A week later and some tidbits

It's been a week since we treated the basketball like a hot potato. I apologize for not updating the site earlier. The first few days I was in remorse. Not that we lost, but the fact that we didn't care how bad we looked. The next few days I was just swamped with work.

As far as how I felt with how we played: we flat out sucked. I give credit to Ole Miss who played the game of their lives and continued to bring the pressure whenever we made a run. Aside from that, what happened last Tuesday was a reflection of the whole season: we had this air of superiority all year that we could turn it on and off when we wanted too, unfortunately the bounces never went our way. We continued to flirt with falling behind hoping that our superiority would carry us to victory. The only way we won games was by blowing teams out early and then coasting to victory. In my mind, no one improved from last year and in fact I think we regressed as a team. Too many quick shots, not enough confidence to try something else. I saw the pictures of the team crying after the game, it's too bad it took a tournament loss for the team to show any emotion whatsoever. I hope for the team's sake, the loss makes each player hungrier and they stop taking winning for granted. November is a long ways away and it will be interesting to see how things unfold since then.

Coach Walz has left to take the head coaching job at Louisville and is taking Becky Bonner with him. Good riddance to both as instead of helping right the ship and take us to title #2, they decided to jump off now so that they didn't sink any further. (just kidding Coach, good luck and take care of Geno for us)

Marah and Drey will be playing in the McDonald's game tonight at 5:30 on ESPNU. Once again ESPN has decided that despite being the home of women's college basketball, a high school all-star game is not worth ESPN or ESPN2 coverage.

Game 34: Mississippi (NCAA Second Round)

Time to move on to our second course, which will be nothing like the first one. In fact, we first sampled this course back in November over in the Bahamas. Things have changed since then. Ole Miss may have developed some more scorers and turned the D, but we also added a faster point guard who can dribble through pressure. It should be a high scoring game.

Of course another win puts us four steps away from another National Title, while Ole Miss tries to play the spoiler.

The game is on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.


Interesting note: Right now only two of Maryland's opponents have been eliminated from the tournament and they were both knocked out by another Maryland opponent.

Ole Miss

Record: 22-10, 4-3 (Neutral)

Common Opponents: Miami (W, 82-64)

Most Points Allowed: 110

Fewest Points Scored: 46

Team Information - Stats

They like to create off their defense. Not a great half-court team. Would rather create turnovers and score easy buckets.

Scores 77.4 points per game and allow 65.5 ppg.

Allow teams to shoot 40.4% from the floor and 29.0% from behind the arc, while they shoot 41.1% and 26.5 % from 3.

They are not a 3-pt shooting team. They like to get in the lane and attack the basket.

Outrebound opponents 44.2-40.6

They generate 24.6 turnovers per game, while only committing 16.1 per game.

Shoot 62% from the free throw line.

The first time we played them all five starters scored in double figures including 19 from Laura Harper. It was basically a track meet and we used our height advantage.

The tallest player they start is 6'1 and they bring a 6'3 player off the bench.

Players to Watch - Roster

Armintie Price. Their 5-9 do-it-all senior. Leads the team in points, rebounds, steals, assists and turnovers. Essentially as she goes, the team goes. in the first game, she was held under 10 points and shot terribly. Likes to drive the lane and initiate contact and get to the line. Only shoots 57.7% from there. Has only taken 42 three-points, making only 7.

Ashley Awkward. 5-6 senior guard who is second on the team in scoring, steals, assists and turnovers. Another guard who loves to shoot the ball, although she will step outside the arc for 3 as she leads the team with 99 attempts, but only 27 makes. Doesn't rebound and doesn't foul.

Alliesha Easley. 5-8 freshman guard who is third in scoring and assists. Also shoots a ton of three pointers but rarely makes them. Can get in foul trouble.

Shawn Goff and Danetra Forrest. Essentially the team's post presence, although neither takes the same amount of shots as the guards. Goff is the better scorer, rebounder and shot blocker. Neither one shoots the 3.

Carla Bartee. the team's other three-point threat off the bench.

Keys to the Game

Take care of the ball.

Attack the press smartly.

Make Ole Miss run some sort of offense (usually it's give the ball to Price and let her create)

Keep throwing fresh bodies at Price, keep her off the boards and frutrate her to no end.

Control the Paint. No reason for Langhorne, Coleman and Harper not to all have at least 10 rebounds each.

Don't rush shots just take them in the flow of the game.

Doron Sends Harvard Packing Again, 89-65

Four years ago, Harvard's coach dreamed of having a young Jewish girl from New York play for her in the NCAA Tournament. That dream never came true and today in Hartford it became her nightmare. Shay showcased her freshman year form today as she hit a variety of shots from all over the court and led the team in scoring with 21 points. The win moves us on to a rematch with Mississippi on Tuesday and extends our non-conference win streak to 31. Fourth straight year of advancing to the second round of the tournament (only one other ACC team has done that - Duke).

The team came out tentative and with a new starting line up. Sa'de started over Kristi to help Toliver relax and not feel some much pressure. In case you haven't noticed Kristi has been down on herself the last few games and it was affecting her play. Sa'de's insertion wasn't the cause for the tentativeness, just a long lay off.

In the end, we saw the return of the running game. Remember that? That was back in November and December. I thought we lost that part of our game.

Time for the second course - some Rebels from Mississippi.

Recap|Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Positives

The line up change. Toliver needed to know she wasn't invincible and that she was hurting the team. Sa'de brings emotion and speed and doesn't look for her shot.

The running game. We took the ball off the rebound and attacked Harvard before they could set up. Fast breaks equal easy points.

Shay. She's playing like she doesn't want to lose again as a Maryland player.

Coleman. She went after rebounds and played with fire. Shorts were a bit short from further away, but she will fix that.

Jade and Aurelie. With Harper struggling again, both filled in amicably in the post.

Neutral

Sa'de. I like how she ran the ball up the court and showed emotion, but I want her to drive to the hoop more and create her shot.

Langhorne. Seemed frustrated with the double teams and was forcing shots. Rebounded tough though and made some great outlet passes to start the break.

Toliver. Took the benching in stride, then tried to shoot her way back into the starting line up. The second half she played more in control and wasn't just firing up shots.

Negatives

Harper. Where have you gone 2006 Laura Harper? Another game of little offensive production. She has to be more than a shot blocker and foul collector. Maybe it's time to start Jade.

Lack of rotation on the zone defense. we left the far corner open for skip passes and wide open shots.

Half-court offense. No spacing and a bunch of people standing around watcing Crystal get double teamed. Also we stood around and settled for jumpers instead of attacking. Are we afraid to get hit? Did the lack of calls in other games make us shy?

Doron Sends Harvard Packing Again, 89-65

Four years ago, Harvard's coach dreamed of having a young Jewish girl from New York play for her in the NCAA Tournament. That dream never came true and today in Hartford it became her nightmare. Shay showcased her freshman year form today as she hit a variety of shots from all over the court and led the team in scoring with 21 points. The win moves us on to a rematch with Mississippi on Tuesday and extends our non-conference win streak to 31. Fourth straight year of advancing to the second round of the tournament (only one other ACC team has done that - Duke).

The team came out tentative and with a new starting line up. Sa'de started over Kristi to help Toliver relax and not feel some much pressure. In case you haven't noticed Kristi has been down on herself the last few games and it was affecting her play. Sa'de's insertion wasn't the cause for the tentativeness, just a long lay off.

In the end, we saw the return of the running game. Remember that? That was back in November and December. I thought we lost that part of our game.

Time for the second course - some Rebels from Mississippi.

Recap|Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery

Positives

The line up change. Toliver needed to know she wasn't invincible and that she was hurting the team. Sa'de brings emotion and speed and doesn't look for her shot.

The running game. We took the ball off the rebound and attacked Harvard before they could set up. Fast breaks equal easy points.

Shay. She's playing like she doesn't want to lose again as a Maryland player.

Coleman. She went after rebounds and played with fire. Shorts were a bit short from further away, but she will fix that.

Jade and Aurelie. With Harper struggling again, both filled in amicably in the post.

Neutral

Sa'de. I like how she ran the ball up the court and showed emotion, but I want her to drive to the hoop more and create her shot.

Langhorne. Seemed frustrated with the double teams and was forcing shots. Rebounded tough though and made some great outlet passes to start the break.

Toliver. Took the benching in stride, then tried to shoot her way back into the starting line up. The second half she played more in control and wasn't just firing up shots.

Negatives

Harper. Where have you gone 2006 Laura Harper? Another game of little offensive production. She has to be more than a shot blocker and foul collector. Maybe it's time to start Jade.

Lack of rotation on the zone defense. we left the far corner open for skip passes and wide open shots.

Half-court offense. No spacing and a bunch of people standing around watcing Crystal get double teamed. Also we stood around and settled for jumpers instead of attacking. Are we afraid to get hit? Did the lack of calls in other games make us shy?

Game 33: Harvard (NCAA Tournament)

Well after two weeks and a delayed flight we finally get to play another basketball game. This time though it's one and done. No more tournaments to get ready for. No more do overs. Lose and Shay and Aurelie watch games from the stands. It also marks our "Back For Seconds" Tour. Our first course is Harvard in the lovely confines of the Hartford Civic Center.

We win we get the winner of TCU/Mississippi on Tuesday night. Today's game is on ESPN and should be without interruption.

Harvard

Record: 15-12, 1-2 (Neutral)

Common Opponents: Marist (L, 74-68), Boston College (W, 68-58)

Most Points Allowed: 96

Fewest Points Scored: 51

Team Information - Stats

Team has won 12 straight, all against Ivy League teams.

Allowing 65.1 points per game, while scoring 67.8 ppg.

Outrebounding opponents 37.5-32.0.

Shoot .457 from the field and .330 from 3, but don't take that many 3s. Only one person on the team has shoot more than 50 and only one person has made more than 10.

Allow opponents to shoot .406 from the floor and .322 from 3. Since I haven't seen them play, it looks like they may pack in in deep and let teams shoot 3s as opponents have shot 484 of them. In contrast we have only allowed opponents to shoot 462 in 5 fewer games.

They only go about 8 deep.

They average about 20 turnovers per game.

It looks like their whole offense takes place within the 3-point line.

Players to Watch - Roster

Emily Tay - a 5'8 guard who is the primary ball handler. Leads the team in points, steals, assists and turnovers. Not a 3-point shooter. Likes to shoot and shoot. Taken nearly 90 more shots than her teammates.

Lindsay Hallion - a 5'9 guard. Second on the team in points, steals, assists and turnovers. Again not a three-point shooter.

Niki Finelli - the team's main 3-point shooter. 5'11. third on the team in scoring and second in rebounding.

Katie Rollins - 6-3 post player and looks to be their main player. Not a great rebounder and will get in foul trouble.

Christina Lackner - 6-1 post player. fifth on the team in points, leads in rebounds. will shoot the 3. very foul prone, fouled out of 6 games.

Emma Moretzsohn - 6-7 post player who plays 12 minutes a game. team's leading shot blocker.

Liz Tindal and Jess Knox. post and guard subs, neither plays more than 15 mins per game. Knox will shoot more and take 3s.

Keys to the Game

Get at them from the start. It's been a while for us and no need to play slow. We should be able to run the ball up and down the court on them. The last team with speed they played was California in November. Anything under 90 will be disappointing.

Feed Crystal and Harper all game. their post players are foul prone and we should be able to exploit them. I would hope Crystal gets her points and then Harper gets the ball 5 possessions in a row to reestablish her confidence.

Guard their guards. We struggle with penetrating guards and we need to get better as the tournament goes on.

Rebound the ball.

Show emotion and that killer instinct we saw in Greensboro.

Get Toliver out of her moping phase.

Thursday Tidbits

Three Days before we get underway and quite a few people are talking about us.



See if you can find a Maryland female basketball player (I doubt you can)

Add Kara Lawson and Stacy Dales to the list of experts who don't think we will make it to Cleveland. Both picked Tennessee to make the FF.

SI's "experts" offered up their picks

Traci Schultz thinks we are overrated

Mark Selig of the Diamondback writes It's Toliver Time

Mike Barber of the Daily News Record writes Toliver to Get More Vocal

The Associated Press writes Frese, Terrapins Look to Repeat in 2007

Graham Hays writes about what the Terps need to do to win again

ESPN.com has posted the Terps Tournament Page

If you haven't voted for Shay, go here and vote daily

Back For Seconds Starts in Hartford

As if there was any doubt, we made it again. We got the two seed everyone, but Jerry Palm predicted and we get to stay relatively close to home as we are in the Dayton Regional. That will give us a chance to get used to Ohio for a return trip a few days later. Maybe Coach Floyd can show us the hot spots! The one bad thing? Everyone is saying we got the dreaded worst bracket in the field. I, for one, like our bracket. The only true defensive minded team in our half is UT and I think we owe them some payback from last year. But we can't look at head just yet...the first course is Harvard and that is served on Sunday.

The ESPN experts have already done their picking and only one thinks we make it to Cleveland, one doesn't even think we make the Elite 8.

And an early thanks to Kara Lawson for not believing we could make it to Cleveland as well as Stacy Dales for telling the team that they need to play two halves.

Harvard preview coming later in the week.

Friday's Findings

Photos from the ACC Semifinals

Jeff Lippman writes that it's time for teams to Fear the Turtle again

Crystal made the final list for the WBCA Kodak All-America team. Now she waits until Final Four weekend to see if she made the 10-person squad.

The Washington Times says the Terps are waiting to play again

Wednesday's Words

Stayed 5th in the Coaches Poll and dropped to seventh in the AP Poll.

Marissa and Langhorne were named second team All-ACC Tournament

Shay and Crystal are Academic All-Americans. Shay made second team and Langhorne made the third team.

Shay needs your HELP. Click here to vote for her to win the Senior CLASS Award.

Charlie Creme still has us as a #2 seed in his latest bracketology. We really shot ourselves in the foot losing to GT and UNC last week. We could have been a 1 seed with all the upsets this past week.

Jerry Palm has us as a #3 seed in his latest bracket.

The Diamondback discusses our seeding heading into the tournament

Marissa and Crystal made the final cut of the Wooden Award. They now have a 1-in-6 chance of being a Wooden AA.

Deja Vu: Heels beat Terps in ACC Tournament again, 78-72

For the second straight year, North Carolina ended our run at the ACC Tournament. It was a well played game and we just couldn't get over the hump when we needed it the most. We had our chances, but we either had a mental mistake or UNC had a key stop.

After this weekend, I have more confidence that we will have a pretty strong chance of being in Cleveland. The team showed more emotion in two days than they had during the entire ACC season. I hope the loss makes them even hungrier and ready to defend our title.


Positives

Emotion. The team was fired up and never let UNC get too far away. Every big basket was met with a scream and excitement.

Shay. She played like she isn't ready to go home yet. I hope that passion lasts until April 3.

Marissa. Another solid effort out of her, 18 points and 8 rebounds. Her defense was solid and we were close to seeing the high-knee dance that she did last year. I just would like her to demand the ball even more when things aren't going well.

Crystal. When she was in there, she picked her spots and scored. More impressive was that she drilled both her free throws with 4 minutes to go.

Sa'de. She looks to be regaining her confidence out there and will be a force come tournament time.

Jade. played solid defense when forced into action due to foul trouble.

Negatives

Rebounding. We didn't box out and let UNC grab too many crucial rebounds.

Toliver. her body language was awful for the first 30+ minutes. She again let her miss shots get the best of her. Once her shot started falling she smiled again and was playing in rhythm. She needs to move past that.

Officiating. This is I think the third time I have complained about officiating and twice one of the refs involved was Dee Kantner. Numerous calls were missed and somehow after Larkins picked up her second offensive foul we suddenly never got a call for us. Langhorne and Harper were suddenly getting called for touch fouls and Jade was getting called for illegal screens. How the ACC can continue to employ refs that suck is ridiculous.


As we wait two weeks to find out where we are going next, I hope the team works on a few things:
1. Have practices where Langhorne and Harper switch roles. Lang needs to work on her outside shot and Harper needs to work on her post moves. If Lang is forced to not take lay ups for two weeks she may be more comfortable hitting that outside jumper.
2. Restore Newman's confidence. She seems afraid to drive to the hoop and now doesnt give us much on the offensive end.
3. Practices where the team attacks the lane and doesn't settle for outside jumpers. We seem too afraid to attack the paint at certain times.
4. Limiting the dumb passes. They team needs to work on thinking before certain passes.

Game 32: North Carolina (ACC Semifinals)

Time for round 2. Carolina wants another shot at Duke and may overlook us to get it. We want another shot at Carolina, especially this girl:



She killed us in the first game and I hope she doesn't do it again.

Keys to the Game

Attack. Just like we did against GT, we must get the ball and go.

Rebound. We beat Carolina on the boards in the first game, but we need to do it again.

Have confidence in our shooting. The first time, we got down on ourselves when we missed shots. We have to know that we are going to miss, but will make the next one. Also continue the effort from yesterday, where we stepped inside the arc to take a shot.

Show intensity. Carolina will bring it, and we need to match it plus a little bit more.

Play defense. Limit Carolina's inside options and don't give the shooters open looks.

Get them in foul trouble. The second wave of post players aren't as strong as the first wave.

Langhorne and Coleman exact revenge on Yellow Jackets, 75-59

Round one of revenge weekend resulted in a knockout of Georgia Tech, 75-59. The team played with emotion and heart, the first time we have seen that since the MSU game. It was a physical game, and you could see that half the team was ready to throwdown with Georgia Tech. Now's it's on for Round 2 and a rematch with North Carolina.


Positives

Langhorne. 18 points and nine rebounds. She got the ball and took over against the smaller Yellow Jackets. She missed a few easy lay ups, but I can't complain when she is aggressive with the ball.

Coleman. Looked to be on a mission with her shots and rebounds. Her defense looked solid and she was full of fire.

Sa'de. For the first time in a long time, she looked the player we expected when she transfered from UT. She attacked the lane and used her speed to her advantage. Let's hope this is a turn in the right direction for her.

Toliver. she shot 6-of-9, eight of which were inside the arc. She has had a ton of nice passes that sometimes even surprised her teammates.

Team's aggressiveness. We went at them every chance we got including when they pressed.

Defense. We did a good job of cutting off penetration and frustrating GT all game long.

Negatives

Mental Mistakes. Several times we didn't realize the shot clock was running down and forced up bad shots.

Inbounds plays. For some reason we can never inbound the ball easily under our own basket. We had a 5-second call (I think it was a quick call) and several times looked confused.

Turnovers. A ton of mistakes that GT did nothing to create.

Game 31: Georgia Tech (ACC Tournament)

It's time for the second season, where it's one loss and you are done. Luckily for us, we also have the NCAA Tournament to look forward too.

Today begins Revenge Weekend for the Terps. First up in our path, Georgia Tech who beat us by 5 roughly a month ago and defeated Miami handily last night.


Georgia Tech heads into the game knowing they can beat us and full of confidence. The key to their team is their defense. They like to play a lot of switching zones as well as pressing. Pressing is how they built their lead yesterday. Their weakness is that they are lacking in height. I think they also to struggle to come from behind, so they like to jump on opponents early.

Keys to the Game

Attack the paint. With GT's lack of height, it is important for Lang, Jade and Harper to score as many points as they can in the paint and force GT to drop into the post and open up our shooters. One of GT's post players Kentrina Wilson has a broken hand and thus won't be that effective on the defensive end.

Take away the penetration. In the first game, GT would use dribble penetration to create baskets or draw contact. They love to run the high-low pick play where Higgs dribbles off the pick to cut to the basket. Yesterday, I noticed they know have Mitchell driving from the top of the key.

Take the ball and go. We can't allow GT to set up their defense and the best way to combat is to take the ball and rush up the court and score quickly.

Hit our shots and don't worry if we miss one or two. Miami seemed to have an easy time getting off shots from 3-pt range. We shoot better than Miami so we should have an easier time of scoring from outside.

Build an early lead. Like I said earlier, I don't think GT is able to play from behind so we need to build a big lead early and continue to stretch that lead.

Rebound. With our height advantage there is no reason for us to not outrebound them. All their players attack the glass, so a rebound and quick outlet could result in an easy basket.

Play with emotion. It's time to bring the fire we had all last year.

Game is on WMUC and ACC Select.

Thursday's Tidbits

Here's a bunch of stuff I haven' posted in the last few days.

Great article on Jeff Walz in the Baltimore Sun on Saturday.

Future Terps Drey Mingo and Marah Strickland were picked as McDonald's All-Americans

Crystal, Marissa and Kristi were named All-ACC. Crystal was first team (not unanimous though), Marissa was second team and Toliver was third team. Crystal also got one vote for ACC POY.

Poll position didn't change this week, but Si.com as us ranked 11th.

The Diamondback wrote a feature on Marissa.

NBC4.com says the Terps are trying to make it two in a row

The Baltimore Examiner previews the ACC Tournament

For those that will in the Greensboro area on Thursday, future Terp Kat Lyons has a playoff game tonight at 8:30 at Wake Forest.

The latest updates from Under the Shell are below.

Episode #7