Frontcourt facing early struggles

Terrapin men's basketball coach Gary Williams acknowledged entering this season that his team would not be the post-dominant one it used to be. But even after winning two games by an average of 26.5 points behind solid guard play, the Terps have cause for concern about the lack of production from their big men.

The Terps' six bona fide forwards - not including wing-player Jin Soo Kim - combined for just eight points and 11 rebounds in 78 minutes against Youngstown State.

Last season, on any given night, the Terps would receive that much production from one forward alone. But with the graduations of James Gist and Bambale Osby, the team's glaring hole entering the season has not yet been plugged.

"Last year, we had James and Boom consistently having 30 minutes a game. Of course you're going to see a lot of double-digit performances from them," forward Jerome Burney said. "Now it's like me, Braxton (Dupree), Dino (Gregory), Dave (Neal), Steve (Goins) and Landon (Milbourne). We have to take care of this team because James and Boom aren't here anymore."

It's a young and inexperienced group, but one that will be asked to mature quickly.

Tuesday night, Youngstown State featured a small lineup with three guards and two undersized forwards, just like the Terps. Even without a size advantage, the Penguins out-rebounded Maryland 45-34. Last season, the only time the Terps had such a large deficit on the glass was against eventual Final Four team UCLA.

"I am [concerned]," Williams said about the negative rebounding margin against Youngstown State. "There's no doubt in mind that we can rebound better than that, and we'll have to."

As for the minuscule point totals from his forwards, Williams referenced recent Duke teams as successful without establishing a scoring presence inside.

"I think any team likes to score inside, but if we can't score inside it doesn't mean we can't be a good team," he added.

Last week against Bucknell - a team larger than the Terps but smaller than many of Maryland's future opponents - the Terps won the rebounding battle by just three, despite winning the game by 29 points.

The Terps have proved that against inferior competition, crashing the boards isn't exceptionally pertinent. But that may change as they head into a more difficult nonconference schedule, and eventually ACC games.

Youngstown State failed to capitalize on many of its 17 offensive rebounds, scoring just 13 second-chance points.

"Once we get into the ACC play, those guys are going to be scoring the basketball on those second-chance shots," guard Eric Hayes said.

Guard Greivis Vasquez's eight rebounds Tuesday night were more than any other teammate in either of the two games. But his success and the forwards' lack of it may have been a product of the Penguin offense.

"A lot of times, the ball was shot from deep, and the ball would fall from the free-throw line and back," Burney said. "For me, being inside the line, I probably wouldn't be able to get those balls even if I wanted to, unless I had better position."

To prove that statistics aren't always the best indicator of how well a team plays, Williams used a football analogy regarding time of possession. If a team scores a touchdown quickly every time it gets the ball, it won't win time of possession, but it will win the game.

So while the Terps aren't putting up big rebounding numbers, they have won big in both games due to a flourishing transition game. For every player who releases early on defense in hopes of getting a quick score on the other end, there's one less guy under the basket attempting to secure the ball.

"Maybe we were trying to get out in transition too much," Hayes said. "We need to get everybody going for the rebound, and then we can run."

Having everyone on the court actively vying for rebounds is something all the Terps agreed is a necessary step in solving the problem.

"We need five people on the boards," Burney said. "Offensively you don't want to do that, because you don't want to give an easy fast break, but defensively we definitely need to do that."

"We all gotta hit the boards harder," Dupree added. "Myself, as a big man, included."

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