What was so improbable about the end of the game makes you forget what was impossible. After Greivis made the first bucket to put the Terps ahead–Draymond Green a 6’6 235 lb bruising rebounder who had gone 0-3 in the previous game swished an 18 foot pull up jumper. What? How could he even take that shot?
It’s 1:30 AM and I am still in shock. The last 30 seconds were so crazy. Greivis hit 2 shots that most players dream about. He is the coolest, most daring player I have seen. The last pass to Lucious almost bounced off the back of a MSU player. Why didn’t the ref see Izzo calling a timeout like he saw Booth calling a timeout against Georgia Tech?
Talk about keeping a team together under adversity–Williams was the master tonight. I am just so sick to see the season end.
After yesterday, I now have the criteria to label a particular play devastating: If it takes you to your knees on the floor, the play has reached the devastation level. Yes I was on the floor for a good 10 minutes after the shot went through the net.
Did the ending really happen or is this a nightmare?
Terrance
Again, the right team won the game.
Izzo got the best of Gary in this one. He had a totally depleted team, and had to figure out matching packages on the fly, and they worked.
MD came out and had a bad 1st half again, as they did in about half the games this year.
Gary has GOT to figure out a way to get the 5star and highg 4star big men. We need some more 6’9,6’10, 6’11, and 7’0 ers.
Remember Baxter, 6’8, Wilcox 6’10, Holden, 6’10, Mouton, 6’6, and Randle 6’9?
Thats the same team, and that is a CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM.
It isn’t Nike, it isn’t AAU, those are just excuses, and I have seen that interview with the Nike CEO who responds to that question of blacklisting programs that don’t use NIke, and he laughed at the question. Think about it. Why would they care? They know that if the Arizona Mens team uses Reebok, and MD uses Under Armour, that doesn;t mean no one is going to buy Nike anymore.
Anyway, thanks for the season, but, now lets get to work and free up those 2 extra scholarships and steal a couple bigs or something.
· 11/12/2019
Bart
The lack of size is what Keeps MD from the elite level they used to be at.
WE are in the same boat next year. Even if the NCAA give Bowie and Tucker enough respect to go with what will surely be a top National PF in Jordan, they may not get a preseason top 25.
Gregory, Milbourne, and Padgett, disappeared too often and for games at a time. NO inside presence except J-Will. Teams know to get him in foul trouble and MD has no one else to come help out. Padgett gets a pass.
Yes, GV took us to some great wins, but I am still glad his time is up at MD. Many a losses were a result of him playing out of control and I will stick to and everyone knows he is just not a very good shooter. He misses so many wide open looks.
Stoglin is a better defender, and I hope more consistent shooter.
I am very excited about who is coming in next year, but Gary needs to get 1 more monster for that, is the weakness of MD basketball. Size.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
bart said Stoglin is a better defender,
my question is how many games have you seen stoglin play?
· 11/12/2019
Bruce
Gary’s history is to start with his vets. That means his core 6 next year will be Bowie, Tucker, Mosley and in the front court Dino and Padgett will fight it out for the 4 next to Jordan. The 5 recruits will all get their chances for sure. Should be an interesting year provided we can ever get over the sting of this loss.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
the sting of this loss provides the incentive for next year’s team. if they can’t shake this loss it’s a lack of character and heart from players and coaches. i’ve gotten over the overtime loss to nc state, the loss to ucla in dec 1973, the acc final where buck williams got ridden out, the final four game where we were up by 20 and lost and i’ll get over this game. ya see the reality is as much as this loss hurts any md fan, player and coach it’s still just a game. somebody today is going to hear from their doctor that they have cancer or a phone will ring and someone will hear that their mother or father has died or someone close to them is seriously injured in an accident. if maryland basketball was life or death we’d have all been dead years ago. we lost. we didn’t play hard for 40 minutes. mich st had one starter out of the game and their best player started the game hurt and left after 16 minutes. they had 18 more rebounds and that got them fast break points after fast break points. they averaged about 70 pts a game but because they crushed us on the boards they couldn’t help not score a lot of points on breaks. they constantly got open look after open look and to their credit they knocked their shots down. and yet we lose by 2. all we had to do is play hard for all 40 minutes and we’d be looking ahead to the northern iowa game but there is no one out there who can honestly say we played to our potential yesterday. there is no one out there who can say we played hard for all 40 minutes. we rarely contested mich st when they had the ball, they got more loose balls and we gave them a million 2nd chance opportunities. they must have back doored md 5 times in the second half. wide open jump hots, wide open lay ups. and we lose by 2 on a last second shot from a guy who wouldn’t have been on the floor had not mich st had injuries. how many easy baskets did md get in the first 34 minutes of the game? few if any. how many fast break points did md get in the first half? few if any. tough, tough loss. but mich st won the game and that’s it. that’s all there is, there is no more.
· 11/12/2019
Bart
Freddy,
Read Matt Braken’s column on “meet the recruit” for Stoglin.
Look at what he did to John Wall, Derrick Rose, and OJ Mayo.
The 3 AAU games when they met up, were the worst scoring games, with the most TO’s in those 3 players careers.
I haven’t seen him play, I just read that article where he got the best of those 3 when they met up.
Maybe I can find the article or something and I’ll post the link.
· 11/12/2019
Bart
I got 1 wrong, it wasn’t derrick rose, it was Demar Derozan. Stoglin went off for 35 points and held Derozan to his fewest total of the season.
· 11/12/2019
Highrock
It still stings and it will for a long time, but there is NO SHAME in it. We played great and earned national respect. . .some things just weren’t meant to be, and this was one of them.
· 11/12/2019
freddy from boca
thanks bart i appreciate the follow-up and the additional input.
· 11/12/2019