Home
Up

Temple Recap

By Chris B.

Lefty stands as the all-time winningest coach in school history for a few more days anyway.  A win at Temple today would have given Gary Williams the all-time lead for wins as a Maryland head coach, but that will have to wait until another day as Temple protected it's home court in this non-conference match up.  This would have been a big one to throw on the old NCAA resume.  We still only have one road win, against GT, who have had some bad losses at home, so we shall see how that plays out.  Temple may never have a great record, but they usually have a good one, and they generally play an impressive out of conference schedule and thus a nice RPI.  Temple is well known for the match up zone, and for the first 5 minutes today we had the ultimate zone buster.  Mike Jones said Chris McCray Who?  He started 5 of 6 from three, and some from way beyond the arc.  I'm thinking to my self, well there is your D7 MVP.  As impressive as it was, that only had the Terps up one.  The offense had too many turnovers and the offense was visibly stumped by the zone early when MJ wasn't out there shooting.  They were all waiting for him to shoot.  The passes were not crisp on cuts, they were thrown at Wil Bowers feet, and it seemed like they forced our offense out to almost mid court.  Many passes were deflected all day long Ibekwe looked like he could have really had a big day with his quickness against the big bulky front court of Temple, but he was in foul trouble, because they took it at him on the other end.  They trailed by a few points at the half.  The second was a very entertaining physical game to watch.  I was thinking to myself this is a good game.  Neither team really pushed a lead by more than about 5 or 6 points until Temple went on a 12-0 run after MD lead 67-64 with 6 minutes to go.  After MD went up 63-61 on consecutive three's by MJ and NCM I really in mind had this one as a win.  NCM in the first half seemed quiet in my opinion, yet he still had 11 points.  In the second half he put the team on his back and did everything in his power to try and pull this one out.  I must admit he is playing very well right now, and even though he is still aggressive going to basket, he seems to be in more control and is able to get himself to the line.  The turning point in my mind was consecutive possessions where DJ Strawberry missed the front ends of two one and one's.  They were down about 5 or 6 at the time and it seemed to be the beginning of the end.  As I think back on this one, I am saying NCM is going to be the go to guy that we desperately need, MJ will give us 12-18 points a night, and if we could just get 30 points out of our big men we would be in good shape.  Well before you know it Temple goes on the above mentioned 12-0 run, and all of the sudden I am thinking how did this happen.  In my mind this was an entertaining game we seemed to be taking control of for good, and the next thing you know were getting blown out.  Temple made big shots, shot uncharacteristically well from the charity stripe is how it happened.  Sorry this is a bit jumbled but writing these things right after the game you don't really have time to let your thoughts settle and before you know it you are jumping all over the place.  At one point Sterbo and Brown were both out there with MJ, bad move.  Brown was doing a very good job penetrating the zone and dishing it in the first half yet, he goes with Sterbo in the second half, who struggled!  My final take on this loss is NCM is the go to guy, and I am fine with that, we are going to live and die with MJ, and the ball handling has to improve!

Your D7 MVP is:  I think the internet may shut down after this, Nik Canner-Medley.  That is his third in the row, thanks to his 30 point 10 rebound performance.  He is demanding the ball at crunch time and we need that. 

Special Message:  Congrats to Matt and Stacy on the Birth of their Daughter Rory (Not sure how to spell that).  I believe the details are 7 lbs 6 oz. and 19 inches long  born Friday night at 11:30ish PM.  Sorry the team couldn't welcome her into the world with a "W". 

Bubble Watch:  I think we could have really used this one.  If we don't make it this will be one I look back at.