EXPERIENCE, What you get when you don't get what you wanted.
This evening, the Terps arrived at TCU's arena on a bus from Cowtown Charters. And once the game tipped off, they were treated to a little Cowtown Wisdom. If experience is the best teacher, then Maryland should have learned a lot tonight. They were schooled!
The unranked, unheralded TCU Horned Frogs opened the first half in Ft. Worth ("Cowtown, USA") with an 11-0 run, took a 7 point lead into the locker room at the half, scored the first 9 points of the 2nd half, extended the lead to 20 and easily held on to pull off the big upset of the heavily-favored Terps, 80-68.
We couldn't see it (lucky us!), but it was clear from the audio that this was one U-G-L-Y game for Maryland . . . under 35% from the field, 1-7 from behind the arc, 17 turnovers vs a paltry 6 assists, giving up 80 points to the Frogs! In truth, this game was not as close as the final score.
The only thing worse than hearing the TCU announcers repeat "another turnover by Maryland" and "Maryland miss" was their constant repetition of "Maryland, the Number 3 Team in the Country." Well, that distinction will be short-lived. And maybe that's for the best.
Now it's back to the drawing board for the Terps. Time to meld this new group of extremely talented players into a cohesive whole. Time to begin the uphill climb again in the rankings. Time to play Maryland Basketball.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Gerri Grove (Thanks!)
posted by BasketCases @ 9:05 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
That was brutal. I was wishing I could see it just to get a visual of Kristi and Marissa and see what the heck was going on. Learning to play together, leadership, those are the things that came to mind. The bright spot, Lynetta Kizer. See you at Comcast and hoping for better days/games.
It should be obvious that from the points made by the opposition came from guard play. We need to learn how to defend. Yes, Lang and Harp are gone, but we have strong post players other then Kizer. 4 guards and an under developed bench are not going to win a national championship. The programs that are having great success are the programs that are true to all their players.Believe and Make them believe and we will never always be on top. Basketball is a mental game. We have great talent, and kids that can really play. Cultivate them all equally, show them how important they are to the program. And lets win a National Championship!
Go Terps!!
Correction: we will always be on top. Also we won A National Championship. we need to go back to what worked. We are still able to get great players to come to Maryland.
We need more scoring options once someone reads the scouting report. We have got to be able to surprise a team with the versitility that we do have.We are a very predictable team. If we have truly gone out and recruited the best of the best then let the world see what Maryland is working with. We have one of the best Coaches in College basketball, that knows talent when she see's it.How do we harness the talent? Maryland is sitting on a team of greyhounds let them loose.
This is going to happen every night that Marissa and Kristi can't make a three pointer. Lynetta Kizer isn't good enough yet to carry the team the way lang did. Someday, but not her first regular season game.
Sorry this is so late. Here's an eyewitness report. What I saw was a team that looked rusty, tentative, and not yet playing together well. There were flashes of the greatness this team is capable of but it's pretty obvious they're still trying to define themselves. TCU was draining 3s but they were also playing with incredible energy and they had nothing to lose. Plus they have an amazing Sophomore point guard from Iceland that was able to ball fake around KT more than once - that's saying something. One thing I wish I'd seen more last night was more in-out play. Every time the Terps drove to the basket TCU collapsed at least 3 players on them. MD did not pass back out. Missed some good opportunities. But again, having said all of this, the talent is evident on this MD team. Let's hope they find themselves quickly and gel into the team they absolutely can be (and the one deserving the #3 ranking). See you tomorrow at Comcast. GO TERPS!!
I'm a bit worried about the Lady Terps' perimeter defense. The only way to combat a poor shooting performance is to play tight defense, create turnovers, and get points in transition. A number of the games lost last year could be attributed to the inability to consistently defend the perimeter. Shore up this deficiency and the Lady Terps will overcome poor shooting nights. This coupled with improved free throw shooting (TCU's free throw defense can't be that good...kidding here) will go a long way in righting the ship.
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