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Maryland Pre-Game Thread


IUFLA

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When: Friday, December 1st 7 PM EST

Where: Simon-Skjotd Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Indiana

TV: BTN

Second year coach Kevin Willard (25-16 at Maryland, 295-226 overall) leads his 3-3 (they do have a game Tuesday at home vs Kenpom #252 Rider) Terps into Bloomington for the kickoff to the Big 10 conference season for both teams. Maryland started the year with a win over Mount St Mary's, but then lost 3 in a row (#139 Davidson, #99 UAB, and #14 Villanova) before winning their last 2 against #276 UMBC and #169 South Alabama. The Terps currently sit at #57 on Kenpom (IU is #75).

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Maryland is led by some familiar names. 2nd Team All-Big 10 guard Jahmir Young averaged 16 PPG against IU last year, and is a pre-season All Big 10 1st team selection. He's quick, and experienced...Not a great 3 point shooter (33% career 31%last year) but he's a scorer who can put it on the floor and get around most guards. Julian Reese is in the upper tier of Big 10 big men and another pre-season All Big 10 selection. A lot of potential, but he's foul prone and didn't play well against us last year (7.5 PPG). Of course, a guy named Trayce Jackson-Davis had a lot to do with that :) . Donta Scott is one of the better forwards in the league when he's motivated, which kinda comes and goes with him. He went for 19 in the regular season game against us last year, but dropped to 10 in the game during the conference tournament.

Those three are joined by former Hoosier Jordan Geronimo, who is back in the starting lineup after a 2 game hiatus, and freshman 4 star recruit DeShawn Harris-Smith. We know what we're going to see from Geronimo. Harris-Smith was the pre-season pick by many to be the Big 10 Freshman of the Year. So far he's been up and down as well, scoring in double figures in 3 of the Terps games, while struggling in the other 3, including being held scoreless in 31 minutes vs South Alabama.

Fellow freshman Jamie Kaiser (remember him? We recruited him heavily) hasn't shot it well (which was his calling card) and along with 6'6 sophomore Noah Batchelor and 6'5 senior Jahari Long provide backcourt/wing depth. Their front court is very thin, with 6'11 sophomore Mady Traore and 6'10 sophomore Caelum Swanton-Rodger spelling Reese.

Hopefully XJ can go in this game. If not, I expect Jahmir Young to have a big night. Our front court should be able to have their way against Maryland. With Geronimo and Reese both foul prone, I think we could have them going to their bench early. SSAH is probably not the first Big 10 road experience you want your freshmen to have, so I'm not sure what we'll see out of Harris-Smith and Kaiser. Mac vs Donta Scott will be a tough matchup for our freshman, especially on the defensive end. Scott can go outside, as well as posting up when he thinks the matchup favors him. Kel'el will be big coming over to help.

Another game to show our improvement, and to get a gauge of where we are. At this point, I think we're the better team, and in spite of what the gurus say, I think we have the better coach...

Let's start off conference play on the right foot...Go Hoosiers!

Edited by IUFLA
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This game will be decided by our perimeter defense, I believe. I expect Maryland to shoot 2-3 times as many threes as us this game. Nothing really new there I suppose… but Maryland loves to shoot the three. Good news for us is they’re worse at shooting them than we are (if you can believe that). So far on the season they’ve made 30 threes on 140 attempts (21.4%). In comparison, we made 15 on 64 attempts (23.4%). They’ve got several capable shooters (Young, Scott, Kaiser). If they’re hitting their shots, it might be hard for us to keep up given we take so few perimeter shots. I still think we come out with a win though.

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1 minute ago, 02Hoosier said:

This game will be decided by our perimeter defense, I believe. I expect Maryland to shoot 2-3 times as many threes as us this game. Nothing really new there I suppose… but Maryland loves to shoot the three. Good news for us is they’re worse at shooting them than we are (if you can believe that). So far on the season they’ve made 30 threes on 140 attempts (21.4%). In comparison, we made 15 on 64 attempts (23.4%). They’ve got several capable shooters (Young, Scott, Kaiser). If they’re hitting their shots, it might be hard for us to keep up given we take so few perimeter shots. I still think we come out with a win though.

lol what!?!?!? 

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41 minutes ago, 5fouls said:

This is one of those games where, if we lose, we'll look back at it after the season and say, 'should have had that one'.

Yeah, weird to say in December but this is a really important game. 

The middle of the pack in the Big Ten is going to be deep and you just can't lose home games too the other middle of the pack teams. 

These games are the difference between landing somewhere between 3-6 in the conference and being a Selection Sunday lock and finishing 7-10 and being on the bubble or even outside looking in on Selection Sunday. 

There will be several of these games, so it's not like all of the eggs are in one basket, but geez you do yourself a lot of favors by winning these types of home games. 

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I just don't see any way Reese can stop Kel'el...

Couple that with the fact they almost have to put Geronimo on Reneau, and I'm sure Malik has worn him out a few times in practice...As good as Malik is at faking and maneuvering, and the way Jordan bites on fakes, I can see Geronimo in foul trouble at the 1st period under 16 TO :)  

They were terrible on the road/neutral court last year (6-12), and golden at home (16-1 with the loss coming to UCLA)...This year they're 0-3 on the road/neutral and 3-0 at home...Go figure...

I think we get this one

 

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56 minutes ago, 02Hoosier said:

This game will be decided by our perimeter defense, I believe. I expect Maryland to shoot 2-3 times as many threes as us this game. Nothing really new there I suppose… but Maryland loves to shoot the three. Good news for us is they’re worse at shooting them than we are (if you can believe that). So far on the season they’ve made 30 threes on 140 attempts (21.4%). In comparison, we made 15 on 64 attempts (23.4%). They’ve got several capable shooters (Young, Scott, Kaiser). If they’re hitting their shots, it might be hard for us to keep up given we take so few perimeter shots. I still think we come out with a win though.

Worse than us? Wow, watch what happens. 😂 EVERY flipping game somebody has a career night and makes more than we do as a team. Maybe that streak ends Fri. 

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20 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

I just don't see any way Reese can stop Kel'el...

Couple that with the fact they almost have to put Geronimo on Reneau, and I'm sure Malik has worn him out a few times in practice...As good as Malik is at faking and maneuvering, and the way Jordan bites on fakes, I can see Geronimo in foul trouble at the 1st period under 16 TO :)  

They were terrible on the road/neutral court last year (6-12), and golden at home (16-1 with the loss coming to UCLA)...This year they're 0-3 on the road/neutral and 3-0 at home...Go figure...

I think we get this one

 

Reese and JG are their starting 4/5? I like that. 

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41 minutes ago, BGleas said:

Yeah, weird to say in December but this is a really important game. 

The middle of the pack in the Big Ten is going to be deep and you just can't lose home games too the other middle of the pack teams. 

These games are the difference between landing somewhere between 3-6 in the conference and being a Selection Sunday lock and finishing 7-10 and being on the bubble or even outside looking in on Selection Sunday. 

There will be several of these games, so it's not like all of the eggs are in one basket, but geez you do yourself a lot of favors by winning these types of home games. 

It also is the most winnable of the next four games. Oddly enough, if we manage 1-3 in that stretch I don't think it dooms our season but 0-4 would be just a very different story. Part of that, we could honestly play very good basketball and lose at Michigan, neutral (but in Atlanta) against Auburn, and home against KU. Honestly no shame in any of that if we play well and keep improving, but Maryland at home with how they've been playing we just need to have. 

 

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I was trying to think of a matchup from last year to see how Julian Reese did against quality Big 10 Bigs...

He actually held his own against Edey (19 and 10 vs Edey's 24 and 18) ... Less so against Trayce (10 and 5 vs TJD's 18 and 24) ... But Hunter Dickinson absolutely dominated him in 2 games scoring 32 and 19, while holding Reese to 2 and 6...

I know Kel'el isn't quite to Dickinson's level yet, but he's got the same tools while being more athletic... 

 

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And I have a couple of questions for some of you on here...

@KoB2011, it's your contention that it's not the execution of the defense, but the scheme itself that's the issue... Right?

Listening to Woody's radio show with Don Fischer this morning, and he says it's a lack of communication and understanding of principles that's the issue, or execution, particularly at the arc... Just curious as to why you think it's the scheme...

And this is a general question for anyone who's been in a leadership position, but particularly the coaches on here...

Have you ever had a team that was as good at the start of the season than they were at the end? 

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30 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

And I have a couple of questions for some of you on here...

@KoB2011, it's your contention that it's not the execution of the defense, but the scheme itself that's the issue... Right?

Listening to Woody's radio show with Don Fischer this morning, and he says it's a lack of communication and understanding of principles that's the issue, or execution, particularly at the arc... Just curious as to why you think it's the scheme...

And this is a general question for anyone who's been in a leadership position, but particularly the coaches on here...

Have you ever had a team that was as good at the start of the season than they were at the end? 

I didn't see the interview but did see some of Woodson's quotes on this on X/Twitter. Sharing that because I understand just reading the quotes doesn't give the full context. 

With that said, I think it's both a scheme and execution issue and I think the scheme leads to a lot of the execution/communication issues. 

I've not watched nearly the film that our staff has, not even close. But the clips I've seen addressing this on X/Twitter and watching the games, it seems crystal clear to me that our scheme is built to over-help, often very unnecessarily. 

IMO, the overhelping is really bad at times and it is often the reason for the execution and communication mistakes. 

The overhelping often puts guys in positions where they're unnecessarily scrambling to recover and in those situations you open yourself up to help/recover mistakes, miscommunication and other issues. 

IMO, it's kind of like the chicken and the egg. 

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2 minutes ago, BGleas said:

I didn't see the interview but did see some of Woodson's quotes on this on X/Twitter. Sharing that because I understand just reading the quotes doesn't give the full context. 

With that said, I think it's both a scheme and execution issue and I think the scheme leads to a lot of the execution/communication issues. 

I've not watched nearly the film that our staff has, not even close. But the clips I've seen addressing this on X/Twitter and watching the games, it seems crystal clear to me that our scheme is built to over-help, often very unnecessarily. 

IMO, the overhelping is really bad at times and it is often the reason for the execution and communication mistakes. 

The overhelping often puts guys in positions where they're unnecessarily scrambling to recover and in those situations you open yourself up to help/recover mistakes, miscommunication and other issues. 

IMO, it's kind of like the chicken and the egg. 

Fischer actually asked about over helping... I'll go back and listen (or hopefully find a transcript) but Woody seemed to say over helping was not always a bad thing and should be based on the scouting report... 

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8 minutes ago, IUFLA said:

Fischer actually asked about over helping... I'll go back and listen (or hopefully find a transcript) but Woody seemed to say over helping was not always a bad thing and should be based on the scouting report... 

Yeah, I saw the transcript. I tried to go back and find it on X/Twitter but couldn't. 

I mean, yeah, it's not always bad. Sometimes you absolutely have to help.

But, from my eye and the clips I've seen people like Adranga (sp?) and Ant Wright share on this, its often really bad and unnecessary overhelping that compromises our defense and causes a lot of recovery and communication issues. 

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BTW, during the 2nd half of Woody's radio show, Armond Hill was the special guest... His nickname is "Money" (he tells why during the interview) and he's another down to earth guy who loves our coach... Said Woody draws up 2 plays in the huddle because he wants the kids to think based on what they see the other team doing... Great stuff

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