating (I counted at least two blatant offensive fouls on push-offs that weren't called, and that charge on DJ was complete BS), terrible FT shooting, sloppy passing, etc. We were clearly the better team, and we just blew it, referees aside.

[AgentOrange]

Well I would have liked to go to the sweet 16, I am really happy with this season.

I know we were a strong bubble team at the time, but to end up a 4 seed this year, I think the kids played very well. I only hope this is a spring board season for the Terps to get back to where they used to be.

They may have lost the game tonight, but I believe they gave solid effort for almost every game this year, even if some of the games looked like a cluster...

Go Terps!

[Grady]

Just to clear up something, Jones was on the bench for the 7 min with bad leg cramps. Didnt anyone see him laying on the floor wit JJ Bush working on his legs?

I guess its poor coaching to take a guy out of the game when he cannot move with leg cramps.

Butler beat the Terps, they shot better and rebounded when they needed to,they deserved to win. It was a good year for the Terps,a better year had they had a chance at Fla.

[Fairfax Bird]

If they get the rebound it's not awful coaching. And your down 2 with Butler having the ball and a even if you can deny Graves from getting the ball(not as easy as you make it seem), a good FT shooter will get the ball. Yes, it probably would have been smarter to do that, but I can see the other side of this.

You CAN'T let them take the clock down like they did. You are limiting yourself to ONE chance. It was poor coaching plain and simple.