Md vs Clemson Who ya got?

[YardBirds13]

Vasquez is absolutely a "go to guy". Without question. He had a bad game on the road in the ACC. It happens.

The guy is still without question a First Team All-ACC player this year, and still has a pretty solid chance to be the Player of the Year in the Conference.

It amazes me how quickly some people on here will just throw this team under the bus.

Yeah, they didnt play well, but going into Clemson isn't exactly the easiest thing to do in the world. Everyone needs to calm down and realize it's one loss. And it's a road loss. In the ACC. No biggie. Terps are still fine.

[ccbird]

Vasquez is classified as a "go to guy" but the problem is when he is having an off night he doesn't have the ability to reign himself in, defer to teammates and make contributions in other ways. All great players have off nights but the best ones find a way to play within themselves and make contributions. That may be limiting their shots on a particular night, locking down on D, becoming a decoy, etc. When GV is off he forces things that much more and it hurts the team. Less is more sometimes. He doesn't get that. He'll carry the team when he is on and he'll kill the team when he is off. It's part of the reason why he is such a polarizing figure for Maryland fans.

[Ruzious]

Last go to guy was Juan Dixon.

Imo, it was Juan's backup for 3 years who finally got a chance to start his senior season - Drew Nicholas. http://www.terrapinstats.com/bb/profile.cfm?playerid=340 He's actually had a great career in Europe - one year leading the Euroleague in scoring. The Euroleague is generally regarded as the 2nd best league in the world.

[Mackus]

Vasquez is classified as a "go to guy" but the problem is when he is having an off night he doesn't have the ability to reign himself in, defer to teammates and make contributions in other ways. All great players have off nights but the best ones find a way to play within themselves and make contributions. That may be limiting their shots on a particular night, locking down on D, becoming a decoy, etc. When GV is off he forces things that much more and it hurts the team. Less is more sometimes. He doesn't get that. He'll carry the team when he is on and he'll kill the team when he is off. It's part of the reason why he is such a polarizing figure for Maryland fans.

I semi-agree with this statement. When he's simply having a poor shotting night, he does the things you are talking about. He focuses on distributing and such, stops taking outside jumpers (he still looks for his shot inside, which he should). When he's playing out of control like against Clemson is when he has a hard time putting the brakes on.

He's obviously a huge net positive for the team, and anyone arguing otherwise is sorely mistaken, but he does have his nights where we're better off when he's not on the floor. I think Sunday evening was one of those nights, hopefully the last one of his career.

[DuffMan]

Imo, it was Juan's backup for 3 years who finally got a chance to start his senior season - Drew Nicholas. http://www.terrapinstats.com/bb/profile.cfm?playerid=340 He's actually had a great career in Europe - one year leading the Euroleague in scoring. The Euroleague is generally regarded as the 2nd best league in the world.

If Wilcox had stayed one more year I really think that team would have went back to the final four again.

[YardBirds13]

If Wilcox had stayed one more year I really think that team would have went back to the final four again.

It's a slippery slope to get into the whole "If he had stayed one more year...." debate, because you can say that for every single upper-echelon team in the country almost every year.

Would Wilcox have helped them? Of course. But I'm sure there were 10 other teams who lost guys early who would have helped their teams as much or more as Wilcox would have helped Maryland.

[Tony-OH]

Gilchrest is a guy who single-handely put his team on his shoulders and led them through an amaizing run through the ACC tourney and into the NCAA tourney. I like Vasquaez, and think he's a good player, but for every good thing he does he finds a way to hurt his team as well. He would be great number two guy but he's not consistent enough or able to control himself enough to be a go-to-guy for my liking. Also, his shot is not consistent enough either.

[YardBirds13]

Gilchrest is a guy who single-handely put his team on his shoulders and led them through an amaizing run through the ACC tourney and into the NCAA tourney. I like Vasquaez, and think he's a good player, but for every good thing he does he finds a way to hurt his team as well. He would be great number two guy but he's not consistent enough or able to control himself enough to be a go-to-guy for my liking. Also, his shot is not consistent enough either.

You're a pretty tough critic Tony.

Gilchrist was also all of the things you described here, except not as good of a player. Minus three days in Greensboro. I think the image of Gilchrist tends to get fantacized a little on here because of how amazing he was in the ACC Tourney, but he was not the player Vasquez is on an every day basis.

You (not just you Tony, but I think most of the people on here) are really under-selling Vasquez. As a fan of another ACC team who watches a ton of ACC basketball, you are hard pressed to find a better college player in the league than this guy. He hasn't had great teams around him the past couple of years, but has gotten them into the tournament two of the three years.

And I fully expect them to make it again this year and make some noise. The guy is the 6th all time leading scorer at the University of Maryland. Think about that. This isnt' some no-name non-basektball school, this is the University of Maryland, and he is 6th all-time in scoring!

Barring some sort of unforseen epic collapse this season, that guy is going to have his jersey in the Comcast Center rafters some day.

[Mackus]

Gilchrest is a guy who single-handely put his team on his shoulders and led them through an amaizing run through the ACC tourney and into the NCAA tourney. I like Vasquaez, and think he's a good player, but for every good thing he does he finds a way to hurt his team as well. He would be great number two guy but he's not consistent enough or able to control himself enough to be a go-to-guy for my liking. Also, his shot is not consistent enough either.

As Yardbirds said, Gilchrist wasn't the player in the regular season that Vasquez is. And, you can't forgive him for his complete implosion his junior year when he singlehandedly derailed that season and prevented us from making the tournament.

Gilchrist's play in the ACC tournament did win that for us, and I'll always remember that. And his sophomore season is comparable to most of Vasquez' years, although probably still a bit behind. But if you are going to count the games every now and then that Vasquez has where he's a burden on the team against him, then how can you not count the entire season that Gilchrist had in '04-'05 where he destroyed the team single-handedly. I loved Gilchrist and watching him implode that year and become a massive problem is the 2nd most disappointing thing to me about MD basketball since I've been a fan (the blown 22-pt lead to Duke in the Final 4 being #1).

In my mind, the only year Gary has really missed the tournment was two years ago. The two times we missed before that, I blame entirely on Gilchrist and McCray, respectively.

[Gofannon]

It's obvious that the team has a "go-to" guy; it's Vasquez. The problem is finding someone else to go to when he's struggling. I don't see any reason why that couldn't be Mosley, as he continues to improve, though whether that happens while Vasquez is still here is the question.QUOTE]

I don't see Mosley as a go-to guy at this point because I don't see him able to create his own shot. A lot of his offense comes from put-backs or other effort baskets. I love him as a basketball player, but I'm hoping his ability to create separation from defenders improves along with his jump shot.

When it comes to creating offensive opportunities, I think Vasquez, Bowie, and Tucker are really the main ones who can do something off the dribble. Unfortunately, Bowie's only move is to the basket at about 1,000 MPH, and you never have any idea what you're getting from Tucker.

Physical games against bigger teams will be tough for Maryland. Milbourne will often struggle against athletic power forwards, like he did the other night against Clemson.

When I look back on the game the other night, it's actually impressive that they took a lead late in a game where they turned it over 26 times and only one guy (Jordan Williams) had an above-average game.

[Ruzious]

If anyone's interested in what Gilchrest is up to nowadays, click on http://mdturtle.blogspot.com/search/label/gilchrist . Good luck to John in life after basketball (torn ACL).

[Mackus]

If anyone's interested in what Gilchrest is up to nowadays, click on http://mdturtle.blogspot.com/search/label/gilchrist . Good luck to John in life after basketball (torn ACL).

A torn ACL shouldn't end his career. Not unless he decides he doesn't want to play overseas anymore.

And, minor pet peeve, its Gilchrist.

[Tony-OH]

In my mind, the only year Gary has really missed the tournment was two years ago. The two times we missed before that, I blame entirely on Gilchrist and McCray, respectively.

I'm certainly not going to get pulled into this argument again.

Like I said, Vasquez is a good player, and easily Maryland's best, but for me, he's never shown that ability to say come with me guys, I'm going to lead us to victory. Vasquez is shooting .428 from the field and .381 from 3-pt. He turns the ball over 3.4 times a game.

He does a lot of things good for his team but he hurts his team with inconsistent shooting, turnovers, and shooting too much from 3-pt land. These are the areas that keep him away from being a "go-to" guy for me. Is he the go-to guy on Maryland, absolutely, but he would be much better as a supporting player for a true go-to guy.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I'm certainly not going to get pulled into this argument again.

Like I said, Vasquez is a good player, and easily Maryland's best, but for me, he's never shown that ability to say come with me guys, I'm going to lead us to victory. Vasquez is shooting .428 from the field and .381 from 3-pt. He turns the ball over 3.4 times a game.

He does a lot of things good for his team but he hurts his team with inconsistent shooting, turnovers, and shooting too much from 3-pt land. These are the areas that keep him away from being a "go-to" guy for me. Is he the go-to guy on Maryland, absolutely, but he would be much better as a supporting player for a true go-to guy.

You're using those stats against him? John Wall is shooting .377 from 3 and averages 4.1 TOs/game...just saying...

[YardBirds13]

I'm certainly not going to get pulled into this argument again.

Like I said, Vasquez is a good player, and easily Maryland's best, but for me, he's never shown that ability to say come with me guys, I'm going to lead us to victory. Vasquez is shooting .428 from the field and .381 from 3-pt. He turns the ball over 3.4 times a game.

He does a lot of things good for his team but he hurts his team with inconsistent shooting, turnovers, and shooting too much from 3-pt land. These are the areas that keep him away from being a "go-to" guy for me. Is he the go-to guy on Maryland, absolutely, but he would be much better as a supporting player for a true go-to guy.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=290520120

That's a pretty good example of him being a go-to-guy.

Your standards are just set too high. He is the best "go-to-guy" they've had since Juan Dixon. And I don't think it's particularly close.

Again, I'm not a Maryland fan. But I watch pretty much every game, and the guy is special.

38% from 3 and 3.5 turnovers per game? Those are really solid numbers for a college PG.

I'll tell you this: He is the absolute last guy I want to have the ball in their hands with 10 seconds left and UVA up by 1. And that's not just playing against MD. That's anybody in the ACC.