The Duke-Maryland matchup is always a good one
2008-01-29
The Duke-Maryland matchup is always a good one, no matter the records. Duke comes in nationally ranked as usual. Maryland has been up and down and is real young with only two seniors in their rotation. The Terps however, knocked off #1 ranked North Carolina last week on the road, and will be anxious to do the same to #3 Duke on Sunday at home. Tip-time is 6:30 PM ET on FSN’s ACC Game of the Week.
The Blue Devils have balance with about eight or nine players contributing on a nightly basis. They have some solid freshmen and they have great shooting from behind the arc.
They won their ACC opener vs. a solid Virginia team 87-65. Gerald Henderson led the scoring with 18 points and freshman Kyle Singler added 13 points. This was a late-league opener for them on January 13th.
Senior captain DeMarcus Nelson leads the Blue Devils in scoring at 13.7 points per game and in rebounding with 6.4 rebounds per contest. He became the 55th player in Duke’s fabled history to pass the 1,000 point mark in scoring in a recent game with Cornell. His only weakness may be his 62% free throw shooting.
Freshman Kyle Singler has made a big splash leading his team in scoring at 13.0 points per outing with Henderson chipping in 12.6 points per game. Again, the key word for Coach K’s crew is balance.
They have four players shooting above 42% from behind the arc namely DeMarcus Nelson, Jon Scheyer, Freshman Taylor King and Greg Paulus. 42 % shooting is excellent from downtown and to have four guys on one team shooting that well is simply scary.
Duke’s only bad news is the loss of 7-footer Brain Zoubek due to a foot injury. It’s not a major loss, giving the Blue Devils needed size in the paint.
Down the road for Duke are two dates with the North Carolina Tarheels. They travel to Chapel Hill February 6th and then host the Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 8th which is the last day of the regular season. It’s a good guess that these teams will face each other at least once more after that final date on the schedule.
Maryland is coached by Gary Williams, who gets everything out of his players by giving everything he has each night. Hoops guru Dan Feinman stated recently that the Terps are young and do play up or down according to the level of competition. Feinman added that they need to drive the basketball more instead of relying on outside shooting and they need to take better care of the ball on offense.
They have a bright future in the backcourt with two sophomores manning those positions. Greivis Vasquez and Eric Hayes are two guys Williams is relying on for a potential climb back into the national rankings. Vasquez from Venezuela leads the Terps in scoring at 16.6 points per game as well as assists at 5.9 per contest. Hayes dishes out 5.4 assists from his point guard spot. Both Vasquez and Hayes are averaging over 35 minutes per outing.
Senior James Gist has put up solid numbers at 14.7 points per game with 7.6 rebounds per outing while blocking over 2 shots per game. Coach Williams has been playing three freshman as well in Braxton DuPree, Cliff Tucker and Shane Walker as well as sophomore Landon Milbourne.
They did not have any major non-conference wins . They beat a decent Holy Cross team 73-48 and beat Charlotte (10-5) 76-72. The future is not now for the Terrapins, but they do remain a dangerous team especially at home.
Prediction
Duke 81, Maryland 70
Duke is readying itself for another Final Four run. The Terp’s Final Four berths are in the past and maybe a year or two down the road. Duke has too many weapons in this one. Williams vs. Kryzewski is always worth the price of admission. James Gist should do well against the undersized Duke post players. He has had a history of playing big in big games. Look for the Terps to be in this one early and at home on a Sunday night they will give their fans some moments along the way in this one. Maryland needs to limit turnovers vs. the Duke pressure. This will be a good test for Hayes and Vasquez. I can not think of anything better to do on a Sunday evening than to tune into this one, especially one week before the Super Bowl.
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