Maryland vs UNC

[Hallas]

Is the triple a problem for MD in the other games? I figured the heels caught a little fire from outside the arc, because they aren't usually a team that chucks 14 3s (and makes 9 of them.). That was the only difference here.

[LayzieDES]

Is the triple a problem for MD in the other games? I figured the heels caught a little fire from outside the arc, because they aren't usually a team that chucks 14 3s (and makes 9 of them.). That was the only difference here.

They Terps have actually improved their 3 D from the beginning of the year, but it looked like they regressed this game.

[murph]

Yeah their defense of the 3 ball is non existent. They let guys drive through the lane with ease and they don't crash the boards like they should. All these things can be improved on but if they don't they are really wasting this team's potential.

Improvement will come. It's still December.

Honestly I am really invigorated watching us play such stiffer competition this time year than we did in the past.

[LayzieDES]

Improvement will come. It's still December.

Honestly I am really invigorated watching us play such stiffer competition this time year than we did in the past.

The talent is there. They showed flashes of the team they can be. It will be an exciting year for sure.

[Finisher]

UNC may be the best team in the country, and we hung with them so no real shame in that loss.

Stone is going to get abused a lot this year though. Also sad to see Layman still capable of disappearing on offense.

Trimble/Sulaimon/Carter is a heck of a threesome. Just need to build up Stone without it costing us games; feels like we'd be better off starting Dodd but I realize their are egos involved.

[Hallas]

I was at the game. My comments.

Great atmosphere, two extremely talented teams, very poorly officiated game.

The officials weren't "against" MD and I think we lose anyway, but all the crucial calls except one went against us. It was pretty clear we were at the Dean Dome. The charging call was one of the worst I've ever seen. Melo was hacked badly on several of his "turnovers".

Melo and Paige put on a show for about 10 minutes in the second half. It was really something to see. Melo's passing this year when he comes off the ball screen is just beautiful.

Sulaimon forced things early on a couple drives, but he played a GREAT game overall. He is our best defender and it isn't close.

Carter is really good, but Brice Johnson played really good defense against him. In general, that matchup was slightly in UNC's favor, but that is more high praise for Johnson than a shot at Carter.

Layman rebounded very well and played good defense at times, but he had a very poor game at the offensive end. He still doesn't seem to know how to assert himself offensively against good teams and he has has consistently been missing his threes in the first half.

Nickens had a great start, but missed his last 4 from beyond the arc even though 3 of them were wide open shots on great looks. Not a bad game, but could have been a lot better after that start.

Stone is just awful on defense. There is a lot of talent there, but there is no way he is one and done. Coach and the other players are starting to show some frustration with him with what appears to be a bit of selfishness offensively. This needs to be monitored.

The complaints about the three point defense are unfounded. Paige and Berry hit some tough shots and made some great passes to get looks. The defense on the perimeter was ok last night and it'll get better as the season progresses. UNC just got hot. It happens.

The complaints about the MD offense are also unfounded IMO. We scored 81 and shot over 50% from the floor. There is a lot stuff going on off the ball that can't be seen on a TV monitor. We have 4-5 different types of sets to approach teams. I like our offense A LOT.

Carter and Stone need to rebound better. Layman and Sulaimon are doing an excellent job rebounding.

This was the definition of a good loss that will make the team better later in the year. This team DEFINITELY has a shot to win it all assuming health. So does UNC.

Fun game. Go Turtles!

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This is what I saw. With Berry as a legit threat alongside Paige, it becomes really hard for Maryland to defend the ball handler. You aren't wrong for collapsing on either player when they have the ball, but it leaves the other open. UNC made some really tough passes under pressure to get out of that, and then hit the 3. I feel like with the caliber of players at the PG/SG position for UNC, collapsing on the ballhandler is your highest-percentage defensive play. This time, it burned us.

Regarding the offense, a lot of that is because on TV, Bilas kept talking about how the MD offense didn't have it together, and wasn't running their 1/2 court offense correctly. I felt this was terrible analysis, because it didn't assign credit to a very well-game-planned defense from Roy Williams/UNC. The Terps were running plays, they just weren't working because UNC was playing the passing lanes perfectly, and then when Trimble tried to make something happen off the dribble, they collapsed perfectly. It wasn't until they figured out how to screen at the end of the first half that the Terps managed to do something useful. But then that was negated by UNC catching fire from behind the arc.

On a different day this could have been a win. But this was also tough to prepare for because we had no idea how ready Paige would be. Turns out he was really, really ready.

[zweem]

I don't think it says much when you are outcoached by Roy Williams.The offense is stale with little north-south movement. Pass the ball around the outside, eventually set high screen and then, with 8 or so seconds left, DO SOMETHING.

Bad use of his roster left us too exhausted to shoot well in the last 3 to 4 minutes.

[LayzieDES]

I thought having the bigs come up to set screens for the point was just clogging up the top of the 3 point line. They were jumping off and double teaming Melo and Sulaimon which created a lot of chaos for them in the first half. The second half they started motioning for them to clear out so they could pass the ball around.

[Tony-OH]

First off, North Carolina basically played lights out. I'm not sure any team in college beats them on thsi night. Sometimes you gotta say hats off to the other team and this was one of the nights.

Saying that, the Terps did look a little too pumped up early on which is starting to become a problem. They did the same thing against Georgetown and they really need to play under control better early on. Melo has to get off to better starts as well. He seems real tentative early in games until he eventually turns it on.

I've never been a big Layman fan and I still think he's overrated, but he's does do some layman type work (see what I did there? lol). The guy does hustle and will grab lose balls and a good rebound here and there, but he's still a non existent weapon on the floor offensively, especially against good teams. He needs to start going to basket and make teams respect the fact that he can get to the rim for points.

I agree with those who say Stone has been a bit of a disappointment. He looks nowhere near a one and done guy though he does have some talent for scoring. Defensively he's not very good although he will come up with an occasional block.

Carter Jr. has been our most versatile player and I honestly think he will end up the best NBA player on this team. I don't know if he tires quickly or what, but his minutes need to get closer to 30 than 25. He's much better than Layman overall though I think Layman may be a bit better defensively.

Sulaimon was out of control and way too pumped up for the first 5 or so minutes of the NC game but really turned it on afterwards. As a senior with big time exposure, I expected him to me more under control earlier on, but he's still young. He's been a fantastic addition to the team though.

By the way, whoever scouted and brought in Brantley should be questioned. I'm not sure I've seen a junior college transfer who so far over his head it's not funny. I'm concerned with his inability to take minutes on the court that Trimble will wear down by the end of the season.

Overall though, the Terps played a good game and usually 81 is enough to win. Unfortunately NC was just better on Tuesday night.

BTW, when will Maryland get to host one of these big ACC/B10 matchups? Seems we always get the short end of the scheduling with these big games.

[zweem]

This post would be hilarious if I didn't know it were serious. That Glass is not only half-empty, but likely has toxic mold that will kill us when we drink it, right? We lost to the preseason #1 ranked team in their stadium in our first true road game and battled back from 17 down to go up by a point. What a pathetic performance. [emoji57]

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I didn't say we had no talent--just question the coaching.

We are a turnover machine every year under Turge and we let the other team usually dictate the tempo.

We were too tired at the end as well.

Still a top 20 team with top 5 talent.

[LayzieDES]

I suppose you can hate on Turgeon if you want, but he took a team last year that nobody expected to do anything and finished 28-7 overall and 14-4 in the Big Ten. To say they overachieved would be an understatement, yet you appear to think he should get more out of them.

He finished 9-9 in the ACC the year before with a bunch of schmucks despite it being the last year in the ACC which led to an awful schedule. Everyone was ready to string Turgeon up when 5 guys transferred last year before the season, but it sure looks like Turgeon wasn't the issue.

Nick Faust left to become the main man as a senior on a second division team on the west coast far away from his friends and family. His team lost to UVA by 35 and is just bad it appears. He is scoring a lot but not more efficiently despite the lesser competition.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/57378/nick-faust

Roddy Peters is playing for South Florida against teams like Savannah State. His team played Kentucky and he had 2 points, 2 assists, and 6 turnovers.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/66282/roddy-peters

Poor Shaq Cleare looks like he is basically done playing ball as his minutes have shrunk to 1 in his last game. He went to Texas which isn't quite the same competition as MD but is still a challenge. I liked Shaq's effort so I hate to see him struggle, but he clearly isn't a Div 1 player.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/61799/shaquille-cleare

Seth Allen is playing for a bad team, shooting way worse, and turning the ball over almost twice at much although he did look better in his last game and has undeniable talent.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/61795/seth-allen

Charles Mitchell is playing well, but he is also the only likely legitimate transfer since he went back to his hometown and he had a serious illness in his family.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/61794/charles-mitchell

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I was going to make a similar post a couple days ago after watching Roddy play terribly against Kentucky. A nice assessment on the transfers but of course it's still early in the season.

I was also going to include Trayvon Reed, Sam Cassel Jr., Sterling Gibbs, & Martin Breunig as decommits who are still playing.

After his scholarship was pulled for his extreme idiocy, Reed averaged 8.9 mins and 1.1 ppg in his freshmen year after enrolling at Auburn. He served a 15 day sentence in May for the incident but is actually now not even enrolled at Auburn for personal reasons. The team is 4-1 without him. Seems those that questioned his character last year were indeed correct. I was wrong.

Gibbs decommited when Gary retired and enrolled at Texas where he averaged 2.6 in just 7.5 minutes per game in one year. He then transferred to Seton Hall. He performed well his first season there averaging 13.2 ppg. He was 2nd team All-Big East the next season while averaging 16.3 ppg. He was suspended two games for punching another player in the head while on the court. There were also reports of locker room tension before he graduated.

Cassel Jr. was deemed ineligible to attend Maryland due to his prep school being put under investigation by the ncaa for core classes he had been given. He then spent 2 years at Chipola Junior College while only actually playing one. He led the team to the NJCAA championship during that season before transferring.

Cassel Jr. and Gibbs are now playing together at UCONN. Cassel averaged 3.9 points in 9.7 mins his first season there and is on a similar path this year. Gibbs is averaging 11.9 as a catalyst for the team. The team is 4-2 with the 2 losses coming from Top 25 teams. They play Maryland on Dec 8.

Breunig also decommited when Gary retired. He enrolled at Washington where he played 6 mpg and averaged 1.7 as a freshman. He played in 9 games as a sophomore and scored 1 point. He transferred to Montana where he has flourished. He led the team to a conference title while leading the team with a 16.69 average. He has upped that number to 20 ppg this year. The team is 2-3.

Justin Anderson also decommited when Gary retired. He of course isn't playing anymore because he ended up in the NBA after a good junior season at UVA.

[Spy Fox]

UNC fan/recent alum. I do root for MD most of the time as well being a Maryland native and having tons of friends that are students/alumni there.

Very entertaining game this week. I think Carolina is the slightly better team overall, but another matchup of the two could easily go the other way.

Mostly agree with all the other comments in the thread. Officiating was slightly UNC's way but it wasn't the difference in the game. Carolina was really energized by Paige's return and by playing their first big home game of the year. Paige aside, several other guys were at their best too. They never shoot the 3 like that, and if they can do anything like that regularly they can be close to unstoppable. The past five years of Carolina teams have usually been amazing at running a fast-paced game and dominating the paint, but have usually struggled shooting 3's and have at times been TERRIBLE at 3-point defense. Seems like they might be more well-rounded this year.

On the MD side I don't know quite as much, but it's definitely a fun team to watch. Trimble can be electric. I have never been impressed by Layman, but I guess that matches with his reputation to struggle in "the spotlight" since most of the MD games I've watched have probably been their bigger ones.

The best part of the game was the constant boos for Sulaimon.