First of all I recommend everyone go ahead and watch the East v. West All-American game yesterday on ESPN3 replay. Shaq was on the West Squad with the Harrison twins going up against an absolutely stacked East squad that had Nerlens coming off the bench. Some thoughts on Shaq below and then a quick take on Stoglin and Howard that will not be popular.

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I see a lot of fans on here saying things that makes me think a sizeable portion of the fanbase EXPECTS a Harrison Twin signing in the 2013 class. Not only do I think this is an unrealistic expectation, but I think that it is going to lead to some unfair criticism of the recruiting class that Turge is likely to bring in.

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Let me say that I'm intrigued by Dodd---he's a 6'9" guy with a nice wing span and good girth. Who knows if he can hack it at the ACC level---the kid has never really played against this kind of talent. But you have to like his upside.

However, I think the commitment signals that attrition is on the way.


Dodd seems to be, at best, a stretch for a high major program that has only gotten interest from one other high major school (GTown to be sure---but there's no indication they offered). From the start Turge has been adament that we aren't just going to bring in bodies, that we wanted to get the kind of kids that are going to be able to come in and make a difference. I just do not see Dodd as that. He seems at best, a kid who will need a few years to get acclimated to the game before he's ready to meaningfully contribute.

So what's going on.

Possibility 1: Well it may be that Turge isn't happy with having Len, Padge, Pankey and Shaq man the inside next year and wanted another option for practice and for when we have foul trouble/injury problems.

I think that's pretty unlikely.

Possibility 2: Turge is just really high on Dodd (who is a MD native) and wanted to make sure he got him in the fold before he blows up elsewhere.

I think this is unlikely. I don't think he's the kind of kid who's going to "blow up." I think he's the kind of kid who could, by his senior year be a big contributor but I don't think, based on what I've read and seen on him that he's that kind of "blow up" talent.

This leads me to Possibiliity 3:

One of either Len, Panky or Padge is not coming back and turge wants to make sure he has 4 warm bodies to rotate inside if he wants to.

I'll let you guys speculate as to whom that may be---but I suspect that padge is definately coming back so it would be either AL or AP.

NOTE: this isn't coming from "out of the blue"---one of the moderators at a premium site has been insisting all week that "change is coming" and when asked whether that meant attrition---he simply repeated "change is coming"

So yeah, a lot of peopple are trashing Stoglin's play and his attitude.

Just one question to put that in perspective however--where would we be this year without Terrell Stoglin?

I'm guessing we'd have 7...maybe 8 wins at best.

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During the game last night pretty much every commenter was in agreement that Crowton sucked.  I know that Offensive coordinators are typically the easiest whipping boy of the fans when things go wrong, but even the writers on this site have piled in.  SImilarly, Bradford has come under fire.

 

In both cases I think the criticism is borderline insane.  What more do you want from your coordinators?

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So in the wake of the MT hiring, I think it's time to point out two obvious things.

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For all intents and purposes, barring a miracle run in the ACC tournament, our season ended last night in extremely frustrating fashion against a relatively average Miami team.  It certainly FELT like a new low for this program---not able to even muster a fight against a cellar dwelling ACC team with our tournament hopes on the line.  But now is the time for true fans to take a step back, allow the anger to come and go, and realize that the future is extremely bright for the Terps.

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Just committed...

 

Things are looking up next year if JWill stays on

 

Plus Gary is on the road today to go visit Greg Whittington....to all who were concerned about that...

 

So the lineup looks like:

 

C-JWill/Padge/Pankey

PF--Breunig/Hawk/Pankey

SF-Hawk/SM/Parker/Faust

SG-Pe/Gibbs/Faust

PG: Stoglin/Pe/Gibbs

 

I like that...if you add Whittington to the mix...you really have something as he is another 3/4 tweener and could add some wing scoring for us.

That should be the takeaway point for any fan after watching the opener last nigh against Seattle.

 

Allow me to vanquish the negative thoughts you might be having following the opener and then explain why I LOVED what I saw.

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It's that time of year, isn't it? Terps FB is predictably going into the toilet, and all of Maryland begins to turn their heads to the hardwood, where we know that at the very least we won't be utterly embarrassed by our beloved Terps.

 

But how will this year actually turn out? I say we can be VERY, VERY good this year.

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First and foremost we learned that there should be absolutely no excuses made for the coaching staff and that they should be held accountable based on the results on the field this year.

 

Simply put we have talent, and a lot of that talent was on display.  We have size, and a lot of that was on display.  Finally, we have blazing speed on offense.  That should be enough to get to a bowl game with competent coaching.

 

What else did we learn?

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So I'm going to expand on a comment I made in Dave's post, which by the way I enjoyed and suggest you read if you haven't already.

My point is that I agree that the hooplah about the graduation rates, particularly as applies to the University of Maryland, is overplayed---I will also say that a line has to be drawn somewhere and yes, I applaud the U.S. Dept. of Education for at least having an interest.

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This is in no way meant to assume we beat Houston---but many are having a small breakdown over the fact we might play MSU---i think a look at the numbers assuages a lot of those fears.

 

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Dear Washington Post,

 

When i read your shocking expose this morning (NOT) on the Moses Abraham situation I said to myself, "well I guess it just takes one half of bad basketball to bring Gary's detractor's out of their holes."

 

I mean what has it been, less than one week after Gary Williams was crowned ACC COY? I have to admitt though--I admire the balls.  I mean you didn't even change your schick did you?

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Take a look at this:

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/recruiting/tracker/prospects?firstName=&lastName=palsson&season=%3C%25&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2frecruiting%2ftracker%2fprospects%3ffirstName%3d%26lastName%3dpalsson%26season%3d%3C%25

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I got Maryland 85-75

 

Close, close game until about the 5:00 minute mark of the 2nd half where Maryland's execution on the flex cuts starts to grind duke down---duke goes cold from 3 point land---and that's all she wrote

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So I've spent all lunch looking over the rankings---What have I learned you ask? I've learned that I don't envy the selection committee.  Not just because of trouble selecting the field, but because it will be tremendously difficult to rank the teams once you get past the 4 number 1 seeds.  

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Ed. Note: Hat tip to workingbird who actually posted about this in the comments section this morning

Leslie was at the game last night....

 

was in the maryland locker room after the game.

 

NC State must be THRILLED with that development---Keep it up Sid

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Here is my list...by the way these rankings consider recruiting to be 50 percent of the job and coaching them up to be 50 percent of the job

Note that this list is not results dependent---i'm just trying to rank their abilities

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Note: I'll assume for the purposes of this discussion that we do not land another big (though I think we almost certainly will)

So let's lay out the rotation:

 

PG: Bowie

SG: Tucker

SF: Mosely

PF: Gregory

C: JWill

Bench1: Padgett

Bench 2: Stoglin

Bench 3: Parker

Bench 4: Howard

Bench 5: Pankey

 

There is our 10 man rotation-- follow me below the jump for my thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses and how this team will look.

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I am a fan of some truly depressing teams to root for.  For example I'm a life long Buffalo Bills fan who's earliest childhood memory is Wide-Right.  I'm a die hard Buffalo Sabres (hockey for those who don't know) fan--they have never won a Stanley Cup and actually lost a Cup on an OT goal where Brett Hull's foot was clearly in the crease (which at the time should have meant the goal shouldn't have counted).

 

But I have to say, my interaction with Bills and Sabres Fans has been that we are an eternally optimistic fanbase.  I would say the exact opposite of the Maryland fanbase and it really makes it not that fun to follow the Terps at times (even though I still do obviously).

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Terps have offered--just check the frontpage of terrapintimes---says "Offer has arrived" with a picture of Juvonte...

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Let me summarize the situation as best as I can in a way that I think everyone can agree with:

 

Those who know won't tell

 

Those who tell don't know

 

And those who know say that he's still a solid Terp committ but can't say why

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So some of you made the point that, hey this is a blog, we have to talk about something don't we? And talking about why Dino got 33 minutes is interesting isn't it

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Gary Williams Career NCAA wins: 600+ and counting

 

Your Career Wins: 0

 

Gary Williams Level Of Involvement With the Program: 24/7 Job, Sees Practice, Has a feel for the attitude of each player etc.

 

Your Level of Involvement: You see the game

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It appears that Ross will wait till spring to sign....cause for concern? who knows...I am still confident given his coach and the fact that he seems super committed...

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I can't speak for all the other lurkers out there.  But the reason I frequent this site is because I'm a big fan of the SB network blogs and I am a Sabres fan.  However, there is just not enough original posting going on here.  I realize it's the off season and it's slow news wise but we aren't looking for news all the time.  I'm willing to participate more here, but to be honest there isn't much to comment on.  The site needs more opinion pieces, statistical analysis, informed speculation, and probably 2 more original posts a day.  Buffalorumblings (the Bills blog) has a much larger following, and a big reason is because they have 4-5 original posts per day.  The majority of time here all we get is links to other sites pumping out original thought.  Not ment as a diss, just as constructive criticism.  When D.O. does post original articles, they are WELL worth the read fwiw.

So it appears the long nightmare has finally come to an end!  The terps are reportedly no longer interested in Lance Stephenson.  The Baltimore Sun reports

Lance Stephenson, a McDonald's All-American who is one of the top unsigned basketball prospects in the nation, is no longer being recruited by Maryland, according to two sources with knowledge of the school's efforts.

 

So it would appear that I was right all along...but for the wrong reason.

 

If you remember I said that GV coming back hurt our chances with BR b/c I didn't think that BR would want to share the show with GV...

 

Well I was right...GV coming back seems directly correlated to BR not coming to CP, but for a different reason.

 

Apparently, and if you read the article it hypothesizes that this is so, with GV back, we don't really want to take the risk with BR.

 

I don't buy that.  Gary is not one of these sleezy recruiters who changes his style when chips are up or down...I think there is something more to the story...perhaps we haven't been in it for quite some time...OR

 

perhaps it's not quite over yet...time will tell

So, I grew up a baseball fan--but being from Buffalo, NY I never really had a team. (Many in buffalo rooted for the yankees, but that wasn't going to happen).

 

When I went to the Unviersity of Maryland (in the greater Wash DC area) I thought I had finally found a team--the Nationals.  I went to their grand opening, and was really excited about finally having a team.  But, baseball in D.C. is probably lower than soccer on the totum pole, so for whatever reason, and, well the Nats suck, and will suck for the forseable future. (we'll see if they have the balls to sign this stud kid from SD State or not).

Anyways, last July I moved down here for law school.  And the first thing I noticed was that I was finally in a baseball town.  I immediately started acquainting myself with the staff, the players and kinda getting a feel for the fanbase.  Needless to say I was impressed with the fans, and moreover I realized that St. Louis also has a front office that, while it has limits, is willing to spend (a requisite in my opinion for undertaking fandom).

Then, there was my first experience with Cubs-Cards.  My father and I were touring some of the colleges in the Midwest with my sister (who was looking at some midwestern schools for undergrad last year) and we found a feed of the game.  We listened, the game was back and forth.  We made it home by the time Aaron Miles hit his walk off home run.  It was at that point that I was hooked--at least for the moment.

Well, the Cards fell out of contention, and I'll admitt, my attention to the team waned, as I was preparing for law school.  But this year, I have yet to miss a game in it's entirety--not only are the Cards officially my team, but I'm damn proud of this squad.

Looking at this team, outside of Pujols, the whole lot of them are a bunch of blue collar players (Maybe WW and certainly Carp when he's healthy are also excluded).  They get by on guile, hustle and in my opinion GREAT managing from Tony LaRussa.

I know a lot of you like to rant about Tony, but to be honest, I've never had more fun watching a manager than I've had watching TLR. (and yes I'm aware the object isn't entertainment but wins...but still I'm a big TLR fan). 

And you know what, I think that when the dust settles, the Cards will be right there again in mid-late July with a chance to get hot and make the playoffs.  If Carp can stay healthy, the prospects are even better.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm excited about this team--maybe it's because I'm a noob.

I'm also really excited moving forward with Colby--he looks studly lately.

Also, if anyone could direct me to a good DVD type thing that would give me a good rundown on cardinals history (or even a special moment in cards history) I'd be thrilled.

In case you were wondering, as a new comer--yes Big Mac was a roider--and I think he should come clean--then he's a no brainer for the hall of fame.  The longer he remains silent---the worse his HOF chances become IMO.

 

As a Buffalo Sabres fan, my team is on the line just as much as your team is here.  Hamilton, Ontario is but an hour and a half drive from downtown Buffalo (and my team already declared bankruptcy several years ago).  A team moving to Southern Ontario would seriously, seriously damage the Sabres financial future.  So to a certain extent, we are in this together.  Let me try to lift your spirits and say why I think a team will not move to Southern Ontario (which in turn means that it is more likely to stay in Pheonix):

 

1.  Hamilton is a 40 minute drive from Toronto, the most powerful team in the league.  I seriously doubt they'd welcome the competition.  Add on to that what I've already said about the proximity to Buffalo, and you'd piss off two teams by moving someone to Southern Ontario.

2.  Hamilton is a town of 600,000..given that it will be hard pressed to draw from Toronto or Buffalo with established teams already there...I'm wondering where the fan base would come from.

3.  The Conferences would be all sorts of messed up.  If Hamilton got a team, they (presumably) would no longer want to play in the Western Conference.  However, dirty little secret...they would be the farthest west team in the Eastern Conference, meaning someone even farther east would have to play in the Western Conference.

4.  The NHL hates this Ballsack guy.  He already tried to do this with Nashville, and the deal breaker was that he wanted to move the team to Ontario.  The NHL simply doesn't want a team there if it can avoid it for all the reasons I've mentioned above.  Therefore, I think the NHL will likely fight Ballsack in every step of the way.

5.  The NHL does not want to lose out on hockey in the Arizona.  It would prove their expansion strategy of the last 20 some odd years was idiotic if they let Arizona go under and move out.  I expect them to work with city business leaders much like they did with Nashville and find some sort of way to keep this team out of Ballsack's hands and in Pheonix.

 

Good Luck Guys.  I'm rooting for you!