We matchup fairly well against them as they are poor offensively but decent on D. They are not particularly big so I don't think they will expose our front line issues. The excitable and annoying Greivis Vasquez remains the cornerstone of their offense. I imagine we'll put bigger bodies on him like Sanders and Raji. Whoever guards him will have to keep him from penetrating since we don't have a shot blocking presence this year.
I think the key will be rebounding. The Terps don't rebound particularly well on either end. If we control the boards, we can control the game.
Here is Kenpom's breakdown of Maryland.
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*** GAME IS ON ESPN2 @ 7:30 ***
Hmmm, sounds familiar. Would you have given a similar scouting report for the BC/Harvard game? How did that work out?! The real question is which BC team will show up??
so, does the winner of this game get the two recruits quinn and noel?
Lol @ Maryland fans. If there's one program in the ACC of a more over-inflated views of itself, and it's importance, I don't know what team is. They think they're a rival of Duke...lol.
I don't know if you guys have seen this yet, on Every Day Should Be Saturday, but BC made an appearance in the topic and comments:
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2009/01/26/boston-college-enters-the-summer-of-life/#comments
Or click here
What about the Whipple hire at Miami, I have a bad feeling they are going to light us up for years to come.
This is Coach Whipple's best chance of landing a Head Coaching job. I'm sure he wished it would have happened sooner, but if he does well at Miami - he's got the big job in 2 or 3 years.
Would he ever come to BC when the time is right? :-) :-) laugh, laugh.
Along that line, I wish Spaz and Tranquill the best of luck, of course. I suppose ultimately it's about how our players respond to their coaching and how they grow and improve during their time at BC.
I shouldn't have spouted off the other day (I'm 62 years old, so I felt I could strongly voice my opinion of how Tranquill is dated - and frankly old). But I have talked to enough UNC fans to know there's a good chance this won't work.
My mother told me that if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all. In his defense, the UNC talent level wasn’t all that great while he was in Chapel Hill. The big knock on Tranquill is that he didn’t like to go out on the road to recruit.
Now we have both Spaz and Tranquill who do not like to recruit - we're quickly building a formula for disaster. Hope I'm wrong.
I would have felt a lot better if Spaz had hired Whipple or someone like him.
Well, the BC team that doesn't play defense is apparently the one showing up tonight. You know, your 2008-09 Boston College Men's basketball team!
Hmmm...already a comment made by the announcers about not attacking the press. Gee, really?
This is only the 2nd game I've been able to see this year. Does the team always play so uninspired?
How has Skinner not gotten them prepared for the press yet? Paris looks like he's afraid to advance over the time line.
you would be afraid too, advancing the ball into a trap everytime. No one moves. We just stand around like trees.
rice has to be more disciplined. Foul trouble just cant happen. Unneccessary offensive foul, followed by a sloppy foul because he didnt box out.
Skinner has never been animated on the sidelines, but he just looks like he doesn't even want to be there...
Why does (#33) not have a name on the back of his jersey?
If only they would play the entire game like this 12 minute stretch.
If only.
Im guessing sanders's jersey was lost somewhere since he's wearing #33 without a name
Great effort tonight by these guys.
i enjoy seeing vasquez crying on the bench.
A Tale of Two Halves.
They need to figure out a way to duplicate the defensive energy of the second half for the entire game. That second half should be their identity--ugly but pass-first offense and smothering defense born of effort.
Rice's absence in the first half had nothing to do with how they decided to play defense in the second. They gave up 27 points in the second half and the last four points were gimme layups at the end.
I can't believe I saw them attack the press in the second half--and get easy baskets as a result. Imagine that.
Trapani rebounded well, too.
The most amazing thing--no new plays but no inbounding problems!
This first half certainly wasn't too inspired, but our boys certainly to control in the 2nd half. When they play like that for 40 minutes, like in Chapel Hill, they are a team to be reckoned with. Nice job tonight and nice to see Southern more aggressive on offense.
Maybe Sanders should soil his uniform before every game... a road win is a road win.
Oh yeah, maybe ESPN ought to take the money they invested in that stupid crawl at the top and get, say, an HD camera? Seriously, that may have been the most annoying thing I've ever subjected myself to for two hours.
I am so sick of people complaining about Skinner not being fired up, calling timeouts, making lineup changes, etc. (Although he gets plenty worked up if warranted: see the Miami game a few weeks back.) If I've learned anything else about this team during Al's tenure...I never feel as though we're out of any game that we play. This team was down 14 tonight and calmly, methodically scratched back to tie the game and eventually win easily. Sure, Maryland isn't very good. And yes, I, too, get frustrated because the team does look lazy at times. But clearly something is working and Al's style has a lot to do with it. I know we're all passionate fans, but he knows this team better than we do. All in all, this team still has holes, but this was a great second half effort and a good win on the road.
I agree with most of what you say, Ian, but Al's reluctance to call timeouts does get to me sometimes.
Apart from that, this was a great game and an excellent comeback. Who knows what this team can keep doing?
This was the first all year that I've had the chance to watch from start to finish. Quite the roller coaster (more like a stunt tower, a big downer and then a big recovery). Quite glad with the outcome, though.
First the dislikes:
-Rice's overall effort in the first half.
-The awful defense and rebounding in the first half. That's all on energy and discipline. It was not a talent thing, as the second half showed.
-The way passive press break in the first half. By the time we got the ball back to Tyrese or Biko, there just wasn't time to set the offense and we couldn't score as a result.
Likes:
-Dunn and Southern. Dunn didn't have the big night, but both really fueled our comeback (which I feel started with about two minutes left in the first half). They rebounded, contested shots, and got easy points in the paint.
-Roche. What? Did I just say Roche? As in Tyler Roche? Yup. He wasn't spectacular, but he held his own, hit a three (if only one of his two misses had gone in, it would have been a HUGE night for him), and even played a little D and grabbed a couple boards. If we get that from him every night, we become a lot better.
-The overall aggression this team showed in the second half. Reggie and Tyrese blasted through the press, Trapani and Rakim took over on the boards, Southern showed he can post up and contest shots. The energy in the second half was great. I mean, we outscored them by 20! It shouldn't take 18 minutes to turn it on, though.
I don't really feel like giving out grades (med school is pass/fail, so this is obviously a pass). Encouraging second half performance, though. They were absolutely dominant after halftime.
Glad I kept my mouth shut during the first half. Although I was on the phone quite a bit, I quietly enjoyed the heck out of myself while watching that comeback. Mostly I was very happy for the players.
I have made some comments about Al lately, but his demeanor doesn't tell the whole story, for sure.
Great win - go BC! Go BC Women as well.
Just got back from the game.
An impressive second half. Although Rice didn't really contribute much during 9/10 of the game, he made his foul shots were it counted. I'm impressed with the team, and barring the WTF! loss, I think we're good to make the Tourney, or at least the NIT.
The defensive effort in the 2nd half was phenomenal. About 12 minutes into the 2nd half, Maryland had only scored 12 points. BC forced Maryland to take difficult, contested shots and they secured almost every available defensive rebound in the 2nd half.
And that doesn't even address the 2nd half offense, which was nearly as pivotal in the comeback.
Rice may not have scored much until the late free throws but he calmly and ruthlessly broke the press with the dribble and aggressive passes to the openings in the middle. If BC plays Rice, Jackson and Trapani at the same time, the press should be much less of a problem to break. Rice played the whole second half and it is no coincidence that the offense was so much crisper and more effective with him out there.
Also, an important hidden play was Paris' three to get the lead down to 11 right before halftime. That was a nice piece of momentum to take into halftime and made the deficit more manageable.
Finally, Al is plenty passionate and into the game for me. He is a good coach and we are lucky to have him.
Like I said last night, the defensive results in the second half were all about energy and commitment.
They need to do that for 40 minutes, not 20.
That falls on Rice as the senior and the staff.
They had the same lineup in to break the press against Ga. Tech and looked brutal. Apparently, the coaching staff watched the tape and told them to get aggressive. It's not brain surgery--you have to attack the press, which they did with Jackson in the middle near the 3pt. line for numbers.
Still nothing creative on inbounds plays and Rice looked a bit lazy in trying to get open, but Maryland can't press as well as Ga. Tech, which is more athletic.
Congrats to the team. They played like one tonight.
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