Bob Haynie: Terps Are Tough But Still Lacking
The Maryland Terrapins gave it their all on Wednesday night against Duke. Unfortunately, their best is not yet good enough to compete against the top teams in the ACC.
On a night in which the Comcast Center floor was named after former coach Gary Williams, the Terps made the 6th-raked Blue Devils nervous for about 35 minutes before succumbing 74-61.
New Maryland coach Mark Turgeon had his crew ready to play, but as the game went on, most of their flaws were exposed.
Aside from guard Terrell Stoglin, the Terps do not have a reliable scorer. Someone needs to step up and become a consistent second option on offense. Because of this issue, Stoglin has a tendency to take bad shots.
The lack of a true point guard hurts as well. Pe'Shon Howard is nice player, however he is as prone to turn the ball over as he is to record an assist.
Center Alex Len is going to be a very good player for Turgeon. He just needs to get stronger and more acclimated to the pace of the college game. In 12 minutes against Duke, he had zero rebounds.
Maryland is not a good shooting team and they really struggle defensively. Duke's Mason Plumlee looked like Bill Walton against the Terps' hapless interior defenders.
I have said all along that this year's team is going to take it's lumps. But you can see that they are also capable of an upset or two.
They just need to play an almost perfect game to make that happen.
BH
